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464 FORTIA’S TRAVELS IN SWEDEN.
of the ore, exclufive of the workmen, which are not comprized therein. The expence
ef the mine is paid in part by the fhare-holders, partly by the public cheft of the fociety,
and the profits arifing from the fale of five parcels from each lottery; of this we fhall
{peak prefently.
The following fums are in copper dollars, 18 to the rix-dollar.
Years ce Expence. | Years. eee Expence. } Years. Henan Expence.
1771| 260 Toe) Wa 78 | 7 2f0 155 1785 216 175
W772, 27 108 1779 270 $89 1736 39 2c0 <
1773 | 150 112 1780} 3S4 243 1787 162 155
1774| 250 Lag 1781 369 198 1788 204. E41
1775] 293 141 1782] 342 180 1789 172
1776| 250 148 1783 207 150 170 +84
177 234 138 J 1784 375 171" |
The water-works are extremely well imagined. The water is furnifhed by three
neighbouring lakes, which, divided into nine channels, ferves to turn as many wheels, the
finalleft of which is twenty-nine French feet in diameter, and the largeft forty. There
is no interruption to their working, even in the molt rigorous winters. Thefe lakes alfo
furnifh the water requifite for thirty copper furnaces. A river which runs through the
town ferves twenty others, and by means of the lake, which has a communication with
the Dahl, and which flows by Fahlun, the fuel is tranfported which is ufed in the mine
and furnaces; within a quarter of a mile from the town, and the town itfelf, there are
fixty, and half a mile from the town, are ten others. Gunpowder is continually ufed
in the mine; the report of it is loud, yet not fo much fo as related. ‘They kindle
fires of wood in the mine once a week ; thefe are lighted on Saturday noon, and burn
all Sunday, and part of Monday, fo that the fmoak is not fufficiently difperfed to allow
the labourers to go to work, and confequently to permit your vifiting the mine before
Tuefday morning. There are four hundred workmen employed who are paid by the
ton, and earn from five to fix rix-dollars per month. Let us now examine the procefs
the ore undergoes afier its extraction from the mine. sae Rls
Roafting and melting. The firft roafting takes place in the open air, in a plain between
the mine and the town, in furnaces made of common ftone, with openings round the
fides; 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. appeared
to us to be very flovenly ; it lafts from fifteen to twenty days. The effect of the roaft-
ing is generally the exputfion of the fulphur, and the calcination of the iron to a certain
degree when that is fublimed. Part of the fulphur at the fame time is decompofed, and
fome of its acid adheres to theiron ; in this ftate the iron is very fufible, and forms by
admixture a black metallic glafs, which ferves moftly as a very powerful flux, for the
greater part of the ftones which adhere to the ore, from it poflefling this property, rot all
but only a part of the fulphur is expelled at the firft roafting. At the firft fufion which
fucceeds the roafting, that part of the iron which has loft its fulphur is converted into
the metallic glafs before mentioned, which diffolves and melts at the fame time all {ton
matter, forming thus a matter called /coriz, which being fpecifically lighter than the
more metallic part, floats at the top in the crucible, and runs off as they continue filling
it by an opening in front of the furnace called the eye. At the bottom of the crucible
the more metallic part of the iron is found united with the copper, and {till retaining
its
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