Mine Pumping in Agricola's Time and Later

Contributions from
The Museum of History and Technology:
Paper 7
Mine Pumping in
Agricola’s Time and Later
Robert P. Multhauf
By Robert P. Multhauf
Coins are a source of information much used by historians. Elaborately detailed mining landscapes on 16th-century German coins in the National Museum, discovered by the curator of numismatics and brought to the author’s attention, led to this study of early mine-pumping devices.
The Author: Robert P. Multhauf is curator of Science and Technology, Museum of History and Technology, in the Smithsonian Institution’s United States National Museum.

Figure 1.—Brunswick Silver 3½ Taler, Johann Friedrich, 1677. ( U. S. National Museum, Paul A. Straub coll.; Smithsonian photo 43334-C. )
Mine-Pumping Machinery Illustrated By Brunswick Multiple Talers