Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1898-09-16
CHINESE TIN smelr,ho.
1rimitlye Methods Tha4 Are Follovsd d
the Sew Going OrSea&als.

the Slew 0oing OrSeatals.
~ Taiping the tin: mines cover an ana
Of several square miles and are worked q.
most entirely by Cantonese. They resem-
BILE nothing q much as the gold, waahinge
Of California md New Zealand-tha& Il.
tin washing Is q series Of delphs or hol.
lows. like an ordinary English quarry.
except that there Is no stone.
The sand or rubble IL excavated and.
conveyed to the tropghs, which ara placed
at q sufficient height to allow Of the water
running freely down an incline. One man
fakes up to the topmost end the fakes OF
tin, which resemble bits Of black pencil
lend, and which, when discngaged from
all mud or other light 'clinging matter,
sink ut once to the bottom of tho inclined
trough.
Other laborers pick out tho larger stones
from tho rubble, while q man stationed
at tho bottom Of the trough pushes up the
accumulated mud from which the lead is
not yet quite separated, 80 that it may
pass through u second or third course Of
washing. The leadcn ore Is then Carried in
buckets to special cleansing houses and.
there thoroughly washed once moro.
The furnace looks like q good sized vino
~oask set on end, but ut u slight angle, and
each one is provided with an iron pan for
q base.
This iron pan, together with a numbe.
of cooper's hoops twined round tho baked
mud, serves as q stitching and helps to
keep the furnace from c%ollapsing. The
lead orc is thrown, together with tho char.
coal which 1nelts 1t, in ono mass into this
barrellikc furnace, when the molten metal
soon passes through tho charcoal and
escapes (through a vent in the side of the
lower portion of the barrel furnace) into a
small pit dug into the ground below.
The fro Is kept active by q primitive
but very effective bellows; consisting of a
followed trco fitted with q wooden piston,
and connected with tho furnace by q short
bamboo tube inserted into it, sidat. The
whole apparatus costs only (at present.
rates of e%xchange) about el4. so
A workman rakos the Stag out o1 the
pit, and II tho market price Of tin 70 sum.
oicntly high to makeit pay to do q this
slay is passed q second time throughsthe
furnace. The pure molten tin, freed from
tho Stag rs 1t simmons in the pit, looks
like SO much quicksilver. Tho "pigs' a1s
like SO many large bricks with one side
rounded and the other fiat, the fiat side
having u broad rim or border.
The explanation Of this Is that blocks OF
wood of precisely this shape arc pressed
into the sand or mud which forms tho
natural floor Of tho smelling houses. When
these wooden molds are removed, ct oonrse
corresponding holes remain, and into.
these holes tho molten lead is ladlod from
the pit. 1t takes q whole day to cool suf-
flciontly to get firm. When 1t has we'll
set, it is lifted or dragged out of tho holes
with long rakcs and dashed with water.
After a little more cooling it is ready for
shipment.
At l'erak in 1883 and ut Maliwun in
1893 l found that four or flve Cinnamon
could turn out seven hundrcdwight Of tin
pigs a day, worth in 1898 about $40 In
ALE. H. Parker in Chnmbcrs' Journal.