The cylindrical horizontal converter, Manhes type, was probably located in this building. This is how it was described in 1909 by the Mining Service Review:
“The matte produced in the furnace could be directly poured into a horizontal cylindrical converter, American Manhès type, of 1.80 meters diameter (excluding the refractory lining), and about 2 meters in length, for the production of blister copper at 98 ÷ 99%. The air blown horizontally into the converter through 11 nozzles is supplied by a blower with cylinders powered by an electric motor of 125 horsepower and capable of delivering about 60 cubic meters of air per minute at a pressure of ¾ of an atmosphere.
The converter rests on four steel wheels that serve as support and guide when it needs to rotate to receive the matte, or make slag and copper pours. The rotation of the converter is achieved by an electric motor of 20 horsepower, and the pressure of the blown air is adjusted by varying the opening of a window in the duct. The fumes from the converter are collected by a special hood and led by a pipe to the same rising flue of the furnace.
The electric power is supplied to the workshop by a hydroelectric plant specially built upstream of the Valpelline settlement with a water diversion from the Ollomont valley. It consists of two Pelton turbines of 200 horsepower each, directly coupled to two Oerlikon alternators.”
Extracted from the Mining Service Review in 1909, Publication of the Royal Corps of Mines, National Typography G. Bertero & C, Rome, 1910.
