Agricola, Georgius
,
De re metallica
,
1912/1950
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the
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cadmía;
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this sweeping is done twice a year. </
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<
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>The soot mixed with
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pompholyx
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and the
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cadmia,
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being chipped off, is thrown down through
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a long chute made of four boards joined in the shape of a rectangle,
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that they should not fly away. </
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>They fall on to the floor, and are sprinkled
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with salt water, and are again smelted with ore and litharge, and become
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an emolument to the proprietors. </
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>Such chambers, which catch the metallic
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substances that rise with the fumes, are profitable for all metalliferous
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ores; but especially for the minute metallic particles collected by washing
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crushed ores and rock, because these usually fly out with the fire of the
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furnaces.</
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>I have explained the four general methods of smelting ores; now I
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will state how the ores of each metal are smelted, or how the metal is obtained
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from the ore. </
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>I will begin with gold. </
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>Its sand, the concentrates from
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washing, or the gold dust collected in any other manner, should very often
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not be smelted, but should be mixed with quicksilver and washed with tepid
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water, so that all the impurities may be eliminated. </
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>This method I ex
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plained in Book VII. </
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>Or they are placed in the
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aqua
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which separates
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gold from silver, for this also separates its impurities. </
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>In this method we
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see the gold sink in the glass ampulla, and after all the
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aqua
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has been drained
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from the particles, it frequently remains as a gold-coloured residue at the
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bottom; this powder, when it has been moistened with oil made from
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argol
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27
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, is then dried and placed in a crucible, where it is melted with borax
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or with saltpetre and salt; or the same very fine dust is thrown into molten
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silver, which absorbs it, and from this it is again parted by
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aqua valens
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28
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.</
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<
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>It is necessary to smelt gold ore either outside the blast furnace in a
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crucible, or inside the blast furnace; in the former case a small charge of ore
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is used, in the latter a large charge of it.
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Rudís
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gold, of whatever colour
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it is, is crushed with a
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líbra
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each of sulphur and salt, a third of a
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líbra
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of copper,
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