Kingdom.]
Class 1.—MINING AND MINERAL PRODUCTS.South Side—Areas S. 1 to S. 27.
165
Lead.45
Copper.21
Sulphur.23
Antimony and arsenic ... 8
Silver.1' 1
Earthy matter and loss . . H
100-0
About 30 tons of this ore have been raised last year.It is much esteemed in the market.
459 Blee, Robert — Redruth —Inventor.
Safety bucket to be used in mines for drawing up per-sons or produce. This bucket is furnished with guidesto run in grooves which extend along the whole depth orshaft of the pit. To the guides are fixed strong crooksto which the drawing-rope is attached. So long as thetension of the rope continues, the crooks are held in oyerthe bucket. Should the rope break, and its tensionconsequently cease, the crooks are immediately thrownout by springs, which constantly act on them, and causethe crooks to take hold on the iron staves of strongladders fixed at the back of the grooves throughout theirlength.
460 Polkinghorne, W., Fowey Consols Mine, Tyeward-
reath —Inventor.
A synopsis of the Cornwall ticketings for copper oresfrom 1800 to the present time; together with a synopsisof the Swansea ticketings from 1815 to the same period;which contains the following information, viz., thestandard, produce, price, and quantity of copper oressold, amount of money realised, and the quantity of finecopper produced, with the respective fluctuations foreach year, as well as for every six years; exhibiting alsothe totals and averages for the whole period collectively.The object of this synopsis is to show to all interested inthe copper trade, at one glance, the state of the coppermarket during the past half century. The novelty ofthis document consists in its arrangement, and the in-vention of the diagram, which shows the different valua-tions of the standard each year by coloured lines, differingin length, so that for the highest, lowest, or intermediateyear*, the observer, by following the line, can at onceobtain the information he requires without scanningthe columns. This synopsis, from its valuable tabularmatter, will be useful not only to miners, but to statists ingeneral.
461 Michell, F.—Producer.
Pick for dressing granite.
462 Arthur, J.—Inventor.
Apparatus for lifting pumps from mines full of water.
463 Eddy, J.—Inventor.
Apparatus for lifting pumps.
464 Tresize, T., Perran Foundry —Maker.Model of improved smelting furnace.
465 Vincent, T., Redruth —Producer.
Model of a steam-engine by a working miner.
^6 Hosking, R., Perran Foundry, Falmouth —Producer.
Model of compound valve for pumps.
467 The Truro Local Committee —Producers.
Articles illustrating lead, from East Wheel Rose, nearTruro , Pentire Glaze, near Wadebridge, and other Cornishmines.
[Wheel, or wheal, appended to the names'of most of
the Cornish mines, is a corruption from an old word,probably Cornish, Huel, which was employed to signifya mine.
East Wheel Rose has proved the most productive leadmine in the west of England; the returns of lead fromthis mine being for a few years as follows:—
Years.
Ore in Tons.
Lead in Tons.
1845
7,883
5,191
1846
4,729
3,114
1847
6,424
3,854
1848
4,758
2,856
1849
5,333
3,191.—R. HJ
468 The Truro Local Committee —Producers.
Articles, illustrating tin, from various Cornish mines(supplied by George Nicolls Simmons, Mr. Heniy Borrow,of Truro ; Capt. Webb, of St. Austell ; Capt. Evans, ofSt. Agnes; Mr. J. N. R. Millett, of Penzance ; and othergentlemen, from Great Beam Mine, near St. Austell ,Budnick Mine, in Perranzabulal, Rocks Mine, in St.Agnes, Friendly Mines, in St. Agnes; Mineral CourtMine, in St. Stephen’s, and from various mines in thePenzance district), exhibiting the ore in its various stagesuntil it leaves the miner’s hands as black-grain tin.A block of white tin very free from impurity, the produceof Mineral Court Mine, supplied by the shareholders,and a rude smelted block of tin, supplied by Mr. G. N.Simmons, found in Ladock, near Truro , and supposed tohave been smelted when the Phoenicians traded to Corn-wall for tin.
[Tin appears to have been raised in Cornwall from avery early period. Traditionary evidence, supported bystrong corroborative facts, appears to prove that thekingdoms around the Mediterranean Sea were suppliedwith tin from Cornwall by the Phoenician merchants ata very early date. The circumstance of this metal beingfound in the beds of streams, and in deposits at the baseof the primary rocks, from which it could be obtainedwithout much labour, may have been the cause of itsbeing early known to the Britons.
The oxide of tin is usually found deposited in beds inwater-worn pebbles, and mixed with the debris of theneighbouring hills. There can be but little doubt thatthese tin deposits are the result of the disintegratingaction of the atmospheric causes and of water. Some ofthe tin beds, 30 or 50 feet from the present surface, con-tain vegetable matter, as branches of trees, and large logsof wood; and at Carnon stream works, human skulls werediscovered amidst the debris, 53 feet below the surface.
Tin is also found in the lode, either as peroxide,cupreous-sulphuret of tin, or tin pyrites, the analysis ofthe peroxide giving—peroxide of tin, 96*265; silica, 0*750;peroxide of iron and manganese, 3*395.
Many indications of early tin-mining are to be found inCornwall , as stated in a preceding note. For many cen-turies the Dukes of Cornwall drew a large revenue fromits tin. The tin when smelted into blocks was forwardedto the nearest coinage town, there to be stamped by theDuchy officers, who cut a piece off the corner of eachblock, which was retained as the Duchy ’s dues. In 1337,Edward the Black Prince was created Duke of Cornwall,and then the average profit of the coinage was 4,000marks per annum. In 1814, the revenues to the Duchy from tin was about 8,500k, and the average tin levenuefrom 1820, to the abolition of the coinages in October,1838, has been estimated at 12,000/., per annum. In1750, about 2,000 tons of tin were produced m Cornwall ,and in 1838, about 5,000 ; since that period the quantitycannot he accurately ascertained, the trade in tin being inthe hands of a few, and the purchases of ore being usuallymade by private contract. R. H.]