Figure 6. — Sta.ngenkunst, SnowiNr, Driving Wheel, Teldkunst, and Kunstkreuz. From 



H. Calvor (see footnote 15). 



they devised and constructed these in wliich the poor people 

 moved Hlce cattle and wore themselves out. At that time 

 the)- had powerful machines (Kunst) using swift water, 

 although it cost much to erect and maintain them, and was 

 very dangerous since an iron chain of a Bulgenkunst alone 

 often weighed 200 centner [over 10 tons] and more. 



But today's artisan [jetzigen Kiinstler] far surpasses the 

 old . . . since we have in the present time invented many 

 other mining machines; such as the Stangmkunst mil c/em 

 krummen ^apfjen, which raises water at small cost over 100 

 Laciiter [562 feet]. 



The Stangenkunst, which can be roughly trans- 

 lated as "rod work with crank," wa.s a piston punij) 

 driven through a crank and rods by a prime mover 

 located at a distant point. Agricola describes a 

 crank-driven piston pump, calling it a new machine 

 invented ten years earlier.'^ But it is not driven by 



'^Agricola, op. cit. (footnote 7), cd. Hoover, pp. 184-185. 

 The crank was centuries old at this time, and had been ap- 

 plied to pumping earlier than the time mentioned by Agri- 

 cola, although perhaps not in mining. A drawing dated 1405 

 shows an .\rchimcdian screw turned i)y a crank (Feldhaus, 

 op. cit., footnote 6, p. 834). The Mitlelaltertiche Hausbuch 

 (ed. H. T. Bossert and W. F. Storck, Leipzig, 1912, Tafcl 32), 

 a German description of technology that appeared in 1480, 

 shows an arrangement very like that described by Agricola, 

 although not in mining service. 



a di.stant prime mo\-er. Like his other water- 

 powered hauling machines it can only be used "when 

 a running stream can be diverted to a mine." So far 

 as we can determine from internal evidence, Agri- 

 cola did not know the Stangenkunst. 



Although the full development of the Stangenkunst 

 came later, it was apparently introduced in Agricola's 

 time. Its introduction to the Erzgebirge has been 

 put as early as 1550." According to another authority 

 it was introduced to the Harz in 1565 by one Heinrich 

 Eschcnbach of Meissen.'* Its significance is only 

 made clear to us by later authorities. As shown in 

 figure 3 it was adapted to the utilization of a distant 

 stream, through the Feldstangen, an extended hori- 

 zontal series of reciprocating rods, and the Kunst- 

 kreuz (fig. 6), a lever in the shape of a cross for 

 changing at right angles the direction of power 

 transmission. These imiirovements may have been 

 almost contemporaneous with Agricola, as Calvor 



" O. Fritschc and A. Wagenbreth, "Die Wasscrhaltungs- 

 maschinen bei Agricola und sein Einfluss auf ihre wcitere 

 Entwicklung," in Deutsche Akademie dec W'iisenschajt z" Berlin, 

 Groigiiis Agricola, (East) Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1953, p. 112. 



'^Hennig Calvor, Ada hislorico-chronologico-mechanica circa 

 Mctalliirgiam . . . , Braunschweig, 1763, pp. 36-37. 



118 



BULLETIN 218: CONTRIBUTIONS FRflM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY" .\XD TECHNOLOGY 



