by waste is effected. The very great size of these chambers may be gathered when I say they are upwards of 100 feet high, 30 feet long and 25 feet wide. We then got up on the flat tops or roofs, and thence were able to see the material difference between the chimneys of the calcining furnaces at Hafod and the neighbouring works where Gerstenhöfer's plans are not carried out, and although its proprietor said all was not yet effected at 'Hafod' that he hoped to carry out, yet the difference was very marked. Seeing is, indeed here, believing!

Before parting, Mr. Vivian told me that he had recently bought the "Old Forest" Copper Works, and was then converting them into zinc or spelter works, and that he expected thirty German workmen with his manager, Mr. Daehne, there to-morrow, and the works to be in operation next weekfurther, that he anticipates manufacturing 20,000 tons of zinc ores on the banks of Swansea River. That the ores he was using were chiefly carbonates, but that a good deal of blende or sulphuret of zinc would be used by and bye, and if so, he should pass it all through Gerstenhöfer's furnaces and so save the sulphur, and, I beg to add, the necessary additional nuisance.*

*HAFOD COPPER WORKS, SWANSEA,

I cannot obtain the exact date when the Works ("Forest") were given up to the Duke of Beaufort, but know that they have not been used as Copper Works." You are aware that they now form part of our "Morriston Spelter Works."

Yours very truly, WM. MORGAN.

Col. G. GRANT-FRANCIS, F.S.A.,

New Athenæum Club,

London.

66

passes as white and tenaceous gaseous clouds, too well known locally as Copper Smoke," which gases are created by roasting the ores with coal fires in the calcining furnaces.

The object of the new mode is, by a properly constructed furnace, so to divide the ore as it passes from the regulated hoppers at the top, that it shall fall on a triangular bar, and then on to similar bars below each other, and thus expose the ore to continued subdivision till it reaches the bottom and is freed from the sulphur. The heat has converted

it into sulphurous acid, the which is constantly passing off through side chambers into condensers, and becoming marketable article, is retained and prevented from escaping into the atmosphere and becoming a common mischief.

A most important item in the invention is, that no fuel is required, for the sulphur catching fire at the upper bars, the heat evolved within the furnace suffices to keep the falling ore in a state of ignition. Simplicity is indeed here coupled with economy.

Mr. Vivian is emphatic in his declaration as to the value of the discovery, and proves his belief in its success by the erection of no less than 28 new furnaces at Swansea and Taibach, Glamorgan. When it is recollected "that 46,000 tons of sulphur are volatilized into 92,000 tons of sulphurous acid, that in the works near Swansea 65,900 cubic meters of this acid are projected into the atmosphere, and that Le Play estimates the value of the sulphur thus dissipated daily at £200,000 yearly"! we may readily appreciate the importance of the commercial side of the question, and rest satisfied that the Smelters elsewhere will

have an equal interest with Mr. Vivian in availing themselves of Moritz Gerstenhöfer's admirable invention.

I remain, Sir,

Yours faithfully,

Cae Bailey, Swansea,

8th Aug., 1865.

GEO. GRANT FRANCIS, F.S.A.

The process and practical working of this valuable invention will be best shewn by a speech of Mr. Vivian, to the West Glamorgan Agricultural Association, in December, 1866. This gentleman having touched on various subjects, continued:

"His (Mr. Vivian's) experience in managing affairs-which was considerable-had shown him how very much depended upon the power of choosing men; and he was quite convinced that if Bonaparte had not known how to choose good generals, he would never have been Bonaparte. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) As far as he individually was concerned, his chief thought and occupation in life, as they all knew, was to keep in activity those gentlemen whom they saw in such numbers smoking their pipes about a mile to the north of this town. (Laughter.) He believed some people considered that the peculiar 'tobacco smoke which issued from those pipes was not of a high agricultural value. Of course he differed from that opinion. (Laughter.) No one had ever yet been able to convince him that it was not of very considerable agricultural value; and he believed he was now in a position to prove that the opinions that he had always entertained on the point were correct. He could assure them that he had given a great deal of time and thought of late to bottling that smoke, and his conviction was that when it was bottled it

would be of great agricultural value. In fact he firmly believed that this District was destined to become the fertiliser of a very large portion of England. A short time ago, when partridges were in season, he was walking through a very fine field of turnips, near Llangafelach—in a part where he believed no turnips had ever grown before. He turned round to the man in charge and asked What do you put on those fields?' He replied, 'Deed I don't know-five hundred weight of stuff which Mr. Taylor did send me.' 'Oh,' said he (Mr. Vivian) then two and a half hundred weight of it is copper smoke!' (Hear, hear, and laughter.) And this was the fact; half of the manure which was put on that land was copper smoke, and judging from the crop there was no doubt at all that copper smoke agreed very well with turnips. He had, as he had said, given great attention to the subject lately, and was putting up a little works which were now covered with those rose coloured roofs which they might have observed about half-way between this and Landore; and he thought the result of the experiment would be that they would produce manure enough for something like 40,000 acres of turnips every year. (Hear, hear.) He looked upon it merely as an experiment—as just a little feeler- and if it answered, as he hoped and believed it would, he thought, as he had said, that this district would turn out to be the chief fertilizer of a large portion of England, because that on which they were now experimenting represented but a very small portion of that beautiful white smoke-(laughter)—which they saw rolling away in such abundance over Kilvey hill, and of which he hoped a large portion would evidently be condensed and transformed into Superphosphates. As he had once before taken occasion to say in that room, his opinion was, that this was a green country-a country peculiarly adapted for the growth of green crops-and he thought therefore that they would act wisely in giving their attention especially to this department. He could not take to himself credit as an agriculturalist but he could have a sincere desire to assist the agriculturalists, and to obtain what he believed would prove a very valuable fertilizing agent from a substance which most people had · hitherto said though he had never believed it-(laughter)—was quite the reverse. He had every confidence of success in the undertaking, and if so he thought he might at any rate claim credit for having found out a mode ex fumo dare cerem-out of smoke to produce rich corn. And if he did this, he thought he should be quite prepared to show his face at any Agricultural Society in the kingdom. (Hear, hear.)"

Having, at p. 143, made reference to the action commenced against the 'English Copper Company' at Cwm-Avan, for damage caused by their smoke, I have much pleasure in annexing the details, handed to me by Mr. Vaughan, of the