NATS 1510 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: British Coal, Fluorite, Bessemer Process
1 Nov 2015
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Nats 1510 lecture 4 industrialization and the environment. Industrial revolution: change in the production methods, introduction of machines, streamlining of production, deskilling of labor. Pollution in the british copper industry, legal disputes. Success of thebritish copper industry, mid-19th century england produced almost half of the world output of copper. Industry success attributable to abundance of cheap coal: smelting - removing a base metal from ore, 19th century smelting used coal. Carbon in coal binds with oxygen in ore, leaving behind pure metal, producing carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Ratio of fuel to ore for smelting is two to one, copper smelting facilities located near coal fields. British coal plentiful and cheap, foreign ore sent to england for smelting. Technical changes and decline of british superiority in copper smelting: ability to smelt lower concentration ores, introduction of the bessemer process. Copper smelting pollution: high sulfur and fluorspar content, acid rain, carbon monoxide and dioxide, copper and other metal particles.
