BOOK IX. 1
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INCE I have written of the varied work of pre-
paring the ores, I will now write of the various methods of smelting them. Although those who burn, roast and calcine 2 the ore, take from it some- thing which is mixed or combined with the metals ; and those who crush it with stamps take away much ; and those who wash, screen and sort it, take away still more ; yet they cannot remove all which con- ceals the metal from the eye and renders it crude and unformed. Wherefore smelting is necessary, for by this means earths, solidified juices, and stones are separated from the metals so that they obtain their proper colour and become pure, and may be of great use to mankind in many ways. When the ore is smelted, those things which were mixed with the metal before it was melted are driven forth, because the metal is perfected by fire in this manner. Since metalliferous ores differ greatly amongst themselves, first as to the metals which they con- tain, then as to the quantity of the metal which is in them, and then by the fact that some are rapidly melted by fire and others slowly, there are, therefore, many methods of smelting. Constant practice has taught the history of the fusion of ores and of metals is the history of individual processes, and such information as we have been able to discover upon the individual methods previous to Agricola we give on the pages where such processes are discussed. In general the records of the beginnings of metallurgy are so nebular that, if one wishes to shirk the task, he can adopt the explanation of William Pryce one hundred and fifty years ago : " It is very probable that the nature and use of Metals were not revealed to Adam in his state of innocence : the toil and labour necessary to procure and use those implements of the iron age could not be known, till they made part of the curse incurred by his fall : ' In the sweat ' of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground ; in sorrow shalt thou ' eat of it all the days of thy life ' (Genesis). That they were very early discovered, however, is manifest from the Mosaick account of Tubal Cain, who was the first instructor of every artificer in Brass [st'c] and Iron " (Mineralogia Cornubiensis, p. 2). It is conceivable that gold could be found in large enough pieces to have had general use in pre-historic times, without fusion ; but copper, which was also in use, must have been smelted, and therefore we must assume a considerable development of human knowledge on the subject prior to any human record. Such incidental mention as exists after record begins does not, of course, extend to the beginning of any particular branch of the art in fact, special arts obviously existed long before such mention, and down to the complete survey of the state of the art by Agricola our dates are necessarily " prior to " some first mention in literature, or " prior to " the known period of existing remains of metallur- gical operations. The scant Egyptian records, the Scriptures, and the Shoo King give a little insight prior to 1000 B.C. The more extensive Greek literature of about the 5th to the 3rd centuries B.C., together with the remains of Greek mines, furnish another datum point of view, and the Roman and Greek writers at the beginning of the Christian era give a still larger view. After them our next step is to the Monk Theophilus and the Alchemists, from the I2th to the I4th centuries. Finally, the awakening of learning at the end of the I5th and the beginning of the i6th centuries, enables us for the first time to see practically all that was known. The wealth of literature which exists subsequent to this latter time makes history thereafter a matter of some precision, but it is not included in this undertaking. Considering the great part that the metals have played in civilization, it is astonishing what a minute amount of information is available on metallurgy. Either the ancient metallurgists were secretive as to their art, or the ancient authors despised such common things, or, as is equally probable, the very partial preservation of ancient literature, by painful transcription over a score of centuries, served only for those works of more general interest. In any event, if all the direct or indirect material on metallurgy prior to the 15th century were compiled, it would not fill 40 pages such as these.
- See footnote 2, p. 267, on verbs used for roasting.
