348 Refiners of Gold and Silvzr. 



other, which led to calculations that approximated as near to ac- 

 curacy as could be expected in such an inquiry. 



In some cases the trade of a refiner of gold and silver is com 

 bined with another, technically distinguished by the name of 

 sweep-washers. The persons employed in this branch purchase 

 whatever refuse is obtained from the floors of the various de- 

 scriptions of workships in which the divisions and subdivisions of 

 the trade in gold and silver are carried on. These sweepings, as 

 they are termed, are first, by stamping, crushed into a minute 

 dust. The mass is then amalgamated with mercury, which 

 takes up the precious metals. This composition afterwards un- 

 dergoes a kind of distillation, in the course of which the mer- 

 cury is evaporated by heat, is then condensed and preserved, 

 and the precious metal parted for future application to the pur- 

 poses for which it is needed. 



In pursuing our inquiry, the first step appeared to be to as- 

 certain the quantity of gold which is annually produced by the 

 whole of the refiners and sweep-washers. Whatever that quan- 

 tity might be found to be, as the whole is applied to manufac- 

 turing purposes, it would be a guide to the knowledge of the 

 remainder. There are certain branches of trade in which re- 

 fined or pure gold alone is used. The gold-beaters, the water- 

 gilders, the gold-lace makers, the china-gilders, the gilders of 

 buttons, and of toys, and of trinkets, use only fine gold, or gold 

 with such minute particles of alloy in it as are necessary to make 

 it adhesive. The jewellers, too, who are the great consumers of 

 gold, use partly refined gold, or at least a considerable number 

 of the trade do so. The case, however, of that business will be 

 presently considered more at large. 



As the reports of the quantity of the gold which the refiners 

 and sweep-washers furnished to the several branches of the ma- 

 nufacturers of gold articles were very discordant, and varied, ac- 

 cording to the persons who supplied them, in the proportion of 

 one to four, or even one to five, and as all further calculations 

 must, in some measure, depend on the degree of correctness 

 which could be obtained on that first step, it appeared necessary 

 to attend to it most scrupulously. 



The business of a refiner requires a large capital. From the 

 high value of the smallest particles of their commodity, a minute 



