Following on from the discussions about the Mines Royal, for some time
I have been interested in the career of John Weston, who operated
mines under licence in Cornwall and Wales with Thomas Smith in the
early 1580s. He built a smelter at Neath for the Cornish copper. W.
Rees, in Industry before the Industrial Revolution, considered that the
"complex" nature of the Cornish copper ores would have caused
considerable difficulties.
Is Rees correct in stating that smelting Cornish copper ores in the
1580s would have been more difficult than the ores in the Lakes?
Has anyone carried out an analysis of the operation of the Neath
Smelter? Donald in Elizabethan Copper and Rees himself do consider
this, but I wonder if there is more recent work? Weston himself
operated a blast furnace for iron, in addition to his interests in non-
ferrous metals.
Thanks
David Poyner
|