An academic study of the Speltermen of Swansea between 1860 and 1930. These workers in the zinc industry have been largely ignored by historians but this book reveals a story of great industrial rivalries, larger than life characters, a roller-coaster market leaving behind a devastating trail of bankruptcies, betrayal by government, and above all the fight by the speltermen themselves against the horrific conditions and hours that resulted in the highest mortality rate of any industry.