JH10284 Spelter Condenser with Hydrozincite, Tindale England

Description

Categories: Fluorescents, Science & Medicine (Pre-1930) / mining Up for bid is an extremely rare fireclay condenser, lined with fluorescent Hydrozincite, from the Tindale Fell Spelter Works in England. This piece is over 119 years old!
The site of the Tindale Fell Spelter Works was acquired in 1845 by James Henry Attwood who negotiated a 50-year lease from the Earl of Carlisle. The site offers a ready supply of coal from the Bishop Hill drift and water power from Tindale Tarn, which was dammed to raise the level. Zinc ores from the North Pennines, Isle of Man, Ireland, Germany and Sweden were treated at the works. The earliest recorded production was 750-800 tons of zinc in 1863, although there would have been some output before then.
Zinc ores were crushed to fine powder in water-powered mills then roasted to remove sulphur in reverberatory furnaces in a process called calcining. The site contained 28 of these furnaces. The main waste product from the calcining process was sulphur dioxide, which - due to the low chimney - rapidly fell to earth, killing the local vegetation. By 1893, 234 acres of land surrounding the plant had been destroyed by pollution.
The calcined ores were then mixed with finely powdered coal and packed into fireclay retorts. These were heated in coal fired furnaces where gaseous zinc was produced. The gaseous zinc was collected in fireclay condensers where it cooled and turned into liquid zinc which was run off into moulds. The last picture is a patent diagram of this process. Each retort and condenser produced approximately 2 kg of zinc in 24 hours. In total, the smelter has 912 retorts in 12 or 14 furnaces. When the zinc was extracted, the remaining slag in the retorts was removed and piled in dumps.
In 1895 the 50-year lease for the site expired. Due to environmental concerns the lease was not renewed. The works were closed in May 1895 and dismantled the following year. During its lifetime the smelter produced approximately 40,000 tons of zinc from 200,000 tons of ore, using approx. the same quantity of coal.
In the 1920s and 1930s there were attempts to extract zinc from the slag dumps. These used a more modern method that did not utilize fireclay retorts or condensers so these artifacts are obviously from the earlier period. In the 1950s, a huge quantity of waste material from the dumps was used as hardcore in the construction of the Blue Streak rocket testing facility at Spadeadam.
Fireclay Condenser (NF)
Hydrozincite Coating (FL Blue)
Location: Tindale Fell Spelter Works, Cumbria, England
Size: 8" x 3.6" x 3.6"
Weight: 38 oz
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Jim'sObscure Stuff
for more fluorescent minerals and other unusual items.
Shipping
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