SWANSEA, swon'si. A seaport in Glamo• ganshire, South Wales, at the mouth of the Tawe, 60 nines west-northwest of Bristol (Map: Wales, B 5). Swansea is the chief seat of the tin-plate trade of England, and one of the most important copper smelting and refining centres in the world. The vast resources of the surround ing coal field began to be exploited about 1830, and since that time the progress of Swansea has made it next to Cardiff the most important town in South Wales. The principal edifices, for the most part of modern construction. comprise a guild hall with the crown and law courts and mu nicipal offices, the Royal Institution of South Wales, the grammar school founded in 1082, a good public hall, and a spacious and well-ar ranged infirmary. The harbor is formed by piers of masonry projecting, from either side of the mouth of the Tawe into Swansea Bay, a wide inlet of the Bristol Channel. An ave
rage of 6000 vessels enter and clear nearly 4,000,000 tons of merchandise annually. in the immediate vicinity are smelting works, in which many thousands of tons of copper ores, silver ores, and zinc ores are smelted an nually. About 20,000 tons of copper, valued at 815,000.000 to $20,000,000, are annual ly produced, and about 2,000.000 tons of tin plate, valued at $15,000.000, are exported an nually. The annual value of exports and im ports is estimated at $50,000,000 to $60,000.000. Swansea owes its origin to a castle erected in 1099. In 1260 the castle was burned down. It was twice rebuilt, hut was finally dismantled by the Parliamentarians in 1647, and is now an in teresting ruin. Population, in 1891, 90,349; in 1901, 94,514.