Agricola, Georgius
,
De re metallica
,
1912/1950
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they do not descend into the shafts nor enter the tunnels again before Monday,
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and in the meantime the poisonous fumes pass away.</
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<
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>There are also times when a reckoning has to be made with Orcus,
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24
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for some metalliferous localities, though such are rare, spontaneously
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produce poison and exhale pestilential vapour, as is also the case with some
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openings in the ore, though these more often contain the noxious fumes.
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<
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>In the towns of the plains of Bohemia there are some caverns which,
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at certain seasons of the year, emit pungent vapours which put out lights
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and kill the miners if they linger too long in them. </
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<
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>Pliny, too, has left
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a record that when wells are sunk, the sulphurous or aluminous vapours
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which arise kill the well-diggers, and it is a test of this danger if a burning
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lamp which has been let down is extinguished. </
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<
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>In such cases a second well
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is dug to the right or left, as an air-shaft, which draws off these noxious
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vapours. </
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<
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>On the plains they construct bellows which draw up these noxious
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vapours and remedy this evil; these I have described before.</
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<
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>Further, sometimes workmen slipping from the ladders into the shafts
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break their arms, legs, or necks, or fall into the sumps and are drowned;
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often, indeed, the negligence of the foreman is to blame, for it is his special
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work both to fix the ladders so firmly to the timbers that they cannot break
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away, and to cover so securely with planks the sumps at the bottom of the
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shafts, that the planks cannot be moved nor the men fall into the water;
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wherefore the foreman must carefully execute his own work. </
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<
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>Moreover,
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he must not set the entrance of the shaft-house toward the north wind,
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lest in winter the ladders freeze with cold, for when this happens the men's
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hands become stiff and slippery with cold, and cannot perform their office
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of holding. </
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<
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>The men, too, must be careful that, even if none of these things
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happen, they do not fall through their own carelessness.</
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<
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>Mountains, too, slide down and men are crushed in their fall and perish.
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<
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>In fact, when in olden days Rammelsberg, in Goslar, sank down, so many
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men were crushed in the ruins that in one day, the records tell us, about
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400 women were robbed of their husbands. </
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<
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>And eleven years ago, part
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of the mountain of Altenberg, which had been excavated, became loose and
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sank, and suddenly crushed six miners; it also swallowed up a hut and one
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mother and her little boy. </
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<
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>But this generally occurs in those mountains
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which contain
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venae cumulatae.
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<
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> Therefore, miners should leave numerous
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arches under the mountains which need support, or provide underpinning.
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</
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<
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>Falling pieces of rock also injure their limbs, and to prevent this from hap
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pening, miners should protect the shafts, tunnels, and drifts.</
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<
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>The venomous ant which exists in Sardinia is not found in our mines.
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</
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<
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>This animal is, as Solinus
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25
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writes, very small and like a spider in shape; it
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is called
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solífuga,
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because it shuns (
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fugít
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) the light (
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solem
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). It is very common
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