FORTIA’s TRAVELS IN SWEDEN.
464
of the ore, exclufive of the workmen, which are not comprized therein. The expenceof the mine is paid in part by the fliare-holders, partly by the public chefl of the fcciety,and the profits arifing from the fale of five parcels from each lottery ; of this we (halli'peak prefently.
The following fums are in copper dollars, 18 to the rix-doliar.
Years.
Total
Receipt.
Expence.
Years.
Total
Receipt.
Expence
Years.
Total
Receipt
Expence.
, l ll >
66
1C2
1778
240
165
1785
2)6
l 7 S
1772
27
ios
1 77 9
270
189
1786
39
2CO
>773
150
I 12
1780
3*4
2 43
17S7
162
> 3 ?
> 77 +
25O
i 781
36°
198
1788
204
>4 >
177 5
293
i 4 !
1782
3 + 2
180
1789
172
1776
250
1.8
>783
207
150
1790
1 S4
1777
2H
>38
1784
378
171
. . ..
The water-works -are extremely well imagined. The water is furnifhed by threeneighbouring lakes, which, divided into nine channels, ferves to turn as many wheels, thefmalleft of which is twenty-nine French feet in diameter, and the larged forty. Thereis no interruption to their working, even in the molt rigorous winters. Thefe lakes alfofurnilh the water requifite for thirty copper furnaces. A river which runs through thetown ferves twenty others, and by means of the lake, which has a communication withthe Dahl, and which flows byFahlun, the fuel is tranfported which is ufed in the mineand furnaces; within a quarter of a mile from the town, and the town itfelf, there arefixtv, and half a mile from the town, are ten others. Gunpowder is continually ufedin the mine ; the report of it is loud, yet not fo much fo as related. They kindlefires of wood in the mine once a week ; thefe are lighted on Saturday noon, and burnall Sunday, and part of Monday, fo that the fmoak is not fufficiently difperfed to allowthe labourers to go to work, and confequently to permit your vifiting the mine beforeTuefday morning. There are four hundred workmen employed who are paid by theton, and earn from five to fix rix-dollars per month. Let us now.examine the procefsthe ore undergoes after its extraction from the mine.
Roafting and melting. The firft roafting takes place in the open air, in a plain betweenthe mine and the town, in furnaces made of common flone, with openings round theJides; thefe are of different dimenfions, and may hold from one hundred to two hun-dred and fifty tons of ore. At the bottom of the furnace a double layer of wood is placed,and the ore upon it in a pyramid of great or fmaller elevation. This procefs appearedto us to be very fiovenly ; it lalls from fifteen to twenty days. The effeCl of the roaft-ing is generally the expulfion of the fulphur, and the calcination of the. iron to a certaindegree when that is fublimed. Part of the fulphur at the fame time is decompofed, andfome of its acid adheres to the iron ; in this date the iron is very fufible, and forms byadmixture a black metallic glafs, which ferves moftly as a very powerful flux, for thegreater part of the ftones which adhere to the ore, from it poffefling this property,not alfbut only a part of the fulphur is expelled at the firft roafting. At the firft fufion whichfucceeds the roafting, that part of the iron which has loft its fulphur is converted intothe metallic glafs before mentioned, which difiolves and melts at the fame time all ftonymatter, forming thus a matter called fcorice , which being fpecifically lighter than themore metallic part;, floats at the top in the crucible, and runs off as they continue fillingit by an opening in front of the furnace called the eye. At the bottom of the cruciblethe more metallic part of the iron is found united with the copper, and ftill retaining
8 its