Smeltmills were water-powered
mills used to
smelt lead
Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...
or other metals.
The older method of smelting lead on wind-blown
bole hills began to be superseded by artificially-blown smelters. The first such furnace was built by
Burchard Kranich at
Makeney,
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...
in 1554, but produced less good lead than the older bole hill.
William Humfrey (the Queen's assay master), and a leading shareholder in the
Company of Mineral and Battery Works introduced the ore hearth from the
Mendips about 1577. This was initially blown by a foot-blast, but was soon developed into a water-powered smelt mill at
Beauchief (now a suburb of
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
).
A typical smelt mill had an orehearth and a slaghearth, the latter being used to reprocess slags from the orehearth in order to recover further lead from the
slag
The general term slag may be a by-product or co-product of smelting (pyrometallurgical) ores and recycled metals depending on the type of material being produced. Slag is mainly a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. Broadly, it can be c ...
Further reading
*L. Willies, 'Lead: ore preparation and smelting' in J. Day and R. F. Tylecote, ''The Industrial Revolution in Metals'' (Institute of Metals, London 1991), 93-102.
*Various articles in L. Willies and D. Cranstone (eds.), ''Boles and Smeltmills''
Historical Metallurgy Society 1992).
*M. B. Donald, ''Elizabethan Monolopies'' (Oliver & Boyd Edinburgh 1961), 142-78.
*See also
Derbyshire lead mining history
This article details some of the history of lead mining in Derbyshire, England.
Background
Lutudarum (believed to have been at either Wirksworth or nearby Carsington) was the administrative centre of the Roman lead mining industry in Britain. ...
.
External links
North Pennine Smelt Mills– Interactive mapping and information on North Pennine Smelt Mills ''(Northern Mine Research Society)''
– Interactive mapping and information on Yorkshire Smelt Mills ''(Northern Mine Research Society)''
Metallurgical processes
Lead
Smelting
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