ves that the grain,
which gradually becomes finer, is perfectly closed.' After some
further manipulation of a similar kind, the refiner is at length
satisfied of its malleability, and that the copper is now in its
_proper place_, as he terms it. It is then poured out by means of iron
ladles, coated with clay, into ingots or moulds of the different sizes
required by the manufacturer.

'This process of refining or toughening copper, is a delicate
operation, requiring great care and attention on the part of the
refiner to keep the metal in the malleable state.' It is also, beyond
comparison, the most beautiful sight in the copper-works. At one
particular stage of the process, we saw the mass of molten copper in
the furnace--some five or six tons--assume the most beautiful and
resplendent appearance it was possible to imagine. It was like a sea
of 'burnished gold;' and, indeed, were it not for the intense heat,
the red-hot ladles of the workmen, and other little circumstances of
the kind, the stranger would have some difficulty in believing that he
did not look upon a beautifully polished mirror.

We have now come to the end of the smelting process; and have left
ourselves no room to describe the transformation into sheets, bars,
bolts, and boilerplates which the metal undergoes in the next
department of the works. These, however, are a better understood
series of operations, consisting, as they do, of the usual and
ordinary processes of rolling the hot metal between powerful iron
rollers. Nor have we space to allude even to the vastly numerous and
varied applications of the metal; although we may take the opportunity
of briefly adverting to the recently discovered process of smelting
copper by electricity, and of inquiring into the probability of its
ever becoming an economical application.

It will be seen, in the first place, that the present mode of smelting
copper, though simple in theory, appears in practice extremely
complex. For this reason, within the last twenty-five years there
have, we believe, been as many patents taken out to simplify and
hasten the operation. Without exception, these have been proved to be
altogether inapplicable. Let us see how this is explained.

Out of these numerous improvements, we select two that appear
peculiarly attractive. The first is the method of precipitating the
copper, in our second process, from the fused silicates containing it,
by the action of the electric current--the