Letter – Nicholas Walton to Peter Mulcaster – 11 Mar 1783

Messrs. Mulcaster						Farnacres 11th March 1783



      We have recd. your Letter of the 9th instant, and herewith return you all the Operations since the ending of the last Accts. You may set them right at your Leisure & you need not return them til we come up to make the Pay, for we have extracted from them every thing that will be necessary for our Government til that time. There is not the least Occasion for making fresh Copies.

      Your Ideas wth. respect to the Cupola are perfectly right according to our Opinion, and it is a matter <solely indifferent> to us whether you are permitted to <see> the Operations <or not …> every other <Since tha… the > having the most hearty wish that the Hospitals Concerns shd. not suffer by any Inattention of ours. We think they have judged right in beginning with the best kind of Ore that Alston Moor produces, but as to the real produce from any given Quantity of Ore, we must let that rest for some <time>; it is not likely that the real produce will be known at so early a Period and possibly it may be the Wish of the Agents of the Company to have every thing got into compleat producing Ore or before our being permitted to be Spectators of the Process.

      We have for some time thought that Langley Lead Mill being furnish’d wth. Books respecting the several Operations of Smelting, Refining &c might be of use, and we shall therefore be much obliged to you if you will acquaint us what Books you know of which you wd. like to see and we will immediately order them as a Stock to be kept at the Mill. Anything we hear of which may have a Tendency to be of use, we shall of course order.

      By Table of Gain and Loss by Refining Slag Lead per Fodder, supposing it to produce 5 Ounces of Silver, it appears that the Gain upon the Refining of a Fodder when Slag Lead sells at £16. 15 -  will be just 6d supposing Silver to sell at 6s 1 ½ d per Ounce, the Account for Rampgill Slag Lead will therefore stand as follows.



Gain when Slag Lead sells at £16.15 per Fodder

  Silver at 6s 1 1/2 d per Ounce                         £-- --  6 

Slag Lead being now £19.2.6, that will make a Difference 

  of 4d per five s per Fodder which will amount to       £-- -3  2

                                         Loss per Fodder £-- -2  8



But as Rampgill Slag Lead produces 10 P wts. at least per 

  Fodder more than 5 Ounces, that at 6s 1 1/2 d per Ounce 

  may be reckoned at least                               £-- -3 -– 3/4 

  which leaves a Profit by Refining per Fodder of        £-- -- -4 3/4



From the above it is clear we shall gain something, and, as times are, tho’ to be sure the Lead & Silver Trades are very good, it becomes every one of us to make as much Profit as we can of every thing.

      We are Your Hble Servts.

      W & T