There used to be a smelt mill at the Greenside Lead Mine. Smelting is the process of heating lead ore with a more reactive element. This would be the carbon in charcoal or coking coal. The metals bond ionically and reactivity is governed by the attraction between the electrons and the nucleus. The further the electrons are from the nucleus, the more "shielding" there is said to be and the easier it is for the metals to give away electrons. But carbon bonds covalently. I'd be interested to find out what governs reactivity in covalently bonding elements.
The Smelt Mill had a long flue that ran up the hillside because the exhaust gases would contain vaporised lead that would be wasted. The longer the flue, the more likely the lead would be to be deposited out of the air. So the flue was a mile long. The photos start at the top and go down tot the bottom. We found bricks in the channel at the bottom.
