Daily AncestorSmelter
A smelter worked at smelting, heating ore in a furnace to melt out iron, copper, lead, silver or other metal.
Smelting extracts metal from ore by heating it with a reducing agent such as charcoal or coke, which drives off other elements as gas or slag and leaves the metal. It was used for iron, copper, silver, tin, lead and zinc.
The word names three things: the worker, the furnace and the plant. In a 1910 to 1940 census, smelter in the occupation column is the worker, and smelter in the industry column is the works where he was employed.
As seen in a recordOccupation and industry columns of the 1910 to 1940 census
Anton Kovac, 30, Laborer, Copper smelter
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Smelter." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/smelter. Last checked 2026-10-10.