COPPER, STATISTICS OF. Copper was at first obtained in this country in small quantities in working the tin-mmes in Cornwall; but about the close of the seventeenth century mines were set at work purposely for copper. The first application of the steam-engine in drawing water from copper-mines was in 1710, and the quantity of ore raised has increased with each successive improveinent in the steam-engine. In 1837 the number of steam-engines employed in the copper mines in Cornwall was 58. The produce of the Cornish mines is known with tolerable accuracy as far back as 1771, and there are accounts of the produce of other copper-mines since 1821. Improve ments in the art of smelting have greatly increased the products of the mines, and ores which produce only three or four per cent. of metal are now smelted.
The number of persons employed in the copper-mines in England and Wales, in 1841, was 15,407; and the number em ployed in copper manufactures was 2126.
The average annual produce of the Cornish mines at different periods between 1771 and 1837, was as follows: 1771-75, 3450 tons.
1776-80, 3310 1781-85, 3990 1796 to 1800, 5174 1801-5, 5544 1806-10, 6575 1811-15, 7181 1816-20, 7018 1821-31, 9143 1831-37, 11,637 In 1837 the value of the ore was and the quantity of copper was 10,823 tons.
The value of the produce of all the British copper-mines is in good years about 1,500,0001. Four-fifths of the whole quantity is raised from the Cornish mines. The produce of the mines in Devonshire and Staffordshire was 871 tons in 1821, but it has not much exceeded 500 tons since 1827. In 1831 the mines in Angle sey produced 915 tons, which was above the average quantity. In 1843, 176 tons of ore were received from the Isle of Man. The total quantity of copper from all British mines in the following years s been as under: Years. Tons. Tears, Tons.
1821 . 10,288 1831 . 14,685 1822 . 11,018 1832 . 14,450 1823 . 9,679 1833 . 13,260 1824 . 9,705 1834 . 14,042 1825 . 10,358 1835 . 14,474 1826 . 11,093 1836 . 15,369 1827 . 12,326 1837 . 15,860 1828 . 12,188 1838 13,958 1829 . 12,057 1839 . 14,672 1830 . 13,232 1840 . 13,022 In the year ending 30th June, 1840, the mining and smelting operations in Cornwall and at Swansea were as fol lows :