The mine was powered by water

MINING REQUIRES KNOWLEDGE

In 1556, German scientist Georg Bauer accumulated all the mining knowledge of the time in a book aimed particularly at mine operators: “De Re Metallica”. According to Bauer, ore extraction is not only a question of luck and hard work – it requires a special knowledge of philosophy, arithmetic and architecture. Most deaths in mines are due to carelessness, he claimed.

NEW PUMPS DIVERT WATER

For several years, Georg Bauer had been working with mines and miners in the Ore Mountains in South-Eastern Germany, learning all the working processes and the use of the right tools. Like the Romans, Bauer recommended mining hard rock by means of fire. Fast cooling with water makes the rock explode. The book also included designs of pumps which would be able to divert incoming water.

IRON ORE IS CRUSHED AND WASHED

When the ore had been retrieved from the mine, it was to be crushed and washed. Georg Bauer had several suggestions regarding the design of the machinery that was to pulverise the ore by means of hammers.

Bauer recommended the use of water to wash out soil and other impurities. In this way the production of slag – a waste product of the smelting process – was reduced.

THE RIGHT FURNACE SMELTS THE ORE

The smelting furnace was to be built of bricks or light stones, Bauer explains in his book. By means of detailed woodcut prints, he demonstrated how it is done.

“De Re Metallica" was not published until one year after Bauer’s death in 1555, as the woodcut work took a long time. Bauer’s work was the standard volume of the mining industry for the next 250 years in ironworks and among metallurgists.