Intelligence and Miscellanies. 183 
takes place in the furnace; that the zinc sublimes and oxy- 
dates as it rises, and settles i in the form of a ring at the iofe- 
rior part of the charge, where the temperature of the furnace 
is considerably lowered by the successive additions of cold 
ore, charcoal, &c. 
This substance is not, it is true, found at present forming 
in the Ancram furnace; but this may in a great measure be 
Owing to a better ~— of the ore, previous to its intro- 
duction into the furnace. It may also be occasioned by the 
se shit all the ore destined for Ancram is picked 
great care, at the ore bed. I must not, however, omit 
e state that I found in the flue erected above the orifice of 
the furnace, for the protection of the workmen, a red, pul- 
verulent substance, to which the workmen have given the 
name of su/phur, a name which, as the editor of the Empo- 
rium has well observed, ae been most unfortunately given 
by furnace and forge me every product which puzzles 
them, and without any bape to its real composition: this 
powder I supposed to be a mixture of ashes and fine ore, 
blown out of the furnace by the rapid current of air; I con- 
ceived that if there was any zinc with the ore, it would be 
roe on the subject may have led him into error. For 
instance, he was misinformed (I think) when he stated, that 
furnace erected in the year 1744.” We were told by 
Mr. Patterson, that it had never been found but in taking 
down a wall connected with the furnace, and which having 
been built after the furnace, may have contained mate- 
rials which had been pont from it at different times. 
This observation is of more importance than it at first appears; 
for if, as Mr. Patterson ‘told us, the Ancram furnace was 
the fist erected in the colonies of North America, or at 
least, the first in the province of New York, and if, accord- 
ing to Dr. Torrey, the cadmia had been found in the wall 
