>Subject: For moderation - Swansea Smelters
>From: Evan Price <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Sender: [log in to unmask]
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>Status:
>
>Peter,
> Would you please clarify your comment about Nat's smelter
>inquiries not being apt for this list? To me mining has always been a
>three stage operation: 1. the Actual mining or removal of ores from the
>ground; 2. The concentration of those ores (whether by simple sorting or
>by modern methods using oil flotation); and 3. The smelting of the ores
>to produce usable metals. As you will note from my comments to Nat, the
>work of the refineries in Swansea (and according to you the very
>smelters about which Nat is inquiring) were vital to the mining industry
>in North America.
> The smelter at Trail was certainly considered vital by the
>miners in Kimberley. Also when I attempted to hire on as a miner at
>Britannia Beach, B.C., the personnel manager considered me of more use
>as a mechanic working out of the machine shop in the concentrator.
>Skills that I had learned underground certainly helped me to do that job
>successfully.
>
>Nat,
> Otis Young in his book "Western Mining" twice mentions raw ore
>being shipped to Swansea from western mines in 1860. One reference is
>on page 143, and the other is on page 202. In Malone's "The Battle for
>Butte", on page 53, reference is made to the Bessemer process being
>applied to copper smelting in Butte during the 1890's. Although this
>improved the quality of the "blister copper", the blister copper was
>still sent to Swansea for final refining. I can't at this moment find a
>reference to this, but I know that it was true.
> It would appear that this continued until Walter Hull Aldridge
>applied the Betts electrolytic process to smelting in the Trail Smelter
>in 1902 (apparently the first such plant in the world). It is probable
>that electrolysis was not used in your smelters until after 1902. Being
>essentially a "miner" with only minimal experience with concentration,
>and absolutely no experience with smelting, I would very much appreciate
>hearing an explanation of how the smelters near Swansea managed to
>produce such a good product before electrolysis was introduced.
>
>
______________________________________________
Peter Claughton, Blaenpant Morfil, Rosebush, Clynderwen,
Pembrokeshire, Wales SA66 7RE.
Tel. 01437 532578; Fax. 01437 532921; Mobile 07831 427599
University of Exeter - Department of History
School of Historical, Political and Sociological Studies
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Co-owner - mining-history e-mail discussion list.
See http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/mining-history/ for details.
Mining History Pages - http://www.exeter.ac.uk/~pfclaugh/mhinf/
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