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Article: Smelters
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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SMELTERS
SMELTERS.
Smelting is a method of separating gold, silver, and other metals from their ores with fire and heat intense enough to melt the ores. A Spanish law of 22 August 1584 required a government smelter to be established in every mining district in the New World and required all miners to bring their gold and lead-silver to a government furnace. Ruins of crude smelters have been found in southern California. A dependence on Spanish and European knowledge of mining techniques continued in the United States throughout the nineteenth century.
In 1750 coal was first used as a fuel for smelting. Beginning in 1830, anthracite coal was used, and by 1860, smelters had nearly ...