Mr. J. Napier on Copper Smelting. 45 



;h oxide of copper, although it ma^ 

 in this case. 

 The composition of this steel then will be : — 



combustion with oxide of copper, although it may appear to con 

 firm the result in this case 



VII. On Copper Smelting. By James Napier, F.C.S.^ 



AS no description of copper smelting in all its details has 

 been published in this country, it may not be uninterest- 

 ing, or without use to the readers of this Journal, were such a 

 descriptive account given of this extensive and useful branch of 

 manufacture. 



Copper is one of the seven metals which were known to the 

 ancients ; and it seems to have been known from the very earliest 

 times, and used extensively for instruments of war and for 

 domestic pm-poses. The oldest remnants of the metaUic ai-t are 

 composed of copper and tin. The great beauty which many of 

 the ores of copper have, and the ease with which such ores are 

 reduced to the metallic state, may have brought it early into 

 notice and use; and that the metal was obtained from the ore 

 by fusion or smelting, is indicated in one of the earhest writings 

 extant. Job says, — 



" Copper is molten out of the stone." 



Copper is occasionally found in nature in the metallic state in 

 considerable quantities, both in this countiy and abroad. The 

 great masses found at Lake Superior form an eminent example 

 of this ; but the chief source of copper is its ores, which con- 

 stitute, in combination with other substances, such as oxygen, 

 sulphur, carbonic acid, ^c, an extensive variety of minerals of 

 distinct forms and cliaracter, most of which have been the sub- 

 ject of careful chemical investigation. The following table of the 

 names and composition of some of these minerals will give some 

 idea of their variety. 



* Communicated by the Author, who requests us to state, tliat he re- 

 serves to himself the coi)yrlght, and that uny infrjngemeut thereof will in- 

 voke legal proceedings. — Euh. 



