Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Fornax

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

FORNAX (κάμινος). An oven or kiln for baking pottery. (Cic. N. D. i. 37.) The illustration (Fornax/1.1) shows the remains of a Roman pottery kiln, discovered near Castor in Northamptonshire. The low door in front is the entrance to the furnace (praefurnium); the circular building at the back, the kiln in which the vessels were baked upon a floor suspended over the furnace. The floor still remains entire, as shown by the elevation; but the manner in which it was supported by a central pillar, the locality of the furnace, the situation of the vessels, and the vaulting which covered-in the oven, will be better understood by the annexed section (Fornax/1.2) of the structure, in which all these particulars are visible; and nothing is added but some vases and a dotted line to complete the original form of the kiln.

2. Fornax aeraria. A smelting furnace (Plin. H. N. xi. 42. Virg. Aen. vii. 636.); of which an example is given at p. 104. s. CAMINUS.

3. Fornax calcaria. A lime kiln (Cato, R. R. xxxviii. 4.); constructed in the following manner: — An excavation was made in the earth of sufficient depth to form a spacious vault (fornix) for the furnace, and provided with an entrance mouth (praefurnium), both in front and rear; the former for introducing the fuel, the latter for removing the embers. The gulley or shafts (fauces) which formed the approaches to the mouths of the furnace, were sunk in a perpendicular direction, in order to screen the furnace and its apertures from currents of wind. The part of the kiln above ground (summa fornax) was then built up with bricks or rough stones (caementa), coated with clay to confine the heat, and of a concial form, six feet wide at bottom, converging to three at the top, where it ended in a circular aperture or chimney (orbis summus).

4. Fornax balinei. (Labeo. Dig. 19. 2. 58.) The furnace of a bath. See FORNACULA, 2.

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  Fornax/1.1
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  Fornax/1.2