END OF BOOK IX.
FOOTNOTES:
[Pg 353][1] The history of the fusion of ores and of metals is the history of individual processes, and such information as we have been able to discover upon the individual methods previous to Agricola we give on the pages where such processes are discussed. In general the records of the beginnings of metallurgy are so nebular that, if one wishes to shirk the task, he can adopt the explanation of William Pryce one hundred and fifty years ago: "It is very probable that the nature and use of Metals were not revealed to Adam in his state of innocence: the toil and labour necessary to procure and use those implements of the iron age could not be known, till they made part of the curse incurred by his fall: 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life' (Genesis). That they were very early discovered, however, is manifest from the Mosaick account of Tubal Cain, who was the first instructor of every artificer in Brass [sic] and Iron" (Mineralogia Cornubiensis, p. 2).
It is conceivable that gold could be found in large enough pieces to have had general use in pre-historic times, without fusion; but copper, which was also in use, must have been smelted, and therefore we must assume a considerable development of human knowledge on the subject prior to any human record. Such incidental mention as exists after record begins does not, of course, extend to the beginning of any particular branch of the art—in fact, special arts obviously existed long before such mention, and down to the complete survey of the state of the art by Agricola our dates are necessarily "prior to" some first mention in literature, or "prior to" the known period of existing remains of metallurgical operations. The scant Egyptian records, the Scriptures, and the Shoo King give a little insight prior to 1000 B.C. The more extensive Greek literature of about the 5th to the 3rd centuries B.C., together with the remains of Greek mines, furnish another datum point of view, and the Roman and Greek writers at the beginning of the Christian era give a still larger view. After them our next step is to the Monk Theophilus and the Alchemists, from the 12th to the 14th centuries. Finally, the awakening of learning at the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th centuries, enables us for the first time to see practically all that was known. The wealth of literature which exists subsequent to this latter time makes history thereafter a matter of some precision, but it is not included in this undertaking. Considering the great part that the metals have played in civilization, it is astonishing what a minute amount of information is available on metallurgy. Either the ancient metallurgists were secretive as to their art, or the ancient authors despised such common things, or, as is equally probable, the very partial preservation of ancient literature, by painful transcription over a score of centuries, served only for those works of more general interest. In any event, if all the direct or indirect material on metallurgy prior to the 15th century were compiled, it would not fill 40 pages such as these.
[Pg 354] It may be of service to give a tabular summary indicating approximately the time when evidence of particular operations appear on the historical horizon:
| Gold washed from alluvial | Prior to recorded civilization |
| Copper reduced from ores by smelting | Prior to recorded civilization |
| Bitumen mined and used | Prior to recorded civilization |
| Tin reduced from ores by smelting | Prior to 3500 B.C. |
| Bronze made | Prior to 3500 B.C. |
| Iron reduced from ores by smelting | Prior to 3500 B.C. |
| Soda mined and used | Prior to 3500 B.C. |
| Gold reduced from ores by concentration | Prior to 2500 B.C. |
| Silver reduced from ores by smelting | Prior to 2000 B.C. |
| Lead reduced from ores by smelting | Prior to 2000 B.C. (perhaps prior to 3500 B.C.) |
| Silver parted from lead by cupellation | Prior to 2000 B.C. |
| Bellows used in furnaces | Prior to 1500 B.C. |
| Steel produced | Prior to 1000 B.C. |
| Base metals separated from ores by water concentration | Prior to 500 B.C. |
| Gold refined by cupellation | Prior to 500 B.C. |
| Sulphide ores smelted for lead | Prior to 500 B.C. |
| Mercury reduced from ores by (?) | Prior to 400 B.C. |
| White-lead made with vinegar | Prior to 300 B.C. |
| Touchstone known for determining gold and silver fineness | Prior to 300 B.C. |
| Quicksilver reduced from ore by distillation | Prior to Christian Era |
| Silver parted from gold by cementation with salt | Prior to " |
| Brass made by cementation of copper and calamine | Prior to " |
| Zinc oxides obtained from furnace fumes by construction of dust chambers | Prior to " |
| Antimony reduced from ores by smelting (accidental) | Prior to " |
| Gold recovered by amalgamation | Prior to " |
| Refining of copper by repeated fusion | Prior to " |
| Sulphide ores smelted for copper | Prior to " |
| Vitriol (blue and green) made | Prior to " |
| Alum made | Prior to " |
| Copper refined by oxidation and poling | Prior to 1200 A.D. |
| Gold parted from copper by cupelling with lead | Prior to 1200 A.D. |
| Gold parted from silver by fusion with sulphur | Prior to 1200 A.D. |
| Manufacture of nitric acid and aqua regia | Prior to 1400 A.D. |
| Gold parted from silver by nitric acid | Prior to 1400 A.D. |
| Gold parted from silver with antimony sulphide | Prior to 1500 A.D. |
| Gold parted from copper with sulphur | Prior to 1500 A.D. |
| Silver parted from iron with antimony sulphide | Prior to 1500 A.D. |
| First text book on assaying | Prior to 1500 A.D. |
| Silver recovered from ores by amalgamation | Prior to 1500 A.D. |
| Separation of silver from copper by liquation | Prior to 1540 A.D. |
| Cobalt and manganese used for pigments | Prior to 1540 A.D. |
| Roasting copper ores prior to smelting | Prior to 1550 A.D. |
| Stamp-mill used | Prior to 1550 A.D. |
| Bismuth reduced from ore | Prior to 1550 A.D. |
| Zinc reduced from ore (accidental) | Prior to 1550 A.D. |
Further, we believe it desirable to sketch at the outset the development of metallurgical appliances as a whole, leaving the details to special footnotes; otherwise a comprehensive view of the development of such devices is difficult to grasp.
We can outline the character of metallurgical appliances at various periods in a few words. It is possible to set up a description of the imaginary beginning of the [Pg 355]"bronze age" prior to recorded civilization, starting with the savage who accidentally built a fire on top of some easily reducible ore, and discovered metal in the ashes, etc.; but as this method has been pursued times out of number to no particular purpose, we will confine ourselves to a summary of such facts as we can assemble. "Founders' hoards" of the bronze age are scattered over Western Europe, and indicate that smelting was done in shallow pits with charcoal. With the Egyptians we find occasional inscriptions showing small furnaces with forced draught, in early cases with a blow-pipe, but later—about 1500 B.C.—with bellows also. The crucible was apparently used by the Egyptians in secondary melting, such remains at Mt. Sinai probably dating before 2000 B.C. With the advent of the Prophets, and the first Greek literature—9th to 7th century B.C.—we find frequent references to bellows. The remains of smelting appliances at Mt. Laurion (500-300 B.C.) do not indicate much advance over the primitive hearth; however, at this locality we do find evidence of the ability to separate minerals by specific gravity, by washing crushed ore over inclined surfaces with a sort of buddle attachment. Stone grinding-mills were used to crush ore from the earliest times of Mt. Laurion down to the Middle Ages. About the beginning of the Christian era the writings of Diodorus, Strabo, Dioscorides, and Pliny indicate considerable advance in appliances. Strabo describes high stacks to carry off lead fumes; Dioscorides explains a furnace with a dust-chamber to catch pompholyx (zinc oxide); Pliny refers to the upper and lower crucibles (a forehearth) and to the pillars and arches of the furnaces. From all of their descriptions we may conclude that the furnaces had then reached some size, and were, of course, equipped with bellows. At this time sulphide copper and lead ores were smelted; but as to fluxes, except lead for silver, and lead and soda for gold, we have practically no mention. Charcoal was the universal fuel for smelting down to the 18th century. Both Dioscorides and Pliny describe a distillation apparatus used to recover quicksilver. A formidable list of mineral products and metal alloys in use, indicate in themselves considerable apparatus, of the details of which we have no indication; in the main these products were lead sulphide, sulphate, and oxide (red-lead and litharge); zinc oxide; iron sulphide, oxide and sulphate; arsenic and antimony sulphides; mercury sulphide, sulphur, bitumen, soda, alum and potash; and of the alloys, bronze, brass, pewter, electrum and steel.
From this period to the period of the awakening of learning our only light is an occasional gleam from Theophilus and the Alchemists. The former gave a more detailed description of metallurgical appliances than had been done before, but there is little vital change apparent from the apparatus of Roman times. The Alchemists gave a great stimulus to industrial chemistry in the discovery of the mineral acids, and described distillation apparatus of approximately modern form.