At 10:24 28/01/2009, Geoff Treseder wrote:
>I don't know anything about Sumpter pots but I do work with melting pots
>around this size. I've had a quick look at the photo and it looks to me
>like a domestic / agricultural boiler, from what I can see from the
>photo I would say the wall thickness is totally inadequate for a melting
>/ crystallisation pot, it would need to be at least 20 to 25mm thick to
>have any sort of meaningful life expectancy.
Geoff,
Possibly so. The pot referred to by Trevor, on site at Combe Martin,
if it's the one I remember, is also probably 'domestic / non-lead
smelting' - although it may have come out of the smelter building it
was most likely used there in its jam-making days. Jam was also made
in the smelter building at Weirquay and it is said they used the same
pots as were used for smelting (most likely the pots used in the
Pattison process) but the Combe Martin smelter never used that process.
I doubt there is a history of jam-making at Nenthead.
Peter
______________________________________________
Dr Peter Claughton,
Blaenpant Morfil, nr. Rosebush, Clynderwen, Pembrokeshire, Wales SA66 7RE.
Tel. +44 (0)1437 532578; Fax. +44 (0)1437 532921; Mobile +44 (0)7831 427599
Research Fellow - School of Geography, Archaeology and Earth Resources
Hon. University Fellow - School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Office address - Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter,
Laver Building, North Park Road, EXETER, EX4 4QE Tel. +44 (0) 1392 263709
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Co-owner - mining-history e-mail discussion list.
See http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/files/mining-history/ for details.
Mining History Pages - http://www.people.exeter.ac.uk/pfclaugh/mhinf/
_____________________________________________
|