ANTIMONY IN WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1199, 22 February 1895, Page 12

ANTIMONY IN WELLINGTON.

AT ME SEAGAR'S FOUNDRY. [R.A.L.] An old writer has said that " the shortness of life makes it impossible for one man thoroughly to learn antimony, in which every day something of new is disclosed." It was with these words in my mind that I wended my way the other afternoon to Mr Seagar's foundry. I had heard that the enterprising proprietor was turning out the pure metal in appreciable quantities, to the account of the " Star Antimony Company, Limited," and it was my purpose to devote a brief portion of the shortness of my life to discover " something of new," new to me that is t« say about the same. There were several of us bound on the same errand. As we walked we talked, ft was about antimony of course. By the time we reached Mr Seagar's premises we discovered that the sum of knowledge possessed by us was certainly not equal to that of the ancient sage who discovered that life is not long enough to study antimony thoroughly. There were amongst us various opinions about the metal, and some of them were startling. Some of us expected to find Mr Seagar engaged in casting poison broadcast on the face of the earth out of a chemical laboratory filled with unholy fumes and Satanic devices. These looked uneasily about fearing a factory inspector, behind every telegraph pole, and felt uncomfortable about the legality of Mr Seagar's proceedings. Others of us tried to combat this theory and calm these fears, but though we had something to say about tartar emetic, flowers of antimony and stibnite and Britannia metal, we made no impression, our ideas being vaporous. Mr Seagar dispelled the clouds in a very few moments. He is, as his friends know, not a man who has had a long life, but we found that he knew a good deal about antimony, so much that he has invented and patented a smelting process. But of this anon. We found him among steam hammers, great cutters of iron, borers, anvils, a forest of shafts and a wilderness of belts, under a lofty roof in a dim atmosphere, in which structures of various sorts were growing under the care of stalwart men of intelligence silently tending their charges to the noisy accompaniment which is peculiar to foundries. A captain of industry, sir, with a wellequipped regiment under him. That is what Mr Seagar looked like. He took us at once to the antimony department ; and we found ourselves looking at a small brick furnace with four openings, loosely covered, out of which flames were shooting, of the chemical cast, blue, yellow and lurid. We felt an irresistible desire to perspire ; but Mr Seagar, giving us no time to indulge our feelings, straight- , way drew our attention to various metallic J substances lying around. '■ The first was a piece of ore—a grey stone with a few flakes of a substance which the ignorant might mistake tor silvor. This is the original shape of antimony. When mined out of its reef, it is broken up by a mechanical process, the principal power being known as a "jigger. By this the useless rock is separated from the antimony ore, the ore in fact is cleaned like grain or seeds. The next process is the smelting. Under the former manageWe ask what former management. Mr Seagar takes the impediment in his stride. Do we not remember the Antimony Company? Of course we do. Endeavour Inlet, Queen Charlotte Sound. Yes, yes; ten miles inside of Jackson's Head It was the English Company from which so much wa? expected. Well, that was the former management; and having arrived at that point we learn in a few words a great deal about the geological formation ofthedis- . trict, with side lights about gold. Same ! reef at Terawhiti right opposite, on our side, and on the other running away up alongside the Sound The sub 3 ect is getting big and fascinating, but we are m the hands of a master who will not have any wanderings, and has a quiet way of bringing us back to the point. Under the former management, as we were saying, the sifted ore used to be sent to London, where the antimony ring had it very much at its mercy. Ihe new management—we break in with a qviestion and learn that the new management is the Star Antimony Company which has acquired the mine and the works—the new

management determined to make a -new departure at this point. Having sifted the ore, they thought they would smelt it-on , the spot. Mr Seagar led them to this conclusion by inventing a smelting process. " There it is," and we find ourselves looking at a drawing, which, being explained in detail, proves simple and easy to understand. The fire is lighted (timber, is abundant and cheap at the works), the ore dumped into long cylindrical receptacles, which are provided with perforated movable bottoms. Through these the crude metal runs into trucks below, arid the " slag " is separated completely, effectively and cheaply. "That is the crude antimony."

It is specimen No. 2, taken from the debris around, which Mr Seagar is holding' up to mark the course of his narrative. A flaky, shining, blueish grey substance it is. We see that all the silvery particles we noticed shining in the ore have been collected into compact masses, while the rocks have been left behind. The crude antimony separatedat the side of the mine in the patent Cruding furnace is brought to Wellington and treated. Coke is cheap here, and greater heat being required for the further processes, the crude metal is brought here. |n the foundry where we are it is put through the furnace we are alongside of. Before smelting it was 40 per cent, ore, whereas under the old system which sent Horne for smelting and the rest, nothing under fifty per cent. paid. The crude metal here is mixed with sulphur; 70 per cent, of antimony to 30 of sulphur. Sulphide of antimony is the scientific term. The object here which the furnace is set to attain is the separation of that 30 per cent, of sulphur. The first requisite is heat, 600 or 700 degrees Fahrenheit, and the second is a melting pot which will not melt. The coke gives the necessary heat, and the pot is made out of plumbago, which will stand several more degrees of fire. The inevitable joke is made at this point about a certain place paved with the " slag "of broken vows, but nobody pays any attention. Having secured your heat and your vessel, you want a " flux," and you want a metal which the sulphur prefers to antimony, and will show its preference'whenever liberated by fire. A salt cake gives the one,and the scrap-iron of the tinsmiths' shops gives the best example of the other. We see them all at work. In go the crude antimony, the little white salt cake for the flux, and the scrap-iron, the latter melting off into a creamy fioth in the pot. A few shovels full of coke, and the 701 b of stuff is cooking away merrily. The artist having put one pot in, proceeds to take another one out. The pot he has just fixed up is undergoing what is known as the "singling " process. " Singling," divorcing the antimony from the sulphur and getting it into a state of single blessedness, which the artist calls "refining." While the second inevitable joke coruscates and gets thinner and thinner the artist is at work.

He is on the top of the furnace armed with a grappling instrument. He is going to draw one of the pots simmering away in its place in the row. Off goes the top, the flames shoot up, down goes the grappling instrument, which has two long iron handles. Right down into the blazing Sheol it goes, propelled by. one.; unerring thrust. No time for foolingfabout and feeling for anything there;"' One Abt" is the motto of the stalwart Salamander who has to do with fire. A catch is deftly passed over the two long handles, one smart haul—a mighty lift it is—and the pot is landed on the edge of the furnace, red hot, overflowing with ; a creamy liquid. A mould has been placed handy, the long handles get a steady, firm, downward pull, and in a brace of shakes - the pot is empty and the mould fulh and not a drop has been spilt. Smart work, unerring judgment, nerve of steel,' and that's how the thing is done. A novice would probably burn his boots, reduce the dimensions of his ankles, use language that would wake the dead, and. dance a fandango which would be a: fortune to any artist in the company at' the Opera House hard by. But; these Salamander artists are not novices. Their dancing days are over for that kind of fandango anyway. We look at the mould when its contents are cool. They are thrown out by the dexterous use of a chain —a twist, a lift, a twirl, and there you have a thing much like the shell of a monster gun. We notice " that for about a fourth of the distance from the conical end, the shell is sblider and closer in grain. The artist takes up a big hammer and gives . a few smart taps at the line of demarcation, whereupon the heavier end separates at once. "That's it." We see a piece of flaky bright metal, shining gray in the light, and pass it round. It is the first process of divorce; the decree " Nisi" as it were; which gives almost pure antimony on one side of the separation line, and sulphide of iron at the other. In the molten state the slightly heavier antimony has sank to the bottom, while the iron combining with the sulphur has remained above. The next stage is " doubling," we presume so called because a double refining. Some of the iron sulphide is addedto the antimony, there' is another hour or so of 600 degrees in the plumbago, another haul out under difficulties and another separation from the mould. This we may call the decree Absolute. The last process is a further refining. The metal is melted once more, with a little slag added. This time it flows out into shallow moulds, much like a rich Burgundy in colour, and presently you have your antimony in cakes, fit for the market. " Star" antimony it is called. Why ? Because the surface is corrugated with flaky marks radiating roughly as from different centres, irregularly placed. A useful metal it is, which never tarnishes and is hard, and therefore most useful for many of the alloys—Britannia metal, type metal, pew-

ter white metal, known as antifraction metal, and many others. The ore is found in Australia, Java, Borneo, Singapore, Japan, and at Endeavour Inlet there is a vast quantity. At the latter place it is woiked at several levels, thore is no difficulty in mining it, fuel is cheap at the mine, coke is cheap at tho foundry, and the processes are not dear. The London price at present .£33 per ton, must it appears on the face of what wo saw and heard, leave a large margin. The great fact is that it has been found possible, thanks to Mr Sea gar's invention of the Cruding furnace, to work the metal through all tho necessary processes in the Colony, and to send it pure to London. The freight being low, twenty shillings, it is clear that we are in presence of the beginning of a profitable industry. We ask one last question. Is the work trying to the men ? Not always; for example in the light southerly blowing the air is clear and everything goes well. But sometimes the sulphur fumes hang about, and the work becomes very exhausting. Having got all the information available, we are loaded up by Mr Seagar with samples showing the results of the various processes, we load him up with thanks for his courtesy and patience and lucid explanations, and we depart with the enjoyable consciousness of having spent a very pleasant and instructive afternoon.