The cupels were made by a cupel making machine that had been transferred from the Ballarat School of Mines to the Ballarat Institute of Technology in 1970. It is possibly the same machine used by the first students at the Ballarat School of Mines in 1870. Small containers with curved inner shape. .1) Roasting dish or scorifier - shallow curved cup of clay. .2 & .3) Cupels of cylindrical shape with shallow hemispherical top surface. ballarat school of mines, cupel, assay, kiln, university of ballarat, mt helen, clay, ceramics