But this open-fire method was wasteful and tedious and at a very early date the smelting of the ore was done in a rude sort of a furnace.
About the time the use of coke for smelting became general, an Englishman named Neilson brought about another great change in the process of iron making.
Iron making at first doubtless consisted in simply melting the ore in an open heap of burning wood or charcoal, for charcoal is an excellent fuel for smelting (melting) ores.
Charcoal was still used as the fuel forsmelting (Fig.
The accumulated experience of many generations was required before men mastered the useful service of fire in the smelting of ores and the casting of metals.
In iron-smelting the ore is laid in a heap upon the fuel (charcoal) filling up the hearth, and is gradually brought to the metallic state by the reducing action of the carbon monoxide formed at the tuyere.
In iron-smelting blast furnaces the waste gases are of considerable fuel value, and may render important services if properly applied.
Most of the African blacksmiths are acquainted also with the method of smelting gold, in which process they use an alkaline salt, obtained from a ley of burnt corn-stalks evaporated to dryness.
Near the town are several smelting furnaces, from which the natives obtain very good iron.
The road now went downwards between large banks, formed by the dross deposited here from the smelting furnaces, and which looks like burnt-out hardened lava.
On the banks of a little stream which wound around the base of the cliff, stood the old smelting house and ruined ranches of the Mexican miners.
These we speedily cleared away, and selecting one of the largest of the old smelting houses, we soon put in order for work.
The smelting of ores is carried on here actively and successfully, the convenience of coal, coke and fluxes, and the hauling of the ores down hill, giving the place marked advantages for this industry.
The high percentage of lead makes smelting the most rational process of treatment, and they are generally to be classified as smelting ores.
These, also, are being leveled to supply the lime-kilns and also to be sent to Leadville, Argo and elsewhere for the use of the smelting furnaces as flux.
The group of mines to which I have referred are known as the "Aspen," consolidating several names of properties under the ownership of the San Juan and New York Mining and Smelting company, which is also proprietor of the smelter at Durango.
Near the smelting works at Argo, we retrace our way and re-enter the city.
In Colorado, the American Smelting and Refining Co.
These conditions could not be expected to prevail forever, and the time is now at hand when the extortionate smelting and milling trusts are meeting with pronounced opposition and a greatly diminished business.
Iron and manganese are curiously sold by mines to smelting companies on the ton of ore basis.
During the past few years when mining has been so unusually dull in many of the western mining camps, it has been very difficult for the smelting company to secure enough ore to keep running, and the present outlook is not encouraging.
New York quotation being consumed in costs of smelting and shipment and in profits to the middlemen.
Not only has this accusation been true of smeltingconcerns but also of milling companies.
The outputs of these ranges go by rail and water to the great smelting points along the Great Lakes and at Pittsburg.
Realizing the importance of this point, the Cowles Electric Smelting and Aluminum Company has purchased an extensive and reliable water power, and works are soon to be erected for the utilization of 1,200 horse power.
Hesiod says that those who are called the Idaean Dactyls taught the smelting and tempering of iron in Crete.
There are about 500 coke ovens in operation at Fernie, which supply most of the smelting plants in southern British Columbia with fuel.
Blackband ironstone is worked at Lochgelly and Oakley, where there are large smelting furnaces.
The Hearst Company sold to the Comanche Mining and Smelting Co.
Crude furnaces were used for the smelting of silver.
The iron and bronze weapons which were found may have been comparatively modern, but the small crucibles forsmelting gold, with tools and a curious ingot-mould (said to resemble ancient moulds used at tin workings) were apparently ancient.
A small crucible with nuggets and small bits of gold goes to indicate that smelting was carried on, though the nearest ancient gold-workings are six miles distant.
Of course the furnace of a real smelting factory will hold tons and tons of copper ore and has all sorts of improvements, but after all it is in principle only an oven with wood and ore and draft.
First of all, even before it goes into the smelting furnace, it must be roasted.
It is dumped into freight cars and trundled off to the smelting furnaces.
If you should make an oven and put into it a mixture of wood and roasted copper, that would be a smelting furnace.
Furnaces for smelting iron ore are in operation in the counties bordering on the Ohio, near the mouth of the Scioto.
In Jo Daviess county are eight or ten furnaces for smelting lead.
I refer to smelting the copper or bronze with charcoal and any salt of phosphorus.
In many districts copper and tin ores are found near together (as in Cornwall), so that under these circumstances bronze could have been obtained by smelting both at once, and together.
In England therefore most of the smelting was done.
But coal as you know has to be dug out of the ground and it has to be transported to the smelting ovens and the mines have to be kept dry from the ever invading waters.
A French company has erected large works for the smelting of copper, which is brought by sea from the ports of northern Chile.
The first smelting of iron ore in this country was done at Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1645, using the low-grade bog-ores and smelting with charcoal from the surrounding forest.
There is little waste in the mining or smeltingof lead ores, and the slag, the waste, is always ready to be used again.
Birmingham, Alabama, is the heart of the great smelting region of the South.
The latest method is to employ electricity manufactured by water-power, but most of the iron smelting in this country has been done by coal.
This furnishes eighty tons out of every one hundred mined in the United States, but the smelting is done along the southern shores of Lake Michigan.
From that time, pyritic smelting has been chiefly developed by American metallurgists.
Moissan made numerous tests of furnaces and smelting methods in the nineties and did much to develop commercial electric smelting.
The application of the blast furnace to copper, lead, and zinc smelting was chiefly made in America.
Robert Stirling, in 1817, for a regenerative iron smelting furnace.
In smelting pot of massive size they placed the needed ore; A molten mass it soon became, but ere in mould they pour, And thus provide a bell for God to grace His temple fair, In crowds the people came, to see the metal glowing there.
This world is one great smelting pot in which life's ore is cast, And from it God will some day bring a bell, destined to last And ring aloud in thunder tones wherever man is found.
Her cargo, which consisted of coal for smelting purposes, was a very dangerous one; so much so that Messrs.
After luncheon we went to see the copper-smelting works, which were very interesting.
It is very odd that, in a country where mining had been extensively carried on for many years, so simple a process as gently roasting the ore to expel the sulphur previous to smelting it, had never been discovered.
At Sauce we found a very civil old gentleman, superintending a copper-smelting furnace.
