PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



APRIL 4, 186 0. 



Db. Betce in tlie CJmir. 

 Mr. Robert T. Middleton, Drysalter, was elected a member. 



Hwtorwal Notes of Copper Smelting. By F. H. Thomson, M.D. 

 It is with some hesitation that I venture to approach a subject which 

 has been so often and well discussed by others having greater opportu- 

 nities, not only of pure metallurgic education, but placed in positions of 

 acquiring, both practically and theoretically, a true and just experience 

 of the best chemical means by which the largest per centage of metal 

 can be extracted in the purest state, and at the least expense, from the 

 ores of copper. 



Copper smelting, and the various questions arising from the con- 

 sideration of the complicated operations employed in the reduction from 

 the ore of pure and marketable copper, have given rise to much 

 inquiry and scientific discussion, and in no country so much required 

 as England, where nearly one-half of the copper used in the world is 

 smelted. 



A question of such vital importance in the commercial prosperity ot 

 this great country well deserves the exercise of the best means to ascer- 

 tain the best mode of reducing, not only our own low per centage ores, 

 but those brought from foreign countries. 



rriThe working of copper, and the various processes employed in the 

 reduction of the metal from its ores, have been made the subject of 

 much antiquarian research. But although well ascertained from the 

 \vorks of Pliny and others, that the ancients knew smelting practicall^r , 

 and the use of copper, at a very early date, much definite information 

 has not been elicited by these historians as to the means of metallic 

 extraction. Many quotations might be taken from Pliny, showing that 

 metals were worked to a great extent in liis own times. He says 

 King Numa, the immediate successor of Romulus, founded a fraternity 

 of brass founders ; and it is evident that copper was not at least a scarce 



Vol. IV.— No. 9. 2 u 



