[Pg 377][11] What are known in English as "crucible," "furnace well," "forehearth," "dipping-pot," "tapping-pot," "receiving-pot," etc., are in the text all catinus, i.e., crucible. For easier reading, however, we have assigned the names indicated in the context.
[Pg 379][12] Panes ex pyrite conflati. While the term matte would cover most cases where this expression appears, and in many cases would be more expressive to the modern reader, yet there are instances where the expression as it stands indicates its particular origin, and it has been, therefore, considered advisable to adhere to the literal rendering.
[13] Molybdaena. See [note 37, p. 476]. It was the saturated furnace bottoms from cupellation.
[14] The four elements were earth, air, fire, and water.
[Pg 380][15] "Stones which easily melt in the fire." Nowhere in De Re Metallica does the author explain these substances. However in the Interpretatio (p. 465) he gives three genera or orders with their German equivalents, as follows:—"Lapides qui igni liquescunt primi generis,—Schöne flüsse; secundi,—flüsse zum schmeltzen flock quertze; tertii,—quertze oder kiselstein." We confess our inability to make certain of most of the substances comprised in the first and second orders. We consider they were in part fluor-spar, and in any event the third order embraced varieties of quartz, flint, and silicious material generally. As the matter is of importance from a metallurgical point of view, we reproduce at some length Agricola's own statements on the subject from Bermannus and De Natura Fossilium. In the latter (p. 268) he states: "Finally there now remain those stones which I call 'stones which easily melt in the fire,' because when thrown into hot furnaces they flow (fluunt). There are three orders (genera) of these. The first resembles the transparent gems; the second is not similar, and is generally not translucent; it is translucent in some part, and in rare instances altogether translucent. The first is sparingly found in silver and other mines; the second abounds in veins of its own. The third genus is the material from which glass is made, although it can also be made out of the other two. The stones of the first order are not only transparent, but are also resplendent, and have the colours of gems, for some resemble crystal, others emerald, heliotrope, lapis lazuli, amethyst, sapphire, ruby, chrysolithus, morion (cairngorm?), and other gems, but they differ from them in hardness.... To the first genus belongs the lapis alabandicus (modern albandite?), if indeed it was different from the alabandic carbuncle. It can be melted, according to Pliny, in the fire, and fused for the preparation of glass. It is black, but verging upon purple. It comes from Caria, near Alabanda, and from Miletus in the same province. The second order of stones does not show a great variety of colours, and seldom beautiful ones, for it is generally white, whitish, greyish, or yellowish. Because these (stones) very readily melt in the fire, they are added to the ores from which the metals are smelted. The small stones found in veins, veinlets, and the spaces between the veins, of the highest peaks of the Sudetic range (Suditorum montium), belong partly to this genus and partly to the first. They differ in size, being large and small; and in shape, some being round or angular or pointed; in colour they are black or ash-grey, or yellow, or purple, or violet, or iron colour. All of these are lacking in metals. Neither do the little stones contain any metals which are usually found in the streams where gold dust is collected by washing.... In the rivers where are collected the small stones from which tin is smelted, there are three genera of small stones to be found, all somewhat rounded and of very light weight, and devoid of all metals. The largest are black, both on the outside and inside, smooth and brilliant like a mirror; the medium-sized are either bluish black or ash-grey; the smallest are of a yellowish colour, somewhat like a silkworm. But because both the former and the latter stones are devoid of metals, and fly to pieces under the blows of the hammer, we classify them as sand or gravel. Glass is made from the stones of the third order, and particularly from sand. For when this is thrown into the heated furnace it is melted by the fire.... This kind of stone is either found [Pg 381]in its own veins, which are occasionally very wide, or else scattered through the mines. It is less hard than flint, on account of which no fire can be struck from it. It is not transparent, but it is of many colours—that is to say, white, yellowish, ash-grey, brown, black, green, blue, reddish or red. This genus of stones occurs here and there in mountainous regions, on banks of rivers, and in the fields. Those which are black right through to the interior, and not merely on the surface, are more rare; and very frequently one coloured vein is intersected by another of a different colour—for instance, a white one by a red one; the green is often spotted with white, the ash-grey with black, the white with crimson. Fragments of these stones are frequently found on the surface of the earth, and in the running water they become polished by rubbing against stones of their own or of another genus. In this way, likewise, fragments of rocks are not infrequently shaped into spherical forms.... This stone is put to many uses; the streets are paved with it, whatever its colour; the blue variety is added to the ash of pines for making those other ashes which are used by wool-dyers. The white variety is burned, ground, and sifted, and from this they make the sand out of which glass is made. The whiter the sand is, the more useful it is."
Perusal of the following from Bermannus (p. 458) can leave little doubt as to the first or second order being in part fluor-spar. Agricola derived the name fluores from fluo "to flow," and we in turn obtain "fluorite," or "fluorspar," from Agricola. "Bermannus.—These stones are similar to gems, but less hard. Allow me to explain word for word. Our miners call them fluores, not inappropriately to my mind, for by the heat of fire, like ice in the sun, they liquefy and flow away. They are of varied and bright colours. Naevius.—Theophrastus says of them that they are made by a conflux in the earth. These red fluores, to employ the words just used by you, are the ruby silver which you showed us before. Bermannus.—At the first glance it appears so, although it is not infrequently translucent. Naevius.—Then they are rubies? Bermannus.—Not that either. Naevius.—In what way, then, can they be distinguished from rubies? Bermannus.—Chiefly by this sign, that they glitter more feebly when translucent. Those which are not translucent may be distinguished from rubies. Moreover, fluores of all kinds melt when they are subject to the first fire; rubies do not melt in fire. Naevius.—You distinguish well. Bermannus.—You see the other kind, of a paler purple colour? Naevius.—They appear to be an inferior kind of amethyst, such as are found in many places in Bohemia. Bermannus.—Indeed, they are not very dissimilar, therefore the common people who do not know amethysts well, set them in rings for gems, and they are easily sold. The third kind, as you see here, is white. Naevius.—I should have thought it a crystal. Bermannus.—A fourth is a yellow colour, a fifth ash colour, a sixth blackish. Some are violet, some green, others gold-coloured. Anton.—What is the use of fluores? Bermannus.—They are wont to be made use of when metals are smelted, as they cause the material in the fire to be much more fluid, exactly like a kind of stone which we said is made from pyrites (matte); it is, indeed, made not far from here, at Breitenbrunn, which is near Schwarzenberg. Moreover, from fluores they can make colours which artists use."
[Pg 384][16] Stannum. (Interpretatio,—werck, modern werk). This term has been rendered throughout as "silver-lead" or "silver-lead alloy." It was the argentiferous lead suitable for cupellation. Agricola, in using it in this sense, was no doubt following his interpretation of its use by Pliny. Further remarks upon this subject will be found in [note 33, p. 473].
[Pg 386][17] Expirare,—to exhale or blow out.
[Pg 388][18] Rhetos. The ancient Rhaetia comprised not only the greater part of Tyrol, but also parts of Switzerland and Lombardy. The mining section was, however, in Tyrol.
[19] Noricum was a region south of the Danube, embracing not only modern Styria, but also parts of Austria, Salzberg, and Carinthia.