Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
D32027-4
Date(s)
- 1948-02-20 (Creation)
Extent
Name of creator
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
Tacoma Smelter for Industrial Page, Times, George Beckingham. This was called the anode where molten copper was poured into molds. Each copper ingot was 500 pounds and had to be jacked out by hand and picked up by a crane. The crane had to be attached manually and then guided to a cooling rack. The crew doing that also helped to purify the molten copper before it was poured by shoving logs into the melting pot to oxidize the impurities. Built and established as the Ryan Smelter by Dennis Ryan in 1887, the smelter was sold to William R. Rust in 1889, who changed the name to the Tacoma Smelting and Refining Company. It was sold again in 1905 to the American Smelting & Refining Company (ASARCO). Originally built to produce lead, by 1911 the smelter became a major supplier of copper and lead was no longer produced. The company smelted gold and silver and refined electrolytic copper and arsenic. (T.Times, 2/26/1948, p.35) (Additional information provided by a reader)
American Smelting & Refining Co. (Tacoma); Smelters--Tacoma--1940-1950; Copper industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Industrial facilities--Tacoma;