Copper was seldom smelted from one source. Ores were blended. The series of
roastings and smelting removes any chance of tracing of geological origin,
I have been led to understand when I posed the same question to a materials
scientist some time back.
Some metal in prehistory has been tested for geological origins and
identified because the source of the metal was alluvial, not mined and
pocessed e.g. Carnon River gold identified on the Nebra Sky disk. Although
this has been misreprented by some as mined metal.
The documentary trail for the order of copper for this early transatlantic
cable allegedly points to the Morfa works of Williams, Foster and Co who
supplied the Bolton cable co. but this is reported unreferenced in the
monograph on Thomas Bolton.
I am reconstructing mine to smelter supplies from the first third of the
19th c at the moment from various business archives to get an idea of the
range of supplies smelter used, and where they came from, so one would
need to go to the appropriate sources for the 1870s to attempt to trace any
'origins'.
Best wishes,
Tehmina
On Oct 28, 2012 3:00 PM, "Tony Brooks" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I have received an enquiry from a volunteer at Porthcurno telegraph museum
> here in Cornwall re copper.
> In 1870 a trans-Atlantic cable was installed but failed to operate
> successfully, the signal was too faint.
> After 3 weeks use the voltage was gradually increased which eventually
> destroyed the cable.
> A sample of the cable has been recovered, tested and found to contain
> impurities which caused the original problem, a chemical analysis was also
> undertaken.
> Is any way that using this analysis to identify the source of the copper ?
>
>
> Tony Brooks
>
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