The process was introduced to Wales in connection with the establishment by William Humfrey and others of wireworks at Tintern in 1566, an enterprise that was shortly afterwards taken over by the Company of Mineral and Battery Works.
According to Kiernan, Humfrey's lead-smelting furnace was far more efficient than the traditional boles, and its eventual widespread adoption enabled rapid expansion of the mining industry after 1570, and the export from England of large quantities of lead.
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