Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1885-05-22
new REDUCTION WORKS.
PROBABLY THE MOST MODERN
IN AMEkICA.

In AMERICA.
Everything nj tho Eureka Cons
New Plant Nunning as Smoothly
M CfockwOrk Eureka she
Cradle OF h Art of Smelling I'm
the west"-An Idea of the Size,
Capacity and General Character
OF the New Furnace.
Twenty years ago the smelling Of argen-
tiferous lead ores was an unknown industry
west Of the Mississippi river. and when
the first attempts were made-notwith-
standing they were made by persons
familiar with the methods Of smelling
current In Europe-most Of them proved,
for q combination Of reasons, utter failures.
Eureka has figured in no small way as Q
school for the industry, inasmuch as many
points have been gained by those making
a study Of the business from the successes
and improvements achieved In 1t and also
by the few failures suffered since the in
ception of the first plant here in 1868.
One writer Of prominence, speaking Of the
industry in America, says: at ia true.
Eureka, Nevada, has been, 80 TO speak, the
cradle Of the art Of smelling in the West"
The first smelter established In Eureka
that proved Q success was constructed in
1869 by Mr.. G.. Collier Robbins, father Of
Superintendent Frank Robbins, Of the Eu-
reka Consolidated Company. The knowl-
edge and adsptability TO the business ap-
pears to have been transmitted from the
father to the son, for the manner In which
the Eureka Cons new plant has been estab-
lished would indeed be credit to q Of
greater years and experience than Supt.
Robbins.
A reporter Of the SENTINEL called yester-
day ut the new works, and with . large
number OF other visitors Was shown
through the plant. Everything was work.
ing as smoothly IS olockwork, and were it
not for the new appearance Of everything
one u~nacquAinted with the situation would
suppose that the works had been running
for q year or longer. Stag ran off into pots
and bullion appeared ss though it was
nothing unusual. The new water.jacket
furnace, instead Of being Q parallelogrsm
in shape. 90 is commonly the case, 10, so to
speak, two long parallel sides Joined ct
tuelk GAbtcAuAbAc1 ny bouk"CkI CACBs v 40 y
combination Of the Rschette and Piltz
furnaces. As regards its size and capacity
the following figures may prove OF inter-
est:
Inches.
Length inside jackets. 81
Width inside jackets 40
hlgnt OF -. AZ
Hight OF furnace from bottom OF crucibie
70 ieeu noor...".- ."-.
m OF tuy ers. y
Smelling capacity. 60 to 10 tons.
The water jacket opens on top 10 admit
Of the extraction Of the scale formed from
the carbonate OF lime in the water. A
novelty in Nevada in such works Is the
manner adopted by Mr.. Robbins and the
foreman Of the plant, Mr.. W. j. Stevens,
who is entitled to considerable OF the
credit due,) of drawing off the smoke, dust
and fumes, these being carried away by
the fue below the feed-foor instead OF
above il, ss in old style furnaces. The
furnace is cut off Of the feed-ioor, and Is
fed through an iron box Of the anne shape.
No smoke whatever Is TO be seen ON the
feed-foor. All ores are thoroughly ana
lyzed and mixed In beds OF 600 tons ready
for smelling, and the same 10 delivered
ct the furnace by . self-dumping skip. A
number of other Improvements will be
added to the new plant and especially about
the furnace shortly. and the chief reason
for the furnace being started before all
these suxilisries were completed was on
account of space being required for the
reception Of ore, there being something
like 5000 tons about the works, and to
continue to add to that quantity would re-
quire extra handling and consequently
unnecessary expense.