Different metals were employed for working or repairing objects in the Dominy clock shop and forge, and these tools were needed to melt and pour them. For making or repairing objects in the clock shop, spelter—a brass and zinc solder—was needed as well as lead for clock weights, pendulums, or fishing net sinkers, silver for repairs to jewelry, watches, and spectacles, and brass for casting clock wheels, clock plates, bullet molds, and button molds. Small ladles were probably used to melt lesser quantities of these metals while the larger ones, with their pouring lips, were used to melt quantities of lead or to skim off extra flux and dirt from the top of molten metal. Long handles helped to dissipate some of the heat to which the ladles were subjected in the Dominys' forge.
