The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-01-04
Recovering Lead and siIvsr.

be tapped out Of the lead well into a
steel ladle and transported by means
Of an overhead travelling crane to the
lead refinery where it will be dumped
into the softening furnace. In this
latter furnace the lead will be brought
to a high temperature and the dross
SKINNED from it. These skimmings
are returned to the blast furnaces for
retreatment, the plan throughout the
smelter being to minimize the loss OF
metal. The lead from the softening
furnace is tapped into large pots and
it is here that the silver is extracted
by the addition of zinc dust which
has the faculty of absorbing the silver
and floating to the surface of the lead.
The silver is then skinned off and
run through a press which removes
practically all of the lead, the skim
mings being sent to the silver refinery
for further treatment.
The lead is now pumped from these
kettles into the refining furnaces
where a further Swimming takes place.
1t is then tapped into another series
of kettles from which it is pumped
into automatic casting machines and
cast into pigs for the market.
The gold and silver refinery are To-
Gated just west of the lead refinery. It
is in this building that the gold and
silver will be separated and cast into
bars.
No Smoke Nuisance.
When the smelter was first dreamed
of in Kellogg there was much COM
ment on the possibility of a smoke
nuisance The precautions taken to
avoid smoke and at the same time
save the values which in less modern
plants escape through the stack will
result in scarcely any smoke being
visible from the tall stack which
looms high above the plant
The gases from the blast furnaces
will pass into a large settling flue di-
rectly behind the furnace building and
a large part of the flue dust will be
caught at this point. This settling
flue connects with the main flue that
runs up the hill to the bag house. At
this point will be installed two large
fans, each having a capacity of 1OO,-
coo cubic feet of gas per minute. These
will be driven by 100-horsepower mo-
tors. The gases will be taken from
the flue by these fans and forced into
the bag house.
This building is brick structure
with steel floor through which is
punched openings, Is inches in diam
eter, at frequent intervals. Each open
ing is fitted with a nipple which fits
into the lower end of a. wooden bag
IS inches in diameter and 80 feet long
These bags hang suspended from the
roof of the building.
The gas is forced into the open
mouth of these bags and escapes
through the fiber into the upper cham
Der of the bag house. The fiberous
nature Of the bags filters out from the
gas all the injurious solid particles
and the gas as discharged into the
stack is colorless and practically
harmless.
The stack, now completed and the
most prominent landmark on the smell
ter site, is Is feet in diameter at the
top, 200 feet high above the founda-
ton and is built of hollow tile, rest
ing on massive concrete base set 16
feet into the ground.
Handling the Gases.
The rooster gases will be discharg-
ed into steel flue just north of the
rooster building. This flue leads in
to the upper deck of the main flue
which from this point to the top Of
the hill is of two story construction.
These gases will be treated in an
electric precipitation, more commonly
known as the Cottrell plant. BY
means Of a high voltage electric cur
rent the dust and solid masses in the
rooster gases will be here collected,
the result obtained being the same
as in the case of the blast furnace
gases.
1t is worthy of note that the smell
ter being built by the Bunker Hill
company IS the first one to start in
the entire United States with a COM
plete smoke and gas treating equip
ment installed. AS plant the smell
ter will be the most modern yet con-
structed. 1t was the aim and ambi-
ton of the management to provide
every improved feature known to the
smelling business and neither pains
nor expense have been spared to at
tain this end and make the smelter
the most up to date smelter In the
country
Many Other Buildings.
In addition to those parts Of the
plant described above there will be
numerous other buildings around the
works. The plate shop and the struc-
tural steel shop have been installed
and are now being utilized. A
small but complete warehouse is also
well stocked with construction ma
terials, 100-ton track scale being
used to weigh in and out all the ma
terials.
MADAM, o.eo,, hrioly