De Re Metallica · Georg Agricola
I have described the first reason for surveying; I will now describe another. When one vein comes near another, and their owners are different persons who have late come into possession, whether they drive a tunnel or a drift, or sink a shaft, they may encroach, or seem to encroach, without any lawful right, upon the boundaries of the older owners, for which reason the latter very often seek redress, or take legal proceedings. The surveyor either himself settles the dispute between the owners, or by his art gives evidence to the judges for making their decision, that one shall not encroach on the mine of the other. Thus, first of all he measures the mines of each party with a basket rope and cords of linden bark; and having applied to the cords an orbis or a compass, he notes the directions in which they extend. Then he stretches the cords on the surveyor's field; and starting from that point whose owners are in possession of the old meer toward the other, whether it is in the hanging or footwall of the vein, he stretches a cross-cord in a straight line, according to the sixth division of the compass, that is, at a right angle to the vein, for a distance of three and a half fathoms, and assigns to the older owners that which belongs to them. But if both ends of one vein are being dug out in two tunnels, or drifts from opposite directions, the surveyor first of all considers the lower tunnel or drift and afterward the upper one, and judges how much each of them has risen little by little. On each side strong men take in their hands a stretched cord and hold it so that there is no point where it is not strained tight; on each side the surveyor supports the cord with a rod half a fathom long, and stays the rod at the end with a short stick as often as he thinks it necessary. But some fasten cords to the rods to make them steadier. The surveyor attaches a suspended plummet level to the middle of the cord to enable him to calculate more accurately on both sides, and from this he ascertains whether one tunnel has risen more than another, or in like manner one drift more than another. Afterward he measures the incline of the shafts on both sides, so that he can estimate their position on each side. Then he easily sees how many fathoms remain in the space which must be broken through. But the grade of each tunnel, as I said, should rise one fathom in the distance of one hundred fathoms.
The Swiss surveyors, when they wish to measure tunnels driven into the highest mountains, also use a rod half a fathom long, but composed of three parts, which screw together, so that they may be shortened. They use a cord made of linden bark to which are fastened slips of paper showing the number of fathoms. They also employ an instrument peculiar to them, which has a needle; but in place of the waxed circles they carry in their hands a chart on which they inscribe the readings of the instrument. The instrument is placed on the back part of the rod so that the tongue, and the extended cord which runs through the three holes in the tongue, demonstrates the direction, and they note the number of fathoms. The tongue shows whether the cord inclines forward or backward. The tongue does not hang, as in the case of the suspended plummet level, but is fixed to the instrument in a half-lying position. They measure the tunnels for the purpose of knowing how many fathoms they have been increased in elevation; how many fathoms the lower is distant from the upper one; how many fathoms of interval is not yet pierced between the miners who on opposite sides are digging on the same vein, or cross-stringers, or two veins which are approaching one another.
But I return to our mines. If the surveyor desires to fix the boundaries of the meer within the tunnels or drifts, and mark to them with a sign cut in the rock, in the same way that the Bergmeister has marked these boundaries above ground, he first of all ascertains, by measuring in the manner which I have explained above, which part of the tunnel or drift lies beneath the surface boundary mark, stretching the cords along the drifts to a point beyond that spot in the rock where he judges the mark should be cut. Then, after the same cords have been laid out on the surveyor's field, he starts from that upper cord at a point which shows the boundary mark, and stretches another cross-cord straight downward according to the sixth division of the compass--that is at a right angle. Then that part of the lowest cord which lies beyond the part to which the cross-cord runs being removed, it shows at what point the boundary mark should be cut into the rock of the tunnel or drift. The cutting is made in the presence of the two Jurors and the manager and the foreman of each mine. For as the Bergmeister in the presence of these same persons sets the boundary stones on the surface, so the surveyor cuts in the rock a sign which for this reason is called the boundary rock. If he fixes the boundary mark of a meer in which a shaft has recently begun to be sunk on a vein, first of all he measures and notes the incline of that shaft by the compass or by another way with the applied cords; then he measures all the drifts up to that one in whose rock the boundary mark has to be cut. Of these drifts he measures each angle; then the cords, being laid out on the surveyor's field, in a similar way he stretches a cross-cord, as I said, and cuts the sign on the rock. But if the underground boundary rock has to be cut in a drift which lies beneath the first drift, the surveyor starts from the mark in the first drift, notes the different angles, one by one, takes his measurements, and in the lower drift stretches a cord beyond that place where he judges the mark ought to be cut; and then, as I said before, lays out the cords on the surveyor's field. Even if a vein runs differently in the lower drift from the upper one, in which the first boundary mark has been cut in the rock, still, in the lower drift the mark must be cut in the rock vertically beneath. For if he cuts the lower mark obliquely from the upper one some part of the possession of one mine is taken away to its detriment, and given to the other. Moreover, if it happens that the underground boundary mark requires to be cut in an angle, the surveyor, starting from that angle, measures one fathom toward the front of the mine and another fathom toward the back, and from these measurements forms a triangle, and dividing its middle by a cross-cord, makes his cutting for the boundary mark.
Lastly, the surveyor sometimes, in order to make more certain, finds the boundary of the meers in those places where many old boundary marks are cut in the rock. Then, starting from a stake fixed on the surface, he first of all measures to the nearest mine; then he measures one shaft after another; then he fixes a stake on the surveyors' field, and making a beginning from it stretches the same cords in the same way and measures them, and again fixes in the ground a stake which for him will signify the end of his measuring. Afterward he again measures underground from that spot at which he left off, as many shafts and drifts as he can remember. Then he returns to the surveyor's field, and starting again from the second stake, makes his measurements; and he does this as far as the drift in which the boundary mark must be cut in the rock. Finally, commencing from the stake first fixed in the ground, he stretches a cross-cord in a straight line to the last stake, and this shows the length of the lowest drift. The point where they touch, he judges to be the place where the underground boundary mark should be cut.
END OF BOOK V.
Rake = A perpendicular vein. Woughs = Walls of the vein. Shakes = Cracks in the walls. Flookan = Gouge. Bryle = Outcrop. Hade = Incline or underlay of the vein. Dawling = Impoverishment of the vein. Rither = A "horse" in a vein. Twitches = "Pinching" of a vein. Slough = Drainage tunnel. Sole = Lowest drift. Stool = Face of a drift or stope. Winds } Turn } = Winze. Dippas} Grove = Shaft. Dutins = Set of timber. Stemple = Post or stull. Laths = Lagging.
As examples of the author's coinage and adaptations of terms in this book we may cite:--
Fossa latens = Drift. Fossa latens transversa = Crosscut. Tectum = Hangingwall. Fundamentum = Footwall. Tigna per intervalla posita = Wall plate. Arbores dissectae = Lagging. Formae = Hitches.
We have adopted the term "tunnel" for openings by way of outlet to the mine. The word in this narrow sense is as old as "adit," a term less expressive and not so generally used in the English-speaking mining world. We have for the same reason adopted the word "drift" instead of the term "level" so generally used in America, because that term always leads to confusion in discussion of mine surveys. We may mention, however, that the term "level" is a heritage from the Derbyshire mines, and is of an equally respectable age as "drift."
GOLD MINERALS. Agricola apparently believed that there were various gold minerals, green, yellow, purple, black, etc. There is nothing, however, in his works that permits of any attempt to identify them, and his classification seems to rest on gangue colours.
SILVER MINERALS.
Argentum purum in Gedigen silber -- *Native silver venis reperitur
Argentum rude Gedigen silber -- Rudis silver, or ertz pure silver minerals
Argentum rude Glas ertz Argentite *Silver glance plumbei coloris (Ag{2}S)
Argentum rude Rot gold ertz Pyrargyrite *Red silver rubrum (Ag{3}SbS{3})
Argentum rude Durchsichtig Proustite *Ruby silver rubrum rod gulden (Ag{3}AsS{3}) translucidum ertz
Argentum rude Weis rod gulden -- White silver album ertz: Dan es ist frisch wie offtmals rod gulden ertz pfleget zusein
Argentum rude Gedigen Part Bromyrite Liver-coloured jecoris leberfarbig (Ag Br) silver colore ertz
Argentum rude Gedigen -- Yellow silver luteum geelertz
Argentum rude Gedigen graw } { *Grey silver cineraceum ertz } Part Cerargurite { } (Ag Cl) (Horn { Argentum rude Gedigen } Silver) Part { *Black silver nigrum schwartz ertz } Stephanite { } (Ag{5}SbS{4}) { Argentum rude Gedigen braun } { *Purple silver purpureum ertz } {
The last six may be in part also alteration products from all silver minerals.
The reasons for indefiniteness in determination usually lie in the failure of ancient authors to give sufficient or characteristic descriptions. In many cases Agricola is sufficiently definite as to assure certainty, as the following description of what we consider to be silver glance, from De Natura Fossilium (p. 360), will indicate: "Lead-coloured rudis silver is called by the Germans from the word glass (glasertz), not from lead. Indeed, it has the colour of the latter or of galena (plumbago), but not of glass, nor is it transparent like glass, which one might indeed expect had the name been correctly derived. This mineral is occasionally so like galena in colour, although it is darker, that one who is not experienced in minerals is unable to distinguish between the two at sight, but in substance they differ greatly from one another. Nature has made this kind of silver out of a little earth and much silver. Whereas galena consists of stone and lead containing some silver. But the distinction between them can be easily determined, for galena may be ground to powder in a mortar with a pestle, but this treatment flattens out this kind of rudis silver. Also galena, when struck by a mallet or bitten or hacked with a knife, splits and breaks to pieces; whereas this silver is malleable under the hammer, may be dented by the teeth, and cut with a knife."
COPPER MINERALS.
Aes purum Gedigen kupfer Native copper Native copper fossile
Aes rude Kupferglas ertz Chalcocite *Copper glance plumbei (Cu{2}S) coloris
Chalcitis Rodt atrament A decomposed Chalcitis (see copper or notes on p. 573) iron sulphide
Pyrites aurei } Geelkis oder { Part chalcopyrite Copper pyrites colore } kupferkis { (Cu Fe S) part } { bornite Pyrites aerosus } { (Cu{3}FeS{3})
Caeruleum Berglasur Azurite Azure
Chrysocolla Berggruen und { Part chrysocolla Chrysocolla (see schifergruen { Part Malachite note 7, p. 560)
Molochites Molochit Malachite Malachite
Lapis aerarius Kupfer ertz -- Copper ore
Aes caldarium } Lebeter kupfer { When used for rubrum fuscum } { an ore, is *Ruby copper ore or } { probably Aes sui coloris } Rotkupfer { cuprite
Aes nigrum Schwartz kupfer Probably CuO from *Black copper oxidation of other minerals
In addition to the above the Author uses the following, which were in the main artificial products:
Aerugo Gruenspan oder Verdigris Verdigris Spanschgruen
Aes luteum Gelfarkupfer } Impure blister { Unrefined copper } copper { (see note 16, } { p. 511) Aes caldarium Lebeterkupfer } {
Aeris flos Kupferbraun } Cupric oxide { Copper flower } scales { } { Aeris squama Kupferhammer- } { Copper scale (see schlag } { note 9, p. 233)
Atramentum Blaw kupfer Chalcanthite Native blue sutorium wasser vitriol (see caeruleum or note on p. 572) chalcanthum
Blue and green copper minerals were distinguished by all the ancient mineralogists. Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, etc., all give sufficient detail to identify their cyanus and caeruleum partly with modern azurite, and their chrysocolla partly with the modern mineral of the same name. However, these terms were also used for vegetable pigments, as well as for the pigments made from the minerals. The Greek origin of chrysocolla (chrysos, gold and kolla, solder) may be blamed with another and distinct line of confusion, in that this term has been applied to soldering materials, from Greek down to modern times, some of the ancient mineralogists even asserting that the copper mineral chrysocolla was used for this purpose. Agricola uses chrysocolla for borax, but is careful to state in every case (see note xx., p. x): "Chrysocolla made from nitrum," or "Chrysocolla which the Moors call Borax." Dioscorides and Pliny mention substances which were evidently copper sulphides, but no description occurs prior to Agricola that permits a hazard as to different species.
LEAD MINERALS.
Plumbarius lapis Glantz Galena Galena
Galena Glantz und Galena Galena pleiertz
Plumbum nigrum } Pleiertz oder Cerussite Yellow lead ore lutei coloris } pleischweis (PbCO{3}) } Plumbago } metallica }
Cerussa Pleiweis Artificial White-lead (see White-lead note 4, p. 440)
Ochra facticia Pleigeel Massicot (Pb O) *Lead-ochre (see or ochra note 8, p. 232) plumbaria
Molybdaena } Herdplei Part litharge Hearth-lead (see } note 37, p. 476) Plumbago } fornacis }
Spuma argenti } Glett Litharge Litharge (see note } on p. 465) Lithargyrum }
Minium Menning Minium Red-lead (see note secundarium (Pb{3}O{4}) 7, p. 232)
So far as we can determine, all of these except the first three were believed by Agricola to be artificial products. Of the first three, galena is certain enough, but while he obviously was familiar with the alteration lead products, his descriptions are inadequate and much confused with the artificial oxides. Great confusion arises in the ancient mineralogies over the terms molybdaena, plumbago, plumbum, galena, and spuma argenti, all of which, from Roman mineralogists down to a century after Agricola, were used for lead in some form. Further discussion of such confusion will be found in note 37, p. 476. Agricola in Bermannus and De Natura Fossilium, devotes pages to endeavouring to reconcile the ancient usages of these terms, and all the confusion existing in Agricola's time was thrice confounded when the names molybdaena and plumbago were assigned to non-lead minerals.
TIN. Agricola knew only one tin mineral: Lapilli nigri ex quibus conflatur plumbum candidum, i.e., "Little black stones from which tin is smelted," and he gives the German equivalent as zwitter, "tin-stone." He describes them as being of different colours, but probably due to external causes.
ANTIMONY. (Interpretatio,--spiesglas.) The stibi or stibium of Agricola was no doubt the sulphide, and he follows Dioscorides in dividing it into male and female species. This distinction, however, is impossible to apply from the inadequate descriptions given. The mineral and metal known to Agricola and his predecessors was almost always the sulphide, and we have not felt justified in using the term antimony alone, as that implies the refined product, therefore, we have adopted either the Latin term or the old English term "grey antimony." The smelted antimony of commerce sold under the latter term was the sulphide. For further notes see p. 428.
BISMUTH*. Plumbum cinereum (Interpretatio,--bismut). Agricola states that this mineral occasionally occurs native, "but more often as a mineral of another colour" (De Nat. Fos., p. 337), and he also describes its commonest form as black or grey. This, considering his localities, would indicate the sulphide, although he assigns no special name to it. Although bismuth is mentioned before Agricola in the Nuetzliche Bergbuechlin, he was the first to describe it (see p. 433).
QUICKSILVER. Apart from native quicksilver, Agricola adequately describes cinnabar only. The term used by him for the mineral is minium nativum (Interpretatio,--bergzinober or cinnabaris). He makes the curious statement (De Nat. Fos. p. 335) that rudis quicksilver also occurs liver-coloured and blackish,--probably gangue colours. (See p. 432).
ARSENICAL MINERALS. Metallic arsenic was unknown, although it has been maintained that a substance mentioned by Albertus Magnus (De Rebus Metallicis) was the metallic form. Agricola, who was familiar with all Albertus's writings, makes no mention of it, and it appears to us that the statement of Albertus referred only to the oxide from sublimation. Our word "arsenic" obviously takes root in the Greek for orpiment, which was also used by Pliny (XXXIV, 56) as arrhenicum, and later was modified to arsenicum by the Alchemists, who applied it to the oxide. Agricola gives the following in Bermannus (p. 448), who has been previously discussing realgar and orpiment:--"Ancon: Avicenna also has a white variety. Bermannus: I cannot at all believe in a mineral of a white colour; perhaps he was thinking of an artificial product; there are two which the Alchemists make, one yellow and the other white, and they are accounted the most powerful poisons to-day, and are called only by the name arsenicum." In De Natura Fossilium (p. 219) is described the making of "the white variety" by sublimating orpiment, and also it is noted that realgar can be made from orpiment by heating the latter for five hours in a sealed crucible. In De Re Metallica (Book X.), he refers to auripigmentum facticum, and no doubt means the realgar made from orpiment. The four minerals of arsenic base mentioned by Agricola were:--
Auripigmentum Operment Orpiment Orpiment (As{2}S{3})
Sandaraca Rosgeel Realgar (As S) Realgar
Arsenicum Arsenik Artificial White arsenic arsenical oxide
Lapis subrutilus Mistpuckel Arsenopyrite *Mispickel atque ... (Fe As S) splendens
We are somewhat uncertain as to the identification of the last. The yellow and red sulphides, however, were well known to the Ancients, and are described by Aristotle, Theophrastus (71 and 89), Dioscorides (V, 81), Pliny (XXXIII, 22, etc.); and Strabo (XII, 3, 40) mentions a mine of them near Pompeiopolis, where, because of its poisonous character none but slaves were employed. The Ancients believed that the yellow sulphide contained gold--hence the name auripigmentum, and Pliny describes the attempt of the Emperor Caligula to extract the gold from it, and states that he did obtain a small amount, but unprofitably. So late a mineralogist as Hill (1750) held this view, which seemed to be general. Both realgar and orpiment were important for pigments, medicinal purposes, and poisons among the Ancients. In addition to the above, some arsenic-cobalt minerals are included under cadmia.
IRON MINERALS.
Ferrum purum Gedigen eisen Native iron *Native iron
Terra ferria Eisen ertz } Various soft and } Ironstone } hard iron } Ferri vena Eisen ertz } ores, probably } } mostly hematite} Galenae genus Eisen glantz } } tertium omnis } } metalli } } inanissimi } } } } Schistos Glaskoepfe oder } } bluetstein } } } } Ferri vena Leber ertz } } jecoris colore } }
Ferrugo Ruest Part limonite Iron rust
Magnes Siegelstein Magnetite Lodestone oder magnet
Ochra nativa Berg geel Limonite Yellow ochre or ironstone
Haematites Bluet stein { Part hematite Bloodstone or { Part jasper ironstone
Schistos Glas koepfe Part limonite Ironstone
Pyrites Kis Pyrites Pyrites
Pyrites argenti wasser oder Marcasite *White iron coloris weisser kis pyrites
Misy Gel atrament Part copiapite Misy (see note on p. 573)
Sory Graw und Partly a Sory (see note schwartz decomposed iron on p. 573) atrament pyrite
Melanteria Schwartz und Melanterite Melanteria (see grau atrament (native vitriol) note on p. 573)
The classification of iron ores on the basis of exterior characteristics, chiefly hardness and brilliancy, does not justify a more narrow rendering than "ironstone." Agricola (De Nat. Fos., Book V.) gives elaborate descriptions of various iron ores, but the descriptions under any special name would cover many actual minerals. The subject of pyrites is a most confused one; the term originates from the Greek word for fire, and referred in Greek and Roman times to almost any stone that would strike sparks. By Agricola it was a generic term in somewhat the same sense that it is still used in mineralogy, as, for instance, iron pyrite, copper pyrite, etc. So much was this the case later on, that Henckel, the leading mineralogist of the 18th Century, entitled his large volume Pyritologia, and in it embraces practically all the sulphide minerals then known. The term marcasite, of mediaeval Arabic origin, seems to have had some vogue prior and subsequent to Agricola. He, however, puts it on one side as merely a synonym for pyrite, nor can it be satisfactorily defined in much better terms. Agricola apparently did not recognise the iron base of pyrites, for he says (De Nat. Fos., p. 366): "Sometimes, however, pyrites do not contain any gold, silver, copper, or lead, and yet it is not a pure stone, but a compound, and consists of stone and a substance which is somewhat metallic, which is a species of its own." Many varieties were known to him and described, partly by their other metal association, but chiefly by their colour.
CADMIA. The minerals embraced under this term by the old mineralogists form one of the most difficult chapters in the history of mineralogy. These complexities reached their height with Agricola, for at this time various new minerals classed under this heading had come under debate. All these minerals were later found to be forms of zinc, cobalt, or arsenic, and some of these minerals were in use long prior to Agricola. From Greek and Roman times down to long after Agricola, brass was made by cementing zinc ore with copper. Aristotle and Strabo mention an earth used to colour copper, but give no details. It is difficult to say what zinc mineral the cadmium of Dioscorides (V, 46) and Pliny (XXXIV, 2), really was. It was possibly only furnace calamine, or perhaps blende for it was associated with copper. They amply describe cadmia produced in copper furnaces, and pompholyx (zinc oxide). It was apparently not until Theophilus (1150) that the term calamina appears for that mineral. Precisely when the term "zinc," and a knowledge of the metal, first appeared in Europe is a matter of some doubt; it has been attributed to Paracelsus, a contemporary of Agricola (see note on p. 409), but we do not believe that author's work in question was printed until long after. The quotations from Agricola given below, in which zincum is mentioned in an obscure way, do not appear in the first editions of these works, but only in the revised edition of 1559. In other words, Agricola himself only learned of a substance under this name a short period before his death in 1555. The metal was imported into Europe from China prior to this time. He however does describe actual metallic zinc under the term conterfei, and mentions its occurrence in the cracks of furnace walls. (See also notes on p. 409).
The word cobalt (German kobelt) is from the Greek word cobalos, "mime," and its German form was the term for gnomes and goblins. It appears that the German miners, finding a material (Agricola's "corrosive material") which injured their hands and feet, connected it with the goblins, or used the term as an epithet, and finally it became established for certain minerals (see note 21, p. 214, on this subject). The first written appearance of the term in connection with minerals, appears in Agricola's Bermannus (1530). The first practical use of cobalt was in the form of zaffre or cobalt blue. There seems to be no mention of the substance by the Greek or Roman writers, although analyses of old colourings show some traces of cobalt, but whether accidental or not is undetermined. The first mention we know of, was by Biringuccio in 1540 (De La Pirotechnia, Book II, Chap. IX.), who did not connect it with the minerals then called cobalt or cadmia. "Zaffera is another mineral substance, like a metal of middle weight, which will not melt alone, but accompanied by vitreous substances it melts into an azure colour so that those who colour glass, or paint vases or glazed earthenware, make use of it. Not only does it serve for the above-mentioned operations, but if one uses too great a quantity of it, it will be black and all other colours, according to the quantity used." Agricola, although he does not use the word zaffre, does refer to a substance of this kind, and in any event also missed the relation between zaffre and cobalt, as he seems to think (De Nat. Fos., p. 347) that zaffre came from bismuth, a belief that existed until long after his time. The cobalt of the Erzgebirge was of course, intimately associated with this mineral. He says, "the slag of bismuth, mixed together with metalliferous substances, which when melted make a kind of glass, will tint glass and earthenware vessels blue." Zaffre is the roasted mineral ground with sand, while smalt, a term used more frequently, is the fused mixture with sand.
The following are the substances mentioned by Agricola, which, we believe, relate to cobalt and zinc minerals, some of them arsenical compounds. Other arsenical minerals we give above.
Cadmia fossilis Calmei; lapis Calamine Calamine calaminaris
Cadmia metallica Kobelt Part cobalt *Cadmia metallica
Cadmia fornacis Mitlere und Furnace Furnace accretions obere accretions or offenbrueche furnace calamine
Bituminosa Kobelt des (Mannsfeld copper Bituminosa cadmia cadmia bergwacht schists) (see note 4, p. 273)
Galena inanis Blende Sphalerite* *Blende (Zn S)
Cobaltum -- Smallite* } Cadmia metallica cineraceum (CoAs{2}) } } Cobaltum nigrum -- Abolite* } } Cobaltum ferri -- Cobaltite } colore (CoAsS) }
Zincum Zinck Zinc Zinc
Liquor Candidus Conterfei Zinc See note 48, p. 408 ex fornace ... etc.
Atramentum -- Goslarite *Native white sutorium, (Zn SO{4}) vitriol candidum, potissimum reperitur Goselariae
Spodos Geeler zechen } Either natural { Grey spodos subterranea rauch } or artificial { cinerea } zinc oxides, { } no doubt { Spodos Schwartzer } containing { Black spodos subterranea zechen rauch, } arsenical { nigra auff dem } oxides { Altenberge } { nennet man in } { kis } { } { Spodos Grauer zechen } { Green spodos subterranea rauch } { viridis } { } { Pompholyx Huettenrauch } { Pompholyx (see } { note 26, p. 394)
As seen from the following quotations from Agricola, on cadmia and cobalt, there was infinite confusion as to the zinc, cobalt, and arsenic minerals; nor do we think any good purpose is served by adding to the already lengthy discussion of these passages, the obscurity of which is natural to the state of knowledge; but we reproduce them as giving a fairly clear idea of the amount of confusion then existing. It is, however, desirable to bear in mind that the mines familiar to Agricola abounded in complex mixtures of cobalt, nickel, arsenic, bismuth, zinc, and antimony. Agricola frequently mentions the garlic odour from cadmia metallica, which, together with the corrosive qualities mentioned below, would obviously be due to arsenic. Bermannus (p. 459). "This kind of pyrites miners call cobaltum, if it be allowed to me to use our German name. The Greeks call it cadmia. The juices, however, out of which pyrites and silver are formed, appear to solidify into one body, and thus is produced what they call cobaltum. There are some who consider this the same as pyrites, because it is almost the same. There are some who distinguish it as a species, which pleases me, for it has the distinctive property of being extremely corrosive, so that it consumes the hands and feet of the workmen, unless they are well protected, which I do not believe that pyrites can do. Three kinds are found, and distinguished more by the colour than by other properties; they are black (abolite?), grey (smallite?), and iron colour (cobalt glance?). Moreover, it contains more silver than does pyrites...." Bermannus (p. 431). "It (a sort of pyrites) is so like the colour of galena that not without cause might anybody have doubt in deciding whether it be pyrites or galena.... Perhaps this kind is neither pyrites nor galena, but has a genus of its own. For it has not the colour of pyrites, nor the hardness. It is almost the colour of galena, but of entirely different components. From it there is made gold and silver, and a great quantity is dug out from Reichenstein which is in Silesia, as was lately reported to me. Much more is found at Raurici, which they call zincum; which species differs from pyrites, for the latter contains more silver than gold, the former only gold, or hardly any silver."
(De Natura Fossilium, p. 170). "Cadmia fossilis has an odour like garlic" ... (p. 367). "We now proceed with cadmia, not the cadmia fornacis (furnace accretions) of which I spoke in the last book, nor the cadmia fossilis (calamine) devoid of metal, which is used to colour copper, whose nature I explained in Book V, but the metallic mineral (fossilis metallica), which Pliny states to be an ore from which copper is made. The Ancients have left no record that another metal could be smelted from it. Yet it is a fact that not only copper but also silver may be smelted from it, and indeed occasionally both copper and silver together. Sometimes, as is the case with pyrites, it is entirely devoid of metal. It is frequently found in copper mines, but more frequently still in silver mines. And there are likewise veins of cadmia itself.... There are several species of the cadmia fossilis just as there were of cadmia fornacum. For one kind has the form of grapes and another of broken tiles, a third seems to consist of layers. But the cadmia fossilis has much stronger properties than that which is produced in the furnaces. Indeed, it often possesses such highly corrosive power that it corrodes the hands and feet of the miners. It, therefore, differs from pyrites in colour and properties. For pyrites, if it does not contain vitriol, is generally either of a gold or silver colour, rarely of any other. Cadmia is either black or brown or grey, or else reddish like copper when melted in the furnace.... For this cadmia is put in a suitable vessel, in the same way as quicksilver, so that the heat of the fire will cause it to sublimate, and from it is made a black or brown or grey body which the Alchemists call 'sublimated cadmia' (cadmiam sublimatam). This possesses corrosive properties of the highest degree. Cognate with cadmia and pyrites is a compound which the Noricians and Rhetians call zincum. This contains gold and silver, and is either red or white. It is likewise found in the Sudetian mountains, and is devoid of those metals.... With this cadmia is naturally related mineral spodos, known to the Moor Serapion, but unknown to the Greeks; and also pompholyx--for both are produced by fire where the miners, breaking the hard rocks in drifts, tunnels, and shafts, burn the cadmia or pyrites or galena or other similar minerals. From cadmia is made black, brown, and grey spodos; from pyrites, white pompholyx and spodos; from galena is made yellow or grey spodos. But pompholyx produced from copper stone (lapide aeroso) after some time becomes green. The black spodos, similar to soot, is found at Altenberg in Meissen. The white pompholyx, like wool which floats in the air in summer, is found in Hildesheim in the seams in the rocks of almost all quarries except in the sandstone. But the grey and the brown and the yellow pompholyx are found in those silver mines where the miners break up the rocks by fire. All consist of very fine particles which are very light, but the lightest of all is white pompholyx."
QUARTZ MINERALS.
Quarzum ("which Quertz oder Quartz Quartz (see note Latins call kiselstein 15, p. 380) silex")
Silex Hornstein oder Flinty or jaspery Hornstone feurstein quartz
Crystallum Crystal Clear crystals Crystal
Achates Achat Agate Agate
Sarda Carneol Carnelian Carnelian
Jaspis Jaspis Part coloured Jaspis quartz, part jade
Murrhina Chalcedonius Chalcedony Chalcedony
Coticula Goldstein A black silicious Touchstone (see stone note 37, p. 252)
Amethystus Amethyst Amethyst Amethyst
LIME MINERALS.
Lapis } Gips Gypsum Gypsum specularis } } Gypsum }
Marmor Marmelstein Marble Marble
Marmor Alabaster Alabaster Alabaster alabastrites
Marmor glarea -- Calcite (?) Calc spar(?)
Saxum calcis Kalchstein Limestone Limestone
Marga Mergel Marl Marl
Tophus Toffstein oder Sintry Tophus (see note topstein limestones, 13, p. 233) stalagmites, etc.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Amiantus Federwis, pliant Usually asbestos Asbestos salamanderhar
Magnetis Silberweis oder } Mica *Mica katzensilber } } Bracteolae -- } magnetidi simile } } Mica Katzensilber } oder glimmer }
Silex ex eo ictu -- Feldspar *Feldspar ferri facile ignis elicitur.... excubus figuris
Medulla saxorum Steinmarck Kaolinite Porcelain clay
Fluores (lapides Flusse Fluorspar *Fluorspar gemmarum simili) (see note 15, p. 380)
Marmor in Spat Barite *Heavy spar metallis repertum
Apart from the above, many other minerals are mentioned in other chapters, and some information is given with regard to them in the footnotes.
LODESTONE. (Magnes; Interpretatio gives Siegelstein oder magnet). The lodestone was well-known to the Ancients under various names--magnes, magnetis, heraclion, and sideritis. A review of the ancient opinions as to its miraculous properties would require more space than can be afforded. It is mentioned by many Greek writers, including Hippocrates (460-372 B.C.) and Aristotle; while Theophrastus (53), Dioscorides (V, 105), and Pliny (XXXIV, 42, XXXVI, 25) describe it at length. The Ancients also maintained the existence of a stone, theamedes, having repellant properties, and the two were supposed to exist at times in the same stone.
EMERY. (Smiris; Interpretatio gives smirgel). Agricola (De Natura Fossilium, p. 265) says: "The ring-makers polish and clean their hard gems with smiris. The glaziers use it to cut their glass into sheets. It is found in the silver mines of Annaberg in Meissen and elsewhere." Stones used for polishing gems are noted by the ancient authors, and Dana (Syst. of Mineralogy, p. 211) considers the stone of Armenia, of Theophrastus (77), to be emery, although it could quite well be any hard stone, such as Novaculite--which is found in Armenia. Dioscorides (V, 166) describes a stone with which the engravers polish gems.
LAPIS JUDAICUS. (Interpretatio gives Jueden stein). This was undoubtedly a fossil, possibly a pentremites. Agricola (De Natura Fossilium, p. 256) says: "It is shaped like an acorn, from the obtuse end to the point proceed raised lines, all equidistant, etc." Many fossils were included among the semi-precious stones by the Ancients. Pliny (XXXVII, 55, 66, 73) describes many such stones, among them the balanites, phoenicitis and the pyren, which resemble the above.
TROCHITIS. (Interpretatio gives spangen oder rederstein). This was also a fossil, probably crinoid stems. Agricola (De Natura Fossilium, p. 256) describes it: "Trochites is so called from a wheel, and is related to lapis judaicus. Nature has indeed given it the shape of a drum (tympanum). The round part is smooth, but on both ends as it were there is a module from which on all sides there extend radii to the outer edge, which corresponds with the radii. These radii are so much raised that it is fluted. The size of these trochites varies greatly, for the smallest is so little that the largest is ten times as big, and the largest are a digit in length by a third of a digit in thickness ... when immersed in vinegar they make bubbles."
By the use of fire-setting in recent times at Koenigsberg (Arthur L. Collins, "Fire-setting," Federated Inst. of Mining Engineers, Vol. V, p. 82) an advance of from 5 to 20 feet per month in headings was accomplished, and on the score of economy survived the use of gunpowder, but has now been abandoned in favour of dynamite. We may mention that the use of gunpowder for blasting was first introduced at Schemnitz by Caspar Weindle, in 1627, but apparently was not introduced into English mines for nearly 75 years afterward, as the late 17th century English writers continue to describe fire-setting.
Corium terrae Die erd oder leim. Saxum rubrum Rot gebirge. Alterum item rubrum Roterkle. Argilla cinerea Thone. Tertium saxum Gerhulle. Cineris vena Asche. Quartum saxum Gniest. Quintum saxum Schwehlen. Sextum saxum Oberrauchstein. Septimum saxum Zechstein. Octavum saxum Underrauchstein. Nonum saxum Blitterstein. Decimum saxum Oberschuelen. Undecimum saxum Mittelstein. Duodecimum saxum Underschuelen. Decimumtertium saxum Dach. Decimumquartum saxum Norweg. Decimumquintum saxum Lotwerg. Decimumsextum saxum Kamme. Lapis aerosus fissilis Schifer.
The description is no doubt that of the Mannsfeld cupriferous slates. It is of some additional interest as the first attempt at stratigraphic distinctions, although this must not be taken too literally, for we have rendered the different numbered "saxum" in this connection as "stratum." The German terms given by Agricola above, can many of them be identified in the miners' terms to-day for the various strata at Mannsfeld. Over the kupferschiefer the names to-day are kammschale, dach, faule, zechstein, rauchwacke, rauchstein, asche. The relative thickness of these beds is much the same as given by Agricola. The stringers in the 8th stratum of stone, which fuse in the fire of the second order, were possibly calcite. The rauchstein of the modern section is distinguished by stringers of calcite, which give it at times a brecciated appearance.
Although map-making of a primitive sort requires no instruments, except legs, the oldest map in the world possesses unusual interest because it happens to be a map of a mining region. This well-known Turin papyrus dates from Seti I. (about 1300 B.C.), and it represents certain gold mines between the Nile and the Red Sea. The best discussion is by Chabas (Inscriptions des Mines d'Or, Chalons-sur-Saone, Paris, 1862, p. 30-36). Fragments of another papyrus, in the Turin Museum, are considered by Lieblein (Deux Papyras Hieratiques, Christiania, 1868) also to represent a mine of the time of Rameses I. If so, this one dates from about 1400 B.C. As to an actual map of underground workings (disregarding illustrations) we know of none until after Agricola's time. At his time maps were not made, as will be gathered from the text.
LATIN TEXT. GLOSSARY. TERMS ADOPTED.
Funiculus -- Cord
Pertica Stab Rod
Hemicyclium Donlege bretlein Hemicycle
Tripus Stul Tripod
Instrumentum cui Compass Compass index
Orbis Scheube Orbis
Libra stativa Auffsafz Standing plummet level
Libra pensilis Wage Suspended plummet level
Instrumentum cui Der schiner Swiss compass index Alpinum compass
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