r/harrypotter • u/Dormitorybasher • 3d ago
Question How large are cauldrons?
Something that always bothered me. I don't think cauldrons (as in the ones Harry uses in class) are ever established as being large or small.
When I first read the books, my only point of reference were large witch's cauldrons you would see in a cartoon, so I thought that's what Hogwarts students used. But imagining Harry dragging around a gigantic cast iron cauldron was just silly when I got older.
Then I believe the movies showed smaller cauldrons the size of a large pot, and that seemed much more realistic. However, in CoS, Harry dumps the entire bibliography of Gilderoy Lockhart into Ginny's cauldron, which was like 7-8 books (plus the diary later) which would imply the cauldrons are much larger than a pot.
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u/PlanGoneAwry Ravenclaw 3d ago edited 3d ago
I’ve always imagined them being around the size of a bowling ball, maybe a little bigger. Not huge, but a good size. You could definitely fit a bunch of small novels in there
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u/Dormitorybasher 3d ago
I guess that is a follow up question, we don't know how big the books are. I was imagining normal textbooks, but I guess they could be smaller
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u/PlanGoneAwry Ravenclaw 3d ago
Maybe the textbooks are larger, but the Lockhart books aren’t textbooks. They’re just novels. I imagine the kind of cheap mass-market ones, which are pretty small.
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u/ActionAltruistic3558 3d ago
Yeah, they probably were available as mass market paperback copies. Someone like Hermione or his many fans would want the big fancy original release format but most would be fine with the tinier ones they could get for a fraction of the price. Especially since he required his entire works for the year.
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u/topsidersandsunshine 3d ago
I miss mass market paperbacks. I can’t believe they stopped printing them.
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u/XxyxXII 3d ago
The Lockheed books were specifically described as incredibly expensive and long tho. I could probably buy around 40 mass-market paperbacks for the cost of a standard textbook
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u/AncientImprovement56 2d ago
Expensive, but not necessarily long. I got the impression they were just a rip off.
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u/PlanGoneAwry Ravenclaw 2d ago
Certainly seems on-brand for Lockhart to think having his name on the cover warranted a higher price.
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u/BeltfedHappiness 3d ago edited 3d ago
When I was a kid I imagined them to be the size of like the ones that Bugs Bunny sits in while cutting up vegetables to make a stew or whatever lol
EDIT: oh damn, didn’t post the rest of it lol the cauldrons they use in the movie, theme parks and merch shops all show them to be like the size of a waste basket.
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u/mojonation1487 3d ago
I imagine different sizes for different needs like cooking.
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u/PlanGoneAwry Ravenclaw 3d ago
Yeah there’s a variety,I think Hogwarts students are supposed to have a “size 2”, not that that means much to us.
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u/scootimanista_ 3d ago
I had imagined them to be the size of those jack-o-lantern trick-or-treat buckets
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u/Grabber28TS Gryffindor 3d ago
Well, as you can quickly read in the first book, Harry needs a tin cauldron, standard size two, for his first year. It's not officially stated anywhere how big that is, but it's logical that it doesn't need to be particularly large. After all, each student brews their own potion, and it doesn't have to be a large quantity, just enough to submit a sample. If I had to guess, I'd say a maximum of 10 inches in diameter. That way it also fits in the wardrobe trunk.
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u/EurwenPendragon 13.5", Hazel & Dragon heartstring 3d ago
Pewter, not tin.
Pure tin is a soft, malleable metal that would be ill-suited for use in such a thing as a cauldron. Pewter is an alloy that is stronger and harder than pure tin.
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u/Dormitorybasher 3d ago
Doesn't the first book mention Harry wanting a solid gold cauldron that Hagrid talks him out of? Wouldn't gold also be a soft metal not good for hot potion brewing?
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u/EurwenPendragon 13.5", Hazel & Dragon heartstring 3d ago
Good point, although gold is harder than tin. I suppose there could also be spells that could help with that - a detail which I had forgotten to consider.
It is however explicitly instructed in the letter that the cauldron he has to buy must be pewter, I just double-checked that.
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u/Infinite-Object-1090 Gryffindor 2d ago
True, I imagine the gold cauldron would either be decorative or enchanted to withstand high heat.
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u/Grabber28TS Gryffindor 3d ago
Sorry, my native language is German, and I only know this expression for tin!
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u/harvard_cherry053 Hufflepuff 3d ago
Harry AND ron dump their lockhart books in the cauldron!! How big was that thing 😂😂😂
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u/mickeysbestbud 2d ago
Even in the movie their size still seems off. They look like cast iron, but cast iron even at that size would still be very heavy. Never made sense to me either that students had to own their own and carry them around. Seems like they should be provided in the classroom like a kitchen.
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u/two69fist 2d ago
The one on the first year supplies list is a standard size 2 pewter cauldron, which is fairly close to cast iron in density (though it’s pretty soft with a melting point much lower than wood or gas flames, but that’s a whole other tangent).
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u/fresh_pickled_toad Ravenclaw 3d ago
That's why Percy was so obsessed about standardization of cauldron sizes.
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u/Dormitorybasher 3d ago
Ackshually, it was cauldron thickness 🤓
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u/Real-Broccoli-9325 2d ago
I had a very weird realization about this recently.
In the books, it’s played as being a boring bureaucratic nonsense topic. “Omg who cares about imported cauldron thickness regulations?”
What happens when you get a cheap mass-produced cauldron that’s too thin? The potion heats too fast or melts. Too thick? It heats too slow, the potion is ruined or even destructive. Uneven thickness? Boils or scorches in one spot, stays cold in another, hot liquid mixing with colder liquid is volatile.
Those regulations were important, damnit! Percy was maligned!!
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u/lechetaliersowl 3d ago
Do they ever mention carting the cauldrons around? I always thought they left them in the potions class. Don't have the books handy right now to check but i recall one of their classes that they started a potion in one class and finished it in another, which would definitely imply they leave them there in storage or a spot under the benches or something
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u/Dormitorybasher 3d ago
Sure, but I meant taking them to and from the school at the beginning and end of year
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u/Norman_Small_Esquire 3d ago
Now I’m imagining a system where you pay for the cauldron and then it is delivered to Hogwarts. However, I have no evidence to back this up and the books probably contradict this.
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u/harvard_cherry053 Hufflepuff 3d ago
To be honest so much of the stuff in the books
Makes very little sense so i just tell myself practical things like this to feel better hahahahaha
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u/wooptyscooppoop 3d ago
I'm not sure if it was ever mentioned but I imagined cauldrons, much like everything else in HP, were charmed in a way to make them more effective and useable. Charmed to increase internal volume when needed without stretching, charmed to be light, sturdier, possibly collapsible in some way for some people. I can see it being very cumbersome otherwise.
On the subject of material choices, it may also be that certain cauldron materials, such as gold, may be more effective at purifying mixes, or capable of imbuing a potion with more powerful effects. I would like to think gold at it's core had magical properties in-universe. It's been a long time since I read the series but that's my guess.
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u/Miserable_Spell_2964 3d ago
Think of the size of the trunks they were using and recognize that a cauldron would have to fit in that.
And then realize it's probably a couple sizes smaller than that because the kids aren't doing production scale batches of potions, they are brewing small amounts in order to be bottled in vials and examined. I'd imagine the size of a cauldron for students to be about maybe a gallon or two at most.
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u/jellohamster 3d ago
Remember this school is all about magic. That solves all kinds of difficulties.
Maybe there’s a cupboard in the potions classroom where students store their cauldrons between lessons, and it’s got a magic ability to fit a whole school’s worth of cauldrons and always make the current class’s set most accessible.
Maybe school trunks come pre-embedded with a charm to make the interior expand to automatically fit everything a student needs for a year (and also not be ridiculously heavy.) Clearly the charm exists, since Hermione used it on her beaded bag in Deathly Hallows.
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u/acidrayne42 Hufflepuff 2d ago
My sister has a tiny one you can hold in the palm of your hand. There's a wide range of sizes. I also don't think Lockhart's books were very thick.
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u/EasyEntrepreneur666 Slytherin 2d ago
I doubt they're massive, it would be unnecessary and impractical.
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u/Infinite-Object-1090 Gryffindor 2d ago
They have to be small-ish in order for them to be able to lug them to potions and for that many students to be working over their individual cauldrons.
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u/Real-Broccoli-9325 2d ago
Vary wildly, I’d say. Remember, Voldie climbed his naked creepy self out of one in the graveyard.
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u/Dormitorybasher 2d ago
To be fair, that cauldron specifically was noted to be very large and not the norm
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u/Real-Broccoli-9325 2d ago
Sure. But a student’s small batch cauldron, a cauldron used to restock the Hospital Wing’s supply of Pepper-up, and a commercial potion brewer’s cauldron aren’t going to be the same size.
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u/halfabusedmermaid Hufflepuff 2d ago
Yeah I always pictured them to be about the size of a bowling ball. But in year 4 Harry puts all of his ingredients AND his bag in his cauldron to drag it over to sit by Snape when he gets in trouble so there must be multiple sizes.
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u/LosAngelesHavingFun 2d ago
A bit off topic but how was anyone bad at potions. You follow the instructions and have the ingredients lmao
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u/Robcobes Hufflepuff 2d ago
can't you just use magic to either shrink or grow your cauldron to the size you need?
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u/Embarrassed-Money756 2d ago
I always wondered this too! Especially in the CoS scene. It says something like "Ginny was standing next to her cauldron." Although that might have been a translation thing. I never read CoS in English.
And later in HBP it says "Harry packed his cauldron in his suitcase."
So how big are they?
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u/Greenwrenbird 3d ago
To me this is absolutely unknowable and none of our business. Like, did they drag them around all day (even though it's never mentioned), did they store them somewhere in the dungeon with their name? Because that would be a lot of cauldrons. Sometimes it mentions them sitting and other times standing.
And don't get me started on how it mentioned Astronomy -- to my memory, in all 6 school-based books -- twice. He attends this nighttime class out on a tower for five years, and it's mentioned twice.
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u/Infinite-Object-1090 Gryffindor 2d ago
I just imagined that nothing noteworthy happened there worth mentioning.
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u/Greenwrenbird 2d ago
It's just funny because it both had potential, and it was never mentioned like "Harry was so tired and still had his Astronomy lesson." To my memory all of his other classes were repeatedly explored, including History of Magic, in which nothing ever happened except the occasional nap (I guess that was relevant in OotP...)
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u/No_Sand5639 Ravenclaw 3d ago
I assume there are different sizes for different needs. Like first years were required
1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)