168 J. Wharton on the Manufacture of Spelter. 
Art. XXIV.—Memoranda concerning the introduction of the 
Manufacture of Spelter into the United States ;*by JOSEPH 
WHARTON. 
SPELTER, as crude metallic zinc is called in commerce, had 
never before the year 1859, been produced in America upon 
such terms as to give hope of its manufacture becoming a set 
tled industry in this country. 
Mr. John Hitz in 1838 made enough zine from the ores of 
the New Jersey Zinc Co., to supply material for a set of stan- 
dard U. S. weights and measures in brass, but the quantity pro 
duced was small, and the cost extremely high, 
The Lehigh Zinc Co. caused to be erected in 1856 a spelter 
furnace at their mine near Friedensville, Pa., upon the Silesian 
plan ; this furnace, though apparently well constructed, failed to 
yield any zinc, mainly because its builder, Mr. Charles Hoof 
The present paper proposes to give some particulars, which 
even at this late day may possess interest, concerning that at 
ich rea 
ufactures in their struggle against European competition. | ee 
Having acquired some practical knowledge of the properties 
zinc, by several years experience as general manager of the 
Lehigh Zinc Co's. mines and zine oxide works, and having 48° — 
gathered such information as was possible from books and 
other sources, I made various trials during 1857 and 1858, ® — 
invent some form of furnace which should effect the evolutio? — 
and condensation of zinc vapor in a larger and more conti — 
ous way than was practised in Europe, and which should thts 
_* The first sheet zine made in America was rolled by Alan Wood ~& Sons 
Philadelphia, from an ingot of Mr. Wetherill’s spelter. oe 
: . . 
