“To his loving friend, Robert Denham.
“Friend Denham,—I have me heartily commended unto you, you shall understand it we did lack ore more than 14 days ago, for we have found out a way to smelt 24 cwts. of ore every day with one furnace, the Lord be thanked, and if we may have ore enough from your side we may, with God’s help, melt with two furnaces in 40 weeks 560 tons of ore, having reasonable provision made for it, desiring you from hence-forward to send such ores as you have with as much speed as maybe, not caring what ore it is. Your ore of St. Dines is very hard to melt it, hoping we will overcome it what St. Ust ores will do, we long to see it.
“This I rest, the Lord send you good success with your mines. And so I commit you to God. From Neath, the 4th of July, 1585.
“Your friend,
“Ulricke Frosse.
“When you do send any more ore, if you can, send of all sorts, the better it will melt and with more profit.”
The sound principle of obtaining, when possible, one class of copper ore for the purpose of fluxing off the gangue from ore of another class, was thus recognised as a profitable feature of practice from comparatively early times.
Copper mining and smelting in Staffordshire dates back a considerable time, certainly prior to 1686; the mines were situated at Ecton, and the smelter was at Elleston, near Ashbourne, where small blast furnaces were employed. Copper smelting in Lancashire, which is nowadays conducted on a comparatively extensive scale, appears to have commenced in 1720 with Cornish ores and smaller importations from the West Indian and American Colonies. During the 18th century, the chief supply of the world’s copper ore came from the Cornish mines, which even at that time, were deep and extensive. It seems, however, that for some peculiar reason, the Cornishmen were unable to smelt these ores with profit, nor indeed, to do more with them than to send the material to South Wales to be treated. There are numerous explanations for their failure, which have been discussed exhaustively by Percy.
The centre of the copper smelting industry thus came to be located in the South Wales (Swansea) district, where circumstances were very favourable. The study of local conditions is one of great importance for metallurgists, and since this case affords a good example, it will be of value to refer briefly to those circumstances which rendered the Swansea district such an excellent centre for the industry.
The extensive collieries in the locality rendered available an abundant supply of suitable fuel at a low price, and many of the smelters held a financial interest in them. The large coal was profitably used for home consumption or export, and the small, which, though dirty, still gave the long flame required, was very suitable for smelting work, and was reserved for that purpose.
Further, Swansea was an excellent seaport, situated at a short distance only from Cornwall, the chief source of ore, and was also readily accessible to vessels carrying cupriferous ores and products from South America, Australia, and other parts of the world. This was a great advantage, in that the Swansea copper smelters, having a large variety of ores at their disposal, some with basic gangue, others with siliceous gangue, were in a position to make up furnace charges which were more or less self-fluxing, and thus avoided the necessity for purchasing and using barren fluxes. The finished products were also in a most convenient centre for distribution, at the seaport of Swansea.