INDUSTRIES 



Having finally passed into the hands of the 

 smelter, the ore is reduced to metal, says Pryce, 

 in furnaces of four sorts, the calciner, the 

 operation, the roaster, and the refiner. 1 In the 

 calciner, which is reverberatory, the ore is 

 stirred about for twelve hours in such a fire as 

 will not melt it. From two to five hundred- 

 weight is then put with from five to two hun- 

 dredweight of raw ore into an operation furnace, 

 and submitted to an intense heat. The slag is 

 skimmed off, and another like quantity of ore 

 inserted, and finally the molten copper is run 

 into pigs. 2 These last are plunged into cold 

 water, and then carried to a horse-mill and 

 ground to powder, or, as in some places, bucked 

 or broken by women, girls, and boys. The 

 copper is then carried to a furnace called a metal 

 calciner, spread upon the bottom and calcined 

 again, 3 then drawn out, cooled by water, and 

 carried to the metal furnace, where it is melted, 

 skimmed, and run into pigs. It then goes to 

 the roasting furnace for sixteen or eighteen 

 hours, where it is melted and skimmed as before, 

 and this operation of roasting and skimming is 

 repeated three or four times. From there it is 

 taken to the coarse refining furnace, where it is 

 melted, fluxed, 4 skimmed, and put into moulds. 

 Finally, it is sent to the refining furnace and 

 melted and skimmed once more, 3 after which 

 it is ready for market. After every skimming 

 the slag is treated in much the same fashion, 

 and from it is extracted copper of inferior 

 grades. 3 



The smelting of tin ore has always been 

 done locally, in the county itself, but copper 

 smelting never had a firm hold in Cornwall, and 

 has long since left it. As early as the sixteenth 

 century, Frosse, the German already mentioned 

 in another connexion, had ascertained the fact 

 that, by having at hand a variety of ores, a 

 smelter might render an ore profitable that 

 would otherwise be useless in other words, that 

 frequently copper can be extracted at less cost 

 by smelting ores in a mixture than by smelting 

 one ore by itself.' Accordingly, although at 

 first he seems to have smelted upon the spot 

 small quantities from the works at Perranza- 

 buloe, of which he was manager, 6 we find him 

 announcing, in 1584, that the ores would be 

 transported out of Cornwall to Neath, in Wales, 7 

 where a few years later Carew suggests that all 

 Cornish copper was taken. 8 Had the mines been 

 continued throughout the seventeenth century, it 

 is probable that the advantages which Wales 

 possessed, in having a plentiful supply of cheap 



1 Pryce, Minerahgia Cornubiensis, 272. 



* Ibid. 274. ' Ibid. 275. 



4 Ibid. 262-263. 



5 Grant Francis, The Smelting of Copper in the 

 Swansea District, 23. 



6 Ibid. 5, 23, 24. 7 Ibid. 24. 

 8 Carew, Survey of Cornwall (ed. 1 8 1 1), 21. 



fuel, and in being the centre for copper smelt- 

 ing for other districts, would have thenceforth 

 attracted all Cornish ores. The mines, how- 

 ever, were discontinued throughout this period, 

 and when they were revived the old traditions 

 of a Welsh smelting had apparently been for- 

 gotten. 



First to discover the value of the ores were 

 a few Bristol gentlemen in 1690, who, buying 

 them at the low price of from 2 ids. to 4 

 per ton, reaped a considerable profit from their 

 refining operations. 9 Their success having called 

 in other dealers from the same city, about the 

 year 1718 10 an agreement was reached by which 

 the mine owners consented to sell all their copper 

 for a term of years at prices which, although as 

 a rule low, varied considerably with the quality 

 of stock raised from mine to mine. Matters 

 continued thus for about ten years. 10 The huge 

 quantities of copper ore raised in the Huel For- 

 tune, Roskear, and Pool Adit mines were dis- 

 posed of to the Bristol men, who, confederated 

 into the four companies the Brass Wire Com- 

 pany, the English Copper Company, Wayne and 

 Company, and Chambers and Company 10 en- 

 joyed a complete monopoly of purchase, and 

 took the ore at practically their own price. 10 



Just at this moment, however, Thomas Costar, 

 a Welsh smelter, visited Cornwall for the pur- 

 pose of improving his business in the same way. 

 Fourteen hundred tons of ore, which for some 

 years had been lying unsold at Roskear and 

 Huel Kitty, were offered him, for which the 

 confederated smelters had been ready to give 

 only 4 5;. per ton. 10 The Welshman took it 

 at jT6 5*., ready money, and yet so compara- 

 tively low was even this price, that he gained 

 30 per cent, by the transaction. He bought 

 900 tons more in Roskear, at 7 per ton, and 

 in less than six months before leaving Cornwall 

 had purchased 3,000 tons, and on them realized 

 a profit of 40 per cent. 10 From that day the 

 smelting works at Bristol declined, and the 

 Welsh companies at Swansea secured almost the 

 entire Cornish yield. 11 



A few attempts had been made to smelt the 

 copper in Cornwall itself. ' Seventy years ago,' 

 wrote Pryce in 1778, 'Mr. Scobell, at St. Austell, 

 was joined by Sir Talbot Clarke and Mr. Vin- 

 cent, and there was smelted the first piece of 

 copper in Cornwall. 12 After this, John Pollard, 

 of Redruth, and Thomas Worth, of St. Ives, 

 made a second trial, but both these attempts 

 failed, more by reason of the knavery of work- 

 men, ill-management, and the improper situation 

 of the works, than any great cost of fuel.' After 

 these had failed, Gideon Collier, of Perranza- 

 buloe, erected a smelting-house in Phillack, and 



9 Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis, 277, 286. 



10 Ibid. 287. " Ibid. 277. 



" Ibid. 278. Carew, Survey of 'Cornwall '(ed. 181 1), 

 22 note. 



567 



