Bisbee daily review., 1904-02-14
(Continued From Page Two.) UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ON
 SUBJECT OF BISBEE CAMP

Eents with Mr. Lee, the metallurgist of the company, to inspect the reduc- ton works after lunch. Here was where things became real interesting. as Mir Lee understood his business and knows how to explain things in the line of smelting. The smelter is pot up to cate in equipment, but the results are first class. We were told tae primary object was tc make it pay and this was constantly kept in mind, Some pc: theory. that was magnifi- cent in conception but a commercial failure. did not appeal to the owners. This explained several operations that were going 0n that did not seem just cone. All ore as nearly as possible made up the charge even though this did not constitute the best charge for fuulg obtainable, and even ran the slag up higher in copper than seemed rractical at times the per centage of of iron being higher in the ore. This is not lost sight cf by MT. Lee and he makes a siag that runs high in iron and low in silica the scarce quantity here, and lime, which has to be guar ried separately at additional cost In this way tie gangue is made use of as far as possible in the Aux, even if the iron does carry considerable copper away with it in the slag. This is sub ssantially the proposition, although several nice little details come into the work that make the operation par ticulariy interesting to close student et metaliurgy.
 The furnaces are six in number and furnish sufficient matte for the five converters. The converters are Handled by carriages run by hand. in stead Of an electric crane. such as is ia use in Jerome, Mc-enci, Cananea and othsr places. This is another in stance of adaptability. as it would F1ean a great loss to shut down and remodel the plant. and the plant was originally designed to make black cop per, which is a thing of the past in raodern copper smelting.
 The matte averages about fifty per cent copper and from four to five charges are blown in each converter before refining is necessary.
 The converters are of the Leghorne type five by eight feet. and will af- ford about three tons of blister cop Per at each charge. They are orig- finally lined with magnesium brick. imported from Europe Then on to this is packed the silica with just enough clay to hold it together. then the whole is baked for several hours and wheeled into the converter stand. and matte is lapped from the furnace into iadie and poured by the cleo tric crane into the converter. Here about eleven pounds of compressed air to the square inch is forced into the molten mass through the Typple tuyers and the charge blown. After it is blown sufficiently until the green ish flames begin to come of, the slag fs skinned of. This is largely iron and about thirty per cent silica, with from one-half to one per cent copper This slag Is poured back into the set tiers at the base Of the furnace and the charge biowed some more tc 6rive of the remaining sulphur. This takes about thirty minutes and car be judged by the drops of metallic copper which are elected and bound of and turn black. while the slat glows few seconds and sticks to tht converter's sides. Then little mcr' skimming and the copper is ready tx be poured into the mclds. about 30i pounds capacity each. This bullior runs about ninety eight per cent pur' copper, with some gold and silver ant few other impurities. One dis tinctiyeness about the smelting her is that very low column is main tained in the furnace and only abou twenty ounces of air to the s1uar foot is used, as low as six feet whil in Cananea and Fl Paso from eight | ten feet is common practice. Thi makes difference in the amount c fiue dust. but most of it is saved l the fiue chambers and long stacks an is re-ruu in the bricnuetting plan
 About sixty tons of fue dust pc
 month is obtained from the furnace
 Everything is well planned and work with mathematical regularity. NJ
 Lee is well up in his profession and getting fre results from the reductio
 plart. which, considering its age,
 economically planned and in gee
 working order. MT. Walter Dougia
 is general manager of works and M Clswson superintendent of the miEe
 and they have both assisted the clas
 in every way possible.