1overcame the hardness of the Alps by
the use of vinegar and fire.
Even
if a vein is a very wide one, as tin veins usually are, miners excavate into the
small streaks, and into those hollows they put dry wood and place amongst
them at frequent intervals sticks, all sides of which are shaved down fan
shaped, which easily take light, and when once they have taken fire com
municate it to the other bundles of wood, which easily ignite.
if a vein is a very wide one, as tin veins usually are, miners excavate into the
small streaks, and into those hollows they put dry wood and place amongst
them at frequent intervals sticks, all sides of which are shaved down fan
shaped, which easily take light, and when once they have taken fire com
municate it to the other bundles of wood, which easily ignite.
A—KINDLED LOGS. B—STICKS SHAVED DOWN FAN-SHAPED.
C—TUNNEL.
While the heated veins and rock are giving forth a foetid vapour and the
shafts or tunnels are emitting fumes, the miners and other workmen do not
go down in the mines lest the stench affect their health or actually kill them,
as I will explain in greater detail when I come to speak of the evils which
affect miners. The Bergmeister, in order to prevent workmen from being
suffocated, gives no one permission to break veins or rock by fire in shafts or
tunnels where it is possible for the poisonous vapour and smoke to permeate
the veins or stringers and pass through into the neighbouring mines, which
have no hard veins or rock. As for that part of a vein or the surface of the
rock which the fire has separated from the remaining mass, if it is overhead,
the miners dislodge it with a crowbar, or if it still has some degree of hardness,
they thrust a smaller crowbar into the cracks and so break it down, but if
shafts or tunnels are emitting fumes, the miners and other workmen do not
go down in the mines lest the stench affect their health or actually kill them,
as I will explain in greater detail when I come to speak of the evils which
affect miners. The Bergmeister, in order to prevent workmen from being
suffocated, gives no one permission to break veins or rock by fire in shafts or
tunnels where it is possible for the poisonous vapour and smoke to permeate
the veins or stringers and pass through into the neighbouring mines, which
have no hard veins or rock. As for that part of a vein or the surface of the
rock which the fire has separated from the remaining mass, if it is overhead,
the miners dislodge it with a crowbar, or if it still has some degree of hardness,
they thrust a smaller crowbar into the cracks and so break it down, but if
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