REFINING OF COPPER AND LEAD. 235 



Western enjoys, it is true, an excellent reputation in the United 

 States ; but if he has really accepted such an undertaking, he 

 cannot, we believe, fail to be a heavy loser. 



The consumption of electricity might perhaps be consider- 

 ably reduced, which would allow of the use of much smaller 

 dynamos ; but this could only be done by using gigantic baths 

 and treating some thousand tons of lead at a time, which would 

 be a folly from an economical point of view. The interest of 

 the supplementary capital required would be much greater than 

 the profits derived from the economy in the motive power ; the 

 problem cannot therefore be solved by the adoption of small 

 dynamo-electric machines. 



The long explanations which we gave relatively to the 

 treatment of copper equally apply to the treatment of lead, and 

 to any metallic purification which it might be desired to elec- 

 trolytically perform. 



