sb. Also 8–9 speltre. [Corresponds to OF. espeautre, MDu. speauter, Du. and G. spiauter, LG. spialter, but the immediate source is not clear. Related to PEWTER.]
1. Zinc. (Now only Comm.)
1661. Boyle, Certain Physiol. Ess. (1669), 194. Leaving a lump or two of Spelter there for two or three days.
1671. J. Webster, Metallogr., Pref. B ij b. Ores … of Antimony, Tin-glass, Spelter, Talk, and Cinnober.
1733. Tull, Horse-hoeing Husb., xxii. 350. I have often made them with a mix’d Metal, of half Pewter and half Spelter.
1758. Borlase, Nat. Hist. Cornw., 129. Of bismuth, speltre, zink, naptha,… I have received specimens from several parts of Cornwall.
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, I. 106. Fling into it one ounce of spelter, i. e. zinc.
1835. Penny Cycl., IV. 182/2. The articles which Belgium supplies to England are oak-bark,… spelter, and sheeps’ wool.
1860. Ure’s Dict. Arts (ed. 5), III. 1076. The general consumption of Spelter throughout the world is about 67,000 tons per annum.
2. An alloy or solder of which zinc is the principal constituent.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 51. The hard solder for copper, is a soft fusible sort of granulated brass, well known to artists under the name of spelter.
1824. Mechanic’s Mag., No. 26. 415/2. Method of making spelter for brazing iron, copper, &c.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm. (1858), 392. An elderly tinker … sat admiring a bit of spelter of about a pound weight. It was gold, he said.
3. attrib. and Comb., as spelter-box, -dust, -heap, -maker, -ore.
1684. Lond. Gaz., No. 1991/4. There is another Watch a Spelter Box and Case all in one.
1758. Borlase, Nat. Hist. Cornw., 129. Speltre ore I have had from a mine near St. Columb.
1868. Q. Rev., No. 248. 346. Covering acres of ground like the spelter and cinder heaps.
1882. Blackmore, Christowell, xlv. Where mine-slag, sparry rocks, and spelter dust combined to glare with intense heat.
1884. C. G. W. Lock, Workshop Rec., Ser. III. 18/1. Spelter or zinc statuettes, known in the trade as imitation or French bronze.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 910. Spelter workers,… that is, men who smelt zinc ore, occasionally suffer from plumbism.
b. Spelter solder, a solder made from zinc and copper.
1671. Boyle, Usef. Nat. Philos., Trades, 19. Though common Spelter-soder be much cheaper, than that which is made with Silver instead of Spelter.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVII. 745/1. In this heat soft solder is just ready to melt, and has no tenacity;… even spelter solder is considerably weakened by it.
1843. Holtzapffel, Turning, I. 268. Soft spelter-solder, suitable for ordinary brass work, is made of equal parts of copper and zinc.
1873. E. Spon, Workshop Rec., Ser. I. 365/2. This solder possesses several advantages over the usual spelter solder or brass.
Hence Spelter v. trans., to unite with spelter solder.
1861. W. Graham, Brassfounder’s Man., 34. When the work is cleaned, bound, fluxed, and speltered, the whole is subjected to a clear charcoal or coke fire.
