Percy's Metallurgy

or the Art of Extracting Metals from their Ores, and Adapting them to various Purposes of Manufacture

The full set - 2934 pages - in hardcover edition

Percy's monumental masterpiece, "Metallurgy, or the Art of Extracting Metals from their Ores, and Adapting them to various Purposes of Manufacture" has kept its importance for the study of (the history of) metallurgy. At the start of the reprint project, it was stated: "Percy's textbooks on metallurgy are well worth studying today, being thorough, in-depth surveys of the state of contemporary metallurgical knowledge and practical experience. In fact, Percy's were the first general textbooks on this subject in English. They were used all over Europe. At that time British metallurgy was far advanced in comparison with Continental methods".

Volume I - Fuel, Fire-clays, Copper, Zinc, Brass (1861)

Part 1: Fuel; fire-clays

Introduction
Physical properties of metals
Ores: Smelting processes; Slags
Fuel: Calorific power; Classification; Peat or turf; Coal; Charcoal; Coke
Refractory materials: Fire-clays; Crucibles; Firebricks

Part 2: Copper, zinc, brass

Copper; Properties; Compounds; Historical notices on copper smelting; Copper ores; Welsh process of copper smelting and its chemistry, with additional notes; Copper smelting in blast furnaces; Kernel roasting; Wet methods of extracting copper; Cornish methods of assaying
Zinc; Properties; Compounds; Zinc ores; English process of extracting zinc; Silesian process; Belgian process; Carinthian process; Methods of assaying
Brass; Properties; Preparation of brass

1861
omvang - Part 1: xxiv+240 pages .... Part 2: viii+394 pages
afmetingen - A5
uitvoering - paperback en hardcover

Volume II - Iron, Steel (1864)

Part 1: Properties of iron; Iron ores; Direct reduction processes

Properties; Physical; Crystalline and fibrous iron; Chemical properties; Alloys of iron
Ores of iron; Descriptions; Assaying
Direct processes; Iron smelting in Eastern countries; Catalan and Corsican processes; Stückofen and Osmund furnaces; Clay's - Renton's - Chenot's - Yates's processes

Part 2: Indirect reduction processes

Cast iron; Blast furnaces in Britain, at Corngreaves, Dudley, Ebbw Vale, Clarence Ironworks; in Sweden; in the U.S.A. (anthracite); Blowing engines; Hot blast; Use of blast furnace gases; Analysis of pig irons, charges and yields; Best working practice in Britain, in Prussia, in other parts of Germany

Part 3: Wrought iron; Steel

Wrought iron; Hearth processes in South Wales, Lancashire, Sweden, Wallonie, Franche Comté and many other locations; British puddling processes; Ordinary or gas (regenerator) furnaces; Working the ball (hammers, squeezers); Reheating and rolling; Various forms of finished iron and their manufacture; Prices; Plans of works
Steel; Production by cementation; Partial decarburisation of pig iron; Fusion of wrought and pig iron; Casting and manipulation such as hardening, hammering, welding, damaskeening; Strength of iron and steel

Appendix on The History of Iron

1864
omvang - Part 1: xiv+348 pages .... Part 2: viii+230 pages .... Part 3: viii+356 pages
afmetingen - A5
uitvoering - paperback en hardcover

Volume III - Lead, including extraction of Silver from Lead (1870)

German cupellation hearth at Freiberg

Part 1: Properties of Lead; Lead Desilverization

Properties; Physical; Chemical; Compounds with various other substances; Alloys of lead; Types of ores; Assaying; Extraction of silver; Pattinson's and Parkes's processes; Decopperization of lead by zinc, refining or cupellation; Refining of Blicksilber

Part 2: Lead

Smelting; Air-reduction process (in the Flintshire furnace, in the Spanish furnace, in the Cornish flowing-furnace, at Bleiberg, in Peru, in the ore-hearth; in India); Roasting/deoxidizing process (at Sala, Freiberg, Pontgibaud, Vialas, La Pise, Commern, various locations in Germany); Iron-reduction process (at Tarnowitz, in the Upper Harz, the Rachette furnace, at Przibram); Oxidized ores and products (the slag hearth and various other types of furnaces). Other subjects; Condensation of lead fumes; Softening of hard lead; Reduction of litharge; Effect of foreign matters in the ore on the choice of smelting process; Compositions of lead; Commercial details; Red-lead; Poisoning by lead

omvang - Part 1: x+212 pages .... Part 2: x+355 pages
afmetingen - A5
uitvoering - paperback en hardcover

Volume IV - Silver

Part 1: Properties of silver; Silver Ores; Assaying

Properties; Chemical properties of silver in combination with a wide variety of other elements; Alloys of silver with other metals
Ores; From native silver to sulphides; From selenides to halogenites
Assaying; Practical descriptions of the various methods of determining the amount of silver in ores and alloys

Part 2: Silver

Production; Separation of silver from metallic copper by liquation; Smelting of ores containing silver in the metallic state; Combined silver and lead smelting; Extraction of silver from its ores by amalgamation with mercury

1880
omvang - Part 1: x+303 pages .... Part 2: viii+396 pages
afmetingen - A5
uitvoering - paperback en hardcover