ticular regard to the most economical methods of smelting as to 
fuel and labor. They make use of the reverberatory furnace 
With its modification, the cupola, the blast furnace and the slag 
urnace. e a 
The reverberatory is much like the common reverberatory 
furnace for puddling iron and smelting other ores. The ore is 
ais 
pplied either through a hopper on the top, or through the holes 
6n the sides, which serve also for admission to the pokers used 
for stirring up the charge. The hearth is covered with old cin- 
ders beaten up, and it inclines back from the fire, so that the 
metal runs out at the end, under the chimney. In England 
where these furnaces are extensively. used they are supplied with 
bituminous coal for fuel, but here they must make use of wood, 
and from the great consumption of it this class of furnaces is 
only resorted to where wood is of little value, and water power 
cannot be obtained. 
Another objection to them, besides the consumption of fuel, is 
that they do not smelt the ore clean, the slag being nearly as rich 
as the ore originally was; and it is therefore hecessary to-have a 
slag furnace connected with them. © It is supposed from rude cal- 
culations that an ore worth about eighty per cent. will yield in a 
reverberatory about sixty five, and that the slag produced will 
contain from thirty to forty per cent. of lead. The following is 
anestimate of the working and produce of O’Neill’s. furnace, 
about two miles south of Mineral Point. It is worked eighteen 
hours out of the twenty four by two shifts ; each shift, two 
hands. The charge varies from 9,000 to 12,000 pounds of ore, 
it sometimes requiring three, sometimes four charges of 3,000 
pounds each, according to the poorer or better quality of the ore. 
The consumption of fuel is about two cords a day, and the pro- 
duce is from seventy five to eighty three pigs a day of seventy 
pounds average weight. ‘The two head smelters’ wages, fifty 
dollars per month each ; two back hands twenty five dollars, and 
the board of them all beside. ‘The average price of’ ore is prob- 
ably about the price it was selling for at Mineral Point in Sep- 
tember, fifteen dollars per thousand pounds; lead was then worth 
at Galena three cents per pound. : ae 
Pa ihier fy i id: 6; 3 eK ie es p i ite 
cr Seams omar alge ight bert oki a ee 
a 
- 
