- Light
- Bong on
- Knock up a spliff for fuck's sake!
- Gi's a tote on that mate
- Do us a smoke
- Any chance of a blast?
- After you on that one mun
- Wot you think of my new pipe, cuntox?
- What the fuck was in that, man?
- I NEED a drag coz I'm gasping my brains out!!!!!

In the roots, something missing?
Here is the sense:

Copper-smelting was first established near Swansea by a German, Ulrich Frosse at Aberdulais in 1584. In 1684 a new method of smelting metal using coal was discovered and Swansea's industrial fortune flourished. The first copper works in the Tawe Valley (Landore, 1717) was Dr. Lane's Llangyfelach works.

In 1799, it was estimated that a population of nearly seven thousand lived in Swansea and the copper houses, were annually smelting forty five thousand tons of metal and consuming seventy thousand chaldrons of coal.

By 1860, 12 copper smelters were located on both sides of the river Tawe and in the 18th-19th centuries, Swansea was one of the world's biggest manufacturer of metal, in it's prime all but one of the copper works of Britain was in the Swansea area.

Production of nickel, zinc, lead, tin plate, steel, spelter and cobalt are developed alongside the copper industry, Swansea's status was as a world class industrial powerhouse. The Ports development was huge and as it flourished the trade to export copper and minerals grew significantly. A huge fleet of ships travelled the Cape Horn and the "four corners of the earth". Swansea had a worldwide reputation as "Copperopolis" or "Copper Kingdom" and produced 80 per cent of the global copper requirement.

Copper brought amazing wealth and prosperity to Swansea, the downside though was the local atmosphere, what had been beautiful green valleys became so foul with sulphurous fumes, it was said that if the Devil were to pass through he would think that he was at home. Conditions were so bad they would not be tolerated today. The smelting process produced not only mountains of slag but also produced billowing clouds of toxic, foul-smelling smoke, laced with sulphur and arsenic. The pollution led to the death of crops and grazing animals.

Swansea had become a radically changed town. Once a thriving agricultural center, it was ruined for tin, steel, gold, silver, even arsenic production and along with the copper-smelting this turned the sky to a hell-like orange. The poisonous residues destroyed the environment so badly that even today certain places in the valley remain sterile.

Description of Swansea conditions by George Borrow, 1836:
There were immense stacks of chimneys and smoke was proceeding in volumes, choking the atmosphere all around.

In 1854, Thomas Williams said: The surface of the land to the north and northeast of Swansea looked as if it had been scorched. Smoke and vapors darkened the air and concealed the sun, stifling the breather. The countryside stretching as far north as Morriston, as far east as Bonymaen and as far west as Treboeth and Cwmbwrla, was covered by grim-looking mounds of scoriae from the copper furnaces an area rendered hideous by stones, red gravel, and black slag. In addition, the vegetation was practically extinct as a direct result of the action of sulphurous copper smoke.

Fifteen decades of smelting operations, had transformed a once smiling valley into a barren desert. All the stagnant fresh water within the limits of the smoke district was completely destitute of pond life. By the mid-19th century there was well over three hundred furnace chimneys in the Swansea and district area, each delivering into the atmosphere many thousands of cubic feet of dense white chemical clouds and curling columns of smoke. People from the outlying areas of Llansamlet, Foxhole, Bonymaen, Landore and Hafod had to suffer badly. It was claimed that Swansea and district produced one half of the copper smoke of the world!

Furnacemen, whose ages ranged from twenty to sixty-five years, worked a twelve-hour day. For half the shift they were exposed to a temperature of 1500F and for the remaining period to a temperature ranging between 650 and 700F. Although the smelters’ sheds were amply ventilated, the men sweated profusely under the influence of such intense heat. The discomfort of these craftsmen, however, was mitigated to some extent by drinking copious draughts of cool water. It was estimated that the average smelter was in the habit of consuming two to three gallons of nature’s beverage per shift.

At Port Tennant a young girl using a donkey was employed to fetch pure water from a fountain situated a mile away from the works. The animal, bearing on its back two eight-gallon casks, carried one hundred gallons every day to the smelting sheds.

Williams stated that despite the extreme variations of temperature and the drudgery to which the coppermen were subjected each day their general health was remarkably good and many of them reached a ripe old age. They earned good wages, they were well-housed and well-fed, they supported their families in plenty, and they were, in every respect far better off than the farm-laborers on the Welsh hills and the local colliers.

On account of exposure to cold between each shift and the inhalation of hot coal- and slag-dust, the smelters were more prone to chronic bronchitis and asthma than ordinary labourers. At each shift the coppermen were obliged to withstand very offensive fumes charged, very probably, with detectable proportions of arsenic in the form of arseniurreted hydrogen. Dr. Williams emphasised categorically that the arsenic had affected their health in no way. He added that in the hands of the physician arsenic was a remedy of great power and immense value.

Finally, in speaking of the general health of the people of Swansea he was firmly convinced that the copper smoke was responsible in great measure for the prevention of serious outbreaks of cholera, typhus and influenza in the area. He also noted that locally-grown potatoes had, for years, escaped the attacks of the potato disease.

(American Journal of Mining, April 13, 1867) Near to Swansea thousands of acres of land have hardly a blade of grass, and in many instances the smelters have had to pay heavy damages for the injurious effects of the smoke on the adjoining properties--even trees many miles distance have been affected."

In 1925 Elizabeth Philips wrote: The beautiful countryside became changed into one of the greatest industrial districts of South Wales. Dense clouds of sulphurous smoke rose to Heaven, and land owners began to complain of the harm done to their crops and pastures, inhabitants feared that the air they breathed would eventually poison them.

Copper smelting finally ceased in 1924 and most of the works were demolished, but for many years after, the sites of these once great and historic manufacturing works stayed derelict, the landscape was just an ugly scar of molten rock and ore.

Today, a huge land reclamation program has seen new factories and retail traders encouraged into the Swansea Valley and employment has flourished again.

There was also a disaster that will always be remembered. On the 6th December 1867, a ship called the Queen of Swansea was heading for Tilt Cove with fifteen people aboard, these included two children and a druggist. Twelve miles from its destination, the ship ran aground off Gull Island. The survivors lit a fire and waited in vain for help but in desperation, they had to resort to systematic cannibalism where the unlucky victims were chosen by straws.

These measures only postponed the death of all. When fishermen visited Gull Island a year later they found little but bones and Felix Downsley's diary. Today, a monument to the Queen of Swansea sits atop the east cliffs of Tilt Cove.
to be placed over the grave.
For a lot more details, read the story opposite...