Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-04-29
For the Monito
AMONG THE SHELTERS.

Any process by which the treasured
riches of nature are torn from its grasp,
and converted into the forms for use COM
mon among us, must be of interest to
the million. Certainly | am for one
deeply interested in any of these process
ses, and use my Yankee right of ques-
tioning to the utmost at every opportu-
nifty. So when Mr.. Dearborn, the gen.
tlemanly paymaster of the Vershire Cop
per Mines, asked me to go over the works
of that company with him, | was only
too glad to accept his proposition. Jump
ing into the buggy which he soon had at
the door of his house at West Fairlee, we
were in half an hour among the furnaces.
A step into his office, which contained
the usual office material, books, safe,
e.v1-,e, 0~5y Onarro, uIu Ure spec1-
mens-and he was ready to show me the
furnaces.
First he took me to the house at which
are landed the car loads of native ore
fresh from the mines One car comes
down an inclined plane from the
mouth of the mines, loaded with ore,
and at the same time pulls, on another
track, an empty one back, to receive a
new load. These loads as they come
down are emptied on the ground floor of
the dressing house." there to be taken
in hand by those waiting for them A
man with a ponderous sledge breaks the
huge masses into smaller ones, which are
placed beside men termed "coffers," who
sit with large stone before them for an
anvil, on which they break, with a
double-headed stone hammer. these blocks
into small pieces about as large as hen s
eggs, and separate the copper ore from
the worthless stone. Those large blocks
which are so rich in ore as not to require
cofiing are beaten fine by large boys
with light sledges. They are called
"spallers,' Another sorting process
called picking" is done to the finer
fragments, by first washing them in a
trough Of running water and then SHOW
cling them on long table, at which sit
about thirty boys, ranging in age from
eight to twelve years, and they are as
sharp as any one to pick out the bright
bits of ore washed clean from the powder
and dust. 1t seemed bit odd to SEE
these Cornish mines set their boys t.
work at an age so tender, but their rouno
cheeks and sparkling eyes told that theil
work was not very hard on them. They
made their fingers and the bits of ore fly
Still another process, by which tn,
very small bits were saved-the dust al
most-was done in another part of tn,
building, and was called '.jigging.'
Quantities of refuse and dust from tn,
workmen's hammers were put into tanks
like sleeves. hanging in larger tanks, anC
those washers full of gleanings were lift
ed up and down with a jerking motion
by a long lever power, and thus kept il
a jolting motion the copper fell to tn
bottom, and the stone came to the to-
and was scraped off.
The ore in this dressing house broker
into small fragments and separated iron
the rock, is then put in trucks and draw
on tramway to the roasting beds. y
The construction of these, as explaine,
by Mr.. D., was to lay first bed of cord
wood a foot thick and twenty feet lon
by twelve wide. Then on this is pile,
the ore, about four feet deep-the fines
part on top to keep IN the heat-an,
when ready the wood at one end is Sc
on fire and the roast left to roast itsel
at leisure. And leisure time it has Q
it. The sulphur in the ore serves to kee
the tlre alive, and through long week
the smoldering work goes on. Their
were eight or ten of these burning tina
day, smoking like coal pit, but tn
smoke was so strongly impregnated wit
sulphur fumes as to be hard to endure
If ones throat or lungs are sensitive h