El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-01-25
100000 Spent Upon En1arging
81 Paso Smelter During Year

/ blowing engine is installed and in ser
vice, and the new converter is expected
here in time to boost the total produc-
ton for 1913 beyond even the expec-
tations of the smelter officials them
selves.
There is an atmosphere of romance
that hangs over a great, industrial en-
terprise. Great mills in course Of con-
struction or operation, steel and con-
crete buildings in process of erection,
great natural enterprises slowly
evolving from the brain of the en-
gineering genius to become a reality,
all have this same inspiring effect upon
the laymen, who gets no more than
glance of the great enterprise in Ia
Dor. Such scene is the one at the Ell
Paso smelling works, where the copper
IS being produced at the rate of $780,
600 pounds each month. There, in a
glare from the cOnverters; with sulphur
fumes thick in the air, men toll and
MOL to make the red metal of COM
merce, without which no modern cleo
trio inventions would be possible.
The Copper Processes.
1t is an interes ting life history that
the copper concentrates have from the
time they come from the mine concen-
traitors until they are shipped east in
the form Of massive bars resembling
old fashioned pone cOrnbread with the
blisters- peck marking the top surface
and giving them their name. From
mine TO concentration is another story, a
story Of drilling with Bonded backs and
throbbing air drills in dark stones. Of
the endless grind and grOan of conveyer
belts which carry the ore through the
concentration mills; of patiently re-
VolVing vanners. nervous jigs and
grinding cruSher mills. When they
reach the Ell PasO plant, the cOncen-
trates resemble the dark foundry dust
used in casting. This arrives in car
loads from the cOncentrators and is
sent through the Wedge rOaSters where
part of the surplus sulphur is removed
hn
bread. The concentrates are fed into
the top Of the roasters and are scat
tered by slowly revolving plows so
mat they are fed into the hoppers and
onto the hearths slowly enough to
receive the drying process. These
roasters have a capacity of 200 tons
Tor each "a hours.
The ReverberatOry Treatment.
After the concentrates are suffi-
GENTLY kiln dried, they are loaded into
ana shunted off to the reverbera-
t9ry furnaces where they receive
Inelr first real baptism of fire.
ms IRE is created by a muddy
stream of crude oil, which is in
JecIeu into the furnaces under air
pressure. The interior Of one of these
+t 1IllSces resembles the scenes pic
tIfeu Dy Dante, as viewed through a
ppIIEate peephole alongside of the oil
Ieeu pipe. These reverberatorv fur
LES S-Ces-tnere are two of them at the
- u e 4UU ny 70 feet IN the
StedI ana are built on the HAS Sc that
me sag may be drawn from the upper /
emu II being lighter than the ccp- |
Pc per, Inc matte copper is taken from
On opening IN the lower side of the fur- !
mace ana IS ready for the larrel shaDsd /
SohVerters Each reverberatorv furnace |
mas capacity of 400 tons eac5 "a I
hours, the charge being The coroo-,1 |
trates and fluxing material
The Copper's ~Fhird Do,~-.r
IN the converters the conner fe .-f,-
en- the third degree" before it is csrS5ie5 I
OH 70 the casting plant to be made i+to /
DllSter copper pigs. These cOnverte,-e 1
measure 20 feet in length and 10 in \
diameter. They are swung on steel ca IA 4
bles, so that the opening at the ron
may be brought near the dumDiTPP I
shuJes TO receive the matte coDDer for /
It's IlnaI and extreme torture No heat
is used externally in the converting
process, as the matte is sufficiently bot
TO hard boil any self respecting egg
tAat mignt happen to glance its way.
Ar IS injected by the powerful blow
Ing engine. which has capacity oven
greater than boom town booster. 9The
result is bar or blister copper. as hot
as the Biblical hell and ready for the