| Show BLACK BUTTE quicksilver spokesman review spokane wash G B dennis has returned from black butte oregon where the fires were started last week for the first time in the ton daily capacity quicksilver quick silver smelter which he and his brother own at that place As the furnace is new it will require at least three weeks to get it sufficiently heated to treat ore to heat it too quickly would endanger the walls which are still green the ore from this mine is to be treated with a different process than is usual in the treatment of ore from any a ny other quicksilver mine in the world the process Is an invention of wm win dennis brother of G B dennis and one of the owners of the mine it completely reverses tho the method of feeding I 1 fuel to the furnace fires and has the merit of extracting practically all the quicksilver from the ore whereas none 0 ot the old processes will extract more than sixty five per cent instead of the wood being laid at the bottom of the furnace and the smoke and flames rising through and above it the wood is placed at the top of the furnace and the flames are drawn down through it by currents of air induced by electric fans this creates a wood gas which ignites and is drawn into the ado adjoining ining compartments 0 of the furnace where it passes through the ores creating an intense heat while the furnace is forty feet high and nearly as wide and has a capacity of four and a half tons of wood at one time there is no smoke stack A vent for the noncombustible gas is open at one side of the furnace near the ground but not a particle of smoke can be seen to escape showing that the combustion is perfect the new process was thoroughly tested on a twenty ton furnace but while the capacity of the smelter was sufficient to prove the scientific principal correct the economy of it was not established hence the larger smelter is something of an expert experiment work on this quicksilver mine has been in progress for about six years and has been expended in its development it has not been a big financial success under the old smelting smelling sm elting system A shaft has been sunk 1700 feet and a drift started on every foot level mr dennis says tons of ore has been blocked out sixty men are employed at the mine |
