Dreffing of Lead Ore nearly the fame as Copper, 243. Of OLD duft dreffed in bowls-Brazillians frame Gold ous, and will bear water-Semi-Metals and Mineral falts dreffed PR ROEM, 248. The Fluxus Niger, and White Refining in the liquid way, by a menftruum, 250. Marcafites, or Mundicks, for Gold or Silver, fcorifying the regulus of Mundick, 251. procefs explained, 252. Cornish china-ware crucibles, recom- mended for retaining glafs of Lead-their compofition, 253. They must be guarded-Of Cuppellation, 254. Of the making of Guppels their use, 255. Procefs to discover whether the product of the affay contains Gold, and the quantity, by preci- pitations from folutions in aqua fortis, 256. Of proof aqua fortis, 257. How to affay Tin for Gold, 258. This process elucidated-Method to try the first fcoria for Silver-explained, 259. The fame procefs applicable to Copper or other Metal, 260. How to assay Copper Ore-Of calcining the Ore, 260. Of fcorifying, 261. That operation explained-Of refining the impure Copper, 262. Often repeated-Of reducing the fcoria for refining the Prill-A nice operation, 263. To affay of a ton of Copper Ore by the affay, 264, 265, 266. To affay 273, 274. Procefs of calcining, 274. Of the operation furnace, and repeated fmeltings therein, 274. Of the Metal calciner, and the operation there Of the Metal furnace, and the operation there of roafting-Of the coarse refinery-Of the ultimate refinery of the Metal, 275. very expenfive to bring into fine Metal, 276. Remarks, 277. Hiftory of smelting Copper Ores in Cornwall and Wales, 277, 278. Propofal to fubject Copper Mines to ftannary laws-Further history and remarks on smelt- and concife, 288. Obfervations and reflections, 289, 290. Of felling or bartering black Tin for white-Form of a Tin bill, or promiffory note for Tin, 291. Of negociating or selling the INTRO- INTRODUCTION. S all ages from the foundation of the world, have been A continual improvements, me difications of matter; fo likewife every kingdom and province, has experienced the viciffitude of time and things, and that rotation to which all matter is liable. However, amidst all the changes of fublunary affairs, each country respectively has been ever remarkable for its peculiar produce, trade, and commerce; and we may fuppofe from the nature of particular things, which are folid and durable, that the constituent principles of Minerals and Metals, although subject to a degree of fluctuation common to the mundane fyftem, have undergone the least variety of matter. Hence it is we find, that moft countries, which have been remarkable, time out of mind, for fupplying the world with certain Minerals and Metals, respectively maintain to this day a fuperiority for their fingular products. any Among such, the ancient kingdom of DUNMONIUM, which fignifies Hills of Tin Mines, and takes its name from thence, may with with great propriety claim a diftinction in the annals of Metallurgy; but more eminently ought that part of it called Cornwall to be diftinguished, as having, perhaps, yielded more Tin in one year, than Devonshire has done in half a century. I may yet proceed, and infer, how fuper-eminently this little province of Great-Britain deserves to be ranked amongst the first principles of this island, as a nation and people, whose very name, according to the ancient authority of Bochart, and the later opinion of Boerhave, is derived from Bratanack, which, in the Phenician language, fignifies The Land of Tin. Tyre and Sidon were fituate in Phenicia, a part of the ancient Palestine; and were the first maritime powers that we read of, either in facred or profane hiftory. Tyre (the grand fea-port and mart of Phenicia) was taken and entirely demolished by Nebuchadnezzar, in the thirty-fecond year of his reign, and in the year 573 before Chrift; fo that the latest date of their trading here, cannot be less than four and twenty centuries b fince. fince. I believe it is agreed by all writers, that they were the first who used to frequent this ifland for commerce; that they traded upon the western coafts of Cornwall, full fix hundred years before the coming of our Saviour; and that their navigation to it, was for the fake of our Tin. They confidered this traffick as a point of fuch confequence, that they erected forts and castles on our coafts for the protection and prefervation of their commerce; and a great number of the proper names of men and places in Cornwall, are plainly derived from the Syriac tongue. The learned doctor Borlafe inclines to an ctymology from a Hebrew root, whose termination Tania of Grecian extraction, gives another idea of the name in queftion: but if we admit the Phenician language to be immediately derived from her neighbour, and the mother of tongues, we may incline very easily to confider our county, as the parent of one general name for the whole island; and that the antiquity of our Tin trade has been established upon mercantile principles, for at least two thousand four hundred years past. I hope the reader will not judge it improbable, if we fuppofe that the first inhabitants of Cornwall and Devon, after the food, were well acquainted with Tin in its richest Mineral state; for ft requires no uncommon degree of intellectual examination to comprehend, that, in the earliest ages from that grand epocha, our richest shode and ftream Tin muft have been found plentifully diffeminated upon the furface of our vallies, and the fides of our hills and mountains. Thofe fragments and nodules, by their colour, shape, and gravity, must have attracted the notice. and confideration of the firft natives, if they did not allure the attention of thofe immediate emigrants who were "fcattered "over the face of the earth, when the fons of men multiplied "in the land." We have, therefore, much plaufibility on our fide to conjecture, that Tin was known as a Metal among our progenitors, fo long as four and thirty centuries ago. They could not observe the fingular fhape and weight of fhode and stream Tin, without confidering the contents as a Mineral, which by its fuperior gravity would afford fome metalline fubftance; especially, when by a comparison with the Mineral Ores of other Metals, known long before the flood, they must have had all the reason in the world to conclude upon its metalline confiftence. Information, or perhaps experience |