Point Quay

Until the port of Devoran was built in the 19th Century, Point Quay was the main docking point in the area and was the site of a customs house. A map of 1841 shows that the wharf had a smelting works so that ore could be converted to ingots for more efficient transport. The smelting process required a source of carbon to act as a chemical reducing agent and strip the oxygen from the oxide ores to produce the elemental metal. In the early days, charcoal was used for this, but by the 19th Century, coal was being imported in large quantities to fuel the steam engines in the mines, so it largely replaced charcoal for smelting. Smelting technology had also moved on by the 19th Century so that the traditional waterwheel-driven bellows of the "blowing houses" were replaced by reverberatory furnaces where the ore didn't come into contact with the fuel.