Wisconsin and Missouri Lead Region. 43 



ticular regard to the most economical methods of smelting as to 

 fuel and labor. They make use of the reverheratoi^y furnace 

 with its modification, the cupola, the blast furnace and the slag 

 furnace. 



The reverheratory is much like the common reverberatory 

 furnace for puddling iron and smelting other ores. The ore is 

 supplied either through a hopper on the top, or through the holes 

 on 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 necessary 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 

 an estimate 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. 



