071 Smelling of Lead. 281 



the hearth, and who is called the setler-on, thrusts his shovel 

 down into the hearth, a little below the entrance of the 

 blast, and forces the brouse sufficiently forward to allow him 

 10 place a peat or a handful of chopwood horizontally before 

 "the orifice of the bellows : this he generally y,ets done nearly 

 as soon as the other has finished watching, who changes his 

 gable-book for a shovel; the setter-on comes to the front 

 with his shovel, and they together throw the whole of the 

 brouse aoain into the hearth, over the fore-stone, with a 

 small qmuitity of coal as they see necessary, carefully se- 

 parating the slags, which they throw into a corner, and 

 breaking; down the larger masses of brouse: when the whole 

 is in the hearth, the setier-on goes again to the side, levels 

 the top of the brouse, and covers it with fresh ore, laying 

 this thickest against the spark-stone: the working of the 

 hearth, after watching, is called setting-up. When a hearth 

 is well set-up, and works properly, without an excess of 

 cnals or blast, antl pretty free from slags, small reddish 

 white flames issue from all parts of the breast, from below 

 the fore-stone, nearly to the edge of the work-stone: these 

 flames should not issue more than a few inches from the 

 breast. The hearth does not continue long in this state; as 

 the peat burns away, the blast is less equally distributed; it 

 forces itself through more in some parts than in others ; the 

 covering at the top is perforated, or, perhaps, perfectly ig- 

 nited, and the whole mass is condensed and settled in con- 

 sequence of the evaporation of one part of the ore, and the 

 separation of the metal; copious blueish flames issue from 

 two or three parts of the hearth, as if occasioned by the 

 combustion of some metal. The brouse must be again 

 watched-out, a new peat put in, and more ore thrown on the 

 lop. The operations of watching and setting-up require to 

 be repeated about every three minutes. After a few times 

 settinsi-up, the metallic lead begins to flow down the chan- 

 nel of^the work-stone, into a pot, where it is kept hot until 

 collected in sufficient quantity to cast a pig. 



It is necessary, for the easy management of the hearth, 

 that a considerable quantity of fluid lead should remain in 

 the bottom for the brouse to float on. The watcher, after 

 throwing up ihe brouse, allows the lead to flow freely down 

 the gutter for a short time, and then prevents any more 

 escaping, by lightly raising up the brouse against the gutter 

 with the corner of his shovel. 



Two men will smell about six bings of good ore a day, 

 and from these produce 24 pigs of lead, weighing 134lb9. 



each. 



It 



