DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5541#0036
8
PROCESS OF SMELTING.
[Chap. i.
the six winter months, on account of the injury which the
sulphur carried off in the smoke occasions to the cattle, by
falling on the meadows where they graze. The government
had to pay 9000 guilders one year for damages done to the
cattle in the neighbouring fields. The fine dirt and broken
ore, described in the former operations as being carried on
to the smelting-house, is placed in thin flat earthenware
saucers, about a foot in diameter and three inches in depth,
which are arranged on three tiers of iron gratings over the
furnace. The process is very different from that by which
all other metals are obtained, as the quicksilver docs not
run off from the melted ore, but is carried off in the smoke
by sublimation, and afterwards collected in the different
chambers, of which there are six on each side of the furnace,
forty feet high. As soon as the sulphur has been driven
off by the heat, every chimney and opening in the walls
is closed while the smelting is going on. The furnace
is kept heated until all the saucers are red hot, which
generally takes about nine hours. The chambers and
smoke are then left to cool for three days, when they are
opened, and the walls, chimneys, and floor are carefully
scraped to collect the quicksilver which has adhered to
them, or run off into the reservoirs prepared for it. In the
distant chambers, which have cooled most rapidly, the
quicksilver has generally run off. The dust and soot are
also shaken and turned over, when much metal runs out
from them also, before they are again burnt. On an ave-
rage each burning produces about eighteen or twenty hun-
dred weight, and there are generally three in a fortnight.
Small canals lead from each of the cooling chambers to the
general receiving room, where the quicksilver is either con-
tained in large reservoirs, or packed up to be sent to Vienna.
Each reservoir contains one hundred and forty hundred-
weight. The quicksilver is chiefly sent to America or Vi-
enna. For America it is packed in wrought-iron bottles
containing half a hundred-weight; while that which is sent
to Vienna is packed in sheepskins.
The general appearance of the workmen employed in the
PROCESS OF SMELTING.
[Chap. i.
the six winter months, on account of the injury which the
sulphur carried off in the smoke occasions to the cattle, by
falling on the meadows where they graze. The government
had to pay 9000 guilders one year for damages done to the
cattle in the neighbouring fields. The fine dirt and broken
ore, described in the former operations as being carried on
to the smelting-house, is placed in thin flat earthenware
saucers, about a foot in diameter and three inches in depth,
which are arranged on three tiers of iron gratings over the
furnace. The process is very different from that by which
all other metals are obtained, as the quicksilver docs not
run off from the melted ore, but is carried off in the smoke
by sublimation, and afterwards collected in the different
chambers, of which there are six on each side of the furnace,
forty feet high. As soon as the sulphur has been driven
off by the heat, every chimney and opening in the walls
is closed while the smelting is going on. The furnace
is kept heated until all the saucers are red hot, which
generally takes about nine hours. The chambers and
smoke are then left to cool for three days, when they are
opened, and the walls, chimneys, and floor are carefully
scraped to collect the quicksilver which has adhered to
them, or run off into the reservoirs prepared for it. In the
distant chambers, which have cooled most rapidly, the
quicksilver has generally run off. The dust and soot are
also shaken and turned over, when much metal runs out
from them also, before they are again burnt. On an ave-
rage each burning produces about eighteen or twenty hun-
dred weight, and there are generally three in a fortnight.
Small canals lead from each of the cooling chambers to the
general receiving room, where the quicksilver is either con-
tained in large reservoirs, or packed up to be sent to Vienna.
Each reservoir contains one hundred and forty hundred-
weight. The quicksilver is chiefly sent to America or Vi-
enna. For America it is packed in wrought-iron bottles
containing half a hundred-weight; while that which is sent
to Vienna is packed in sheepskins.
The general appearance of the workmen employed in the