18 WILLIAM GOSSAGE 



came from Cornwall, and were almost entirely 

 sulphurets and arseniurets mixed with a 

 considerable amount of fluor spar. These 

 ores had to be calcined, and the furnaces 

 employed were chiefly "open"calciners, from 

 which concentrated gases were given off, 

 which in the direction over which they were 

 carried by the prevailing winds in wet weather 

 proved most destructive to vegetation ; the 

 hill sides on which the smokes impinged, 

 were denuded not merely of trees, but of all 

 herbage, and Landore and the rising ground 

 around Hafod and Foxhole wore an utterly 

 blasted and desolated aspect. It was in 1845 

 that a patent was taken out which included 

 several metallurgical processes. It related to 

 methods of treating sulphurets of copper, zinc, 

 lead, and iron, and arresting and collecting 

 volatilised products given off in working 

 these metals, also it specified furnaces and 

 apparatus for smelting sulphuret ores. The 

 condensing of the various substances given 

 off in vapour was sought to be effected by 

 means of towers or shafts fitted with siliceous 

 pebbles, which are moistened and present 

 extensive surfaces to the products passed 

 through them. 



Another somewhat similar patent was taken 



