Show pyretic SMELTING F R Carpenter Ph D F 0 S A smelting smelling sm elting in the old use of the word is not a new process it is and may be used by any one it was not at first a process for ores but a process in which ores were used as a means of concentrating dry or ores it was defined by dr john percy in his metallurgy silver and gold page as follows by silver smelling smelting sm elting is meant the smelling smelting sm elting of silver ores which are either free from lead or do not contain this metal in sufficient quantities to collect the silver in conjunction with pyrites in order to produce a regulus in which the silver shall be concentrated iron pyrites is used for this purpose and by preference such as in or auriferous but failing this cupriferous iron pyrites or copper pyrites may be substituted this kind of smelting smelling sm elting is very old it is the practice at deadwood south da dakota kota where smelting smelling sm elting has received perhaps its greatest development in this country it is the practice at sala in sweeden at kingsburg Kongs burg in norway and in the altai mountains where the russian government operates seventeen separate establishments lish ments and was employed at freiburg as early as the sixteenth century this is the older smelting smelling sm elting but it is practically the sort of smelting smelling sm elting universally followed by smelters shelters sm elters of ted copper ores throughout the world there is no thought of employing sulphur or iron as a source of heat the sole purpose is to form a matte which shall carry the gold silver and copper there is a newer smelting smelling sm elting however that seeks to smelt heavy ted ores by aid of the heat derived by the oxidation of the contained sulphur and iron it is the outgrowth wholly of Bessemer izing iron its application to compounds of sulphide substances as a source of great heat originated with a russian engineer named who sought to apply the bessemer principles to copper mattes about the year 1866 or within one year from the first attempts of bessemer in refining iron it seems not however to have been applied to the smelt ing of raw ores until the y year ear 1878 when mr john holloway studied the subject in england in any case he was at portland maine in the year 1884 employing a sort of a compromise method of the two systems of old and new smelting smelling sm elting dr bartlett published in a chicago mining paper several articles of more than ordinary interest but did not attract the attention their merit deserved probably from the limited circulation of the paper in which the they y ap the subject was most fully investigated in 1885 at 9 montana by mr lawrence austin the results of his work were published in a paper read before the american institute of mining engineers in july 1887 to him unquestionably belongs the credit of first adopting the process to meet the conditions of american labor etc he determined the proper form required narrow smelting smelling sm elting g zone introduced the hot blast etc all of which may be seen by reference to his paper page volume xvi transactions of the american institute of Alini mining ncr engineers engineer in 1889 while principal of the dakota school of mines I 1 began my experiments with the ores of the black hills they were highly and as neither lead nor copper was available for smelting smelling sm elting purposes I 1 naturally turned to smelt ing as described by K R john R percy for a solution of the subject I 1 fully availed myself of the literature of the subject including th the e papers of austin and bartlett hence my work is subsequent to theirs backed by ample capital I 1 built larger furnaces more powerful blowing r engines but did few things that were really new it had all been worked out at least in theory before me I 1 sought to handle larger quantities of material with fewer men and thus probably carried on larger operations than my predecessors deadwood was the first place where the process became a distinctly gold process and we showed that a very rich gold matte ten to twelve ounces could be made from low grade ions gold ores such as the low grade ores at cripple creek the plant has been in operation ten years yeara and is the largest of all the so called smelters shelters sm elters the best work that has yet appeared upon smelting smelling sm elting is langs matte smelting smelling Sm elting it is by far the ablest treatise upon the subject in any language and far in advance of the times no one wishing 11 to go into the business can afford to be without it owing to the peculiar technical and commercial conditions existing at deadwood we were fully able to compete with cyanide and chlorination mills this was rendered possible by a more complete saving of than was possible by either of the latter processes the western miner and financier |