Show THE metallurgy OF LEAD WRITTEN FOR THE MINING REVIEW BY H B E M historical according to the polychrome edition of the book of the prophet isaiah the following passage occurs in the first chapter verses 21 to 26 the prophet preaching re pen tence oh how is she become a harlot the faithful city zion which was full of justice where righteous abode thy silver is changed to dross they wine is a thick juice thy rulers are unruly and companions of thieves every one loves bribes and is running after fees the cause of the widow comes not near them the orphan they right not therefore this is the oracle of the lord the hero of israel aha I 1 will vent my displeasure on mine adversaries and take vengeance on mine enemies 1 I will turn my hand against thee and will smelt out in the furnace thy dross 1 I will remove all thine thin e alloy 1 I will bring back thy judges as at the first and thy counselors as at the beginning ning thereafter thou wilt be called citadel of righteousness faithful city this prophecy supposed to have been written fully years B C is typical of most of our oun old writings which in any way refer to lead or its metallurgy direct reference to the metal itself is abundantly made mad e in many ancient writings phrases relating to its mining and smelting smelling sm elting also occur aut b ut it is worthy ort liy of particular note that thal no detailed he account daunt of as much as a Er sm elting furnace is recorded until the time of geber who lived in the eighth century of our era gold is commonly supposed to be the first metal with which man became acquainted quain ted its conspicuous appearance and fairly wide occurrence as metallic grains lends a strong basis for this opinion which of the other metals silver iron or copper next became known probably depended on local conditions and is considerably more uncertain the four metals are mentioned in many books of the old testament ment and quite generally in all ancient inscriptions script ions that a general knowledge of these metals was extant long antedating now i blast furnace building united states smelter our earliest inscriptions is the natural inference we also know that silver commonly occurs in the form of argonti ferous ledd lead ores this is true today and has been through all historic times while the vestiges of ore still remaining in ancient silver mines are of this same character all of which leads us to suppose that although lead may not have been mentioned as early as the other metals it must have been known and its metallurgy somewhat understood pigs of lead were among the objects of tribute furnished by phoenician peoples to the egyptian king thommes III 1500 years B C an inscription on oil an egyptian tomb also dating 0 from this time depicts a bellows for smelting smelling sm elting iron two men stand with their feet alternately pressing down the bellows which is again raised by means of a string fig As metallic lead and silver aar are e both much e easier to td obtain from their ores than iron is we may rest quite as that this is not too early a date from which to reckon the beginning of the art ait besides its early use in egypt possibly even earlier use for the metal as coins was found in china little flattened discs of lead found under conditions attesting their great antiquity indicate a very early knowledge of the metal in ancient babylon the great blocks of stone which lined the river flowing through the city restraining it and forming piers I 1 and bridges were bound together with massive iron clamps these being held in their sockets in the rock by pouring in melted lead although of no wide wade industrial use tile these se little purposes for which lead was used serve admirably to tell us something of the antiquity of the metal gold silver copper and iron all had splendid utility as far back as history carries us the properties of lead gave it far less value to the early peoples little images abre were sometimes made of it they might even be plated with other metals many ancient bronzes contain a considerable proportion of it it was also sometimes used cast into their bases or the bases of other objects to give them stability leaden plates served as inscription tablets some having been found with the furrow still raised and fresh as when left by the engraving instrument once knowing that for centuries the ancients mined and smelted smelter the ores of lead and silver one marvels that hardly more than mere general references to the art and industry have been preserved to our generation several factors have determined ter mined this condition besides the inevitable loss and decay of the ancient books and manuscripts the hand of wanton destruction has struck at every manuscript most valuable from its scientific nature further than this the writers of old usually had more intense and personal themes than of the arts and industries mining and metallurgy flourished not in the beniers centers of civilization and culture but in the deserts and mountains and usually far from the spheres of cultured men from all available information we may presume presume that a great part of the ancient mining 1 and ore reduction was done by slaves cruelly driven by their taskmasters task masters so degraded an occupation could hardly have much interest for those intellectually inclined according to the prevailing standards in 1888 william H of st louis published a book called notes for a history of lead in III this book he has collected a multitude of references to the ancient mining of this metal as well as assembling a splendid mass of material which brings the subject down to where it is taken up by the writers of the nineteenth n ine century this work has been our chief calef 4 authority in this historical account ao and it may be interesting to enumerate some ot of the districts which he gives as having supplied much of the lead silver ore up to the great decline of all industries which took place during the dark ages mines of this character were extensively worked during the earliest times in various parts of egypt especially about the hills near the red sed sea remains of which may still be seen in tunis and algeria were also lead silver mines the mountains of asia abounded in ores of all sorts in assyria were found ores of iron co copper caliper liper silver and lead persia had silver mines at eucharia Bu charia and at Ader bijan arabia had her mines and ores abounded in the mountains of buchma armenia and chaldea Oh aldea lead la d has also been found in a multitude of places in india ilidia and northern china the phoenicians Phoenicia ns were a people most skillful in excavating and mining their activities spread over many lands large mines were opened on the islands of cyprus and thados and herodotus in speaking of the latter place says that A huge mountain has been turned upside down in search for ores the earliest mines in greece were at laurium laudium Lauri um where ores supplying lead and silver are reported to have been mined as early as the trojan war at one time 20 slaves are said to have been working at those mines the mines of sardinia were first worked by the phoenicians Phoenicia ns later by the cartha gin ians and afterwards by the romans hannibal first caused the mines of spain to be opened on a great scale forty thousand men were soon constantly working in the mines of new carthage when carthage fell the romans further pushed development in this resourceful land Argen tiola cartagena castellon and barcelona were the great centers of mining the hand of their conquerors compelled the inhabitants to labor both on the military fortifications and at work in the mines the roman occupation of britain resulted in the discovery and exploitation of the numerous lead deposits not yet wholly exhausted many evidences still exist testifying of the activity of the romans possibly the most interesting are pigs of lead similar in shape and size to those of present practice they bear markings in the same way that the bars are today cast bearing the name of a roman emperor and the woi woid words d s to indicate that they had been desalve de silve prized but we must not suppose that with all this mining of lead silver ores in so many i coti countries itri and for s so 0 many centuries es the principal object was to procure the lead lead had its value but silver still more in speaking of this waste of the lead for the il sak ale e of the i e silver silve r ot our i history of daRes lea aw 66 fie following statement there can be no doubt that silver in ancient times as at the present day was largely procured from lead ores the method of separating gold and silver from other metals and of refining and purifying the noble metals by the use of lead are referred to or described in the old testament and by Agathar chides pliny and other ancient writers As lead was considered of little value or indeed but the dross or natural impurity of the ores of silver the refining or separation of the silver was usually conducted near the ni mines lifes thus saving the cos cost t of transportation of the greater part of the ore and that portion which was of little or no value this has been the custom through all historic times when the mines have been situated in districts at all inaccessible in our own day at some of the mexican mines which are remote from railway or other means of cheap transportation the or of lead one of the products liro ducts of refining lead by the ancient process of is left in heaps as waste or refuse and not of sufficient value to transport on the back of mules or of porters or by other crude and expensive methods to market in the early days of iii mining ining in the rocky mountain districts before the completion of the union pacific railway the silver was recovered at the mines by and the lead in the form of was cast aside and accumulated in great piles the silver alone being able to bear the cost 0 of f carriage i accumulations of litfia rge have been found near ancient smelting smelling places in the ural mountains in spain ain in in portugal and at other sea seats ts of ancient ancien t mining from the primitive understanding of the nature of m metals as well as from their crude metallurgy and lax observational ability we find that the fhe ancients had many names for the same metal lead and that other metals especially tin were badly confused with lead the early sanskrit writings speak of tin with a name which means bad silver lead meanwhile bein being 9 spoken of w with iiii a word which means bad tin A great variety of names is used as well in reference to the same metal these thes e sanskrit writings mention lead bead as used for C I 1 a weavers I 1 weight in t the h e purification purificat ion of silver and for the making of a darm charm its salt was used as a remedy for indigestion and its oxide red lead as s a cosmetic by the women in modern times lead in the form of sheets has had noteworthy and imbor important tant use as a iii lining ain 0 for tan tanks ks and chambers it is remarkable that its suitability for a similar purpose was appreciated in the time of ancient babylon the statement 1 is evidently based on excellent guilior authority alty that sheet lead was enil employed 0 yeddo to line in e the lia hanging gardens in this fail famous loii s city the e edges edge s of the sheets were n melted together thus chii forming a lining to perfectly retain the moisture in the basins during the time when the romans were in their prime great quantities of lead were employed as missiles for their slings over many parts of italy and in those lands to which their conquests extended these sling stones are yet found and have been preserved in great numbers in the museums it was customary to mark them indication which legion they came from or with words expressing their deadly intent in the new world lead had become known before the spanish conquest for cortez speaks of it as being sold in the market place of along with gold silver copper and tin other evidence by the spanish writers shows that the peruvians knew this metal in the metallic state before the conquest articles of lead and bronze have also been found in graves which antedate the arrival of the spaniards H B armour institute of technology chicago |