The Sumpter miner. [volume] (Sumpter, Or.) 1899-1905, 1902-10-08
REVOLUTIONIZE
SMELLING.
Garretson Furnace Given Prac-
tical Test at the Crofton.

British Columbia, SAYS: Interest IN tnt
mining world is being centered in the
experiments now going forward with the
t;arretsOn furnace at the CrOftOn smell
ter on Vancouver island. Judge Reel
and colleagues, ,Messrs. Bagyley and
Lindquiste, Of Pittsburg, have been ut
the smelter to witness the further tests
Of the new furnaces, which are expected
10 revOlutiOnixe the smelling industry of
America.
The inventors are &. =. and +. &. Gar.
rstson, father and SON.
The Garretson smclter, II M successful
M the first day indicated, will, II IN said,
cut down the cost Of smelling u one
quarter of what il is today. II will do
away with the necessity Of using coke
and will abolish the separate converting
plant. by Il the three present pro-
cesses Of smelling are combined and tho
whole operation takes place in one appa.
ratus.
+. G. Garretson, speaking Of the In.
vention, said:
1T is u little difficult to explain our
system In way inielligible to u layman,
but I may say that the ordinary pro'ess
of smelling involves the roasting and
smelling Of ore M separate processes to
the converting Of II. The smelting pro.
ccss is much the same In our furnace,
hut VIZ utilize the sulphur and iron In
the orc IN fuel, which saves the cost Of
coke. In ordinary pyritic ore there are
as many heat units M In coal.
"Fusther, we do away with the cost of
the converting plant, which is the mot
expensive portion oi smelling plant.
In cases where the ore In right-wherei II
contains the necessary proportions Of
sulphur aud iron-we do away with
carbonaceous fuel and the cost Of the
iarretson process is, roughly. just one
fourth the cost of ordinary smelling.
..In our furnace We take the raw ore
~ II comes from the mine. charge II into
the top of the furnace aud take out At
the bottom blister copper, which is
about ~ Ier cent metallic copper. After
that, it IL only necessary to refine Il
elcctrol ytically To eliminate what impu.
rites remain aud separate the gold and
silver.
"rhc difficulty with the old process
has been tina, high grade product could
no, b. made without making u rich Stag
too rich IN mineral to be thrown away.
Also il WAS not considered possible to
convert IN u watcrjacket converter with
out lining IL with lire clay and crushed
quartz, which has to In frequently re-
placed aud is an expensive method. \
number ui systems al introducing silica
into the convertcrs have been tried,
and they have been lined with reirac-
tory material such NJ n,asncsia, but II
war found difficult Ia introduce the
necessary silica 81 rs make IL combine
with the oxide oi iron formed IN con-
vertins
I'VE ubyiutcd this difficulty 10y con-
yerting underneath the charge IN the
furnace. feeding AN excess ri silica IN
with ,h, charge and converting bya row
oi tuy,rcs placed around the furnace. In
this way We prevented all oi the silica
from being taken up at the top and II is
forced down 10y the weight ol the charge
above il as silica, into the matte, where
il is required
"Pyritic sn,elting is an established
fact. The reason il is no more in use II
thu, in order to make n sufficiently high
grade matte il IL essential I" run the FUR
mace very slowly, and II IL then liable To