Editing Swansea (section)

===Industrial Revolution===
[[File:Temple street, Swansea, showing the bank, theatre, post office &c.jpeg|thumb|Temple street, Swansea, showing the bank, theatre and post office (1865)]]
[[File:View of Swansea and railway bridge.jpeg|thumb|Docks and railway bridge (1850)]]
[[File:View of the Copper-works, Swansea, Glamorganshire.jpeg|thumb|A romanticised depiction of early copper smelting works in the [[Lower Swansea Valley]] {{circa|1800}}]]

From the early 1700s to the late 1800s, Swansea was the world's leading [[Copper extraction|copper-smelting]] area.<ref>W. H. Dennis, ''100 Years of Metallurgy'' (Chicago: Aldine, 1963) 128.</ref> Numerous smelters along the River Tawe received copper and other metal ores shipped from Cornwall and Devon, as well as from North and South America, Africa, and Australia. The industry declined severely in the late 1800s, and none of the smelters are now active.

The port of Swansea initially traded in wine, hides, wool, cloth and later in coal.<ref name="encyclopedia"/> After the invention of the [[reverbatory furnace]] in the late 1600s, copper smelting could use coal rather than the more expensive charcoal. At the same time, the mines of Cornwall were increasing copper production. Swansea became the ideal place to smelt the Cornish copper ores, being close to the coalfields of South Wales and having an excellent port to receive ships carrying Cornish copper ore. Because each ton of copper ore smelted used about three tons of coal, it was more economical to ship the copper ore to Wales rather than sending the coal to Cornwall.<ref>John C. Symonds, The Mining and Smelting of Copper in England and Wales, Thesis, Coventry University, Jan. 2003, p.92.</ref>

The first copper smelter at Swansea was established in 1717, followed by many more.<ref>Robert Hunt, British Mining (London: Crosby Lockwood, 1887) 101.</ref> Once smelting was established, the smelters began receiving high-grade ore and ore concentrates from around the world. More [[coal mine]]s opened to meet demand from northeast Gower to{{clarify|date=March 2024}} [[Clyne Valley Country Park|Clyne]] and [[Llangyfelach]]. In the 1850s Swansea had more than 600 furnaces, and a fleet of 500 oceangoing ships carrying out Welsh coal and bringing back metal ore from around the world. At that time most of the copper matte produced in the United States was sent to Swansea for refining.<ref name="H. Dennis 1963">W. H. Dennis, 100 Years of Metallurgy (Chicago: Aldine, 1963) 128.</ref>

Smelters also processed arsenic, zinc, tin, and other metals. Nearby factories produced [[tinplate]] and pottery. The Swansea smelters became so adept at recovering gold and silver from complex ores that in the 1800s they received ore concentrates from the United States, for example from Arizona in the 1850s, and Colorado in the 1860s.<ref>Otis E. Young Jr., ''Western Mining'', (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970) 143, 202.</ref>

The city expanded rapidly in the 18th and 19th centuries, and was termed "Copperopolis".<ref name="encyclopedia"/> From the late 17th century to 1801, Swansea's population grew by 500%—the first official census (in 1841) indicated that, with 6,099 inhabitants, Swansea had become significantly larger than [[Glamorgan]]'s county town, [[Cardiff]], and was the second most populous town in Wales behind [[Merthyr Tydfil]] (which had a population of 7,705). However, the census understated Swansea's true size, as much of the built-up area lay outside the contemporary boundaries of the borough; the total population was actually 10,117. Swansea's population was later overtaken by Merthyr in 1821 and by Cardiff in 1881, although in the latter year Swansea once again surpassed Merthyr.<ref name="encyclopedia"/> Much of Swansea's growth was due to migration from within and beyond Wales—in 1881 more than a third of the borough's population had been born outside Swansea and Glamorgan, and just under a quarter outside Wales.<ref>Rosser, C. and Harris, C.C. (1998) ''The Family and Social Change: A Study of Family and Kinship in a South Wales Town''. Routledge</ref>

Copper smelting at Swansea declined in the late 1800s for a number of reasons: copper mining in Cornwall declined; the price of copper dropped from £112 in 1860 to £35 in the 1890s; in the early 1900s, mining shifted to lower-grade copper deposits in North and South America, and the lower-grade ore could not support transportation to Swansea.<ref name="H. Dennis 1963"/>
The [[Swansea and Mumbles Railway]] was built in 1804 to move limestone from the quarries of Mumbles and coal from the [[Clyne valley]] to Swansea and to the markets beyond. It carried the world's first fare-paying rail passengers on the same day the British Parliament abolished the transportation of slaves from Africa. It later moved from horse power to steam locomotion, and finally converting to electric trams, before closing in January 1960, in favour of motor buses.