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De Re Metallica, Translated from the First Latin Edition of 1556 Flashcards

Georg Agricola · Public domain edition · 371 cards · 103 chapters

De Re Metallica (1556) is Agricola’s systematic account of Renaissance mining, assaying, and metallurgy. This deck covers the translators’ editorial aims, Agricola’s career and theoretical positions, and the Latin, German, and Italian editions.

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Chapter 1 · Question

What three objectives did the translators set for this work?

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Introduction (part 1)4 cards

What three objectives did the translators set for this work?
The translators state three objectives: to give a faithful, literal translation of the author's statements; to present these in a manner that will interest the reader; and to preserve, so far as possible, the style of the original text. They note the task was doubly difficult because Agricola used Latin, a medium that had ceased to expand a thousand years before his subject came into being.
Chapter 1
Why did the translators keep the original Latin for weights?
They retained the original Latin for weights because it is impossible to give true equivalents while avoiding fractions of reduction, and because, as explained in the Appendix on Weights, it is impossible to say in many cases what scale the Author had in mind. They found English equivalents for practically all other coined terms except vein varieties and a few minerals.
Chapter 1
How did the translators avoid implying modern scientific understanding?
They considered the greatest difficulty of all to be the necessity of rigorously avoiding modern technical terms that would imply a greater scientific understanding than the period possessed. They also avoided German terms as undesirable, and avoided obsolete or unusual English, since many described methods had never been practiced in English-speaking mining communities and so had no representatives in the vocabulary.
Chapter 1
What evidence do the translators give for De Re Metallica's importance?
They note it was not superseded as the textbook and guide to miners and metallurgists for 180 years, until Schlueter's great work on metallurgy in 1738. It passed through some ten editions in three languages at a time when printing such a volume was no ordinary undertaking, a record no other volume on the same subjects has equaled since.
Chapter 1

Introduction (part 2)4 cards

What offices and honours did Agricola receive from the Saxon Electors Maurice and Augustus?
Duke Maurice granted Agricola a freehold house and plot in Chemnitz, exempt from burgher rights and municipal service, with permission to brew beer and buy wine for his household but not to sell it. Maurice also took him under special protection so he could be summoned only before the Duke and his councillor. Agricola was made Burgomaster of Chemnitz in 1546 and held the office four times, and he dedicated most of his works to Maurice and Augustus.
Chapter 2
Why was Agricola refused burial at Chemnitz despite his standing as Burgomaster?
Fabricius, announcing Agricola's death on November 21st, 1555, at age 62 from a four-days' fever, noted that Agricola rejected the Protestant Churches and would not join their Communion. At the Prince's command, burial was refused, and only on the fourth day was he carried to Zeitz and interred in the Cathedral. Hofmann explains that Chemnitz citizens, almost exclusively Protestant, may have objected to a Catholic's interment in St. Jacob's.
Chapter 2
How did Agricola depart from the Peripatetic school, and why does the author argue this mattered?
The author argues Agricola was partly a follower of Aristotle, Theophrastus, and Strato, but radically departed from the Peripatetic school by repudiating certain teachings with vigour. His detailed refutations formed, in the author's view, the first battle in science over observation versus inductive speculation. Agricola held that things seen with the eyes and understood by the senses are more clearly demonstrated than if learned by reasoning.
Chapter 2
What does the author identify as Agricola's most interesting theoretical views and why?
The author argues that of all Agricola's theoretical views, those on the origin of ore deposits are most interesting, because in these matters he had the greatest opportunities for observation and the most experience. The author also credits him, in a passage from De Ortu et Causis reproduced in Appendix A, with what is believed to be the first adequate declaration of erosion's part in mountain sculpture.
Chapter 2

Introduction (part 3)4 cards

What Latin, German, and Italian editions of De Re Metallica does the chapter list?
The chapter lists Latin folio editions by Froben, Basel (1556, 1561), Ludwig Koenig (1621), and Emanuel Koenig (1657). German editions are Vom Bergkwerck (Froben, 1557), Bergwerck Buch (Sigmundi Feyrabendt, Frankfort, 1580), and a Ludwig Koenig Basel folio (1621). The Italian edition is L'Arte de Metalli (Froben, Basel, 1563). Other editions cited by bibliographers could not be confirmed in any library.
Chapter 3
What does the chapter say about a possible French or Spanish version?
The chapter states De Re Metallica was never actually published in any language other than Latin, German, and Italian, so far as the authors know. A Froben account entry from March 1560 records payment to Leodigaris Grymaldo for correcting Agricola's work in French, which the authors suggest may be an error for the Italian edition. A Spanish manuscript is said to have been seen in the library at Bejar.
Chapter 3
What happened to Sir John Pettus's planned English translation?
In his glossary to a translation of Lazarus Erckern's work on assaying, Pettus wrote that he intended within a year to publish Georgius Agricola's De Re Metallica fully translated into English, with a dictionary added. The chapter states the translation was never published, and extensive inquiry in various libraries and among Pettus's family failed to yield any trace of the manuscript.
Chapter 3
How does the chapter characterize the existing German translation?
The chapter calls the German translation a wretched work by someone who knew nothing of the science and especially had no appreciation of the peculiar Latin terms coined by Agricola, most of which he rendered literally. The authors call it a sad commentary on his countrymen that no correct German translation exists. The Italian translation is by Michelangelo Florio, dedicated to Elizabeth, Queen of England.
Chapter 3

Introduction (part 4)4 cards

How does Agricola describe alchemists who color base metals to look like gold or silver?
The author argues these alchemists do not change the substance of base metals but only color them so they appear to be gold or silver. When fire removes this foreign appearance, the metals return to their own character. Because they deceive people, such alchemists are held in the greatest odium, and their frauds are a capital offence.
Chapter 4
Why did Agricola write De Re Metallica, and what method did he use for illustrations?
Agricola writes that no authors have treated mining in its entirety, and foreign nations do not understand the Latin tongue. He therefore wrote twelve books. For veins, tools, vessels, sluices, machines, and furnaces, he not only described them but hired illustrators to delineate their forms, lest word-based descriptions be misunderstood by contemporaries or cause difficulty to posterity.
Chapter 4
What rule does Agricola state about what he includes in his books?
Agricola states he has omitted all things he has not himself seen, or has not read or heard of from persons upon whom he can rely. What he has neither seen nor carefully considered after reading or hearing of, he has not written about. He says the same rule applies to all his instruction, whether he enjoins things that ought to be done, describes usual things, or condemns things that are done.
Chapter 4
What does Agricola say about naming things in the art of mining, and give his examples?
Agricola says mining does not lend itself to elegant language, so his books lack refinement of style. Some things lack names because they are new or their old names are lost. He was forced to describe some by combined words and distinguish others by new names, such as Ingestor, Discretor, Lotor, and Excoctor. He also adopted old names like Cisium, formerly a two-wheeled vehicle, for a one-wheeled cart.
Chapter 4

D. Yonge's Translation (Bonn's Library, London, 1854, Vol…4 cards

According to the footnote, what three sources does the science of Chemistry come from?
The footnote states that the science of Chemistry comes from three sources: Alchemy, Medicine, and Metallurgy. It argues that however polluted Alchemy may be, the vast advance it made by discovering the principal acids, alkalis, and the more common of their salts should be constantly recognized.
Chapter 5
Why does the footnote say knowledge of many alchemists mentioned by Agricola is uncertain?
The footnote explains that lesser Alchemists negligently attributed their own writings to more esteemed members such as Hermes and Osthanes, and works were also spuriously ascribed to Aristotle, Plato, Moses, and even Jesus Christ. For many authors, knowledge extends only to names appended to writings, some still unpublished; they may or may not have been actual persons.
Chapter 5
How does the footnote characterize Hermes Trismegistos and the dating of his works?
Hermes Trismegistos was a legendary Egyptian figure supposed to have flourished before 1,500 B.C., considered by some a corruption of the god Thoth. He was believed to possess the secret of transmutation and is referred to by later Greek Alchemists, but the works extant have been demonstrated to date not prior to the second century.
Chapter 5
What does the footnote note about Agricola omitting certain important figures from his list?
The footnote observes that Agricola omits Avicenna, Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus, Basil Valentine, and Paracelsus, a contemporary of his own. It adds that in De Ortu et Causis Agricola expends much thought refuting theories of Avicenna and Albertus, but the others are not mentioned, although their work is chemically of considerable importance.
Chapter 5

BOOK I. (part 1)4 cards

What skills and knowledge does Agricola say a miner must possess?
The author argues a miner needs great skill: knowing which terrain is profitable to prospect, understanding veins and seams, familiarity with earths, juices, gems, stones, and metals, knowledge of underground works, and diverse methods of assaying and smelting—each metal requiring its own treatment. He also lists Philosophy, Medicine, Astronomy, Surveying, Arithmetic, Architecture, Drawing, and Law as sciences a miner should not ignore.
Chapter 6
How does Agricola answer critics who say mining is unprofitable and unstable?
The author argues critics confuse skilled with unskilled miners: the learned miner assays and proves ore and works only approved veins, while the ignorant dig indiscriminately and lose time and trouble. He admits mining profit is less stable than agriculture, since veins do cease to yield, but claims it is more productive—a lead mine's yearly profit being three times or at least twice that of the best fields.
Chapter 6
How does Agricola respond to the charge that mining is dangerously deadly?
He concedes the accidents are of exceeding gravity—pestilential air, rotting lungs, crushing rock, falls from ladders—and says metals should not be dug at all if such things happened frequently or could not be guarded against. But he argues they rarely happen and only through carelessness, which no more deters miners than a carpenter is deterred by a mate's fatal fall.
Chapter 6
What arguments do critics make that metals are useless, and how does Agricola rebut them?
Critics claim the earth hides minerals deep while yielding useful crops openly, citing Ovid on men digging riches from the earth's entrails, and argue body and soul need no metals, quoting Euripides and Timocreon against wealth. The author counters that mines have enriched republics, kings, and private persons, and that metals can buy not only crops but all things sold, citing Xenophon on Athenian silver mines.
Chapter 6

BOOK I. (part 2)4 cards

What examples does Agricola cite of gold causing downfall?
Agricola cites Tarpeius, bribed with gold to admit the Sabines into Rome's citadel; Claudius Curio, who sold his country to Caesar for gold; Aesculapius, the great physician, ruined by gold; and Marcus Crassus, whose desire for Parthian gold destroyed him, his son, and eleven legions, with molten gold poured into his mouth.
Chapter 7
What does Agricola say about the claim that metals should not be mined?
The author argues critics who say metals should stay buried effectively accuse the Creator of making things vainly and being the Author of evils. He counters that Nature places metals in veins and seams as their proper place, and compares mining to catching fish hidden in the sea, which man, a terrestrial animal, searches despite the greater strangeness.
Chapter 7
How does Agricola argue metals are necessary for food and clothing?
The author argues that without metals man cannot provide food or clothing: ploughshares, mattocks, scythes, and flails are iron; vessels are copper or lead; animals cannot be cut up without axes and knives; fishing needs iron hooks and weights. For clothing, shears, mallets, knives, scissors, needles, and awls are all needed to make cloth, furs, and shoes.
Chapter 7
What does Agricola say about iron's use in weapons and cannon?
The author notes critics condemn iron because it makes swords, spears, and arrows, quoting Pliny that iron is the most deadly fruit of human ingenuity, given wings to fly. Agricola adds that cannon fire, though often made of copper and tin rather than iron, can shatter many bodies and walls, seeming to surpass ancient siege engines.
Chapter 7

BOOK I. (part 3)4 cards

According to the chapter, what is the real cause of wars and crimes blamed on gold and silver?
The author argues that metals are not themselves the cause of war or wrongdoing; blame belongs to human vices such as avarice, lust, anger, cruelty, discord, and passion for power. He compares gold to a beautiful woman or a fine horse: the object is not at fault, only the unbridled desire of the person who misuses it. He cites Virgil on Polymnestor and Pygmalion as showing that avarice, not gold, drives murder.
Chapter 8
How do the Peripatetics and the Stoics differ on classifying wealth?
The Peripatetics regarded all wealth as a good thing, treating externals as neither mind nor body, and held that riches can be used well or ill. The Stoics, though subtle arguers, did not place wealth among good things nor among evils, but in a neutral class: virtue alone is good and vice alone evil, so health, beauty, and wealth are indifferent. The author himself sides with counting useful things like metals as good.
Chapter 8
What examples does the author give to show metals are useful to various professions?
The author argues metals serve physicians, who get medicine ingredients to cure wounds, ulcers, and plagues; painters, who get durable pigments; architects, who get marble for strengthening and decorating buildings; merchants, since coinage beats barter; and those seeking glory, since coins and statues grant a kind of immortality. He adds that even wood and stone tools cannot be made without metal tools.
Chapter 8
Why does the author consider mining an honourable occupation compared with soldiering?
The author argues the miner, like the farmer sowing his fields, injures no one while gaining wealth, whereas the soldier's booty is often impious, seizing sacred and profane goods alike. Even a just king's war against tyrants drags innocent poor people, old men, matrons, maidens, and orphans into calamity. The miner, by contrast, can grow rich without violence, fraud, or malice.
Chapter 8

BOOK I. (part 4)4 cards

How does Agricola answer the charge that mining is shameful because slaves once worked in mines?
The author argues the objection fails by analogy: agriculture, architecture, and medicine were also practised by slaves, yet remain honourable professions, so mining should not be excluded on that ground. He adds that today miners receive pay and are engaged like other workmen in common trades, not worked as slaves.
Chapter 9
Which callings does Agricola rank as the chief ones, and how does he judge mining among them?
He names the moneylender, the soldier, the merchant, the farmer, and the miner as the chief callings. The author argues usury is odious and the soldier's spoil is wicked before God and man; mining excels the merchant in honour and is not less noble but far more profitable than agriculture, making it a calling of peculiar dignity.
Chapter 9
What evidence does Agricola give that people of high status have been involved in mining?
He cites the noble Thucydides, historian, whom the Athenians placed in charge of the mines of Thasos; kings, princes, and republics counted among investors; Maximilian Caesar enrolling Conrad, once poor at Schneeberg, among the Counts; and King Vladislaus restoring Tursius of Cracow to the Assembly of Barons after he grew rich from Hungarian mines.
Chapter 9
Why does Agricola claim the miner is well suited to military life?
The author argues the common miner is not vile or abject because training in vigilance and labour by night and day gives great endurance. He is accustomed to long night vigils, wielding iron tools, digging trenches, driving tunnels, making machines, and carrying burdens, so experts in military affairs prefer the miner even to the rustic.
Chapter 9

BOOK I. (part 5)4 cards

What did Herodotus report about the Thasians' income from mines and mainland possessions?
Herodotus (VI., 46-47) says the Thasians' revenue came partly from mainland possessions and partly from mines. They controlled the gold mines of Scapte-Hyle, yielding eighty talents yearly; their mines in Thasos yielded less but were still prolific. Free from land-tax, they had surplus income from both sources—two hundred talents in common years, three hundred in best years. Herodotus states he himself saw the mines.
Chapter 10
What did Herodotus say about the Phoenician mine workings on Thasos?
Herodotus calls the Phoenician workings by far the most curious. He says the Phoenicians discovered them when they went with Thasos and colonized the island, which took its name from him. The workings lie in Thasos itself, between Coenyra and a place called Aenyra, over against Samothrace, where a high mountain was turned upside down in the search for ores.
Chapter 10
How did Conrad von Glueck become wealthy, and what titles did he receive?
Agricola, in De Veteribus et Novis Metallis, says Conrad—nicknamed 'pauper'—suddenly became rich from the silver mines of Mount Jura, known as the Firstum. Originally a working miner at Schneeberg called Armer Cuntz (poor Conrad), he grew wealthy from the mines of Fuerst in Leberthal, in the Vosges Mountains on the borders of Lorraine and Upper Alsace. Emperor Maximilian ennobled him as Graf Cuntz von Glueck.
Chapter 10
What dating problem does the chapter note about the Phoenician colonization of Thasos?
The chapter says the date of the Phoenician colonization of Thasos is highly nebular—anywhere from 1200 to 900 B.C. It also notes that Herodotus's statement about the Thasian mines arose from the Thasians' relations with Darius (521-486 B.C.), placing the account in a specific political context rather than a firm colonizing date.
Chapter 10

BOOK II. (part 1)3 cards

What seven things must a miner consider before mining the veins?
The author lists seven: the situation, the conditions, the water, the roads, the climate, the right of ownership, and the neighbours. He then elaborates on the four kinds of situation—mountain, hill, valley, and plain—noting that mountain and hill are easiest because tunnels can be driven to drain water, while valley and plain are more troublesome since tunnels cannot be driven there.
Chapter 11
What advantage does Agricola claim for spreading investment across several mines rather than one?
The author argues that a man who alone funds one mine risks losing everything if it is barren, but one who shares in several mines in a metal-rich region rarely spends in vain. If one of twelve veins yields abundantly, it repays his outlay with profit; three or four rich veins make it very profitable. He compares this to Xenophon's advice to the Athenians to share new silver veins among the ten tribes.
Chapter 11
What cautions does Agricola give about buying shares in mines?
The author advises a prudent buyer to visit the mine and examine the vein's nature before buying, guarding against fraudulent sellers. Buyers should set a limit on expenditure, not buy only high-priced shares in producing mines, and not buy too many in neighbouring mines where metal has not been found, lest fortune fail and losses exhaust them. He notes share-buyers gain more certainly, though perhaps less wealth, than those mining at their own expense.
Chapter 11

BOOK II. (part 2)3 cards

According to Agricola, how do hoar-frost and plant appearance reveal hidden veins?
The author argues veins emit a warm, dry exhalation that hinders freezing, so herbage over a vein appears wet rather than frosted—observable in cold places in April and May or when the cordum hay is cut in September. Excessively hot exhalation yields small pale plants; trees may show bluish or leaden foliage, cleft trunks, and discoloured branches, and are more often uprooted by wind.
Chapter 12
What two opposing positions does Agricola report concerning the forked twig?
Some miners claim the twig is of greatest use for finding veins, asserting the vein's power turns it, and they use different woods for different metals—hazel for silver, ash for copper, pitch pine for lead and tin, iron and steel for gold. Others deny its usefulness to serious men, saying it moves only for those using incantations and craft, and attribute tree contortions to warm dry exhalations.
Chapter 12
By what natural forces or accidents does Agricola say veins may be laid bare without human industry?
Veins may be exposed by torrents stripping the surface (as at Freiberg), wind uprooting trees, breaking rocks, heavy rains tearing away mountains, earthquakes, lightning, snowslides, or ploughing—Justin reports gold nuggets turned up in Galicia—or forest fires, as Diodorus Siculus and Lucretius describe. Agricola also repeats the tale that a horse's hoof disclosed lead veins at Goslar.
Chapter 12

BOOK II. (part 3)4 cards

What did Nicias do with his thousand men in the silver mines?
According to the chapter, Nicias the son of Niceratus kept a thousand men employed in the silver mines and let them on hire to Sosias of Thrace on condition that he give him an obolus a day for each, free of all charges, and he always supplied the number undiminished. The chapter notes this would be about 23 oz. Troy of silver per day for the whole thousand.
Chapter 13
How did the Laurion mines fund Athens' fleet at Salamis?
The chapter states that in 484 B.C. the mines returned 100 talents (about 83,700 oz. Troy) to the Treasury, and this, on the advice of Themistocles, was devoted to constructing the fleet that conquered the Persians at Salamis in 480 B.C. The author argues Athens' dominance and sea-power were directly due to mine revenues.
Chapter 13
How were the Laurion mines worked and held according to the chapter?
The chapter states the mines were worked by slaves, with even overseers sometimes slaves; Nicias paid a whole talent for a good overseer. The mines were the property of the State, areas defined by vertical boundaries and let on lease for definite periods for a fixed annual rent. Ore was hand-sorted underground and carried out by slaves, sometimes with a windlass.
Chapter 13
What did Strabo say about the exhausted Attic silver mines?
The chapter quotes Strabo (IX., 1, 23) writing about 30 B.C.: the silver mines in Attica were at first of importance but are now exhausted. When the mines yielded a bad return, workmen committed the old refuse and scoria to the furnace and obtained very pure silver, because the former workmen had carried on the furnace process unskilfully.
Chapter 13

BOOK II. (part 4)4 cards

According to the chapter, what did Posidonius claim about forests burning and silver in Ibernia?
Posidonius, quoted via Strabo and Athenaeus, told of forests set on fire by shepherds, after which the silver-laden earth melted and flowed to the surface like liquid silver; earthquakes later exposed more. The chapter notes Posidonius was prone to rhetorical exaggeration, and Agricola likely quoted him through Strabo rather than the lost originals.
Chapter 14
How does Agricola explain the discovery of the Goslar mines and the name Rammelsberg?
Agricola reports that a noble's horse named Ramelus, tied to a tree, pawed the earth with its iron-shod hooves and uncovered a hidden vein of lead. He compares it to Pegasus opening Hippocrene, and says the mountain was named Rammelsberg after the horse. He accepts the story because chance can reveal veins and the name agrees.
Chapter 14
What does the chapter say about the divining rod's origins and Agricola's view of it?
The chapter calls Agricola's account the first published description of the divining rod for minerals or water. It argues ancient rods cited as precursors were unrelated, notes Theophilus and ancient naturalists described finding water without a rod, and that Paracelsus called divining rods vain and misleading. The editor praises Agricola's clarity against later believers like Boyle.
Chapter 14
What does Pliny record about Hannibal's Spanish silver mines, and what does the chapter note about dating?
Pliny says shafts begun by Hannibal in Spain still remained, named after their makers; one called Baebelo yielded Hannibal three hundred pounds of silver daily and was excavated fifteen hundred paces, with water-bearers working by torchlight. The chapter notes Hannibal died 206 years before Pliny was born, so Pliny reported secondhand.
Chapter 14

BOOK III. (part 1)4 cards

What three types of veins does Agricola distinguish in Book III?
Agricola distinguishes venae profundae, which descend from the earth's surface to its lowest depths; venae dilatatae, which neither reach the surface nor descend but spread out over a large area underground; and vena cumulata, an accumulation of a certain kind of mineral occupying a large extent of space in length and width.
Chapter 15
How do rock seams reveal a vein's direction?
The seams in the rocks indicate whether a vein runs east-west or the reverse. If the rock seams incline westward as they descend, the vein is said to run from east to west; if they incline eastward, it runs from west to east. The same method determines north-south directions. The compass needle alone shows the line, but the seams decide which way along it.
Chapter 15
How is the miners' compass divided, and what does the needle show?
The circle is divided by twelve diameters into twenty-four equal divisions, with three inner circles; the innermost is hollowed to hold a magnetic needle. When the needle settles, its forked tail marked XII signifies north and its point marked XII signifies south; VI superior is east and VI inferior west. Between each two cardinal points lie five subordinate directions.
Chapter 15
What does Agricola say about naming directions after winds?
Miners reckon as many compass points as sailors do winds, a practice Agricola says the Romans also followed, giving winds partly Latin and partly Greek names. There are four principal winds—Subsolanus (east), Favonius (west), Auster (south), Septentrio (north)—and twenty subordinate ones, five between each pair of principal winds. He notes some authorities count only twelve or fourteen winds.
Chapter 15

BOOK III. (part 2)4 cards

How does Agricola classify the small veins called fibrae?
He lists fibrae transversae (crossing the vein), fibrae obliquae (crossing obliquely), fibrae sociae (joining the vein), fibrae dilatatae (penetrating through it), and fibrae incumbentes, which lie on the vein from surface to hangingwall or footwall and are also called Subdialis. In direction, junctions, and divisions, he says stringers do not differ from veins.
Chapter 16
What vein orientation do many miners consider best, and does Agricola accept it?
Many miners prize veins running from the VI or VII direction of east to west through a north-inclining slope, with south hangingwall, north footwall, heads rising north, and rock seams heading east. The author argues experience and reasoning do not support this: the St. Lorentz vein at Abertham and the Himmelsch hoz at Annaberg yielded much silver despite contrary orientations.
Chapter 16
Why does Agricola reject the idea that the sun draws metal out of veins?
He argues the sun's rays do not penetrate to depth: the air of a tunnel covered by only two fathoms of earth is cold in summer, because the intervening earth checks the sun's force. He also notes the sun cannot dry moisture in shaded, tree-covered places. He asks why the sun would draw silver from silver veins but no copper from copper veins.
Chapter 16
What does Agricola say about gold in rivers and streams?
Miners such as Calbus ranked rivers by direction, favoring those flowing east to west with mountains to the north. The author argues gold is not generated in rivers but torn from veins and stringers and settled in sands, so it may be found whatever direction the stream flows, which experience does not contradict. He does not deny gold forms in veins beneath river beds.
Chapter 16

BOOK III. (part 3)3 cards

According to Agricola, what two causes explain why mineral juices solidify?
The author argues each substance has a material cause (its juice) and an efficient cause (heat or cold). Juices solidify either by heat, meaning evaporation, as with salt, or by cold, since metals melt and flow with heat and so their solidification is attributed to cold. The proportions of earth and water in the mixture also determine which metal results.
Chapter 17
How does Agricola say water forms venae profundae versus venae dilatatae?
The author argues water crushes and splits brittle rock, then forces its way through. Running downward, it makes small and large venae profundae; running laterally, it forms venae dilatatae. Veins are straight when the water runs straight, inclined when it runs inclined, and crooked when narrow veins are dragged by wide ones or when water detours around very hard rock.
Chapter 17
What is a vena cumulata and how does Agricola say it forms?
A vena cumulata is a third kind of vein, neither a wide vena profunda nor a thick vena dilatata: a place where some mineral accumulates, sometimes exceeding 600 feet in depth, length, and breadth, though generally smaller. It forms when water breaks away rock and ejects stones and sand from a great cavern, which is later closed off and filled with material that produces one or more minerals.
Chapter 17

BOOK III. (part 4)4 cards

According to the chapter, what two original propositions of Agricola remain fundamentals today?
The chapter states two propositions original with Agricola still fundamental: (1) ore channels were of origin subsequent to their containing rocks, and (2) ores were deposited from solutions circulating in these openings. It credits him with deriving these from actual observation rather than fruitless speculation, calling this a contribution to the foundation of natural science.
Chapter 18
How does the chapter describe Agricola's definition of 'juice'?
The chapter quotes Agricola (De Ortu, p. 48) that juice is nothing but water which has absorbed 'earth', corroded or touched metal, and somehow become heated. It notes his 'juice' was in most cases a solution, and that he distinguished mechanical suspension from solution, since a stony juice differs from water that merely abraded rock.
Chapter 18
What error does the chapter attribute to Agricola regarding ore channels, and who corrected it?
The chapter says Agricola was wrong in attributing the creation of ore channels to erosion alone. It was not until Von Oppel (Anleitung zur Markscheidekunst, Dresden, 1749) that the positive proposition that ore channels were due to fissuring was brought forward, two centuries after Agricola. Von Oppel, however, neglected channels due to erosion.
Chapter 18
What does the chapter say about Werner's standing as father of the modern ore-deposit theory?
The chapter disputes Werner's reputation, saying his contention of a universal chemical deluge penetrating surface-open fissures was more absurd than anything in Agricola's view. It notes none of Werner's original propositions still hold, and that his rejection of solutions originating within the earth halted progress for half a century. It attributes his reputation to ignorance of earlier writers.
Chapter 18

BOOK IV. (part 1)4 cards

How does the Bergmeister allocate meers to miners who discover a vein?
The Bergmeister awards the head meer to the first discoverer of the vein, and the remaining meers to others in the order in which each makes application. The head meer is larger to reward the finder and encourage further prospecting. The size of a meer is measured in fathoms, each reckoned at six feet.
Chapter 19
What were the dimensions of the head meer and ordinary meers on a vena profunda?
On a vena profunda the head meer consists of three double measures: forty-two fathoms long and seven wide, giving 294 square fathoms. Every other meer consists of two double measures: twenty-eight fathoms long and seven wide, giving 196 square fathoms. The Bergmeister bounds owners' rights by these limits.
Chapter 19
What oath did the discoverer swear before the Bergmeister delimited the vein?
The discoverer placed two fingers of his right hand on his head and swore by God and all the Saints that the vein was his, calling them to witness, and adding that if it were not his, his head and hands should cease to perform their functions. The Bergmeister then measured from the centre of the windlass.
Chapter 19
How did the old custom distribute meers among the discoverer and dignitaries?
Starting from the centre of the windlass, the Bergmeister gave the discoverer a half and then three full measures, then one each to the King, his Consort, the Master of the Horse, the Cup-bearer, the Groom of the Chamber, and himself, then measured similarly on the other side. The discoverer thus got seven single measures; each dignitary got two.
Chapter 19

BOOK IV. (part 2)4 cards

How were silver mines at Schneeberg and Joachimsthal divided into shares?
At Schneeberg a silver mine or tunnel was divided into 128 shares: 126 held by private owners, one by the State, and one by the Church. At Joachimsthal only 122 shares belonged to private owners, four were proprietary shares, and State and Church each held one. In some places a share for the most needy was later added, making 129.
Chapter 20
Which mine owners paid contributions, and which did not?
Only the private owners of mines paid contributions. Proprietary holders, even with as many as four shares, paid none but supplied wood gratis for timbering, machinery, buildings, and smelting. State, Church, and poor shares also paid no contributions; their proceeds built or repaired public works and sacred buildings and supported the needy.
Chapter 20
Under the old custom, how could owners lose rights to a mine or tunnel?
Formerly, if witnesses proved owners failed to send miners for three continuous shifts, the Bergmeister deprived them of the mine and gave it to the informer. For tunnels, the principal cause was no miner employed for eight days; failure to clean drains or repair ventilation shafts also counted. Owners who paid their contributions did not lose rights against their will.
Chapter 20
How did the procedure for restoring proscribed share owners change?
Formerly, proscribed owners were not restored unless owners of one hundred shares approved. To-day, if owners of shares constituting more than half the mine consent to restoration, the others must consent whether they wish to or not. Owners who pay contributions and Share Clerk fees within three or four days have their shares removed from the proscribed list.
Chapter 20

BOOK IV. (part 3)4 cards

How does the Mining Clerk keep his records secure against falsification?
All the Mining Clerk's books are kept in a chest with two locks. The Mining Clerk holds the key to one lock and the Bergmeister holds the key to the other, so neither can open the chest alone. The chapter states this arrangement exists so that no one may bring a charge of falsification against the Clerk.
Chapter 21
What happens to an owner who fails to pay his contribution for a month?
For a mine not yielding metal, the manager announces contributions as determined by the Bergmeister and two Jurors. If an owner fails to pay for a month, the manager removes his name from the list of owners and makes his shares the common property of the other proprietors. The Mining Clerk and Share Clerk then record him in writing as unpaid.
Chapter 21
How are the twenty-four hours divided into shifts, and when is the night shift allowed?
The day and night are divided into three shifts of seven hours each, with three intermediate hours for workmen to enter and leave. The first runs from the fourth to the eleventh hour, the second from the twelfth to the seventh, and the night shift from the eighth evening hour to the third morning hour. The Bergmeister permits the night shift only when necessity demands it.
Chapter 21
What are the mine manager's duties regarding smelting and recording the metal?
When ore is smelted the manager is present in person and watches that the smelting is done carefully and advantageously. If gold or silver is melted out, he records its weight in his books when it comes from the cupellation furnace and carries it to the Tithe-gatherer, who also records the weight. Both record it again when it is brought back from the refiner.
Chapter 21

BOOK IV. (part 4)4 cards

According to the chapter, what four parties claimed title to minerals?
The chapter identifies four principal claimants to mineral title: the Overlord (King, Prince, or Bishop), the Community or State as distinguished from the Ruler, the Landowner, and the Mine Operator (including the Discoverer). Which party held dominant right reflected the social state of the period, and the miner, ever in a minority, depended on others needing his exertion and skill.
Chapter 22
What condition did Greeks, Romans, Mediaeval Germans, Englishmen, and Australians impose on miners?
The chapter states that from the very first, these powers required the miner to continuously employ himself digging in his allotted ground or lose his title. This condition, designed to stimulate productive activity, appears with extraordinary persistence across Greeks, Romans, Mediaeval Germans, old and modern Englishmen, and modern Australians. The American system, arising when things were easier for individuals, allowed an 11-month vacation for a few years, then a holiday altogether.
Chapter 22
How were the Laurion mines in Greece owned and leased?
The minerals were State property, apparently inherited from older civilizations. Leases for exploitation went to individuals for three to ten years, with a special advantage for pioneers on previously unworked mines. Leases carried no surface rights, and boundaries at Mt. Laurion were vertical, as must be the case in horizontal deposits. The landlord apparently got nothing; the miner paid large tribute and had to operate continuously.
Chapter 22
What did the Aljustrel Tablet reveal about Roman mining regulation?
Found near Aljustrel, Portugal, in 1876, the bronze tablet appears to be the third of a series setting out mining district regulations. It mostly covers public auctions, baths, barbers, and tradesmen, but clause VII regulates those working dumps of scoria and provides for payment to the mine administrator of a capitation on slaves employed. The chapter notes it throws no light on actual regulations for working the mines.
Chapter 22

BOOK IV. (part 5)4 cards

Who presided over miners in this district and what were his functions?
The miners were presided over by a "Barmaster" (also spelled "Barghmaster" or "Barmar"), a corruption of the German Bergmeister. He had the same functions as his Saxon progenitor, including the allotment of title and settlement of disputes, and like him he was advised by a jury.
Chapter 23
What labour condition could cause a miner to forfeit his title?
The title was held subject to rigorous labour conditions, amounting to forfeiture for failure to operate the mine for a period of nine weeks. The discoverer was also entitled to a finder's "meer" of extra size, and his title was to the vein within the end lines, that is, the "apex" law.
Chapter 23
Where does the author believe the American "apex law" originated?
The author argues that if the American "Apex law" is of English descent, it must be traced to Derbyshire rather than Cornwall, as is generally done. However, the author's own belief is that the American "apex" conception came straight from Germany.
Chapter 23
What recent trend in mining legislation does the author identify?
The author argues that with the growth of individualism, miners and landlords gained steadily wider rights at the State's expense until well into the 19th century. Since the mid-19th century, stronger communal sentiment has appeared in legislation in South Africa, Australia, and England, and in agitation in the United States, all toward greater restrictions on mineral ownership in favour of the State.
Chapter 23

BOOK V. (part 1)4 cards

What dimensions does Agricola give for a typical mine shaft?
A shaft is usually two fathoms long, two-thirds of a fathom wide, and thirteen fathoms deep. However, when sunk to connect with a tunnel already driven into a hill, it may go only eight fathoms, or at other times fourteen or more. A shaft may be vertical or inclined, depending on whether the vein the miners follow is vertical or inclined.
Chapter 24
How does Agricola define a tunnel and how is one driven?
A tunnel is a subterranean ditch driven lengthwise, nearly twice as high as broad, usually one and a quarter fathoms high and about three and three-quarters feet wide, wide enough for workmen to pass and carry loads. Two workmen usually drive it: one digs the upper part and one the lower, one going forward while the other follows closely, each sitting on boards fixed from footwall to hangingwall.
Chapter 24
Where do miners expect the best ore at junctions of stringers and veins?
When a stringer junctions with a main vein and causes a swelling, a shaft should be sunk at the junction. If a stringer cuts the main vein crosswise or obliquely and descends vertically, a second shaft is sunk to the cut; if oblique, the shaft is set two or three fathoms back so the junction is pierced lower. Agricola says at such junctions lies the best hope of finding ore, usually in greater abundance.
Chapter 24
What does Agricola say about the common miners' belief on stringer direction?
Common miners favor stringers coming from the north joining the main vein and disfavor those from the south, claiming southern ones harm the vein while northern ones improve it. The author argues miners should neglect neither, since experience does not confirm this opinion, and he could furnish examples of stringers rejected by common miners that proved good.
Chapter 24

BOOK V. (part 2)4 cards

How does Agricola classify ore as soft, hard, harder, and hardest?
Soft ore is composed of earth and soft solidified juices; hard ore of metallic minerals and moderately hard stones that melt easily in first- and second-order fires, like lead. Harder ore adds quartz, third-degree fusible stones, pyrites, cadmia, or very hard marble. Hardest ore is composed throughout the whole vein of these hard stones and compounds.
Chapter 25
How do miners break the hardest metal-bearing veins that resist iron tools?
If neighboring mine owners permit, they break the vein with fires; if refused, they first hew out the less hard hanging or footwall rock, place timbers in hitches, drive iron tools into small cracks, insert thin iron blocks and plates, and hammer them in turn. The vein rings shrilly, then a tearing sound warns miners to flee before it crashes down.
Chapter 25
What dangers does fire-setting create, and how does the Bergmeister respond?
Heated veins and rock give off foetid vapour, and shafts or tunnels emit fumes. Miners do not go down lest the stench harm their health or kill them. The Bergmeister permits no one to break veins or rock by fire in shafts or tunnels where poisonous vapour and smoke could permeate veins or stringers into neighboring mines that lack hard veins or rock.
Chapter 25
How does air circulate through shafts and tunnels across the seasons?
The outer air flows spontaneously into underground caverns and exits again. In spring and summer it flows into deeper shafts, traverses tunnels or drifts, and exits shallower shafts; in autumn and winter it enters upper tunnels or shafts and exits deeper ones. This change occurs at the beginning of spring and end of autumn in temperate regions, but at the end of spring and beginning of autumn in cold regions.
Chapter 25

BOOK V. (part 3)4 cards

How are drifts timbered, and what happens to waste rock in abandoned openings?
Stulls are set at intervals into hitches in the hanging and footwall, and smooth poles are laid continuously on them; stulls are generally a foot and a half thick to bear the weight. After ore is removed, broken rock that is hard to carry away is thrown into these openings among the timber, saving the carriers toil and the owners half the expense.
Chapter 26
How are venae dilatatae mined, and what protects miners' bodies?
Miners drive a low tunnel laterally and longitudinally through the vein, and may sink a shaft to find whether a second vein lies beneath. They generally mine lying down, binding on small wooden cradles to avoid wearing away clothes and injuring the left shoulder, so they bend their necks to the left, not infrequently having them twisted.
Chapter 26
What supports undermined ground, and what danger threatens venae cumulatae?
Either natural pillars and arches are left to bear the pressure as on a foundation, or timbering is done. In venae cumulatae, fire used to break hard vein may cause soft pillars to break up or timbers to burn away, so the mountain sinks into itself and shaft buildings are swallowed. The author advises sinking shafts not subject to this ruin, and new shafts for smoke to escape.
Chapter 26
Why do miners survey, and what geometric principle underlies it?
Miners measure the solid mass of mountains so owners may plan and workmen not encroach on others' possessions. The surveyor measures the undug interval between tunnel mouth and shaft, or between shaft and tunnel to be driven. Each method depends on measuring triangles: a small triangle is laid out and from it calculations are made regarding a larger one, with great care to avoid initial error.
Chapter 26

BOOK V. (part 4)4 cards

In the three-cord survey, what does each cord represent?
The surveyors stretch cords on a surveyor's field to form a triangle. The first cord represents the oblique slopes of the mountain; the second represents the length of tunnel to be driven to reach the shaft, laid straight so one end touches the lower end of the first; the third runs from the upper end of the first to the other end of the second, and its length shows the depth of the shaft.
Chapter 27
Why do surveyors measure haulage ropes with linden-bark cords?
The author states that surveyors first make use of the haulage rope, measuring it by means of cords made of linden bark, because the bark cords do not stretch at all while the haulage ropes become very slack. Accurate measurement therefore depends on substituting a non-stretching cord for the rope being measured.
Chapter 27
How does the hemicycle-and-rod method find the distance to drive the tunnel?
Surveyors hang one weighted cord in the shaft, stretch a second down the slope to the tunnel mouth, and apply the hemicycle's broad waxed part to the second cord's lower side. The tongue's position indicates lines counted on a half-fathom rod; that rod length is deducted from the second cord as many times as the cord is half-fathoms long, and the remainder shows the distance to drive.
Chapter 27
What correction is made when a tunnel is long or short relative to the shaft?
Because a tunnel fifty fathoms long is raised half a fathom, that amount must be taken from the depth of the shaft and added to the length of the tunnel. The same proportion applies if the tunnel is one hundred or fifty fathoms shorter or longer: take from the depth of the one and add to the length of the other.
Chapter 27

BOOK V. (part 5)4 cards

How does a surveyor measure the depth of a shaft that must be sunk when intermediate shafts and drifts exist?
The surveyor starts from the nearest shaft open to the air, since this takes less time than starting from the tunnel mouth. He measures the surface space between the existing shaft and the one to be sunk, then the incline of all necessary shafts and the length of all connected drifts, and lastly part of the tunnel. From these measurements he demonstrates the shaft's depth and the point in the tunnel it will reach.
Chapter 28
How does the surveyor determine where an underground boundary mark should be cut in rock?
He measures the drifts and shaft inclines, lays the cords out on the surveyor's field, and from the upper cord at the boundary point stretches a cross-cord straight downward at a right angle, per the sixth division of the compass. The cutting is made in the presence of the two Jurors, the manager, and each mine's foreman, and is called the boundary rock.
Chapter 28
What rule governs the vertical alignment of a lower underground boundary mark when the vein runs differently below?
Even if the vein runs differently in the lower drift than in the upper one where the first mark was cut, the lower mark must still be cut vertically beneath the upper one. The author warns that cutting it obliquely would take part of one mine's possession away to its detriment and give it to the other.
Chapter 28
What grade should each tunnel rise, and what instruments do Swiss surveyors use in high mountains?
Each tunnel should rise one fathom in one hundred fathoms. For tunnels in the highest mountains, Swiss surveyors use a rod half a fathom long made of three screw-together parts, a linden-bark cord with paper slips marking fathoms, and an instrument with a needle; instead of waxed circles they carry a chart to record readings.
Chapter 28

BOOK V. (part 6)4 cards

According to Agricola, how can silver glance be distinguished from galena?
Agricola states that galena can be ground to powder in a mortar with a pestle, while rudis silver is flattened out by this treatment. Galena, when struck by a mallet, bitten, or hacked with a knife, splits and breaks to pieces; the silver is malleable under the hammer, may be dented by the teeth, and cut with a knife. He notes the two differ greatly in substance despite similar colour.
Chapter 29
What did the Ancients believe about the yellow arsenic sulphide, and what did Caligula attempt?
The Ancients believed the yellow sulphide (orpiment) contained gold, hence the name auripigmentum. Pliny describes the Emperor Caligula's attempt to extract gold from it; he obtained a small amount but unprofitably. The belief persisted as late as mineralogist Hill in 1750. Both realgar and orpiment were important for pigments, medicine, and poisons among the Ancients.
Chapter 29
How does Agricola classify the minerals grouped under cadmia, and what were they later found to be?
The minerals under cadmia form one of the most difficult chapters in mineralogy history, reaching complexity with Agricola as new minerals came under debate. All were later found to be forms of zinc, cobalt, or arsenic, some in use long before Agricola. Brass was made by cementing zinc ore with copper. Agricola mentions zincum only obscurely, learning of it shortly before his death in 1555.
Chapter 29
What does Agricola say about the composition of pyrites, and how was the term used?
Agricola apparently did not recognise the iron base of pyrites, stating that sometimes pyrites contain no gold, silver, copper, or lead, yet are not pure stone but a compound of stone and a somewhat metallic substance of its own species. The term, from the Greek word for fire, referred to almost any spark-striking stone in Greek and Roman times, and remained a generic term in mineralogy.
Chapter 29

BOOK V. (part 7)3 cards

What does Agricola say about the composition and colors of zincum?
Agricola states that zincum, called so by the Noricians and Rhetians, contains gold and silver and is either red or white. He notes it is also found in the Sudetian mountains, where it is devoid of those metals. He describes it as cognate with cadmia and pyrites.
Chapter 30
Which pompholyx is lightest, and where is white pompholyx found?
Agricola says all consist of very fine, very light particles, but the lightest of all is white pompholyx. White pompholyx, like wool floating in summer air, is found at Hildesheim in seams in the rocks of almost all quarries except sandstone. Grey, brown, and yellow pompholyx occur in silver mines where miners break rocks by fire.
Chapter 30
What does Agricola report about emery (smiris) and its uses?
In De Natura Fossilium Agricola says ring-makers polish and clean their hard gems with smiris, and glaziers use it to cut glass into sheets. It is found in the silver mines of Annaberg in Meissen and elsewhere. The notes add that Dana considered Theophrastus's stone of Armenia to be emery, though it could be another hard stone.
Chapter 30

Book VI.4 cards

What does Pliny say about breaking silex, and what myth does the editor trace it to?
Pliny (XXXIII, 21) says a kind of silex must be broken with fire and vinegar, and that suffocating fumes lead miners to use bruising machines carrying 150 librae of iron. The editor traces the fire-and-vinegar idea to the legend that Hannibal broke through the Alps, first written by Livy, and notes it had become an established method only in literature by Pliny's time.
Chapter 31
How does the editor explain Livy's account of Hannibal breaking Alpine rock?
Livy says the timber was fired with a favorable wind, the hot rock crumbled when vinegar was poured on it, and iron tools then broke the cliff. The editor notes Hannibal crossed in 218 B.C. but Livy wrote about 200 years later, when Hannibal's memory was surrounded by Herculean fables, so the vinegar detail is unreliable.
Chapter 31
What does the editor say about fire-setting's later history and the arrival of gunpowder?
Fire-setting was ancient and persisted in some German and Norwegian mines to the end of the 19th century, 270 years after explosives first came to mining. At Koenigsberg it advanced headings 5 to 20 feet per month and survived gunpowder on economy. Gunpowder blasting was introduced at Schemnitz by Caspar Weindle in 1627, reaching English mines about 75 years later.
Chapter 31
What does the editor say about the earliest maps and underground surveys?
The oldest known map, the Turin papyrus from Seti I (about 1300 B.C.), depicts gold mines between the Nile and the Red Sea; fragments may show a mine of Rameses I (about 1400 B.C.). The editor says no actual map of underground workings is known before Agricola's time, and at his time such maps were not made.
Chapter 31

BOOK VI. (part 1)3 cards

How do the two kinds of hammers differ in size and use?
Smaller hammers are held in one hand and come in three sorts: the lightest strikes the second iron tool, the intermediate the first, and the largest the third. Larger hammers are held with both hands in two kinds: the smaller strikes the fourth iron tool, the larger drives wedges into cracks. All swell at the middle where the handle eye sits, with light handles for more powerful blows.
Chapter 32
What are the two kinds of crowbars and what is each used for?
Both crowbars are pointed at one end. The round crowbar pierces to a water-filled shaft when a tunnel reaches it. The flat crowbar knocks down, from the stopes to the floor, rocks softened by fire that the pike cannot dislodge. The miner's pike, like a sailor's, is a long rod with an iron head.
Chapter 32
How do buckets, baskets, and hide sacks differ in hoisting excavated material?
Buckets come in two sizes, made of staves with hoops, deeper than wide and wider at the top. Smaller buckets are drawn by men-turned machines, larger by horse-turned machines. Some substitute lighter baskets; others use ox-hide sacks with an iron bale, three drawn up while three lower and three are filled by boys. Sacks are used at Schneeberg, baskets at Freiberg.
Chapter 32

BOOK VI. (part 2)4 cards

How many men turn a windlass when the depth is greater, and what substitutes for a fourth?
When the depth is greater, three men turn the windlass, with a wheel substituted for a fourth man. Once the barrel is set in motion, the wheel's rapid revolutions help and it turns more easily. Sometimes masses of lead are hung on the wheel or fastened to its spokes so their weight depresses the spokes and increases motion; some fasten two, three, or four iron rods into the barrel and weight their ends with lead.
Chapter 33
How does the third machine work, and what depth can it reach?
The third machine is less fatiguing and raises larger loads, though it is slower; it reaches depths up to 180 feet. An upright axle with iron journals turns in two iron sockets, one fixed in a ground block, one in the roof beam. A plank wheel at its lower end drives a toothed drum at the top, which turns a rundle drum on a horizontal axle carrying the winding-rope. Two workmen grip a pole and push the lower wheel's cleats with their feet.
Chapter 33
What is the fourth machine's structure and how many horses can draw it?
The fourth machine raises one and a half times the load of the first two. Sixteen forty-foot beams form a circular area fifty feet in diameter, with a hole sunk ten feet deep holding a steel socket for the axle pivot. The square forty-foot axle carries a cone-shaped drum of three wheels with rundles, wound with two drawing-ropes. Two horses draw it, or four if the shaft is very deep.
Chapter 33
How is ore transported down mountains in winter, including the Norician method?
In winter miners place a box on a sledge drawn by a horse down low mountains, or fill hide sacks loaded on dogs or on a small sledge the driver guides with a stick, at risk of his life. Some Noricians collect ore into bristly pigskin sacks dragged down the highest mountains; strong pack-saddled dogs carry the empty sacks up, and a man winding a rope round his arm or breast drags the filled sacks through the snow.
Chapter 33

BOOK VI. (part 3)4 cards

How does the first chain pump's dipper arrangement work when shafts are inclined versus vertical?
Dippers of iron or brass plates hold half a congius and are bound to the chain links with thongs; one hundred links means one hundred dippers pouring water. When shafts are inclined, the dippers' mouths project and are covered on top so water is not spilled; when shafts are vertical, the dippers need no cover. Three dippers are always inverted, pouring into a lip that drains to the tunnel.
Chapter 34
Why does Agricola judge the first chain pump less useful than the second?
The author argues the first machine is less useful because it cannot be built without great expense, carries off but little water, and is somewhat slow, as are other machines with many drums. The second machine, described briefly by Vitruvius, more rapidly brings up dippers holding a congius, making it more useful where much water continually flows into shafts.
Chapter 34
What does the third chain pump use for power, and why do miners rarely use it?
When a running stream can be diverted to a mine, its impetus striking the paddles revolves a water-wheel in place of the treadwheel. Its axle resembles the second machine, while its drum, chain, and balance drum resemble the first. It has more capacious dippers than the second, but miners rarely use it because the dippers are frequently broken; they prefer other machines, suction pumps, rag and chain pumps, or water-bags.
Chapter 34
In the first suction pump, what happens to the valve and disc as the piston is drawn up and pushed down?
The trunk has perforations admitting water, and a rounded valve in a box closes tightly so drawn-up water cannot run back. When the workman draws the piston up, water that passed through the disc's openings, whose cover is then closed, is raised to the spout; the box valve opens and suction draws water from the trunk into the pipe. Pushing down closes the valve and lets the disc draw water again.
Chapter 34

BOOK VI. (part 4)3 cards

How does the rag and chain pump's chain and ball system lift water?
A water-wheel turns a drum with grooved iron clamps that catch the chain links. The chain is drawn through a continuous series of pipes from the sump, passing around a balancing drum at the bottom. Balls made of horse-tail hair, sewn into a covering and spaced six feet apart, lift the water up the pipes to the tunnel, where it flows out through an aperture in the highest pipe.
Chapter 35
What shaft depths can rag and chain pumps of given wheel sizes drain?
The chapter states that if the water-wheel is twenty-four feet in diameter, the machine draws water from a shaft two hundred and ten feet deep; if thirty feet in diameter, it draws from a shaft two hundred and forty feet deep. Such work, the author notes, requires a stream with greater water-power.
Chapter 35
How does the float-and-stone indicator show water level in the sump?
A cord hangs from a beam above the shaft, with a stone at one end and a plank at the other, lowered by an iron wire. The plank floats in the sump. As water decreases the plank descends and the stone rises; as water increases the plank rises and the stone lowers. When the stone nears the beam the sump is exhausted and the overseer closes the race; when it nears the ground the sump is full and he opens it.
Chapter 35

BOOK VI. (part 5)4 cards

What problem in deep shafts makes ventilating machines necessary?
If a shaft is very deep and no tunnel or drift connects with it, or a tunnel is very long with no shaft reaching it, the air does not replenish itself. This weighs heavily on the miners, causing difficult breathing, sometimes suffocation, and extinguishing burning lamps. Agricola therefore says machines the Greeks call pneumatikai and the Latins spiritales are necessary to let miners breathe and work.
Chapter 36
How does the first wind-catcher machine direct wind into a shaft?
Three sills are pegged over the shaft and mortised into three cross-beams. Planks fixed to the middle sill and cross-beam are joined so each fits the groove of the next, creating four angles and four hollows that collect winds from all directions. A circular cover roofs them above while they stay open below, so wind is carried downward into the shaft rather than escaping upward.
Chapter 36
How does the barrel-and-pipe ventilation machine turn its blow-hole into the wind?
A wooden barrel sits on a circular table atop the uppermost pipe, with a perpendicular axle through its centre. A wing of thin boards is fixed to the barrel's upper part on the side furthest from the square, always-open blow-hole. Whatever direction the wind blows, it drives the wing around, turning the barrel so the blow-hole faces the wind, which is then guided down by conduit or pipes into the shaft.
Chapter 36
Why does Agricola judge the drum fan superior to the box-shaped casing?
The fans in the drum almost touch it on every side, so they drive into the conduit all the air accumulated. In the box-shaped casing the fans cannot fill it because of its angles, into which the air partly retreats, making it less useful. Agricola notes the box type can also be mounted on timbers with windmill-like sails, but when the sky lacks wind, as often happens, it does not turn.
Chapter 36

BOOK VI. (part 6)4 cards

How did miners ventilate tunnels before machines, and what did Agricola say about cost?
Without machines, miners had to drive two tunnels into a mountain and sink a shaft from the upper to the lower every 200 feet at most, so air passing into one and descending by the shafts kept the other fresh. The author notes this could not be done without great expense, which is why ventilating machines were invented.
Chapter 37
What ailments did Agricola attribute to cold water, dry dust, and corrosive dust in mines?
Abundant cold water injures the limbs, since cold harms the sinews; Agricola advises high rawhide boots. In dry mines, dust penetrates the windpipe and lungs, causing asthma; corrosive dust eats the lungs and implants consumption. He cites Carpathian women who buried seven husbands to consumption, and recommends boots, elbow-length gloves, and loose veils over the face.
Chapter 37
What poison did Agricola describe from breaking rock by fire, and what precautions did miners take?
Air in shafts where hard rock is broken by fire is infected with a subtle poison exhaled from mineral veins and driven out by the fire. It causes immediate swelling, loss of movement and feeling, and painless death; survivors stay pale. Prudent miners burn wood piles Friday evening and do not descend again before Monday, letting the fumes pass.
Chapter 37
What reasons did Agricola give for abandoning pits, and what did he advise about reopening them?
Causes include barren veins, excess water, noxious air, local poison, murderous demons, collapsing underpinnings, and military operations. Agricola argues shafts and tunnels should not be reopened unless one is certain why miners deserted them, since ancestors should not be assumed too indolent to work profitable mines.
Chapter 37

BOOK VI. (part 7)4 cards

According to the chapter, what did Pliny say happens in deep wells with sulfurous or aluminous vapor?
Pliny states that such vapor is fatal to diggers, and its presence is shown if a lighted lamp lowered into the well is extinguished. Other wells are then sunk to the right and left to carry off the noxious gases. He adds that the air itself becomes noxious with depth, which can be remedied by constantly shaking linen cloths to set the air in motion.
Chapter 38
What does the chapter say about the origin of the word cobalt?
The chapter says the German word kobelt likely referred to gnomes or goblins in Saxon miners' imaginations, possibly derived from the Greek cobali (mimes). The suffering from the ore was associated with demonic malevolence, so the word for these demons was attached to the disagreeable ore. Mathesius instead suggests the name came from Cabul, the land of the twenty towns Hiram rejected.
Chapter 38
How does the chapter describe the mining gnomes called cobalos?
The chapter quotes De Animantibus describing gentle gnomes about two feet tall, venerable and clothed like miners with a leather apron. They mimic men, pretend to work but do nothing, and idle in shafts and tunnels. They sometimes throw pebbles but rarely injure workmen unless first ridiculed or cursed. They are called guteli because they seem benign, and they are especially active where metal has been found or hoped for.
Chapter 38
What reason does Mathesius give for Hiram rejecting Solomon's twenty towns?
Mathesius argues Hiram was an experienced miner who inspected the new mines and found they produced poor metal and much wild cobelt ore. Because cobelt ores are injurious and rob other ores in the fire, consuming much lead before silver is extracted, Hiram reckoned the expense of working and smelting was not worthwhile. He preferred obtaining gold from India and returned the towns to Solomon.
Chapter 38

BOOK VII. (part 1)4 cards

According to Agricola, how does assaying differ from smelting?
The author states that assaying differs from smelting only in the small amount of material used. By smelting a small quantity, assayers learn whether smelting a large quantity will repay the expenditure. Both processes are carried out the same way: ore is assayed in a little furnace and smelted in a large one, charcoal rather than wood is burned, and metals are mixed in the crucible as in the blast furnace.
Chapter 39
What purposes does Agricola give for assaying ores before smelting?
The author says tests let miners determine with certainty whether ores contain any metal, whether it is much or little, by what method the metal can be separated from the barren part, and which part of the ore holds much metal versus little. Unless these tests are carefully applied before melting, ore cannot be smelted without great loss, since parts that do not easily melt carry the metals off or consume them.
Chapter 39
What can assays of already-melted metals determine, and what decision follows?
Agricola says melted metals are usually assayed to learn what proportion of silver is in a centumpondium of copper or lead, or how much gold is in a libra of silver, and conversely how much copper or lead is in a centumpondium of silver or how much silver is in a libra of gold. From this one can calculate whether separating the precious metals from the base metals is worthwhile.
Chapter 39
What conditions does Agricola require for the assayer's room and balances?
The author says the assayer must be prepared and instructed in all things necessary, and must close the doors of the room where the assay furnace stands, lest someone entering at an inopportune moment disturb his thoughts while intent on the work. The balances must be placed in a case so that when the little buttons of metal are weighed, the scales are not agitated by a draught of air, which hinders the work.
Chapter 39

BOOK VII. (part 2)4 cards

What wood ashes does Agricola say are best for cupels, and which are unsuitable?
The author states that ashes of beech or other wood with small annual growth are suitable for cupels, while ashes from vine twigs and limbs, which grow rapidly, are not good. Cupels made from the latter, being insufficiently dry, frequently crack and break in the fire and absorb the metals.
Chapter 40
Which ashes does Agricola call the best of all for cupels, and why?
The author says the best cupels are made from deer horns alone, burnt to powder, because by reason of their extreme dryness they absorb metals least of all. He also notes that ashes from burned bones, especially animal skull bones, and from fish spines are very suitable, and that older ashes are always better.
Chapter 40
How does Agricola say the colour of fumes on a hot shovel guides the choice of flux?
The author states that the colour of fumes emitted by ore on a hot shovel or iron plate indicates what flux is needed besides lead. Purple fumes are best and generally need no flux; blue call for pyrites cakes or cupriferous rock; yellow for litharge and sulphur; red for glass-galls and salt; green for cupriferous cakes, litharge, and glass-galls; black for melted salt or iron slag, litharge, and white lime rock.
Chapter 40
How does Agricola describe the preparation of ore for assaying?
The author says ore is prepared by roasting, burning, crushing, and washing, and a fixed weight must be taken to determine how much the preparations consume. Hard ore is burned, sometimes sprinkled with vinegar first, so it softens and can be crushed and washed; soft ore is hammered and ground, then washed and dried. Rich ore is only roasted, in a luted pot, lest metal be lost.
Chapter 40

BOOK VII. (part 3)4 cards

Why does Agricola prefer wrapping ore in paper over using a copper ladle?
The author argues the assayer should wrap the prepared ore in paper and put it into the scorifier, rather than dropping it in with a copper ladle. With small scorifiers, a ladle frequently spills some part of the ore, so the paper method avoids loss. The ore is added after the lead ball has begun to fume and be consumed.
Chapter 41
What must be true of lead used in assaying, and what if it is not?
The lead must be entirely free from every trace of silver, like the kind called Villacense. If that kind is unobtainable, the lead must be assayed separately to determine its silver content, so that amount can be deducted from the ore calculation. Otherwise, Agricola states, the assay will be false and misleading.
Chapter 41
What does a 'tail' on the charge in the cupel indicate, and how is it corrected?
A lengthened shape with a tail indicates the heat is deficient where the tail lies. To heat the cupel equally, it is turned around with a small iron hook with an iron handle a foot and a half long. If lead is insufficient, more is added with tongs or a long-handled brass ladle, warmed beforehand so the charge is not cooled.
Chapter 41
How is gold ore assayed without fire using quicksilver?
A little ore is moistened and heated until it exhales an odour. Two portions of quicksilver are added to one portion of ore in a wooden dish, mixed with brine, and ground with a wooden pestle for two hours until dough-like. Warm water is poured in and washed until clear; then cold water is added and the quicksilver, having absorbed the gold, runs together separately.
Chapter 41

BOOK VII. (part 4)4 cards

How does Agricola test quicksilver ore, and what happens if heated too long?
He mixes one part broken ore with three parts charcoal dust and a handful of salt, puts it in a covered, luted crucible over glowing charcoal, and removes it as soon as a burnt cinnabar colour appears. If the heat continues too long, the mixture exhales the quicksilver with the fumes; when cool, the quicksilver is found in the bottom of the vessel.
Chapter 42
How is iron ore assayed, and what do magnet results indicate about richness?
Iron ore is burned, crushed, washed, and dried; a magnet is passed over the concentrates, attracting iron particles that are wiped off with a brush into a crucible, repeated while particles remain. These are heated with saltpetre until an iron button melts out. If the magnet attracts quickly the ore is rich in iron; slowly, poor; if it seems to repel the ore, it contains little or no iron.
Chapter 42
What does Agricola say about the loss of silver when base metals are burned to assay precious metals?
He notes that the Ancients burned base metals to leave precious metals pure and even used burning to find how much gold was in silver, consuming all the silver—no small loss. The author argues that today base metals are still burned for assay because losing so little metal is small loss, but from a large mass the precious metal is always extracted, as explained in Books X and XI.
Chapter 42
Why must the assayer stop blowing the bellows once copper has melted in a silver-copper assay?
Agricola warns that continuing the blast would let the fire consume part of the copper, so the remaining metal would be richer than the cake it was cut from—no small mistake. Therefore, once the copper is sufficiently liquefied, he pours it into a handled iron mould, plunges it into water to cool, dries it, cuts off its point, and hammers the rest into a leaf cut into pieces.
Chapter 42

BOOK VII. (part 5)3 cards

How are gold coins containing copper, silver, or both assayed?
If copper is mixed with the gold, the coins are melted by fire like silver coins. If silver is mixed with the gold, they are separated using the strongest aqua valens. If both copper and silver are present, lead is added and they are heated in the cupel until the fire consumes the copper and lead, after which the gold is parted from the silver.
Chapter 43
What are the four kinds of touchstone needles and what does each test?
The first kind is gold and silver, the second gold and copper, the third gold, silver, and copper, and the fourth silver and copper. The first three are used principally for testing gold, and the fourth for silver. A needle matching the streak's colour is rubbed on the stone; if too pale or too deep, another is tried until the proportion of silver or copper is indicated.
Chapter 43
How is the first set of gold-silver touch needles proportioned?
Twenty-four needles are made, each of a double sextula, called a duella. The first is twenty-three duellae of silver and one of gold; the second is twenty-two of silver and two of gold, and so on down to the twenty-fourth, which is pure gold. Fannius is cited as the authority that the Ancients called the double sextula a duella.
Chapter 43

BOOK VII. (part 6)2 cards

How do the Venetians divide the bes, and how does their siliqua count compare?
The Venetians divide the bes into eight unciae, the uncia into four sicilici, and the sicilicus into thirty-six siliquae. They make twelve weights, from eight unciae down to one siliqua. Since they divide the bes into eleven hundred and fifty-two siliquae, or two hundred and eighty-eight units of four siliquae, they reach the same number as Agricola's people, though by smaller divisions.
Chapter 44
What are the three small balances used for, and what happens if misused?
The first, largest of the small balances, weighs lead and fluxes and safely holds eight unciae in each pan. The second, more delicate, weighs the ore or metal to be assayed and can carry one centumpondium of lesser weights against ore of equal weight. The third, most delicate, weighs the beads of gold or silver left in the cupel. Weighing lead in the second or ore in the third injures them.
Chapter 44

BOOK VII. (part 7)4 cards

According to the chapter, what did Agricola believe camphor was?
The chapter states that Agricola believed camphor was a species of bitumen, and that he devoted considerable trouble to refuting the Arabic authors' statements that it was a gum. The chapter adds that in any event camphor would be a useful reducing agent in assays.
Chapter 45
What did the chapter conclude the 'dried lees of aqua' used to separate gold and silver actually were?
The chapter says the 'separating aqua' was undoubtedly nitric acid. It rejects silver chloride precipitate as the feces, since that would add silver to assays, be too expensive, and have no merit. It concludes the feces were the residues left in retorts when nitric acid was prepared, mainly undigested vitriol, alum, saltpetre, salt, and sulphates.
Chapter 45
What does the chapter say about the composition and purpose of sal artificiosus?
The chapter describes sal artificiosus as a sort of stock flux, mixtures common in old assay books. It quotes Cramer, who says artificers compose many fluxes from salts and reductive substances, but argues it is better to explain a few simple fluxes than confuse readers with many ingredients of the same nature, which increase number but not virtue.
Chapter 45
How does the chapter explain Agricola's system of proportionate weights for assay charges?
The chapter says Agricola's method is simpler than the modern English assay ton because it uses 100 units in the centumpondium and avoids Avoirdupois-Troy complications. An ore with a libra of silver per centumpondium contains 1/100th part, and the same ratio holds regardless of the actual weight of the lesser centumpondium, which Agricola indicates weighed an actual drachma.
Chapter 45

BOOK VII. (part 8)4 cards

How many siliquae make up one mark or bes in Agricola's scale?
According to the table given in the chapter, one mark or bes contains 1152 siliquae, with the siliqua being the smallest unit listed. The table then works upward through units such as the scripulum, drachma, sicilicus, semuncia, and uncia to the bes or mark.
Chapter 46
What is the difference in Troy grains between Agricola's mark and bes?
The chapter states that the mark contained about 3609.6 Troy grains while the bes contained 3297 Troy grains. Although the proportions within a bes or mark are the same in both scales, the chapter notes that the actual weight values are vastly different.
Chapter 46
How do the Roman libra and German pfundt differ in subdivisions and weight?
The chapter explains that the Roman libra contains 12 unciae while the German pfundt contains 16 untzen. Because of this difference in subdivision, their actual weights are still further apart: the libra is 4946 Troy grains and the pfundt is 7219 Troy grains.
Chapter 46
Why does the chapter present tables instead of Agricola's original format?
The chapter notes that there are no tables in the Latin text, since the whole material was written out in extenso. The tables have now been arranged as shown because they are considered a much more convenient and expressive form for presenting the same information.
Chapter 46

BOOK VIII. (part 1)4 cards

Why does Agricola say ore must be sorted before smelting?
The author argues that since Nature creates metals impure, mixed with earth, stones, and solidified juices, most impurities must be separated before smelting. Smelting waste with ore causes loss, since earth and stones yield only empty useless slags, and solidified juices impede smelting and cause further loss. Rock adjacent to rich ore should also be broken, crushed, and washed lest mineral be lost.
Chapter 47
How is native silver and similar crude metal prepared after extraction?
The metal dug out in a pure or crude state—including native silver, silver glance, and gray silver—is placed on a stone by the mine foreman and flattened by pounding with heavy square hammers. The flattened masses are then cut on a tree stump by driving an iron chisel with a hammer, or with an iron shear-like tool. The pieces are afterward heated in iron basins and smelted in the cupellation furnace.
Chapter 47
What two reasons does Agricola give for burning (roasting) ore?
Ore is burned for two reasons: so that hard ore becomes soft, more easily broken and crushed with hammers or stamps before smelting; or so that fatty substances—sulphur, bitumen, orpiment, or realgar—are consumed. Sulphur is generally more harmful to metals except gold than the others, most harmful to iron, and less to tin than to bismuth, lead, silver, or copper.
Chapter 47
How is sulphur-rich ore roasted so the sulphur is not lost?
Pyrites, cadmia, or other ore with much sulphur or bitumen is thrown on an iron plate full of holes and roasted with charcoal on top; three walls support the plate. Beneath, pots of water catch the descending sulphurous or bituminous vapour, which floats on the water—yellow if sulphur, black like pitch if bitumen. If not drawn out, these would harm the metal during smelting.
Chapter 47

BOOK VIII. (part 2)4 cards

How are the stamp heads secured to the stamp-stems?
The iron head is bored through where it is enclosed in the stem, and the stem is pierced likewise; a broad iron wedge passes through both openings to prevent the head falling off. A quadrangular iron band is placed around the head to keep it from breaking under the constant striking of ore and rock fragments.
Chapter 48
How is the water-wheel protected, and why?
The water-wheel is entirely enclosed under a quadrangular box so that deep snows, ice in winter, or storms cannot impede its running and turning. The plank joints are stopped all around with moss. The cover has one opening through which a race brings down water that drops on the buckets, turns the wheel, and flows out in the lower race beneath the box.
Chapter 48
How do the boxes and sieves separate ore by size?
Their bottoms are iron wire netting with openings that broken rock the size of a hazel nut cannot pass. Material too large is removed and put back under the stamps, while what passes through is collected for washing. At Neusohl three boxes with progressively smaller holes, each shaken against a post, sort the material before washing.
Chapter 48
What does the author recommend for dividing the cam-shaft, and why?
Some divide the cam-shaft with a compass into six sides, others into nine; the author argues it is better divided into twelve sides, so that successively one side may contain a cam and the next be without one. This arrangement raises the stamps in turn as the shaft rotates.
Chapter 48

BOOK VIII. (part 3)4 cards

What are the seven common methods of washing ore listed in the chapter?
The chapter states seven methods are in common use: washing in a simple buddle, a divided buddle, an ordinary strake, a large tank, a short strake, a canvas strake, or a jigging sieve. Other methods are either peculiar to a particular metal or combined with crushing wet ore by stamps.
Chapter 49
How does the simple buddle work, and how is its head constructed?
The head is higher than the rest, three feet long and a foot and a half broad, made of planks with side-boards to hold water falling straight down; its middle is slightly depressed so broken rock and larger metallic particles settle there. The buddle itself is sunk three-quarters of a foot below the head, twelve feet long and a foot and a half wide and deep, lined with planks.
Chapter 49
Why does the author prefer tubs with quicksilver over sluices for gold-bearing powder?
The author argues that if the powder contains gold particles, the first method of washing—tubs with quicksilver and paddles—is far superior, because the quicksilver in the tubs immediately attracts the gold. For powder containing the small black stones from which tin is smelted, however, he says the sluice method is not to be despised.
Chapter 49
Why has the jigging-sieve replaced the short strake, and what was used before these inventions?
The chapter says the short strake is now rarely employed owing to the carelessness of the boys, which has frequently been detected; for this reason the jigging-sieve has taken its place. Before the short strake and jigging-sieve were invented, ores—especially tin—were crushed dry with stamps and washed in a large trough hollowed from one or two tree trunks, with a platform at its head.
Chapter 49

BOOK VIII. (part 4)4 cards

What did Sigismund Maltitz invent in 1512, and why?
The chapter states that in 1512 Duke George of Saxony granted Sigismund Maltitz the overlordship of mine dumps in Meissen. Rejecting the dry stamps, large sieve, and stone mills of Dippoldswalde and Altenberg, Maltitz invented a machine that could crush ore wet under iron-shod stamps. Wet ore is softened by water flowing into the mortar box; these are called wet stamps, as opposed to dry stamps that use no water.
Chapter 50
How do wet stamp heads and mortar-boxes differ from dry ones?
The machine resembles the dry iron-shod stamp mill, but the heads of the wet stamps are larger by half. The mortar-box, of oak or beech, does not open in front but at one end; it is three feet long, three-quarters of a foot wide, and one foot six digits deep. If it has no bottom it sits over a smooth hard rock slab, joints stopped with moss or rags; if it has a bottom, an iron sole-plate is placed in it.
Chapter 50
How are crushed tin ore sorted in the large buddles?
Water carries fine tin-stone and sand through a transverse trough and spouts into one of two large buddles, each twelve feet long, one cubit deep, and a foot and a half broad. Large tin-stone settles in the upper part and is stirred with a shovel; medium particles settle in the middle, arrested by interwoven fir twigs; mud settles between the twigs and the closing board. Each portion is removed and washed separately.
Chapter 50
What are weirs and fences used for in recovering fine tin-stone?
Mud with very fine tin-stone that escapes the settling-pits flows into the stream. Many miners build weirs like mill-weirs, with an area dug five to seven feet deep beside them; in autumn and winter the gates are closed so floodwater carries mud into the area, which is washed in spring and summer. Within four thousand fathoms below the washing buildings, miners instead place inclined fences in meadows with ditches in front to catch the mud.
Chapter 50

BOOK VIII. (part 5)4 cards

How does the sluice's riffle arrangement capture gold, and how is sediment collected?
The sluice is divided by ten riffles (or fifteen if longer), each higher than the one toward the lower end, forming compartments that fill with material and water. When compartments are full and water runs clear, the inflow is closed. The lowest riffle is removed and its sediment caught in a bowl, then each riffle in turn, each washed separately. Larger gold particles settle in higher compartments, smaller in lower ones.
Chapter 51
How is the shallow washing bowl prepared, and how do gold particles settle in it?
The bowl is shallow, smooth, smeared with oil or another slippery substance so tiny gold particles don't cling, and painted black so gold is more easily seen. It is hollowed on the exterior at both sides and middle for a firm grip when shaken. Gold concentrates settle in the back part of the bowl; tapping or shaking the back with one hand moves contents toward the fore part. The author notes the Moravians especially wash gold ore this way.
Chapter 51
How do the Colchians' skins relate to the golden fleece, and what does the author claim miners can extend?
The Colchians placed animal skins in pools of springs; many gold particles clung to them when removed, and poets invented the 'golden fleece' of the Colchians from this. The author argues that by miners' methods skins can be made to take up not only particles of gold but also of silver and gems.
Chapter 51
What methods use cloth, turf, or bare shavings to catch gold, and what does Pliny say of turf?
Some cover frames with green cloth, washed in a tub when golden with particles; others use tightly woven horsehair cloth with a rough knotty surface to catch even tiny particles. Some set pieces of turf in rows, letting water carry gold into the turf while mud and sand go to a settling-pit; turf is later washed with a stronger current. Pliny says the ulex, dried and burnt, has ashes washed over grassy turf so gold settles on it.
Chapter 51

BOOK VIII. (part 6)4 cards

How does the washer prevent the accumulated tin-stone from being washed away in the ditch method?
In the ditch method, the washer stands at the upper end and breaks lumps with a seven-pronged fork, throwing out roots of trees, shrubs, and grass. When a large quantity of tin-stone has accumulated, usually after a day's work, he places it upon the bank to prevent it from being washed away, then throws fresh material into the upper end and continues washing.
Chapter 52
In the strake method, what happens to the very fine tin-stone carried off by the water?
In the third method, ore is thrown into a strake and stirred with a wooden shovel after the plug is removed. The tin-stone mixed with heavier material settles in the strake bottom, while water carries light material into a launder and onto a canvas strake, where the very fine tin-stone settles on the canvas and is cleansed.
Chapter 52
What advantage does Agricola claim for the sixth washing method over the fifth?
The author argues the sixth method is most advantageous: four men can wash in two boxes, whereas the previous method, if doubled, requires six men—two boys to throw and stir material with iron shovels, two more with wooden scrubbers, and two foremen to clean the tin-stone. A grating of iron wire with supporting rods replaces the perforated plate.
Chapter 52
How do miners use the seventh washing method when no stream is available?
When no stream exists in the part of the mountain containing black tin, gold, or other metals, miners dig more than fifty ditches or pits on the slope below, each pit six feet long, three feet wide, and three-quarters of a foot deep. When a torrent rises from violent or long storms, they dig material with broad hoes, divert the torrent into the ditches, and later remove the settled metal with shovels.
Chapter 52

BOOK VIII. (part 7)2 cards

What did Jochim Ganse's method achieve at Keswick in 1581, per the report?
The report describes earlier practice as unable to make copper in under twenty-two firings over twenty-two weeks or more. By Jochim's order of working, the nine hurtful humors were corrected so that some aided smelting, and by once roasting and once smelting, done in three days, the ore yielded black copper. He proposed roasting to remove sulphur, arsenic, and antimony.
Chapter 53
What sequence does Diodorus describe for Egyptian gold ore processing?
Workers softened hard gold-bearing rock with fire, broke it with hammers and pickaxes, and boys carried out the lumps. Those over thirty pounded the rock in stone mortars to vetch-size, then women and older men ground it in mills to fine meal. The powder was washed on a sloping board, the gold remaining by weight, then refined in sealed pots with lead, salt, tin, and barley bran for five days and nights.
Chapter 53

BOOK VIII. (part 8)4 cards

How did Tinners separate light earth from heavier tin sand using turf?
The stream fell by degrees over green turves, three or four feet square and one foot thick. The Tinner laid a portion of sandy tin on a turf and softly tossed it to and fro with his shovel, so the running water washed away the light earth while the heavier tin stayed on the turf. He set each cleansed portion aside and began another.
Chapter 54
What final vessel and motion did workers use to clean the remaining tin?
The washed remnant was put into a broad, flat, round wooden dish about two feet across with two handles at the sides. Sitting over water, workers softly shogged it to and fro between their legs until any earthy substance left was flitted away. Some later used boys to stir it with their feet, achieving the same effect; the residue was called Black Tin.
Chapter 54
What evidence does the chapter give for German influence on English mining?
The chapter notes the Cornish term stamper is German, but etymology ends there. It cites Carew's account of Sir Francis Godolphin employing a Dutch mineral man, and Pettus's statement that Elizabeth sent for German miners about 1561 and granted mines to Houghsetter. Charters of 1565 granted privileges to Houghsetter and to Christopher Shutz, and Ulrick Frosse managed Cornish and Neath operations.
Chapter 54
What does the chapter say about the Cornish claim to have taught Germans tin mining?
Matthew Paris, an English Benedictine who died in 1259, relates that a Cornishman who fled to Germany for murder first discovered tin there in 1241, after which the price of tin fell greatly. The chapter says many writers on Cornwall recall this statement with great persistence, and lists Camden, Borlase, and Pryce among them.
Chapter 54

BOOK VIII. (part 9)4 cards

According to Pliny, what are the three ways gold is found, excluding India and Scythia?
Pliny says gold is found in three ways, aside from that found in India by ants and in Scythia by Griffins: first, as gold dust in streams such as the Tagus, Padus, Hebrus, Pactolus, and Ganges; the other two methods involve laborious washing of debris, including the digging of ditches called corrugi and trenches called agogae lined with ulex to catch the gold.
Chapter 55
What is ulex and how is it used to capture alluvial gold?
Ulex is a plant similar to rosemary, rough and prickly. The bottoms of trenches called agogae are spread at regular intervals with ulex to catch the gold. After use, the ulex is dried and burnt, and the ashes are washed on a bed of grassy turf so the gold settles there.
Chapter 55
How does Pliny describe the dangers of cutting ditches for gold washing?
Pliny describes men suspended by ropes to cut through impassable rocks, so that from a distance they seem more like birds than beasts. Hanging thus, they take levels and trace the ditch's line, dragging streams where no footstep can go. Reservoirs with gates release torrents that hurl rocks along, and the earth is finally carried to the sea, extending Spain's shore.
Chapter 55
What does the editor say about Agricola's explanation of the Golden Fleece?
The editor notes that tons of ink have been spent over thirty centuries explaining the fleece, with theories ranging from supernatural to metallurgical. The editor argues Agricola's explanation is as probable and ingenious as any other, though Strabo gave much the same view long before. The editor declines to traverse the theories further from a metallurgical standpoint.
Chapter 55

BOOK IX.[1] (part 1)3 cards

Why does Agricola say smelting is necessary after roasting, crushing, and washing ore?
The author explains that burning, roasting, calcining, crushing, washing, screening, and sorting remove much that is mixed with the metal, but cannot remove everything that conceals it and leaves it crude and unformed. Smelting is therefore necessary, because by fire earths, solidified juices, and stones are separated from the metals, so the metals obtain their proper colour, become pure, and can be of great use to mankind.
Chapter 56
What four general methods of smelting ore does Agricola distinguish?
Agricola states that ore is either melted with a furnace or without one. If smelted with a furnace, the tap-hole is either temporarily closed or always open. If smelted without a furnace, it is done either in pots or in trenches. He notes that constant practice has taught smelters which method yields the most metal from a given ore, and that sometimes several methods recover equal metal but differ in cost and labour.
Chapter 56
Why are the furnace walls built of natural stone rather than burnt brick?
Agricola says the furnace walls should be made of natural stone, which is more serviceable than burnt bricks because bricks soon become defective and crumble away when the smelter or his deputy chips off the accretions adhering to the walls. Natural stone resists fire and lasts long, especially soft stone free of cracks; hard stone with many cracks is burst asunder by the fire and destroyed, weakening furnaces built from it.
Chapter 56

BOOK IX.[1] (part 2)4 cards

What hides are used for the bellows leather, and which is preferred?
The leather is made of ox-hide or horse-hide, but ox-hide is far preferable to horse-hide. Two hides are used, each three and a half feet wide where they are joined at the back part of the bellows. The hide is attached to the bellows-boards and bows with T-shaped iron nails, though some use iron screws through strips laid over the hide—a method the author says is less used but superior.
Chapter 57
How is the hide fastened to the bellows, and what alternative method exists?
A long leathern thong is laid along each bellows-board and bow and fastened with T-shaped iron nails five digits long, whose horns are two and a half digits long and half a digit wide. The hide is nailed densely to the boards, but only two nails fix it to the back piece of the bow and four to each long piece—ten nails per bow. Some instead use iron screws through strips, which the author says surpasses nailing though is less used.
Chapter 57
How many bellows are needed per furnace and per works?
Two bellows are required for each furnace. Therefore, if there are to be six furnaces in one works, it is necessary to have twelve bellows. The paired bellows communicate, each by its own plank, to the back of a copper pipe in which both nozzles are set and tightly fastened.
Chapter 57
How are the upper bellows-board and head joined so the board can turn?
Iron plates are fastened to the head and to the upper board; the plates have curved projecting pieces with a cut-out middle, and a little iron pin passes through the curved pieces like an axle, letting the upper board turn. A small groove is cut in the upper board so the axle, fixed to the plates, will not fall out. The plates are secured with iron nails, and the hide covers them so wind cannot escape.
Chapter 57

BOOK IX.[1] (part 3)4 cards

How does the bellows machine's cam axle alternately compress and refill the bellows?
The lower lever, depressed by the cams, compresses the bellows and drives air through the nozzle. Then the weight of the box on the other end of the upper lever raises the upper bellows-board, drawing air in through the air-hole. The cams are arranged in the axle's holes so they depress the bellows levers in rotation.
Chapter 58
Why must the toothed wheel have sixty teeth and the rundle drum thirty rundles?
Because the rundle drum must revolve twice while the toothed wheel revolves once. The drum is built of two double hubs a foot apart with thirty rounded rundles fastened into them, and the toothed wheel has sixty teeth projecting from its inner and outer discs, spaced three digits apart like the rundles.
Chapter 58
How are the four smelting methods matched to ore types?
The first method is for rich gold or silver ores, the second for mediocre ores, the third for poor ores, and the fourth for ores containing copper or lead, whether or not they hold precious metals. The first ore is smelted in a furnace whose tap-hole is intermittently closed; the other three use furnaces with tap-holes always open.
Chapter 58
What mixture lines the furnace hearth and forehearth, and in what proportion?
Two parts pulverised charcoal to one part powdered earth, mixed with a rake and moistened until it can be shaped like snowballs—more water if the powder is light, less if heavy. The charcoal is crushed by wooden stamps and sieved; the earth is dried, screened, carted, and sifted before mixing. The pit storing the mixture is covered with boards.
Chapter 58

BOOK IX.[1] (part 4)4 cards

In the first smelting method, what does the master do with the slags, pyrites cakes, and lead alloy in the forehearth?
He first skims off the slags with a hooked bar or lifts them with an iron fork, since they are light and float. Next he draws off the cakes of melted pyrites, of medium weight. The alloy of gold or silver with lead, being heaviest, sinks and is left in the forehearth, later taken out with a ladle and poured into moulds.
Chapter 59
Why does the author argue rich gold and silver ores smelt better with the tap-hole closed for a time?
The author argues fluxes fuse faster than rich ore, so with an open tap-hole they run out before the ore melts, leaving ore consumed or mixed into accretions. Closing the tap-hole holds the molten fluxes in the furnace so they melt the resistant ore, which the lead then absorbs.
Chapter 59
What three reasons does the author give for the first method suiting rich gold and silver ores?
First, opening the tap-hole lets the smelter see whether ore melts too slowly, too readily, or flames in scattered bits, each with a remedy. Second, each opening lets him test the alloy to see if it is richer or the lead too weak. Third, closing the tap-hole lets molten fluxes melt ore that resists fire.
Chapter 59
How does the smelter treat ore that does not melt easily in the always-open tap-hole furnace?
He throws it toward the back of the furnace where the fire burns fiercely, so it smelts longer, and he must not make the hearth too sloping lest fluxes run out before the ore melts. Only when it glows near the bellows' nozzle does it signify all ore thrown to that side is smelted.
Chapter 59

BOOK IX.[1] (part 5)4 cards

How did Westphalian smelters smelt lead ore on a hillside?
They heaped ten wagon-loads of charcoal on a hillside beside a level place, flattened the top, spread straw three or four digits thick, and laid as much pure lead ore as the heap could bear on top. The charcoal was kindled and wind fanned the fire, smelting the ore so the lead trickled onto the level as broad thin slabs. A few hundred pounds of ore were kept at hand to scatter over the heap if things went well.
Chapter 60
Why build vaulted dust-chambers over smelting furnaces?
To catch and save the thicker fumes, in which metals are not wanting, especially from precious ores. Two or more furnaces share one vaulted ceiling supported by a wall and four columns. Fumes rise through two openings into the chamber, pass out an opening in the arch into a chimney with thin iron plates to which finer metallic substances adhere, while thicker matter, or cadmia, sticks to the vault and often hardens into stalactites.
Chapter 60
How often and how is the dust-chamber cleaned?
The chamber has a glass-paned window for light and a door kept closed during smelting so fumes cannot escape. It is opened so the workman can enter and remove soot and pompholyx and chip off the cadmia; this sweeping is done twice a year. The material is thrown down a long chute of four boards joined in a rectangle so it does not fly away, falls to the floor, is sprinkled with salt water, and is re-smelted with ore and litharge for the proprietors' profit.
Chapter 60
What does the author say about smelting gold concentrates?
The author states that gold sand, wash-concentrates, or gold dust often should not be smelted at all but mixed with quicksilver and washed with tepid water, or placed in aqua that separates gold from silver. Small or rich quantities of gold concentrates can be smelted outside the blast furnace by various recipes; much and poor material, especially uncrushed ore, is smelted in the blast furnace, particularly when the mines yield an abundance.
Chapter 60

BOOK IX.[1] (part 6)3 cards

What does the smelter do if the copper ore contains silver?
If the ore contains a large amount of silver, it is run into the forehearth, where molten lead absorbs the greater part of the silver; the remainder is sold with the copper to proprietors of works where silver is parted from copper. If the ore holds little silver, no lead is added and those proprietors buy it in with the copper; if there is none, copper is made directly.
Chapter 61
Why are tin furnaces built narrower and higher than other furnaces?
Tin furnaces are narrower so only the small fire necessary for this ore is used, and higher so height compensates for narrowness, keeping capacity near that of other furnaces. A fiercer fire would consume the tin-stone and turn it to ashes, so the nozzles are wide and the bellows placed higher, blowing toward the tap-hole.
Chapter 61
Why does the smelter add washed charcoal to the tin furnace?
As often as he throws in a shovel-ful of tin-stone, he adds charcoal first washed in a vat to cleanse it of grit and small stones, lest these melt with the tin-stone, obstruct the tap-hole, and impede the flow of tin. Powdered charcoal is also scraped onto the tin in the forehearth to separate slags and cover the hot metal.
Chapter 61

BOOK IX.[1] (part 7)4 cards

How is impure tin refined on a hearth, and how are pure and impure tin separated?
Cakes of tin are piled on dry logs arranged alternately upright and lengthwise, about six centumpondia total. When kindled, the tin drips into a dipping-pot on the floor. The impure tin sinks and the pure tin floats; the master ladles out the pure tin first, pouring it over thick copper plates to make lattice-like bars, then removes the impure tin for cakes, judging them by ease of flow.
Chapter 62
What furnace and fuel arrangement does Agricola describe for smelting very good iron ore?
A furnace like a cupellation furnace: a hearth three and a half feet high, five feet long and wide, with a central crucible a foot deep and one and a half feet wide. The master layers charcoal and crushed iron ore mixed with unslaked lime, building a heap; the bellows blast melts it. The work takes eight, ten, or sometimes twelve hours, yielding a mass of two or three centumpondia if the ore is rich.
Chapter 62
How is steel made from iron in the smith's furnace crucible?
Iron easy to melt, hard and malleable is chosen. A crucible about one and a half feet wide and one foot deep is formed in the hearth, filled with the best charcoal and surrounded by rock fragments. Iron and flux are added gradually, then four thirty-pound iron masses are heated five or six hours and stirred so the masses absorb the particles. A mass is hammered, quenched in water, broken, and examined to judge whether it became dense steel.
Chapter 62
How are quicksilver ores reduced in double pots, and what does Agricola say about sealing them?
The ore is broken small and put in upper pots shaped like doctors' glass ampullae tapering downward; these are closed with moss and placed upside down in the openings of lower pots sunk to their rims in earth, sand, or ashes, joined with lute. Seven hundred pairs may be set in ground or hearth. Some leave pots uncemented and boast of equal yield, but Agricola argues cementing with lute is the greatest protection against exhalation.
Chapter 62

BOOK IX.[1] (part 8)3 cards

What are the five methods Agricola says can be used to make quicksilver?
The chapter states that quicksilver may be made by five methods, and that not one is to be despised or repudiated. However, if the mine supplies a great abundance of ore, the first method is the most expeditious and practical, because a large quantity of ore can be reduced at the same time without great expense.
Chapter 63
How is bismuth ore free of silver first smelted in a pit?
A small pit is dug in dry ground, pulverised charcoal is tamped in and dried with burning charcoal. Thick dry beech wood is placed over the pit and the ore thrown on it. As the wood burns, the heated ore drips bismuth into the pit, and cakes are removed when cooled. Because burnt wood, charcoal, or slag may fall in and make it impure, the bismuth is remelted in another crucible to make pure cakes.
Chapter 63
Which bismuth smelting method does the chapter call most profitable, and why?
The method using a wind-turning box hearth with an iron grate is called the most profitable. The box, filled with sand and covered with bricks, pivots so it can face the wind from any quarter. Pine-wood and broken ore are laid on the grate; the ore melts and bismuth drips through onto the hearth. Since very little wood is burned, this method is most profitable.
Chapter 63

BOOK IX.[1] (part 9)4 cards

How does Agricola's Bermannus distinguish fluores from rubies?
Bermannus says fluores can be told from rubies chiefly because they glitter more feebly when translucent, and because fluores of all kinds melt under the first fire while rubies do not melt in fire at all. He also notes that non-translucent fluores may be distinguished from rubies by other signs.
Chapter 64
What are the three orders of stones Agricola describes, and how do they differ?
The first order is transparent, resplendent, and gem-coloured, resembling crystal, emerald, amethyst, sapphire and others but differing in hardness. The second is generally not translucent, sometimes partly so, and readily melts in fire, so it is added to smelted ores. The third, from which glass is made, is not transparent but comes in many colours.
Chapter 64
According to the chapter, what is the origin of the word 'fluorite' or 'fluorspar'?
Agricola derived the name fluores from the Latin fluo, meaning 'to flow,' because miners called these stones fluores since they liquefy and flow away under the heat of fire like ice in the sun. The modern terms fluorite and fluorspar in turn come from Agricola's name.
Chapter 64
What evidence does the historical note give that lead was known contemporaneously with silver?
The note argues that since native silver could not supply ancient amounts, silver must have been reduced with lead, so lead was known practically alongside silver. It cites a leaden figure from Abydos dated before 3800 B.C., while the earliest Egyptian silver is a XII Dynasty necklace (2400 B.C.), and notes lead appears in Thotmes III's spoil and Rameses III's tombs.
Chapter 64

BOOK IX.[1] (part 10)3 cards

According to the historical note, what does the earliest evidence suggest about gold use before records?
The note states there is ample evidence gold was used ornamentally before any human record. Native gold occurred in large quantities and could be worked cold, so no special metallurgical ingenuity was needed. The earliest metallurgical indications are Egyptian, with gold washing figured on monuments of the IV Dynasty prior to 3800 B.C.
Chapter 65
What does the historical note say about the origin of the word copper?
The note says the pre-Roman copper supply came largely first from Sinai and later from Cyprus. From Cyprus comes the word copper, by way of the Romans shortening aes cyprium (Cyprian copper) to cuprum. Research shows Cyprus produced copper from 3000 B.C.
Chapter 65
What does the note say about the first preserved description of a metallurgical work?
The note cites Homer's Iliad, Book XVIII, in Pope's translation, as the first preserved description in any language of a metallurgical work. It depicts Hephaestus at his forge with bellows, furnaces, anvils, and metals including silver, brass (copper?), tin, and gold.
Chapter 65

BOOK IX.[1] (part 11)3 cards

What difficulty does the chapter note in translating Latin aes?
The chapter notes that the Latin word aes was used indiscriminately for copper, brass, and bronze, creating a persistent translation difficulty. It also says Pliny was considerably confused about copper alloys, failing to recognize aurichalcum as the same product made by mixing cadmia with molten copper, and only once directly describing that mixture.
Chapter 66
What does Theophilus describe about purifying copper?
Theophilus describes heating copper in a clay-lined iron dish before a forge, then casting fine coal ashes over the melted metal and stirring with dry wood so burnt lead adheres to the ashes like glue. This is repeated until the lead is withdrawn entirely. The copper is poured into a mould, then struck with a hammer while hot to test purity; if it splits, it must be liquefied again.
Chapter 66
What does the chapter say about the history of zinc metallurgy?
The chapter says zinc ore was known and used for brass cementation and medicinal oxides nearly 2,000 years before the metal was generally known in Europe. Metallic zinc may have been known to the Ancients, citing bracelets from Cameros and a passage in Strabo. The first certain mention is generally credited to Paracelsus, who called it zinken.
Chapter 66

BOOK IX.[1] (part 13)3 cards

How does Dioscorides describe the preparation and use of stimmi (antimony)?
Dioscorides calls it stimmi, stibi, alabastrum, or larbasis, in male and female kinds, the female being preferred as bright, friable, and laminar. It is astringent and refrigerative, chiefly used for the eyes. It is burned in manure in a furnace, quenched with milk, ground with rain water, poured turbid into a copper vessel, and purified with nitrum; roasting must not let it turn to lead.
Chapter 68
What does Agricola say about stibium as a metal and its use in printing?
In De Natura Fossilium Agricola states that stibium melted in a crucible and refined has as much right to be regarded as a metal as lead is by most writers. He adds that if a certain portion of it when smelted is added to tin, a printer's alloy is made from which the type used by book printers is cast.
Chapter 68
According to the historical note, who first described recovering quicksilver by distillation?
The note credits Dioscorides (V, 70) as apparently the first to describe recovery of quicksilver by distillation: cinnabar in an iron bowl inside an earthen vessel, covered by a clay-smeared cup-shaped lid, heated on coals, with the soot wiped from the cooled cover being quicksilver. It also notes quicksilver found in drops on silver-mine walls and that it must be kept in glass, lead, tin, or silver vessels.
Chapter 68

BOOK X.3 cards

What are the main ingredients of aqua valens, and what strengthens them?
Almost all ingredients contain vitriol or alum, which by themselves, but much more when joined with saltpetre, are powerful to part silver from gold. Other added substances cannot individually separate the metals by their own strength, but joined together they are very powerful. Agricola lists ten sample combinations, only the tenth lacking vitriol and alum.
Chapter 69
How is the aqua distilled, and what drop rate is required?
The ingredients are heated gradually over charcoal until vapour rises and the ampulla trickles. When the aqua distils through the operculum spout, drops must fall no faster than one per five clock movements and no slower than one per ten, within twenty-four hours. Too fast breaks the glasses; too slow means the work cannot be completed in time.
Chapter 69
How is gold parted from silver using aqua valens?
The alloy is cupelled with lead, formed into granules or thin leaves, and put in a glass ampulla with aqua poured a digit above the silver. It is heated until the silver dissolves, shown by bubbling. The gold remains blackish at the bottom; the silver-laden aqua is poured off, silver congealed with cold water, dried, and melted. The gold is washed, dried, and melted with borax.
Chapter 69

Book VII. (part 1)4 cards

How is stibium used to part gold from silver?
The gold is melted in a red-hot crucible and stibium is added in stages, with copper added to the stibium so it does not consume the gold. The mixture is heated, poured into a tallowed iron pot, and shaken so the gold settles. This is repeated four times with decreasing stibium, then the gold lumps are melted in a cupel.
Chapter 70
Why must stibium be melted with argol and glass-galls before cupellation?
If the stibium is not first melted in an earthen crucible with argol and glass-galls before being melted in the cupel, part of the silver is consumed and absorbed by the ash and powder of which the cupel is made. This step protects the silver so it can be recovered rather than lost in the cupel.
Chapter 70
What are the common steps for preparing and using cements?
Each ingredient is crushed separately, bricks on hard rock with an iron tool, others in a mortar, and each passed through a sieve. All are mixed and moistened with vinegar containing dissolved sal-ammoniac if the cement lacks it. The cement is layered alternately with gold in new, clean pots, sealed with lute, and heated in the furnace.
Chapter 70
How is the cementation furnace heated and the gold cooled afterward?
The furnace has three chambers; the fire of oak, holmoak, or turkey-oak burns in the middle, and the pots sit in the upper chamber on iron rods. The fire is increased gradually for twenty-four hours (twenty-six if not preheated), never hot enough to melt the gold. Afterward the pots are removed and the gold cooled slowly or quenched in water.
Chapter 70

Book VII. (part 2)4 cards

What are the two shifts into which the artificer divides the metal-parting work?
The artificer distributes the operation into two shifts of two days. On the first morning he sprinkles ash into the lute, pours water over it, brushes it with a broom, then throws in sifted ashes and dampens them with water until they could be moulded into balls like snow. The ashes used are those from which lye has been made, since fatty ashes would otherwise have to be burnt again.
Chapter 71
Why does the cupellation furnace's stone structure have six air-holes near the ground?
Through these air-holes escapes the moisture which the earth exhales when heated. Without them the crucible would absorb the moisture and be damaged: a lump would be raised like that which a mole throws up, the ash would float on top, and the crucible would absorb the silver-lead alloy. Some, because of this, make the rear part of the structure entirely open.
Chapter 71
How is the dome of the cupellation furnace constructed and raised?
The dome is shaped like half a sphere and consists of iron bands, bars, and a lid. It has three bands and eighteen iron bars fixed by rivets, with iron plates fastened underneath. It has four apertures, including one above the litharge channel so the master can draw litharge out. Three iron rings engage claves on the middle band, and hooks of chains fasten into them to raise the dome when the master prepares the crucible.
Chapter 71
What does the author say about the crucible's construction from powder of earth and ash?
The author states the crucible is made from powder of earth and ash, and describes the artificer's preparation: sprinkling ash into the lute, brushing with water, adding sifted ashes dampened until mouldable, smoothing them, making the crucible slope toward the middle, tamping with a rammer, forming the litharge channel with two small wooden rammers, then stamping with feet and cutting a circle with a curved iron plate.
Chapter 71

Book VII. (part 3)4 cards

What does the author call the molten lead mixed with silver, and what is the term for the lead scum?
Agricola states that the molten lead mixed with silver is called stannum. The scum that the lead forms when it becomes hot he says might more rightly be called spuma of lead than of silver, since it comes from the lead and the copper rather than the silver. He notes that frequent stirring with the bar reduces the amount of this scum produced.
Chapter 72
What powders does the workman add to separate impurities from the silver-lead alloy, and in what proportions?
Agricola lists equal portions of argol and Venetian glass, or sal-ammoniac, or Venetian glass and Venetian soap; or unequal portions of two of argol to one of iron rust, with some adding saltpetre. To one centumpondium of alloy is added a bes or a libra and a third of powder, depending on impurity. The powder separates the impurities from the alloy.
Chapter 72
How does the workman know the silver is ready, and how is the cake cooled and cleaned afterward?
When the colour begins to show in the silver, bright spots appear, some almost white, and a moment later it becomes absolutely white. The assistant then closes the water-gates so the wheel and bellows stop. The master pours several buckets of water over the silver to cool it; some pour beer to whiten it, which Agricola says is of no importance since the silver must still be refined. The cake is then raised with a pointed iron bar, laid on a stone, chipped with a hammer, and cleansed with a bundle of brass wire dipped in water.
Chapter 72
According to Agricola, how much silver is sometimes recovered compared with the assay, and what happens to the hearth-lead and ashes?
Agricola says that when the lead is separated from the silver, more silver is frequently found than when it was assayed: if before there were three unciae and as many drachmae in a centumpondium, they now sometimes find three unciae and a half. The hearth-lead remaining in the crucible, often a palm deep, is taken out with the ashes and sifted; what stays in the sieve is added to the hearth-lead, and the ashes that pass through are used, with pulverised bones, to make the cupels.
Chapter 72

Book VII. (part 4)4 cards

How is the cupellation furnace in Poland and Hungary constructed?
It is vaulted at the top and almost like an oven, but the lower bed is solid with no vapour opening. Beside the crucible is a wall, and between it and the crucible bed is a passage covered by iron bars spaced two digits apart. Straw is scattered in the crucible, then cakes of silver-lead alloy are laid in, and wood on the bars is kindled to heat it.
Chapter 73
How do the Moravians and Carni separate lead from silver?
They rarely make more than a bes or five-sixths of a libra of silver, so they use neither an oven-like furnace nor a domed crucible. Instead they use an uncovered crucible exposed to the wind: cakes of silver-lead alloy are laid on it, dry wood over them, then thick green wood, and the fire is stimulated with a bellows.
Chapter 73
What powder fills the earthenware test, and how is it prepared?
The test is filled with powder of equal parts ground bones and ashes from the crucible where lead is separated from gold or silver; some mix crushed brick with the ashes, which the author says keeps the powder from attracting silver. Moistened with water, it is tamped with a toothed wooden pestle, layer by layer, until full, then cut out with a knife and smoothed with a hard wooden ball.
Chapter 73
Why does the author prefer the earthenware test to an iron ring?
The author argues the test is more useful: if the powder deteriorates, the silver remains in the test, whereas the ring has no bottom and the silver falls out. He also says the test is easier to place in the hearth than the iron ring and requires much less powder. Some bind the test with an iron band so it will not break and damage the silver.
Chapter 73

VII.3 cards

Why is water poured slowly onto the refined silver through a holed ladle?
The ladle has a small hole, half-way between the middle of the bowl and the edge, through which a hemp seed just passes. He fills it three times and the water flows out slowly to quench the silver; if much water were poured suddenly, the silver would burst asunder and injure bystanders.
Chapter 74
What does the author say are the advantages of refining under a muffle?
The author states that although silver is refined more slowly under iron or earthenware muffles than by the other method, it is more useful because less loss is caused: a gentle fire consumes fewer particles than a fierce fire continually excited by the blast of the bellows.
Chapter 74
Why are large silver cakes cut while still hot, and how is the final cake tested?
If a cake is too large to carry easily from the muffle, they cut it into two or three pieces while hot with a wedge or hammer-chisel, since cutting it cold makes pieces fly off and be lost. Finally the Royal Inspector cuts two small pieces with a chisel, tests them by fire, and stamps the seal and weight.
Chapter 74

Book VII, where (p. (part 1)3 cards

According to the footnotes, what acid could Agricola practically have known, and why?
The footnotes argue Agricola could have had practical contact only with nitric acid. This is inferred from the uses of aqua valens in separating gold and silver, from clarifying it with silver, and from the red fumes produced. The essential ingredients for making it by distillation were saltpetre, water, and either vitriol or alum; other listed substances were unnecessary.
Chapter 75
How did Theophrastus describe making white lead and verdigris?
Theophrastus (3rd century B.C.) says white lead was made by placing lead over sharp vinegar in earthen vessels; after about ten days the rust was scraped off and the process repeated until the lead dissolved, then the scrapings were powdered and boiled. Verdigris was made similarly, with copper placed over wine lees and the resulting rust taken off for use.
Chapter 75
What does the footnote say Agricola means by amiantus, and which ancients described it?
The footnote states that from Agricola's description in De Natura Fossilium there is no doubt he means asbestos. Theophrastus (3rd century B.C.) described a stone from the mines of Scaptesylae that burns when oil is poured on it but stops when the oil is gone. Strabo describes a stone at Carystus combed like wool and woven into napkins cleaned by fire.
Chapter 75

Book VII, where (p. (part 2)4 cards

According to the chapter, what are the five operations of the cementation parting process?
The process falls into five operations: (a) granulation of the bullion or preparation of leaves; (b) heating alternate layers of cement and bullion in pots; (c) washing the gold to free it of cement; (d) melting the gold with borax or soda; (e) treatment of the cement by melting with lead and cupellation to recover the silver.
Chapter 76
What two species of cement does the chapter distinguish, and how does each act on silver?
In the first species, saltpetre, vitriol, and an aluminous or silicious medium convert the silver into nitrate, which is absorbed by the mass. In the second species, common salt with the same sort of medium converts the silver into a chloride. The chapter notes Agricola does not distinguish these two species because his ingredients are badly mixed.
Chapter 76
Why does Lewis object to combining salt and saltpetre, and how does Agricola's practice differ?
Lewis states that salt and saltpetre must never be used together, asserting that aqua regia would be formed and the gold dissolved. Agricola, however, apparently found no such difficulty, since saltpetre appears in all but two of his compounds and salt in every one.
Chapter 76
What does the chapter say about the antiquity of parting gold and silver by cementation with salt?
The chapter argues cementation with salt is the oldest parting method, with data near the beginning of the Christian Era. It cites Strabo (63 B.C.–24 A.D.) and Pliny (23–79 A.D.) as first authorities, and notes Pliny's account of heating gold with salt and misy, which Percy considers undoubtedly refers to parting by cementation with common salt.
Chapter 76

Book VII, where (p. (part 3)2 cards

What did the Probierbuechlein recipes for antimony sulphide parting involve?
The Probierbuechlein gives several recipes with the same metallurgical effect: melting golden silver with spiesglass (antimony sulphide), copper, and lead, then adding sulphur and covering with lime so fumes cannot escape. The gold collects in a button, which is re-melted with more spiesglass; the text says gold is usually good after three meltings, then cupelled.
Chapter 77
What does the chapter say about the antiquity and continuity of cupellation?
The chapter argues cupellation is of great antiquity, probably predating gold-silver separation, and was used continuously for at least 2,300 years. It was only partly supplanted by Pattinson's process in 1833, Parks' zinc method in 1850, and later electrolytic methods. The author suggests cupellation may have been practised as early as 2500 B.C.
Chapter 77

Book VII, where (p. (part 4)1 cards

What confusion did Agricola's use of stannum cause in mineralogic literature?
The chapter states that Agricola's insistence on using stannum and its supposed original sense gave considerable confusion to mineralogic literature for a century or two. He based his usage on passages from Pliny, though the chapter notes it is uncertain when the term stannum was adopted for tin, and that it appears in Cornish tin mining documents from at least 1198.
Chapter 78

Book IX, Agricola appears to use the term in this sense…4 cards

What does the editor say happened to the term molybdaenum after Agricola's time?
The editor notes that after Agricola's time the term molybdaenum was applied to substances resembling lead, such as graphite and what is now known as molybdenite (MoS2). In the latter part of the 18th century an element was separated from molybdenite and named molybdenum, which the editor says confounded the confusion five times over.
Chapter 79
How does the editor describe the refining of silver in tests?
The editor explains that refining silver in tests (Latin testa) is merely a second cupellation, performed with greater care and under a stronger blast. Stirring the mass with an iron rod raises the impurities, which either volatilize as litharge or float to the edges and are absorbed into the test. Test capacity of 15 to 50 librae equals roughly 155 to 515 ozs. Troy.
Chapter 79
According to the editor, what silver losses correspond to a drachma, sicilicus, and half an uncia?
The editor calculates that a drachma of impurities in a bes is one part in 64, or 984.4 fine. A loss of a sicilicus of silver to the bes is one part in 32, about 3.1%; three drachmae equal 4.7%; and half an uncia is 6.2%. These indicate original bullion fineness of about 950, 933, and 912 in the various cases.
Chapter 79
What weight ranges does the editor give for a charge of 30 centner?
The editor states that if Agricola means the German centner, the charge would be from about 4.6 to 5.7 short tons. If he is instead using Roman weights, it would be from about 3 to 3.7 short tons. The editor thus leaves the unit ambiguous and supplies both conversions rather than settling the question.
Chapter 79

BOOK XI. (part 1)4 cards

What is the purpose of the officina described at the start of Book XI?
The officina is the building constructed for those who separate silver from copper. Agricola lays out its walls, dimensions, and interior structures before describing the furnaces and hoods within it. The chapter then details the furnaces for smelting exhausted liquation cakes, heating whole copper cakes, drying cakes, alloying copper with lead, re-smelting slags, and liquating silver and lead from copper.
Chapter 80
How tall is the second long wall, and why is it built higher than the others?
All the long and transverse walls are ten feet high, except the second long wall, which is built fifteen feet high. Agricola states this extra height is because of the furnaces which must be built against it. The second long wall also carries the first side of the hood, and the furnaces against it smelt dried liquation cakes and heat copper cakes.
Chapter 80
What are the two cranes in the middle part of the building used for?
In the part of the building between the third and seventh transverse walls, two cranes are installed. One deposits on the ground the cakes of copper lifted out of the moulding pans; the other lifts the cakes from the ground into the second furnace. This section also contains furnaces for alloying copper with lead, re-smelting slags, and liquating silver and lead from copper.
Chapter 80
What is done with the exhausted liquation cakes in the furnaces against the second long wall?
The exhausted liquation cakes, which have already been dried, are smelted in these furnaces so that they may recover once again the appearance and colour of copper, inasmuch as they really are copper. Other furnaces in the same area heat the whole cakes of copper and dry the exhausted liquation cakes by the heat of the fire.
Chapter 80

BOOK XI. (part 2)4 cards

How are the lead masses lifted and placed on the hearth for melting?
A trolley with a tongue is drawn by rope to a crane whose arm is shorter than those in the second part of the works. Tongs, two feet a palm and two digits long, have jaws driven into the mass by hammer blows; their curved handles engage the lowest links of two short chains joined to a large ring holding the crane-arm's chain hook. Turning the crank lifts the mass onto the hearth wood.
Chapter 81
How are the lead masses melted and cast into cakes?
About a hundred and sixty centumpondia are piled on the hearth wood and readied in the evening, covered against rain by a movable cover with two rear legs. Next morning live coals are shoveled onto the charcoal and the lead melts, charcoal added from time to time. Running lead is ladled into copper moulds smeared with lute wash so cakes fall out when struck; otherwise the moulds may melt and leak.
Chapter 81
How does the stamp-mill break copper cakes?
Cakes are wheelbarrowed to a bronze saddle set in a cut-out oak block between two masses of lead, and broken by an iron-shod stamp. The square stamp is eleven feet long, guided through square openings in paired transverse beams held by horned iron claves and wedges. A tooth on the stamp is raised by arms on the axle whose bronze pipes turn on little iron axles; removing these lets other stamps work without this one.
Chapter 81
How are thick copper cakes heated and broken with hammers?
Cakes too thick for the stamp, such as those settled in the crucible bottom, are heated in a furnace about two hours, arranged in rows with egg-sized stones between and bottom cakes raised on half bricks so heat penetrates. Iron plates or rocks hold the mouth row in. Hot cakes are raked out with a two-pronged rabble and beaten by two workmen; the hotter they are, the sooner they break, while cooler ones bend like basins.
Chapter 81

BOOK XI. (part 4)4 cards

How does the refiner adjust the liquation furnace width for more or fewer cakes?
The refiner drives an iron pin into one of five square holes on the front bar: the last hole narrows the furnace, the first widens it, and middle holes contract it moderately. For the same reason the hook is placed in the last, third, or second chain link. The furnace is widened when many cakes are put in and contracted when there are few; more than five cakes is neither usual nor possible.
Chapter 83
How are liquation cakes supported and spaced inside the furnace?
Two iron blocks, dipped in clay and water, are placed under each cake so the fire acts more strongly; four cakes per furnace get blocks, but five smaller cakes from copper bottoms, thorns, or slags get none. Charcoal pieces six digits long are laid between cakes to keep them from falling against each other or the fire-protecting wall, with long charcoal in the middle spaces.
Chapter 83
What happens to the silver-lead after it liquates into the receiving-pit?
The refiner pours the silver-lead with a bronze ladle into eight copper moulds, two palms and three digits in diameter, first smeared with lute wash so cakes fall out easily. If flow is too rapid, water is poured on the moulds to cool them for immediate reuse. The silver-lead is then carried to the cupellation furnace, where lead is separated from silver.
Chapter 83
What is the work of 'drying' exhausted liquation cakes and why is earth thrown on the hearth?
Drying is done in four operations over four days. The master chips stalactites from the cakes, then throws pulverized earth mixed with water over the hearth and sprinkles charcoal dust a digit thick. If neglected, copper settling in the passages would adhere to the copper bed-plates or bricks, and chipping it off easily breaks the bricks. Bricks are arranged in ten rows forming twelve passages.
Chapter 83

BOOK XI. (part 5)4 cards

How is the iron door of the drying furnace constructed and supported?
The door is made of iron bars with plates fastened by iron wire: seven bars total, three transverse and four upright, each two digits wide and half a digit thick. The upright bars project above the curved upper transverse bar and have holes holding hooked chains, which connect to a pivoting beam that holds the door shut via an iron pin.
Chapter 84
What happens when exhausted liquation cakes are 'dried' in the furnace?
The master kindles charcoal over the cakes and spreads live coals with a long shovel. They become incandescent in an hour and a half if the copper was good and hard, or two hours if soft and fragile. Slags begin to flow after five hours, when passages are opened with a bar; the door is then let down over the upper arch so the master can bear the heat.
Chapter 84
Why are dripping 'dried' cakes not immediately dipped into the tank?
Because if dipped immediately they burst in fragments and give out a sound like thunder. The cakes are taken from the hearth with tongs and thrown into the rectangular tank nearly filled with water, but dripping cakes must wait. The sooner they are removed afterward, the easier it is to chip off the ash-coloured copper.
Chapter 84
How is the ash-coloured copper removed from the dried cakes the next day?
Assistants place the cakes on an oak block and first pound them with rounded hammers so the ash-coloured copper falls away, then dig out with pointed picks the holes in the cakes containing the same copper. This copper contains silver, so it is smelted again in blast furnaces; some instead chip metal from bricks or crush and wash the bricks.
Chapter 84

BOOK XI. (part 6)4 cards

How does the master test whether copper is perfectly refined?
He introduces a digit-thick steel-pointed bar through the pipe between the two nozzles and takes samples two, three, or four times. Good copper adheres easily and needs only two samples; poor copper needs many. The copper must show a brassy colour, and both upper and lower parts of the thin layer must break easily. He then chips the layer off on a small iron anvil with a hammer.
Chapter 85
Why must water be poured on the wall and pipes before casting?
The water flows down warm into the crucible, because cold water poured onto hot copper would spatter about. Similarly, if a stone, piece of lute or wood, or damp coal fell in, the crucible would vomit out all the copper with a noise like thunder, injuring and setting fire to whatever it touches. The master also presses down bubbles with the rabble if the copper bubbles.
Chapter 85
How are copper cakes separated and quenched after refining?
A curved notched board is laid over the front of the crucible, and an iron wedge-shaped bar, steeled at the end, is driven into the copper and moved forward and back. Water flows into the vacant space, separating each cake from the mass. The assistant seizes each cake with tongs and plunges it into the tub. The first cake is set aside for re-melting because slags adhere to it; if copper is poor, the first two are set aside.
Chapter 85
What proportions make a liquation cake from thorns?
Three-quarters of a centumpondium of primary thorns, the same of thorns from once re-melted cakes, plus a centumpondium of de-silverized lead and half a centumpondium of hearth-lead. If plenty of litharge is available, it substitutes for the de-silverized lead. By both methods one single liquation cake is made from three centumpondia. The smelter makes about fifteen such cakes daily, taking care that each material flows down in due order.
Chapter 85

BOOK XI. (part 7)3 cards

What are the six stages of the liquation process outlined in the footnote?
The editor lists: (1) melting copper and lead in a blast furnace to form liquation cakes, called 'leading'; (2) liquating argentiferous lead from copper in a furnace with air excluded to prevent oxidation; (3) 'drying' residual copper with free air admission at higher temperature; (4) cupelling the argentiferous lead; (5) refining residual copper by oxidation and poling; (6) re-alloying and re-liquating bye-products such as slags and thorns.
Chapter 86
What bye-products does the liquation process create, according to the footnote?
The bye-products include slags from leading, drying, and refining (mainly lead oxides with some cuprous oxides and silica); thorns from liquation, drying, and cupellation skimmings (largely lead oxides with more copper and less silica than slags); ash-coloured copper, being scales from dried copper; and concentrates from furnace accretions and crushed bricks. These were re-alloyed and re-liquated.
Chapter 86
What losses did liquation involve, according to Karsten and Percy as cited?
Karsten estimates losses in liquating the equivalent of 100 lbs. of argentiferous copper at 32 to 35 lbs. of lead and 5 to 6 lbs. of copper. Percy quotes Lautenthal results for 1857 to 1860 showing losses of 25% of the silver, 9.1% of the copper, and 36.37 lbs. of lead per 100 lbs. of copper, about 16% of the lead, at a cost of L8 6s. per ton of copper.
Chapter 86

BOOK XI. (part 8)4 cards

What atmosphere and conditions were required for liquation, and why?
The chapter states a reducing atmosphere was necessary to keep the lead from oxidizing, secured by covering the cakes with charcoal and blocking air entry. A fairly even temperature also had to be maintained. Too high a temperature or admitted air would melt more copper and oxidize more lead, increasing the liquation thorns.
Chapter 87
What were the 'drying' process products, and how did drying extend liquation?
The chapter explains drying was really an extension of liquation at higher temperature, more economically achieved in the drying furnace. Because air was admitted, melted lead and copper oxidized. Products were final residual 'dried' copper plus lead and copper oxides called 'slags,' and the oxide scale termed 'ash-coloured copper.'
Chapter 87
How was copper refined in an open hearth, and how was over-refinement detected?
The chapter describes blowing a strong continuous blast on molten impure copper, oxidizing impurities into slag and forming cuprous oxide, then 'poling' with green wood whose gases reduce the oxide. Metal state was tested with an iron rod: proper copper adheres net-like, reddish and pliable; unrefined is thick and smooth; over-refined is thick and brittle.
Chapter 87
What does the chapter say about the earliest authentic reference to poling?
The chapter states it is impossible to say how the Ancients refined copper beyond often re-smelting it. The first authentic reference to poling is in Theophilus (1150–1200 A.D.), whose account shows good understanding of the method. Biringuccio in 1540 describes the process briefly but omits poling, which the chapter calls essential for malleable copper.
Chapter 87

BOOK XII. (part 1)4 cards

How did people first obtain solidified juices, and what two later improvements did they adopt?
People first observed lake waters naturally full of juices thickening when dried by the sun, and drew such waters into low-lying places for the sun to condense. Since this worked only in summer and only in hot, temperate regions with little summer rain, they later boiled the solutions in vessels over fire, allowing production in all seasons and even the coldest regions. Still later, seeing juices drip from roasted stones, they cooked these in pots as well.
Chapter 88
According to Agricola, how is salt made from sea-water in salt-pits?
Near a quiet pool on level shore, trenches are dug and principal pits made so water flows from pool to trenches to salt-pits. The gate is raised to fill the trenches, then basins are filled in sequence, with a slight fall so water passes from one to the next. As water evaporates and thickens, it moves through successive basins until fully condensed into salt, which is raked and shoveled out.
Chapter 88
How is salt-water boiled in pans in the sheds described by Agricola?
Sheds near wells are divided into three rooms: one for firewood and straw, a middle room with the fireplace and caldron plus a tub for brine and a bench for salt, and a back room with a pile of clay or ashes. Caldrons are rectangular iron or lead plate vessels, cemented with ox-liver, ox-blood and ashes to prevent leaking. Brine is poured in, fire lit, and salt condensed.
Chapter 88
What does Agricola report about the amount of brine and the fuel used at Halle in Saxony?
The author states that at Halle in Saxony the master or his deputy makes two cone-shaped pieces of salt from thirty-seven dippersful of brine. Each master has a helper (or his wife) and a youth who throws wood or straw under the caldron. If faggots or brushwood are burned the salt is white, but if straw is burned it is often blackish, because sparks drawn into the hood fall back and colour the water.
Chapter 88

BOOK XII. (part 2)4 cards

How is salt made by pouring brine over firewood, and why is this salt disdained?
Brine is poured over wood laid in trenches twelve feet long, seven feet wide, and two and a half feet deep, built of rock-salt where available so they don't soak up water. Oak is considered best, though hazel is praised elsewhere. The resulting salt is black and impure, so Germans and Spaniards disdain this method. The author notes Pliny's report that Spaniards thought the wood itself turned into salt.
Chapter 89
How is saltpetre solution prepared from earth, and how is its quality tested?
Dry, slightly fatty earth with an acrid salty taste is layered alternately with powder (two parts unslaked lime, three parts oak or similar ash) in a vat, then water is poured in to dissolve the saltpetre. The drained solution is judged good if it tastes very salty and acrid; if not, it is condemned and must percolate again through the same or fresh material.
Chapter 89
How is chrysocolla (borax) made from nitrum, and what did Pliny record about its former composition?
Native or manufactured nitrum is mixed with urine in vats and boiled in caldrons; the decoction is poured into vats containing copper wires, and it hardens on them into chrysocolla, which the Moors call borax. The author also notes some chrysocolla is made from rock-alum and sal-ammoniac, and that Pliny wrote nitrum was formerly compounded with Cyprian verdigris and ground with Cyprian copper in Cyprian mortars.
Chapter 89
How are alum and vitriol separated when vitriol is present in the aluminous ore?
If vitriol is in the ore, the material is dissolved in water without urine, but urine is poured into the clear solution before re-boiling. This separates them: alum sinks to the bottom of the caldron while vitriol floats on top. Each is poured separately into smaller vessels and then vats to condense; if they fail to separate, they are poured into larger covered vessels until the vitriol separates from the alum.
Chapter 89

BOOK XII. (part 3)3 cards

By what four methods can vitriol be made according to Agricola?
Agricola lists four methods: two from vitriol-containing water; one from a solution of melanteria, sory, and chalcitis; and one from earth or stones mixed with vitriol. The water methods differ by climate—sun-condensed in pits in hot regions or summer, boiled in leaden caldrons in cold regions or winter, then hung on ropes with little stones to crystallize.
Chapter 90
How is vitriol made from vitriolous earth or stones?
The ore is heaped and exposed to rain, heat, and frost for five or six months, turned with shovels, then covered for six to eight months. It is thrown into a large water-filled vat, stirred with poles, and the solution drained through holes into a lower vat. The clear solution is boiled in leaden caldrons, iron strips added, boiled again until thick, then cooled in tanks to congeal over two or three days.
Chapter 90
How does Agricola describe the furnace and pots used to make sulphur from sulphurous ore?
Ores of sulphur and earth are melted in big-bellied earthenware pots set in a three-part furnace. Two pots with long spouts sit in the furnace; their spouts feed into a third pot outside, built in for steadiness, with a bottom hole for the sulphur to flow out. The furnace is sealed with luted iron plates, and the sulphur vapour condenses in the lower pot like melted wax, then is made into cakes or dipped sticks.
Chapter 90

BOOK XII. (part 4)4 cards

How does the length of re-melting affect the quality of glass?
The author states that the longer the broken pieces are re-melted, the purer and more transparent the glass becomes, with fewer spots and blisters. Those who melt material for only one night make less pure glass than those who first produce a vitreous mass and re-melt it for a day and a night; the latter are still surpassed by those who re-melt for two days and two nights.
Chapter 91
Why are blown glass articles placed in the oblong earthenware receptacles?
They are placed there so they may cool in a milder temperature. If the glass articles were not cooled slowly, they would burst asunder. When vessels are taken from the upper chamber, they are immediately placed in these receptacles to cool. Once a receptacle is full of slowly-cooled articles, the glass-maker passes an iron bar under it and carries it on his left arm to another recess.
Chapter 91
What are the two little windows left free in the furnace wall used for?
After the glass-makers fill the pots and close all windows with lute and bricks, two little windows are left free in each. Through one they inspect the glass in the pot and take it up with a blow-pipe; in the other they rest a second blow-pipe so it may get warm. A marble lip in front holds the clay and an iron shield that protects the glass-maker's eyes from the fire.
Chapter 91
How does the three-chambered second furnace differ from the two-chambered one?
The three-chambered furnace is round but measures eight feet in interior diameter and twelve feet high, versus ten feet in diameter and eight feet high for the two-chambered one. Its middle chamber wall has six arched openings holding the pots, with remaining small windows blocked with lute. A square opening in the middle top lets heat into the upper chamber, whose rear opening receives the oblong receptacles for slow cooling.
Chapter 91

BOOK XII. (part 5)4 cards

How did Agricola describe refining saltpetre with sulphur?
The saltpetre is melted, sulphur added and set alight; the mixture burns brilliantly. The potassium sulphate formed would possibly settle to the bottom, and any organic 'greasy matter' impurities might be burned off. The editor notes this method appears copied from Biringuccio, who states it in almost identical terms, and that the purification with sulphur is difficult to understand.
Chapter 92
What did the editor conclude about the ancient term alumen?
The editor argues the ancient alumen was alum, not vitriol as Beckmann's widely adopted doctrine held. He notes alum does occur naturally from volcanic action and as efflorescence from argillaceous rocks, and that the Ancients could have prepared it artificially. He cites Herodotus, Diodorus, Dioscorides and Pliny on sources including Egypt, Melos and Lipari.
Chapter 92
What error did Agricola hold about adding urine in the alum process?
Agricola believed the urine separated vitriol from the alum. The editor states this was mistaken: the urine converted aluminium sulphate into ammonia alum, and this belief was general until Lavoisier determined that alum must have an alkali base. The editor adds it is unclear from the description exactly how the alum and vitriol were separated.
Chapter 92
What is the first certain mention of saltpetre and who described gunpowder?
The first certain mention of saltpetre (sal petrae) is in Geber, whose date is uncertain but probably as early as the 13th century; he describes making 'solvative water' with alum and saltpetre. Roger Bacon (died 1294) uses the term sal petrae frequently and was the first to describe gunpowder, in De Mirabili Potestate Artis et Naturae, 1242.
Chapter 92

BOOK XII. (part 6)3 cards

What does the editor conclude misy, sory, chalcitis, and melanteria actually are?
The editor concludes that misy is a yellowish material, possibly ochre, and sory a blackish stone, both impregnated with vitriol. Chalcitis is partially decomposed pyrites, and melanteria is native vitriol, from which the modern term melanterite derives. He notes Dana considers misy partly copiapite, a basic ferric sulphate, though any such portion would not explain Agricola's objection to it as a vitriol source.
Chapter 93
Who first mentions white vitriol (zinc sulphate), and when was artificial zinc vitriol made?
The editor states the first mention of white vitriol, or zinc sulphate, appears to be due to Agricola, who describes a white sort found at Goslar in transparent icicle shapes. However, artificial zinc vitriol does not appear to have been made in Agricola's time. Schlueter states it was first made at Rammelsberg about 1570. Dana identifies the native form as goslarite.
Chapter 93
Where does the term petroleum first appear, and how did Egyptians use bitumen?
The editor states the term petroleum apparently first appears in Agricola's De Natura Fossilium, where he calls it the oil of bitumen now called petroleum. Bitumen was used by the Egyptians for embalming from prehistoric times, before 5000 B.C., and the term mummy arose from the Persian word for bitumen, mumiai. Herodotus and Diodorus say Babylon's walls were mortared with bitumen.
Chapter 93

BOOK XII. (part 7)4 cards

How does the text divide Agricola's writings for discussion?
The text divides Agricola's writings into two broad lines: works on mining, geology, mineralogy and allied subjects, and works on other subjects such as medical, religious, critical, political and historical. Within these it identifies three cases: works authenticated in European libraries today, references to editions in bibliographies that could not be authenticated, and references to works unpublished or lost.
Chapter 94
Which work does the text call Agricola's most important besides De Re Metallica?
The text calls De Natura Fossilium the most important work of Agricola excepting De Re Metallica. It first appeared at Basel in 1546, printed in combination with other works, and was considerably revised by the author; the amended edition of 1558 is the one used for references. It comprises ten books totaling 217 folio pages.
Chapter 94
How does De Natura Fossilium classify minerals, and on what basis?
It is described as the first attempt at systematic mineralogy, classifying minerals into earths (clay, ochre), stones properly so-called (gems and unusual stones as distinguished from rocks), solidified juices (salt, vitriol, alum), metals, and compounds (homogeneous mixtures forming galena, pyrite, etc.). Agricola sought a fundamental basis using solubility, fusibility, odour and taste, though the text notes true classification was impossible without atomic theory.
Chapter 94
What does the text say about the number of minerals Agricola described?
Dana, in his great work, identifies some fourscore minerals described by Agricola and his predecessors, accrediting a score to Agricola himself. The text's authors believe that although in a few cases Agricola has been wrongly credited, still more could be assigned priority to him. They note that many of Agricola's so-called species are in the modern system merely varieties, with some eight or ten ancient species being forms of silica.
Chapter 94

Book V., lodestone, bloodstone, gypsum, talc, asbestos… (part 1)3 cards

According to Agricola, what two forces produce hills and mountains?
The author argues that hills and mountains are produced by two forces: the power of water and the strength of the wind. Water excavates earth and rock, leaving eminences on each side, while wind heaps up sand and dust. Fire, by contrast, only consumes mountains and does not produce them.
Chapter 95
What three forces does Agricola say loosen and demolish mountains?
The author argues that three forces loosen and demolish mountains: the power of water, the strength of the wind, and the fire in the interior of the earth. Water and wind both build and destroy mountains, while fire only consumes them, usually affecting the inner part.
Chapter 95
Why does Agricola say common people fail to notice geological changes?
The author argues that although changes to hills, mountains, and seas are numerous and important, common people do not notice them happening because the time, place, and manner in which they began is far prior to human memory. The changes occur over such antiquity that observers cannot perceive them in progress.
Chapter 95

Book V., lodestone, bloodstone, gypsum, talc, asbestos… (part 3)4 cards

What did Theophrastus write on stones and metals, and what survives?
Theophrastus, Aristotle's principal disciple, wrote at least two works on stones and on metals/mining, but the latter is not extant. His work 'On Stones' was first printed in Venice in 1498 and later published with an English translation by Sir John Hill in 1746. It comprises 120 short paragraphs and describes minerals using characteristics like colour, hardness, and lustre, though it usually omits these characteristics in the descriptions themselves.
Chapter 97
What is Pliny's Natural History, and how does it relate to Dioscorides?
Pliny's Natural History is a 37-book encyclopaedia, with only portions of the last four books relating to mining and metallurgy, over half of that on precious stones. Pliny and Dioscorides were contemporaries; internal evidence strongly suggests they drew from the same source or that Pliny drew from Dioscorides. The text therefore gives precedence to the Greek author Dioscorides in matters of historical interest.
Chapter 97
What does the chapter say about Geber's identity and works?
Geber was long considered an Arab alchemist of the 7th to 12th centuries, but Berthelot in 'Chimie au Moyen Age' (1893) argues the works under Geber's name were not mainly of Arabic origin but composed by a Latin scholar in the 13th century. Certain works under this name were printed in Latin as early as 1470-80 and were first translated into English by Richard Russell in 1678. The work is one of the most important in the history of chemistry and metallurgy.
Chapter 97
How does the chapter characterize Pliny's reliability and Agricola's use of him?
The chapter states Pliny was himself but a compiler of information from others, with no more experience than most travellers. His text is likely corrupted through generations of transcription. While those skilled in metallurgy can dimly see many operations in his statements, little can be understood without much deduction. Agricola relied almost wholly on Pliny for Latin technical terms, which helps disentangle puzzling nomenclature in De Re Metallica, such as the term molybdaena.
Chapter 97

Book V., lodestone, bloodstone, gypsum, talc, asbestos… (part 4)4 cards

What did the earliest mining books comprise, and how were their chapters divided?
The earliest books comprise ten chapters, in which Daniel delivers about 6,000 words of instruction. The first four chapters describe veins and the origin of metals; the remaining six cover one metal each: silver, gold, tin, copper, iron, lead, and quicksilver. Later editions in Group II add explanations of woodcut signs, colouring directions, and definitions of some 92 mining terms.
Chapter 98
How did the early books explain the origin of metals?
The account is a muddle of Peripatetic, alchemical, and astrological ideas, acknowledged to Albertus Magnus. Metals are said to originate from quicksilver and sulphur through heat, cold, dampness, and dryness, drawn out as exhalations through veins, each metal owing its origin to a planet's influence—the Moon for silver, Saturn for lead. The author notes Agricola quoted such views in order to demolish them.
Chapter 98
What does the chapter say about the Probierbuechlein assay booklets?
The Probierbuechlein were small German assay books, really collections of recipes like cookery books, meant to refresh the memory of the skilled rather than instruct novices. They grew by accretion from many sources, with over 120 recipes and much repetition—parting gold from silver by sulphur appears eight times. The author argues they are the first written word on assaying and a milestone toward quantitative analysis.
Chapter 98
What does the chapter say about Biringuccio's work?
Biringuccio's work was in Italian, published at Venice in 1540, comprising ten chapters in 168 folios. The last six chapters are almost wholly devoted to metal working and founding, especially artillery, munitions, and bells. The first four represent the first work on smelting, but the descriptions are diffuse, difficult to follow, and lack arrangement and detail. The author notes it holds to a muddle of classic elements, astrology, and alchemy.
Chapter 98

Book V., lodestone, bloodstone, gypsum, talc, asbestos… (part 5)4 cards

According to the chapter's weight scale, how many Pfennige make one Quintlein?
The Old German scale of weights lists 4 Pfennige = 1 Quintlein, with 1 Pfennig reckoned at 14.1 Troy grains and 1 Quintlein at 56.4 grains. The scale continues upward: 4 Quintlein = 1 Loth, 2 Loth = 1 Untzen, 8 Untzen = 1 Mark, 2 Mark = 1 Pfundt, and 100 Pfundt = 1 Centner.
Chapter 99
In the Roman long measure given, how many Digiti make a Pes, and what is a Pes in inches?
The Roman long measure states 4 Digiti = 1 Palmus, 4 Palmi = 1 Pes, and 1 Pes equals 11.61 inches. It also notes 1-1/2 Pedes = 1 Cubitus (17.41 inches) and 5 Pedes = 1 Passus (58.1 inches), plus 1 Roman Uncia = .97 inch and 12 Unciae = Pes.
Chapter 99
How does the Greek long measure compare with the Roman in the chapter?
The Greek long measure is listed separately: 1 Dactylos = .758 inch, 4 Dactyloi = 1 Palaiste (3.03 inches), 4 Palaistai = 1 Pous (12.135 inches), 1-1/2 Pous = 1 Pechus (18.20 inches), and 6 Pous = 1 Orguia (72.81 inches). These Greek units differ slightly from the corresponding Roman figures.
Chapter 99
What does the chapter say about Agricola's use of Saxon liquid measures?
The chapter states that Agricola nowhere uses the Saxon liquid measures, and adds that they do not fall into units comparable with the Roman. The Roman liquid measure itself is given in cubic inches and pints, for example 4 Quartarii = 1 Sextarius (31.4 cubic inches, .991 pints) and 6 Sextarii = 1 Congius.
Chapter 99

Book V., lodestone, bloodstone, gypsum, talc, asbestos… (part 6)4 cards

What does Agricola list as uses of litharge in smelting and assaying?
The index lists litharge (also called lithargyrum) as used in reducing silver nitrate, and in smelting at the cited passages. It is grouped with cupellation products and lead ochre among lead materials. The chapter presents these as cross-references to Agricola's fuller discussion elsewhere rather than as standalone explanation.
Chapter 100
According to the chapter, what are the two methods Agricola describes for parting gold from silver?
The chapter's index distinguishes parting gold from silver by nitric acid, by antimony sulphide, by cementation, and by sulphur and copper, alongside parting gold from copper by other means. It also notes nitric acid's use in assaying parting. These are listed as separate processes with their own page references, not as one unified method.
Chapter 100
What does the chapter say about the dangers of poisonous fumes to miners?
The index lists poisonous fumes under a cross-reference and connects pompholyx, a furnace product from copper refinings, cupellation, dust-chambers, and roasting, to being poisonous. It also cites maladies of miners as a topic. The chapter treats these as hazards of the work rather than as moral commentary on mining itself.
Chapter 100
How does the chapter characterize Agricola's overall view of mining as an occupation?
The index cites passages where mining is called harmless and honourable, and where metals are described as necessary to man but not responsible for evil passions. It also lists criticisms of mining alongside these defenses. The author argues mining is honourable, while acknowledging objections and risks such as abandoned mines and miners' maladies.
Chapter 100

Book V., lodestone, bloodstone, gypsum, talc, asbestos… (part 7)4 cards

According to the index, which ancient authors are cited regarding the lodestone?
The index lists Aristotle and Hippocrates as authorities cited in connection with lodestone, with the references pointing to page 115. Both names appear in the index to persons and authorities, where heavy-type numbers refer to the text and plain-type numbers to footnotes and appendices.
Chapter 101
What does the index indicate about Agricola's interest in the Gottsgaab mine?
The index entry for Georgius Agricola lists "Interest in Gottsgaab mine" with references to page VII and page 74, alongside his roles as assayer, geologist, mineralogist, and founder of science. The entry also notes his real name and his works listed in Appendix A.
Chapter 101
Which authors does the index associate with the divining rod?
The index attributes divining rod references to several sources: Boyle, Cicero, Ctesias, and Homer, plus entries for wizards and workmen. It also links magic rods to Circe, Hermes (Mercury), and Minerva, with page references to 38 and 40.
Chapter 101
What does the index say about Biringuccio's influence on Agricola?
The index states Agricola was indebted to Biringuccio, with the reference marked XXVII. It lists Biringuccio's contributions on amalgamation of silver ores, assaying, brass making, copper refining and smelting, cupellation, liquation, manganese, parting precious metals, roasting, steel making, and zaffre.
Chapter 101

Book V., lodestone, bloodstone, gypsum, talc, asbestos… (part 8)4 cards

What does the index list under 'Furnaces' for assaying and blast?
The index lists Assay Furnaces under 'Furnaces' with a cross-reference, and separately lists blast furnaces at numerous page references including 357, 358, 373, 377, 383, 385, 387, 389, 395, 419, 424, and 508. It also notes specific blast furnace uses such as copper refining at 537, cupellation at 468, 470, 474, 481, and 482, and iron smelting at 422 and 424.
Chapter 102
Which parting methods for precious metals does the index distinguish?
The index lists Parting Precious Metals by four methods: with antimony at 453, by cementation at 455, with nitric acid at 446, and with sulphur at 449. It also separately lists nitric acid parting at 446 and parting precious metals with antimony at 453, and notes a ring-fire for parting with sulphur at 449.
Chapter 102
What types of pumps does the index enumerate?
The index enumerates chain pumps at 173, 174, and 175; duplex suction pumps at 180, 185, and 189; rag and chain pumps at 191, 193, 194, 195, and 197; and suction pumps at 177, 178, 179, 182, 183, and 187. It also lists a tread whim at 163 and windlasses at 161, 162, and 171.
Chapter 102
What does the transcriber's note say about spelling variants?
The transcriber's note states that because the document quotes very early authors, many spelling and punctuation irregularities exist, and the authors were American writing for a British journal. Whether 'ae' and 'oe' appear as ligatures or separate characters seems fairly random. Unless there was a clearly preferred spelling, variants were kept as is, with all changes explicitly documented.
Chapter 102

Book I does not have footnote 24; Book VI does not have…4 cards

What did the editor do with the explanatory text on page xxiv?
The editor treated the explanatory text on page xxiv as a footnote, numbering it as footnote 1, and created its anchor on page xxi. This is one of several editorial decisions recorded in the front matter, alongside changes such as altering "license" to "licence" in the note on page xxiv, where the text reads "only poets have licence."
Chapter 103
Why was "loadstone" left unchanged on page 2?
The editor left "loadstone" on page 2 even though it is spelled "lodestone" everywhere else, because it appears inside a quotation. The same principle was applied to "vapor" in footnote 20 on page 210, which was kept despite "vapour" being the spelling used elsewhere, again because it is in a quote.
Chapter 103
What corrections were made to the table on page 257?
In the table on page 257, the entries for the 20th and 21st needles did not add up because the entry for the number of sextulae of copper belonged in the 21st needle, not the 20th; this was corrected. However, other errors were not corrected, and the entries for the 22nd, 28th and 31st needles still do not add correctly.
Chapter 103
What changes were made to the table on page 258?
In the table on page 258, the number for the siliquae of copper was sometimes placed in the sextulae column; these were corrected for the lines of needles 13, 22 and 24. Another error remains uncorrected for the 17th needle, which probably should have another sextula of silver.
Chapter 103

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Text used: Project Gutenberg eBook #38015 (Public domain in the United States). Generated from the full text; cards paraphrase the source.

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All questions and answers

What three objectives did the translators set for this work?

Why did the translators keep the original Latin for weights?

How did the translators avoid implying modern scientific understanding?

What evidence do the translators give for De Re Metallica's importance?

What offices and honours did Agricola receive from the Saxon Electors Maurice and Augustus?

Why was Agricola refused burial at Chemnitz despite his standing as Burgomaster?

How did Agricola depart from the Peripatetic school, and why does the author argue this mattered?

What does the author identify as Agricola's most interesting theoretical views and why?

What Latin, German, and Italian editions of De Re Metallica does the chapter list?

What does the chapter say about a possible French or Spanish version?

What happened to Sir John Pettus's planned English translation?

How does the chapter characterize the existing German translation?

How does Agricola describe alchemists who color base metals to look like gold or silver?

Why did Agricola write De Re Metallica, and what method did he use for illustrations?

What rule does Agricola state about what he includes in his books?

What does Agricola say about naming things in the art of mining, and give his examples?

According to the footnote, what three sources does the science of Chemistry come from?

Why does the footnote say knowledge of many alchemists mentioned by Agricola is uncertain?

How does the footnote characterize Hermes Trismegistos and the dating of his works?

What does the footnote note about Agricola omitting certain important figures from his list?

What skills and knowledge does Agricola say a miner must possess?

How does Agricola answer critics who say mining is unprofitable and unstable?

How does Agricola respond to the charge that mining is dangerously deadly?

What arguments do critics make that metals are useless, and how does Agricola rebut them?

What examples does Agricola cite of gold causing downfall?

What does Agricola say about the claim that metals should not be mined?

How does Agricola argue metals are necessary for food and clothing?

What does Agricola say about iron's use in weapons and cannon?

According to the chapter, what is the real cause of wars and crimes blamed on gold and silver?

How do the Peripatetics and the Stoics differ on classifying wealth?

What examples does the author give to show metals are useful to various professions?

Why does the author consider mining an honourable occupation compared with soldiering?

How does Agricola answer the charge that mining is shameful because slaves once worked in mines?

Which callings does Agricola rank as the chief ones, and how does he judge mining among them?

What evidence does Agricola give that people of high status have been involved in mining?

Why does Agricola claim the miner is well suited to military life?

What did Herodotus report about the Thasians' income from mines and mainland possessions?

What did Herodotus say about the Phoenician mine workings on Thasos?

How did Conrad von Glueck become wealthy, and what titles did he receive?

What dating problem does the chapter note about the Phoenician colonization of Thasos?

What seven things must a miner consider before mining the veins?

What advantage does Agricola claim for spreading investment across several mines rather than one?

What cautions does Agricola give about buying shares in mines?

According to Agricola, how do hoar-frost and plant appearance reveal hidden veins?

What two opposing positions does Agricola report concerning the forked twig?

By what natural forces or accidents does Agricola say veins may be laid bare without human industry?

What did Nicias do with his thousand men in the silver mines?

How did the Laurion mines fund Athens' fleet at Salamis?

How were the Laurion mines worked and held according to the chapter?

What did Strabo say about the exhausted Attic silver mines?

According to the chapter, what did Posidonius claim about forests burning and silver in Ibernia?

How does Agricola explain the discovery of the Goslar mines and the name Rammelsberg?

What does the chapter say about the divining rod's origins and Agricola's view of it?

What does Pliny record about Hannibal's Spanish silver mines, and what does the chapter note about dating?

What three types of veins does Agricola distinguish in Book III?

How do rock seams reveal a vein's direction?

How is the miners' compass divided, and what does the needle show?

What does Agricola say about naming directions after winds?

How does Agricola classify the small veins called fibrae?

What vein orientation do many miners consider best, and does Agricola accept it?

Why does Agricola reject the idea that the sun draws metal out of veins?

What does Agricola say about gold in rivers and streams?

According to Agricola, what two causes explain why mineral juices solidify?

How does Agricola say water forms venae profundae versus venae dilatatae?

What is a vena cumulata and how does Agricola say it forms?

According to the chapter, what two original propositions of Agricola remain fundamentals today?

How does the chapter describe Agricola's definition of 'juice'?

What error does the chapter attribute to Agricola regarding ore channels, and who corrected it?

What does the chapter say about Werner's standing as father of the modern ore-deposit theory?

How does the Bergmeister allocate meers to miners who discover a vein?

What were the dimensions of the head meer and ordinary meers on a vena profunda?

What oath did the discoverer swear before the Bergmeister delimited the vein?

How did the old custom distribute meers among the discoverer and dignitaries?

How were silver mines at Schneeberg and Joachimsthal divided into shares?

Which mine owners paid contributions, and which did not?

Under the old custom, how could owners lose rights to a mine or tunnel?

How did the procedure for restoring proscribed share owners change?

How does the Mining Clerk keep his records secure against falsification?

What happens to an owner who fails to pay his contribution for a month?