Brunton Calciners Botallack Cornwall
by Terri Waters
Title
Brunton Calciners Botallack Cornwall
Artist
Terri Waters
Medium
Photograph
Description
The unusual mining remains at Botallack near St Just in Cornwall are the calciners. Calciners were an essential part of most 19th century Cornish tin mines whose ores contained contaminating arsenic and sulphur. These had to be removed by roasting as they made the smelted tin brittle and reduced its value.
Brunton calciners became the most commonly used type and these were often tended by women or girls. The contaminated ores were fed into the furnace through the hopper located above its rotating hearth.
Arsenic was a valuable by-product of tin and copper mining in Cornwall as it was widely used in a variety of industries.
The principal market for arsenic was the expanding Lancashire cotton industry, which used it in pigments and dyes. Arsenic was also used by other industries such as glass manufacture as a decolouriser, in the production of lead-shot, in leather tanning and in wallpaper manufacture to create green and yellow print.
In the 1870s a handful of mines in Cornwall produced over half the world's arsenic. Arsenic is highly toxic, and surface workers risked arsenic poisoning through continued exposure.
Behind the far calcinator can be seen the headframe on Botallack's Allen's shaft. This was erected during the 1980's by Geevor Mine in an attempt to access Botallack's remaining ores, the tin crash of 1985 halted this project before any development was carried out.
Uploaded
January 13th, 2013
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