The firm also has the capacity for pouring the largest single ingot (570 tonnes) in Europe and is currently in the process of expanding its capabilities.

The most important application may be the growth of large cylindrical ingots, or boules, of single crystal silicon.

By precisely controlling the temperature gradients, rate of pulling and speed of rotation, it is possible to extract a large, single-crystal, cylindrical ingot from the melt.

"It will take a large ingot to hide me!"

On January 3, 1891, two "free silver" advocates called at the Philadelphia Mint with a large ingot of silver, and asked for it to be coined.

Then he threw another log on the fire and fumbled among the large ingots of gold in a basket beside the table for one to melt into a toy figure.

Sheffield Forgemasters currently has the capacity for pouring the largest single ingot (570 tonnes) in Europe.

Meanwhile Sweden's Falu copper mine had been producing large ingots of unrefined copper, some being several inches thick and weighing as much as 43 pounds.

It proved particularly useful for making high-strength corrugated parts which would otherwise have to be milled out of ingots much larger than the finished product.

The copper-lead alloy created can be tapped off and cast into large plano-convex ingots known as 'liquation cakes'.