The ends or throats of the furnace are reduced just sufficiently to allow the flame evolved from a grated furnace to pass completely through the cylinder.

A characteristic size for this Bruckner furnace is one having a length of 12 feet and a diameter of 6 feet.  A furnace of this capacity will have an inclusive weight (iron and brickwork) of 15 tons.

The time of operation, with the Bruckner, will vary with the character of the ore under treatment and the nature of the fuel employed.  Four hours is the minimum and twelve hours should be the maximum time of operation.

By the addition of common salt with the batch of ore, such of its constituents as are amenable to the action of chlorine are chlorinated as well as freed from sulphur.

Where the ore contains any considerable quantity of silver which should be saved, the addition of the salt is necessary as the silver is very liable to become so oxidised in the process of roasting as to render its after treatment almost impossible.  I know a case in point where an average of nearly five ounces of silver to the ton, at that time worth 30s., was lost owing to ignorance on this subject.  Had the ore been calcined with salt, NaCl, the bulk of this silver would have been amalgamated and thus saved.  It was the extraordinary fineness of the gold saved by amalgamation as against my tests of the ore by fire assay that put me on the track of a most indefensible loss.

The Howell-White Furnace.—­This furnace consists of a cast iron revolving cylinder, averaging 25 feet in length and 4 ft. 4 in. in diameter, which revolves on four friction rollers, resting on truck wheels, rotated by ordinary gearing.

The power required for effecting the revolution should not exceed four indicated horse-power.

The cylinder is internally lined with firebrick, projecting pieces causing the powdered ore to be raised over the flame through which it showers, and is thereby subjected to the influence of heat and to direct contact oxidation.

The inclination of the cylinder, which is variable, promotes the gradual descension of the ore from the higher to the lower end.  It is fed into the upper end, by a special form of feed hopper, and is discharged into a pit at the lower end, from which the ore can be withdrawn at any time.

The gross weight of the furnace, which is, however, made in segments to be afterwards bolted together, is some ninety to one hundred tons.

The furnace is fired with coal on a grated hearth, built at the lower end; it is more economical both in fuel and in labour than an ordinary reverberatory furnace.

The Thwaite-Denny Revolving Furnace.—­This new type of furnace, which is fired with gaseous fuel, is stated to combine the advantages of the Stetefeldt, the Howell-White, and the Bruckner.

It is constructed as follows:—­Three short cylinders, conical in shape and of graduated dimensions, are superimposed one over the other, their ends terminating in two vertical shafts of brickwork, by which the three cylinders are connected.  The powdered ore is fed into the uppermost cylinder and gravitates through the series.  The highest cylinder is the largest in diameter, the lowest the smallest.