S M E 



S M E 



knowledged to have a general external refemblance to the 

 falmon. See S almo E^crlanus. 



It inhabits the feas ot the northern parts of Europe, and, 

 Mr. Pennant apprehends, is never found as far fouth as the 

 Mediterranean. 



Thefe fi(h will live almoft any where, but they are very 

 apt to degenerate. They are common in the rivers of New 

 England, and are as large as with us, often weighing two 

 ounces and a half; but a pailful of thefe being taken from 

 one of their rivers, and put into an adjoining pond, they 

 all degenerated in fuch a manner, that they were afterwards 

 found fo fmall, that the largeft did not weigh more than 

 five pennyweights. Though thus fmall, however, they are 

 much valued, and are better tafted than the others. Philof. 

 Tranf. N° 374. p. 232. 



They are called fmelts, becaufe they melt, as it were, or 

 diiTolve between the fingers in handling them ; or, as others 

 fay, on account of their fcent, quajl fmell It. The name 

 fparling, by which they are called in Wales and the north 

 of England, is taken from the French eperlan : fmelts are 

 often fold in the ilreets of London fplit and dried, and 

 called dried fparlings . 



Smelt Ftjh'mg. See Fishing, Smelt, 

 Smelt, among the fifhermcn in Yorklhire, and fome 

 other parts of England, is alfo a name given to the falmon, 

 while in its firft year. See Salmon. 



SMELTING, among MetaUifls, the melting of a 

 metal from the ore in a fmelting furnace ; in order to fepa- 

 rate the metallic parts from the fulphur and arfenic, and the 

 earthy and ftrong fubltances of all kinds with which they 

 are combined. 



Smelting, in propriety, is reftrained to large works, in 

 which ores from the mines are melted down and fepa- 

 rated. 



In fpeaking of works in a lefTer way, we do not fay 

 fmelting, but melting. 



In the more precious metals this is called refining; which 

 fee. And fmelting is moil commonly applied to the reduc- 

 tion of iron ores. 



The art of fmelting the ores of all metallic fubftances 

 was, probably, at firlt very imperfeft ; hence the ufe of 

 iron has every where been of a more recent date than that 

 of the other metals, becaufe it requires the application of a 

 much ftronger fire to fmelt the ores of iron than thofe of 

 any other metal. We have no certain accounts when, or 

 by whom, the feveral metals were difcovered. Wallerius 

 fayj, that, as far as he knew, Pliny was the firft who enu- 

 merated the fix metals ; but they were certainly known long 

 before his age, and were mentioned both by Homer and by 

 Mofes, a much more ancient author. (Numb. xxxi. 22.) 

 From this teftimony we may certainly infer, that all the 

 metals, anciently mentioned, were known, at leaft in the 

 country of the Midianites, above fourteen hundred and 

 fifty years before the birth of Chrift, or near nine hundred 

 years after the deluge. Moreover, iron and copper were, 

 without doubt, known before the deluge, and probably all 

 the other metals, which are more eafily exlrafted from their 

 ores than the former. 



In the time of Abraham, however, gold and filver were 

 efleemed, as they are at prefent, precious metals (Gen. 

 xxiii. 16. Gen. xiii. 2.) ; and hence it is reafonable to 

 conclude, that Noah was able to inftruft his defcendants 

 in the art of fmelting metallic ores ; this art was after- 

 wards loft among the various colonies, which quitted the 

 plains of ACa in fearch of fettlements ; and as the earth, 

 foon after tlie deluge, and long before it could have been 

 peopled by the pofterity of Noah, muft have become cover- 

 lot 



ed with wood, and in procefs of time different coimtrin 

 might have been cleared by fetting the wood on fire, which, 

 might flux metallic ores contiguous to the furface of the 

 earth, it is not improbable, that the firft idea of fmelting 

 ores might have been thus fuggefted to many nations. See 

 Creech's Lucretius, vol. ii. p. 572. 



We may hence coiijcfture, that tlie firft rude procefs, by 

 which metals were extrafted from their ores, was that ot 

 putting a quantity of ore upon a heap of wood, and fet- 

 ting the pile on fire, in conformity to the manner, in which 

 ores were fmclted during the burning of forefts; but as 

 the force of the fire is greatly diminiftied by the difperfion 

 of its flame, and as the air afts more forcibly in exciting 

 fire, when it ruihes upon it with greater velocity, it is likely 

 that the heap of wood and ore would foon be furrounded 

 with a wall of ftone, in which fufficient openings would be 

 left for the entrance of the air, and thus a kind of furnace 

 would be conftrufted. 



The Peruvians, we are told, had difcovered the art of 

 fmelting and refining filver, either by the fimple apphcatioa 

 of fire, or where the ore was more Itubbom, and impregnated 

 with foreign fubftances, by placing it in fmall ovens or fur- 

 naces on high grounds, fo artificially conftrufted, that the 

 draught of air performed the funftion of a bellows, a ma- 

 chine with which they were totally unacquainted. This 

 method of fmelting ores on high grounds, without the aflift- 

 ance of a bellows, or at leaft of bellows moved by water, 

 feems to have been formerly praftifed in other countries as 

 well as in Peru. There are feveral places in Derbylhire, 

 called loleshy the inhabitants, where lead has been anciently 

 fmelted, before the invention of moving bellows by water ; 

 thefe boles were always fituated upon high grounds, and 

 moftly upon that fide of a hill which faces the weft, pro- 

 bably becaufe the wind proceeds moft frequently from that 

 quarter. 



From a pig of lead, dug up in 1 766 at one of thefe bolej 

 near Matlock, and bearing an infcription in relievo, from 

 which it appears to have been fmelted in the age of Adrian ; 

 many of the boles in Derbyftiire feem to be of high anti- 

 quity. However, this method of fmelting ore by the va- 

 riable aftion of the wind, being a very troublefome and pre- 

 carious procefs, has been univerfally difufed, and the more 

 regular blaft of a bellows has been introduced in its ftead. 



The invention of the bellows is attributed by Strabo 

 to Anacharfis, the Scythian ; but he was probably the im- 

 prover of this machine ; for Homer, who lived long before 

 his time, defcribes Vulcan as employing twenty pair of 

 bellows at once in the formation of the ftiield of Achilles. 

 Iliad, hb. xviii. v. 470. 



When the art of moving bellows by means of a water- 

 wheel was firft difcovered, is uncertain ; the ancients feem 

 to have been unacquainted with it ; but we learn from 

 Agricola (De Re Metal. publi(hed in 153O, pp. 165. 338.) 

 that it was very generally known, at leaft among the Ger- 

 mans, in his time ; for he fpeaks of it often, without hint- 

 ing at its being a recent invention. By this advantageous 

 contrivance, however, the moderns have, in many inftances, 

 worked over again, with confiderable profit, the heaps of 

 iron and other kinds of flag, from which the metal has been 

 but imperfeftly extrafted, before the moving of the bellows 

 by water was difcovered. 



About fifty years ago, the blaft, or hearth-furnace, was 

 the only one in ufe for fmelting lead-ore in Derbylhire. In 

 this furnace, ore and charcoal, or ore, and what is called 

 ivhite coal, which is wood dried but not charred, being 

 placed, ill alternate layers, upon a hearth properly con- 

 ftrufted, the fire is raifed by the blaft of a bellows, moved 



by 



