Agricola describes, and sketches, many types and configurations of ore deposits beneath the earth's surface. Venae profundae (deep veins), venae dilatatae (spread-out veins) and venae cumulatae (not really veins at all, but accumulations, like a lake). There are many variations and combinations. For example, veins might bend, or slope more or less, extend from one mountain to the next or from a mountain to a plain, cross, join, or diverge. His pictures show how to visualize while on the surface of the earth, the veins that lie beneath it.
Agricola doesn't miss the resemblance of ore deposits to water formations (lakes and rivers), and he makes the hypothesis that ore deposits formed from "juices" flowing under the earth, like the underground water with which he was also familiar. These juices were solutions of metallic compounds, which formed crystals or deposits over time.
Besides being useful for knowing how and where to dig, this hypothesis is exciting, according to Hoover, in a couple of ways. First, though not "set out with the clarity of Darwin," it represented a leap from the simplistic Genesis thinking that prevailed at that time, to understand that the earth was not formed as it is today, all at one time. Rather, the rocks seem to have formed first and the ore-deposits later. One of Agricola's examples shows what happens when two veins form at different time and they cross, and he explains the resulting formation in terms of geologic change. Another sketch may show the effect of plate tectonics on an existing vein.
A more subtle point has to do with the nature and specialness of metals (and here the footnotes get much longer than the text). The ancients knew that metal was special stuff with special properties, but they weren't sure why. Some of the ancient Greeks saw metal as being related to water - it's shiny, it's liquid at some achievable temperature, and it seems to absorb cold. Alchemists, respected in Agricola's time, considered metal to have almost magical or mystical properties related to heavenly bodies. More practically speaking, metal is very useful and you can't find it just anywhere. A nation or individual lucky enough to have ore deposits on their land can become very wealthy; this could lead to believing that different parts of the earth have inherently more value than others.
It's maybe more true, and maybe a more democratic view to emphasize that metal like everything else is composed of atoms, metals being elements with special properties, but still elements like all the other stuff around us.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Where To Dig
Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes there's a copper deposit, or a silver or even a gold deposit, right there on the surface of the soil, staring you in the face. If you can see something like that, well, go ahead and dig. Dig even if your deposit is in an inconvenient place - say, on the side of a cliff, on a very tall mountain, or in the middle of a big plateau with no water or people anywhere close.
But most of the time it isn't so easy, and when you go prospecting, there isn't a sure chance of finding anything. In that case, you can fall back on some very human advice: Start digging somewhere that you wouldn't mind staying for a while. You're going to need water, wood (for shelter and also, if you do find something, for your underground structures), and settlements near. Water can be piped in, of course, but if there are no settlements nearby, you'll have trouble keeping your workmen happy and they'll go somewhere else.
So, the recommendation is a forest, or a medium-sized mountain, not too far away from town.
Agricola didn't know about that most ubiquitous of metals in our modern age, aluminum. He gives instructions for extracting compounds that contain aluminum (alum and cimolite, a valued clayey substance), but he never knew there was metal locked up in these compounds. In this case, the reader knows more than the writer did.
But most of the time it isn't so easy, and when you go prospecting, there isn't a sure chance of finding anything. In that case, you can fall back on some very human advice: Start digging somewhere that you wouldn't mind staying for a while. You're going to need water, wood (for shelter and also, if you do find something, for your underground structures), and settlements near. Water can be piped in, of course, but if there are no settlements nearby, you'll have trouble keeping your workmen happy and they'll go somewhere else.
So, the recommendation is a forest, or a medium-sized mountain, not too far away from town.
Agricola didn't know about that most ubiquitous of metals in our modern age, aluminum. He gives instructions for extracting compounds that contain aluminum (alum and cimolite, a valued clayey substance), but he never knew there was metal locked up in these compounds. In this case, the reader knows more than the writer did.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Investment Advice
You probably haven't gone into mining just for the fun of it, or even just for the common good. Probably, you intended to get rich. Agricola provides some sage advice for how to do that without risking too much of your own capital.
First, he notes that there are some ways of mining that can be done without any capital outlay at all - he's talking about panning gold or tin ore from river beds, or something called trench prospecting. But if you want to explore deeper into the earth, there gets to be more and more risk that you will spend a lot of money and time getting rights to land and digging a big hole, only to find that there's nothing there.
Xenophon advocated having each of ten tribes go digging with the understanding that they would share whatever was found. You'd probably hit some sort of metal deposit in four tries out of the ten. By Agricola's time society had become too complex for that. Mining was more likely either a State enterprise, or undertaken by a private individual with money to invest. But share purchase arrangements also existed, and Agricola provides suggestions for getting the most out of these.
He recommends that one purchase a mixture of high-priced and low-priced shares. These would represent mines that are already productive (the high priced ones), and mines that are not yet productive (unknowns, thus lower priced shares). Some people buy low, then sell at the first sign of an increase, but Agricola recommends that you hold your shares. Many mines are productive for a long time, and they can be valuable even when apparently used-up.
The mining art is complex, and no one understands all of it. So, a successful mine owner needs to delegate, and also needs to know what's going on by living there or at least in the neighborhood, and visiting often.
First, he notes that there are some ways of mining that can be done without any capital outlay at all - he's talking about panning gold or tin ore from river beds, or something called trench prospecting. But if you want to explore deeper into the earth, there gets to be more and more risk that you will spend a lot of money and time getting rights to land and digging a big hole, only to find that there's nothing there.
Xenophon advocated having each of ten tribes go digging with the understanding that they would share whatever was found. You'd probably hit some sort of metal deposit in four tries out of the ten. By Agricola's time society had become too complex for that. Mining was more likely either a State enterprise, or undertaken by a private individual with money to invest. But share purchase arrangements also existed, and Agricola provides suggestions for getting the most out of these.
He recommends that one purchase a mixture of high-priced and low-priced shares. These would represent mines that are already productive (the high priced ones), and mines that are not yet productive (unknowns, thus lower priced shares). Some people buy low, then sell at the first sign of an increase, but Agricola recommends that you hold your shares. Many mines are productive for a long time, and they can be valuable even when apparently used-up.
The mining art is complex, and no one understands all of it. So, a successful mine owner needs to delegate, and also needs to know what's going on by living there or at least in the neighborhood, and visiting often.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Not Good Nor Bad
At the conclusion of Book I, Agricola finishes his apologetic for metals as such, with the general point that metals are externals. They are neither good nor bad in themselves, but they can be used well or badly according to the intentions of the person using them. It's ourselves we need to watch out for, not our materials. God made metals, and as part of his creation, they are not wrong or evil.
Having already discussed gold and silver, and the uses and dangers of money at some length, he discusses some problems people have with iron, lead and bronze, mostly in their use as weapons and in instruments of torture (molten lead going back at least to the ancient Greeks). He then enumerates a number of peaceful uses for the same metals-- tools that are used every day, as well as the decorative arts.
He then goes on to the mining profession. There is a certain paradigm that Agricola takes for granted, in which someone owns the land (and therefore controls the mine and its profits); there is a superintendent who distributes shares of the profits; there is a foreman and finally, there are workers. Agricola favors this type of ownership pyramid. He doesn't for example suggest reforming it altogether, regarding the metal as a shared resource and working it as a cooperative. However, he notes some abuses that have occurred and need to be watched out for.
The land ownership piece is critical where mining is concerned because only certain land has mineral deposits. Sometimes, land is outright stolen (Agricola seems to be talking, with bitterness, about some sort of eminent domain arrangement) or taken over through violence. Other times, certain mine superintendents have extorted money from the land owner under false pretenses, and at still other times, mine foremen have been known to conceal productive veins by blocking them with clay, and come back later to get the ore out. And often enough, mines have been worked by slave labor-- though Agricola says this is no longer the case in his time.
Agricola points out that all these abuses are illegal. An intelligent and alert mine owner can obtain justice from the magistrates, or may even be able to prevent them before they start.
Having already discussed gold and silver, and the uses and dangers of money at some length, he discusses some problems people have with iron, lead and bronze, mostly in their use as weapons and in instruments of torture (molten lead going back at least to the ancient Greeks). He then enumerates a number of peaceful uses for the same metals-- tools that are used every day, as well as the decorative arts.
He then goes on to the mining profession. There is a certain paradigm that Agricola takes for granted, in which someone owns the land (and therefore controls the mine and its profits); there is a superintendent who distributes shares of the profits; there is a foreman and finally, there are workers. Agricola favors this type of ownership pyramid. He doesn't for example suggest reforming it altogether, regarding the metal as a shared resource and working it as a cooperative. However, he notes some abuses that have occurred and need to be watched out for.
The land ownership piece is critical where mining is concerned because only certain land has mineral deposits. Sometimes, land is outright stolen (Agricola seems to be talking, with bitterness, about some sort of eminent domain arrangement) or taken over through violence. Other times, certain mine superintendents have extorted money from the land owner under false pretenses, and at still other times, mine foremen have been known to conceal productive veins by blocking them with clay, and come back later to get the ore out. And often enough, mines have been worked by slave labor-- though Agricola says this is no longer the case in his time.
Agricola points out that all these abuses are illegal. An intelligent and alert mine owner can obtain justice from the magistrates, or may even be able to prevent them before they start.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Do We Even Need Metal?
More serious issues with mining are set forth today - that is, not only concerns about mining as a career choice for yourself, but as a component of our lifestyle in general. For me, today, it's hard to imagine life with no metal in it at all. But apparently, in Agricola's time some people advocated simply not using any metal - otherwise he wouldn't have felt the need to refute them. It was felt that we are creatures of the earth's surface, made to cultivate the land, but that we are not made for digging under the earth's surface. If you have food, clothing, shelter and exercise, says this school of thought, you don't need metal at all and you'll be better off without it.
One of the concerns is the impact of mining on the environment. The smelting process required heat, which was provided by burning trees. Already in the 16th century, one could notice that whole forests were being cut down and not renewed, and the impact this had on animals whose habitat was in that forest. Also, pollution of streams and rivers was a problem, along with its impact on fish.
Another reason is the impact that some metals (i.e. gold and silver) seemed to have on people, as an incitement to various forms of violence and dishonesty - war, bribery, thievery and so forth. The cruel punishment of thieves is also a form of violence.
As to mining as a career choice, well, it was seen as highly risky, but it's much less risky if a person goes into it with some knowledge and expertise. There were a lot of bad miners out there hacking away mindlessly at any old rock. If you know what you are looking for, the success rate is much higher. Mining is also less stable than farming, though Agricola points to a few specific mines that have been worked for hundreds of years without being exhausted. Finally, there are dangers of working under the earth's surface. Again, Agricola feels these dangers can be lessened if not entirely eliminated, through care and training.
One of the concerns is the impact of mining on the environment. The smelting process required heat, which was provided by burning trees. Already in the 16th century, one could notice that whole forests were being cut down and not renewed, and the impact this had on animals whose habitat was in that forest. Also, pollution of streams and rivers was a problem, along with its impact on fish.
Another reason is the impact that some metals (i.e. gold and silver) seemed to have on people, as an incitement to various forms of violence and dishonesty - war, bribery, thievery and so forth. The cruel punishment of thieves is also a form of violence.
As to mining as a career choice, well, it was seen as highly risky, but it's much less risky if a person goes into it with some knowledge and expertise. There were a lot of bad miners out there hacking away mindlessly at any old rock. If you know what you are looking for, the success rate is much higher. Mining is also less stable than farming, though Agricola points to a few specific mines that have been worked for hundreds of years without being exhausted. Finally, there are dangers of working under the earth's surface. Again, Agricola feels these dangers can be lessened if not entirely eliminated, through care and training.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
We're Not Stupid
What do you know and think about the mining profession? In the reading I did today (p. 1-3) Agricola feels the need to defend his profession from people who think miners are stupid, or at least lacking in knowledge: they think that mining is "an occupation of sordid toil, requiring not so much skill as labor." To counter this prevailing attitude of his day, Agricola gives some lists of the areas of knowledge miners of his day used.
They need to know earth science, not just so they can choose where to dig, but also the different kinds of substances they will find: "earths, juices, gems, stones, marbles, rocks, metals, and compounds." ("Juices" seems to refer to various substances that are found in a hardened state, but dissolve when moistened or when heated. For example, salt or soda. Miners knew how to extract juices from certain rocks like pyrites, and how to extract metal from some juices such as copper sulfate.)
There are different methods for assaying and preparing for smelting all the different metals that were known at the time. These were gold, silver, copper, quicksilver, iron, lead and tin--the seven metals known to the ancients-- and bismuth. Bismuth was known as a metal and also as "the roof of silver" since silver is often found together with it.
One more list. Miners have to have practical knowledge in some other areas, Philosophy, Medicine (the diseases specific to mining were already well known), Surveying, Arithmetic (for keeping the books), Architecture (for building underground works) and Drawing (for drawing the plans), and finally Law. Agricola also lists Astronomy; the stars were used in some fashion for identifying where or when to look for metals in the earth. He doesn't list reading and writing and it seems that skills were passed on in some other way. Miners were beginning to specialize, and so almost no one knew "the whole art." You need to go around and talk to different experts to find out what is really happening.
Interestingly the miners had a lot of practical knowledge of chemistry that was very sound. They understood that some substances are pure (every particle of pure gold, is gold), but others which may appear uniform are actually compounds and can be broken down. They knew a lot about distinguishing different compounds, and that the identical compound will behave consistently.
They need to know earth science, not just so they can choose where to dig, but also the different kinds of substances they will find: "earths, juices, gems, stones, marbles, rocks, metals, and compounds." ("Juices" seems to refer to various substances that are found in a hardened state, but dissolve when moistened or when heated. For example, salt or soda. Miners knew how to extract juices from certain rocks like pyrites, and how to extract metal from some juices such as copper sulfate.)
There are different methods for assaying and preparing for smelting all the different metals that were known at the time. These were gold, silver, copper, quicksilver, iron, lead and tin--the seven metals known to the ancients-- and bismuth. Bismuth was known as a metal and also as "the roof of silver" since silver is often found together with it.
One more list. Miners have to have practical knowledge in some other areas, Philosophy, Medicine (the diseases specific to mining were already well known), Surveying, Arithmetic (for keeping the books), Architecture (for building underground works) and Drawing (for drawing the plans), and finally Law. Agricola also lists Astronomy; the stars were used in some fashion for identifying where or when to look for metals in the earth. He doesn't list reading and writing and it seems that skills were passed on in some other way. Miners were beginning to specialize, and so almost no one knew "the whole art." You need to go around and talk to different experts to find out what is really happening.
Interestingly the miners had a lot of practical knowledge of chemistry that was very sound. They understood that some substances are pure (every particle of pure gold, is gold), but others which may appear uniform are actually compounds and can be broken down. They knew a lot about distinguishing different compounds, and that the identical compound will behave consistently.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
More Preface
The part I read this morning is Agricola's own preface (as opposed to the translators'). He talks about his book in the context of other books about metals, and also talks about metallurgy in comparison to other human arts.
Farming, he says, is a lot better known and understood than mining, though he thinks mining is at least equal to farming in importance, and at least equally old: "No mortal man ever tilled a field without implements .... When an art is so poor that it lacks metals, it is not of much importance, for nothing is made without tools." Also, he says, you can get a lot richer in mining than in farming. (One might counter that you can't eat metal.) Agricola goes through a list of the ancient sources about the metal arts, which up to then were not very many or comprehensive. The art was presumably passed on in other ways.
Alchemy was popular in Agricola's time, and he lists a whole lot of people including Cleopatra who were searching for ways to transform one metal into another, or claimed to have actually done so. They may have been more or less sincere in this. Agricola states that many are fraudulent and prey on people without knowledge. One purpose of writing this book was to educate the general public about the actual processes used to extract and purify metals, and to separate one metal from another.
Farming, he says, is a lot better known and understood than mining, though he thinks mining is at least equal to farming in importance, and at least equally old: "No mortal man ever tilled a field without implements .... When an art is so poor that it lacks metals, it is not of much importance, for nothing is made without tools." Also, he says, you can get a lot richer in mining than in farming. (One might counter that you can't eat metal.) Agricola goes through a list of the ancient sources about the metal arts, which up to then were not very many or comprehensive. The art was presumably passed on in other ways.
Alchemy was popular in Agricola's time, and he lists a whole lot of people including Cleopatra who were searching for ways to transform one metal into another, or claimed to have actually done so. They may have been more or less sincere in this. Agricola states that many are fraudulent and prey on people without knowledge. One purpose of writing this book was to educate the general public about the actual processes used to extract and purify metals, and to separate one metal from another.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Hands on
The Hoovers comment in their preface that Agricola was following on the work of Aristotle on one hand, and the Alchemists on the other. According to them, Agricola departed from his predecessors in the value he placed on observation over speculation.
In my mind, speculation is something we do with our imagination - or it may be something we do when we allow someone else, an "expert", to interpret reality for us. The Alchemists engaged in speculation when they aimed to convert lead into gold, or create the elixir of life. Their expectations might have caused feelings of disappointment or failure, or even blinded them to valuable observations they were making. Even so, they learned a lot along the way.
Some of us at church watched a movie last night called The Man Without a Face. Part of this movie had to do with a grade-school boy struggling to pass an entrance exam for a selective private high school. He went to a tutor asking him for help with Latin exercises. The help he got was that the tutor ordered him to dig a hole three feet across and three feet deep. He dug a lot of these holes of different shapes, and only much later was asked to apply this experience to compute the volume of the holes. This teaching helped the boy pass the exam, where others had failed.
Agricola is writing and the Hoovers are translating from that kind of hands-on experience, and that is a good reason to respect them as writers, because they have dug a lot of holes before attempting to write about it.
In my mind, speculation is something we do with our imagination - or it may be something we do when we allow someone else, an "expert", to interpret reality for us. The Alchemists engaged in speculation when they aimed to convert lead into gold, or create the elixir of life. Their expectations might have caused feelings of disappointment or failure, or even blinded them to valuable observations they were making. Even so, they learned a lot along the way.
Some of us at church watched a movie last night called The Man Without a Face. Part of this movie had to do with a grade-school boy struggling to pass an entrance exam for a selective private high school. He went to a tutor asking him for help with Latin exercises. The help he got was that the tutor ordered him to dig a hole three feet across and three feet deep. He dug a lot of these holes of different shapes, and only much later was asked to apply this experience to compute the volume of the holes. This teaching helped the boy pass the exam, where others had failed.
Agricola is writing and the Hoovers are translating from that kind of hands-on experience, and that is a good reason to respect them as writers, because they have dug a lot of holes before attempting to write about it.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Life and Character
The Hoovers start their book with a sketch of Agricola's life and character. Agricola lived soon after the voyage of Columbus and the invention of the printing press. Martin Luther posted his 95 theses in 1517, when Agricola was in his twenties. His career shows a breadth and depth of interests, as well as a steadfast adherence to Catholicism while living right at the heart of the Reformation, in Saxony.
Agricola studied the arts at the University at Leipzig, and for a time was a schoolteacher and principal. Later he did further university studies in Italy, this time in science. He worked as a town physician, and later held various appointive positions in his community of Chemnitz.
He studied mining intensively, both by visiting and studying the mines firsthand, consulting with miners, reading everything he could find that the ancients wrote about mining. He was invested in a mine known as "God's Gift." He worked on De Re Metallica for about twenty years. In translating the work, Herbert Hoover also draws on study, experience and the literature.
The Hoovers say that Agricola remained a Catholic, this was probably quite difficult when the local church went Lutheran. Did he even have access to a faith community? He doesn't seem to have been ostracized in his community, but rather the opposite. He was appointed a Burgomeister, and sometimes served as an ambassador to Catholic Austria. Sadly, he was denied burial in his local church and had to be taken out of town.
The Hoovers take a message from Agricola's life about bipartisanship. He must have had some special qualities that helped him succeed without needing to conform his religious views to others. "To deduce Georgius Agricola's character we need not search beyond the discovery of his steadfast adherence to the religion of his fathers amid the bitter storm of Protestantism around him, and need but to remember that for twenty-five years he was entrusted with elective positions of an increasingly important character in this same community. No man could have thus held the respect of his countrymen unless he were devoid of bigotry and possessed of the highest sense of integrity, justice, humanity, and patriotism."
Agricola studied the arts at the University at Leipzig, and for a time was a schoolteacher and principal. Later he did further university studies in Italy, this time in science. He worked as a town physician, and later held various appointive positions in his community of Chemnitz.
He studied mining intensively, both by visiting and studying the mines firsthand, consulting with miners, reading everything he could find that the ancients wrote about mining. He was invested in a mine known as "God's Gift." He worked on De Re Metallica for about twenty years. In translating the work, Herbert Hoover also draws on study, experience and the literature.
The Hoovers say that Agricola remained a Catholic, this was probably quite difficult when the local church went Lutheran. Did he even have access to a faith community? He doesn't seem to have been ostracized in his community, but rather the opposite. He was appointed a Burgomeister, and sometimes served as an ambassador to Catholic Austria. Sadly, he was denied burial in his local church and had to be taken out of town.
The Hoovers take a message from Agricola's life about bipartisanship. He must have had some special qualities that helped him succeed without needing to conform his religious views to others. "To deduce Georgius Agricola's character we need not search beyond the discovery of his steadfast adherence to the religion of his fathers amid the bitter storm of Protestantism around him, and need but to remember that for twenty-five years he was entrusted with elective positions of an increasingly important character in this same community. No man could have thus held the respect of his countrymen unless he were devoid of bigotry and possessed of the highest sense of integrity, justice, humanity, and patriotism."
Saturday, August 8, 2009
A Little Context
I have inherited this beautiful book from my mother. It's about three inches thick, a foot wide and a foot and a half high; bound in some ivory-toned leather-like stuff, with the kind of pages that you have to cut apart with a knife before you read it -- though the pages of our copy had already been cut by the time the book got to me. It has a mysterious title: "AGRICOLA/DE RE/METALLICA/HOOVER/1556/1912." Agricola (whose German name was Bauer) completed the original work in 1556. Hoover (both Herbert Hoover and his wife, Lou Henry Hoover) completed their English translation in 1912. The title means something like, "All About Metals."
I believe my grandfather actually read this book, and my mother may have read it also; but I have never seen it open. It was treated as an object of veneration - or, maybe as a fancy paperweight or doorstop. It rested flat on the bottom shelf of a certain table in our living room. Ask, and you would be treated to the story of how my mother as a high school student wrote a letter to then-former President Hoover, saying that her father, a mining engineer wanted a copy of his book, and asking where she could get one to surprise him. Mr. Hoover sent her the book.
Very recently, I looked inside, and I was surprised to find that I got quite a lot from reading the first few pages of the book. What is more, thinking about metals - what they are, how we use them, their social and environmental cost - is as important today as it was in Agricola's day. I no longer think this is a book only for mining engineers. I am going to read more and write about it in this blog. I welcome comments and discussion from anyone from any perspective that can help me understand it better.
I believe my grandfather actually read this book, and my mother may have read it also; but I have never seen it open. It was treated as an object of veneration - or, maybe as a fancy paperweight or doorstop. It rested flat on the bottom shelf of a certain table in our living room. Ask, and you would be treated to the story of how my mother as a high school student wrote a letter to then-former President Hoover, saying that her father, a mining engineer wanted a copy of his book, and asking where she could get one to surprise him. Mr. Hoover sent her the book.
Very recently, I looked inside, and I was surprised to find that I got quite a lot from reading the first few pages of the book. What is more, thinking about metals - what they are, how we use them, their social and environmental cost - is as important today as it was in Agricola's day. I no longer think this is a book only for mining engineers. I am going to read more and write about it in this blog. I welcome comments and discussion from anyone from any perspective that can help me understand it better.
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