The cupel furnace above described, must be slowly heated, in order to dry the cupel without causing it to crack, which would infallibly be produced by sudden evaporation of the moisture in it. When it has been thus slowly brought to the verge of a red heat, it is almost completely filled with lead previously melted in an iron pot. The cupel may be charged with about 5 cwt. At the temperature at which the lead is introduced, it is immediately covered with a gray pellicle of oxide; but when the heat of the furnace has been progressively raised to the proper pitch, it becomes whitish-red, and has its surface covered over with litharge. Now is the time to set in action the blowing-machine, the blast of which, impelled in the direction of the great axis of the cupel, drives the litharge towards the breast of the cupel, and makes it flow out by the gateway prepared for it, through which it falls upon a cast-iron plate, on a level with the floor of the apartment, and is dispersed into tears. It is carried in this state to the furnace of reduction, and revived. As by the effect of the continual oxidization which it undergoes, the surface of the metal necessarily falls below the level of the gateway of the litharge, melted lead must be added anew by ladling it into the furnace from the iron boiler, as occasion may require. The operation is carried on in this manner till 84 cwt. or 4 Newcastle fodders of lead have been introduced, which takes from 16 to 18 hours, if the tuyère has been properly set. The whole quantity of silver which this mass of lead contains, is left in combination with about 1 cwt. of lead, which, under the name of rich lead, is taken out of the cupel.
When a sufficient number of these pieces of rich lead have been procured, so that by their respective quality, as determined by assaying, they contain in whole from 1000 to 2000 ounces of silver, they are re-melted to extract their silver, in the same furnace, but in a cupel which differs from the former in having at its bottom a depression capable of receiving at the end of the process the cake of silver. In this case a portion of the bottom remains uncovered, on which the scoriæ may be pushed aside with a little rake, from the edges of the silver.
The experiments of MM. Lucas and Gay Lussac have proved that fine silver, exposed to the air in a state of fusion, absorbs oxygen gas, and gives it out again in the act of consolidation. The quantity of oxygen thus absorbed may amount to twenty-two times the volume of the silver. The following phenomena are observed when the mass of metal is considerable; for example, from 40 to 50 pounds.
The solidification commences at the edges, and advances towards the centre. The liquid silver, at the moment of its passage to the solid state, experiences a slight agitation, and then becomes motionless. The surface, after remaining thus tranquil for a little, gets all at once irregularly perturbed, fissures appear in one or several lines, from which flow, in different directions, streams of very fluid silver, which increase the original agitation. The first stage does not yet clearly manifest the presence of gas, and seems to arise from some intestine motion of the particles in their tendency to group, on entering upon the process of crystallization, and thus causing the rupture of the envelop or external crust, and the ejection of some liquid portions.
After remaining some time tranquil, the metal presents a fresh appearance, precisely analogous to volcanic phenomena. As the crystallization continues, the oxygen gas is given out with violence at one or more points, carrying with it melted silver from the interior of the surface, producing a series of cones, generally surmounted by a small crater, vomiting out streams of the metal, which may be seen boiling violently within them.
These cones gradually increase in height by the accumulation of metal thrown up, and that which becomes consolidated on their sloping sides. The thin crust of metal on which they rest, consequently experiences violent impulses, being alternately raised and depressed by such violent agitation, that were it not for the tenacity and elasticity of the metal, there would evidently arise dislocation, fissures, and other analogous accidents. At length several of the craters permanently close, while others continue to allow the gas a passage. The more difficult this is, the more the craters become elevated, and the more their funnels contract by the adhesion or coagulation of a portion of the metal. The projection of globules of silver now becomes more violent; the latter being carried to great distances, even beyond the furnace, and accompanied by a series of explosions, repeated at short intervals. It is generally the last of these little volcanoes that attains the greatest altitude, and exhibits the foregoing phenomena with the greatest energy. It is, moreover, observable, that these cones do not all arise at the same time, some having spent their force, when others commence forming at other points. Some reach the height of an inch, forming bases of two or three inches in diameter. The time occupied by this exhibition is at least from half to three quarters of an hour.
During the formation of these cones, by the evolution of gas, portions of silver are shot forth, which assume, on induration, a form somewhat cylindrical, and often very fantastic, notwithstanding the incompatibility which appears to exist between the fluidity of the silver and these elongated figures. Their appearance is momentary, and without any symptoms of gas, although it is impossible to decide whether they may not arise from its influence; they seem, in fact, to resemble the phenomena of the first volcanic period.
Till very recently the only operations employed for separating silver from lead in the English smelting-works, were the following:—
1. Cupellation, in which the lead was converted into a vitreous oxide, which was floated off from the surface of the silver.
2. Reduction of that oxide, commonly called litharge.