Mr. H. L. Pattinson on the Smelting of Lead Ore, &;c, 159 



and m, Fig. 3, with the flame and blast principally issuing between the 

 forestone and workstone, as at m, a stratum of ore is spread upon the 

 horizontal surface of the brouse, at /, and the whole suffered to remain 

 exposed to the blast for the space of about five minutes. At the end 

 of that time, one man plunges a poker into the fluid lead, in the hearth 

 bottom below the brouse, and raises the whole up, at different places, 

 so as to loosen and open the brouse, and in doing so, to pull a part of it 

 forwards upon the workstone, allowing the recently added ore to sink 

 down into the body of the hearth. The poker is now exchanged for a 

 shovel, with a head six inches square, with which the brouse is examined 

 upon the workstone, and any lumps that may have been too much 

 fused, broken to pieces ; those which are so far agglutinated by the 

 heat, as to be quite hard, and further known by their brightness, being 

 picked out, and thrown aside, to be afterwards smelted in the slag 

 hearth. They are called Grey Slags. A little slaked lime, in powder* 

 is then spread upon the brouse, which has been drawn forward upon 

 the workstone, if it exhibit a pasty appearance ; and a portion of coal 

 is added to the hearth, if necessary, which the workman knows by ex- 

 perience. In the mean time, his fellow workman, or shoulder -Jelloxv, 

 clears the opening, through which the blast passes into the hearth, with 

 a shovel, and places a peat immediately above it, which he holds in its 

 proper situation, until it is fixed, by the return of all the brouse, from 

 the workstone into the hearth. The fire is made up again into the shape 

 before described, a stratum of fresh ore spread upon the part I, and the 

 operation of stirring, breaking the lumps upon the workstone, and pick- 

 ing out the hard slags repeated, after the expiration of a few minutes, 

 exactly in the same manner. At every stirring a fresh peat is put above 

 the nozzle of the bellows, which divides the blast, and causes it to be 

 distributed all over the hearth ; and as it burns away into light ashes, 

 an opening is left for the blast to issue freely into the body of the 

 brouse. The soft and porous nature of dried peat moss, renders it very 

 suitable for this purpose ; but, in some instances, where a deficiency of 

 peats has occurred, blocks of wood of the same size have been used 

 with little disadvantage. As the smelting proceeds, the reduced lead, 



VOL. II. s s 



