Home   

Notable Businesses

Lead & Silverworks

(Gwaith Plwm & Ty Arian)

Lead – symbol Pb has the atomic number 82 and is a soft bluish-grey element.

Pewter – an alloy of lead and tin (3 to 9 parts of tin to 1 part lead), sometimes tin with a little copper and antimony.

Antimony – symbol Sb for stibium, has the atomic number 51, a brittle bluish-white element.

Silver – symbol Ag (Latin argentum) has the atomic number 47, a white precious metal.

Brass – an alloy of copper (Cu atomic number 29) and zinc (Zn atomic number 30). Zinc is resistant to atmospheric corrosion.

Bronze – an alloy of copper (Cu atomic number 29) and tin (Sn atomic number 50).

Liquation – separation of metals with different melting points.

Cupellation – recovery of precious metal in assaying.

Cast – mould.

Litharge – lead monoxide, obtained when refining silver.

The process of separating copper and silver has always been difficult and the old method that was used at the silver works (known as Ty Arian or Silver House) was known as ‘Liquation’. This process involved mixing and heating a quantity of lead with the silver-enriched copper. The alloy was then cast into round cakes, which would then be heated gently. Long before the copper reached melting point the cake would ‘sweat’ and the lead, which carried nearly all the silver, would run out, leaving a spongy mass of copper.

In the lead works another process called Pattinsonising was used which not only extracted the lead but also concentrated the silver as well. This process, which involved melting a large quantity of lead containing a little silver, was named after Pattinson – the man who discovered the process. In Pattinsonising, the mixture was gently cooled until the lead began to solidify and small crystals of solid lead formed. The crystals, which were pure lead, were fished out of the molten mass and what remained was concentrated silver.

In a third process, known as Cupellation, which was an ancient process, an alloy of silver and lead was heated on a large saucer-shaped hearth made of powdered bones. The surface of the melted metal was exposed to a blast of air, the lead then oxidised into litharge, which fused and ran over the edge of the hearth. The oxidisation continued until only pure silver remained which was said to be like a dazzling mirror.

1830 Some 25 years after the Nevill’s started their Copperworks at Penrhos, Mary, George and Thomas Glascott, founded their copperworks, which became known as the Cambrian Copperworks. It was probably called the Cambrian because of its proximity to Cambrian Place, Seaside, close to the Carmarthenshire Dock.

1835 Pigot’s Trade Directory lists the Glascotts as Coppersmelters along with ‘Nevill & Copper Company’.

1839 The English Copper Company took over the works and built a square stack to take away the fumes and pollution from the smelting process.

1841 The English Copper Company ceased operations in 1841 after only two years and the Cambrian Copperworks lay idle for eight years.

1849 the Llanelly Copperworks, with Richard Janion Nevill at the helm, acquired the Cambrian Copperworks and converted it into a lead and silver works with rolling mills for copper and brass. This may have seemed a diversion from copper smelting, but very often silver was found in the ore that contained the copper and lead was required in the process of extracting the silver.

In later years, when Charles William Nevill as managing director of the Copperworks, addressed an annual dinner of the Llanelli Chamber of Trade and Commerce, he reminded the audience that at one time two million ounces of silver were being refined at Llanelli. Llanelli also had links with the Royal Mint – later moved from London and sited at Llantrisant. At one time the refined silver was taken away in blocks, by passenger train to the Mint in London in a railway carriage that looked something like a guard’s van.

Security precautions in the 19th century against the possibility of a large-scale train robbery were extremely efficient. One key to the guard’s van was held at Llanelli and another was held at the destination in London. The guard was locked inside the carriage with the silver blocks at Llanelli and the carriage remained locked until it reached its destination. On arrival in London the door was unlocked and was opened to let the guard out and collect all the silver blocks which had to tally with the consignment note.

Along with the decline in other smelting processes the silver refining processes also fell into decline and Llanelli’s link with the Royal Mint at London ended and the Silver Works closed.