214 



MINII5 



MINI NG 



Robert Thorbum (1818 S. r >) first made his 

 name as a miniaturist, and many others might 

 lie nil-Hi iniit-il ; lnt the last famous miniature- 

 painter was Sir William Koss (17SH-1860), \vlio 

 lived to see his art superseded by photography. 

 The number of bis miniatures in existence is said 

 to number over 2200. Of late years public interest 

 in tbe work of tbe miniaturist bus revived, and 

 several exhibitions of miniatures have been held. 

 Prices have advanced, and it is extremely difficult 

 to obtain good examples. The works of Cosway 

 ure es|>ecially sought after. Photograph; may 1 

 said to have killed the art, although miniatures 

 have continued to be painted : but enthusiasts hope 

 from the interest now taken in historical specimens 

 that the art niav yet be revived. As to technical 

 details, the early* artists painted on vellum and 

 used body-colours i.e. colours mixed with white 

 or other opaque pigments, and this practice was 

 continued tilf a comparatively late period, when 

 thin leaves of ivory fixed on card-board with gum 

 were substituted. Many of the old miniature- 

 painters worked with oil-colours on small plates 

 of copper or silver. After ivory was substituted 

 for vellum transparent colours were employed on 

 faces, hands, and other delicate portions of the 

 picture, the opaque colours being only used in 

 draperies and the like; but during the 19th 

 century, in which the art lias been brought to 

 the highest excellence, the practice has lieen to 

 execute the entire work except the high lights in 

 white drajiery with transparent colours. 



See VTslpale'i Anecdotei; G. C. Williamson, Portrait 

 Miniatures from Holbein to Ron (1898); J. J. Foster, 

 Brititk Miniature Painter* and their Work (1898); 

 Russell, Art of Mini-it a r< ( Ith t-d. l>7Si : \V;. K utr. 

 Miniature Painting ( Philadelphia, 187G ) ; Fouler, ' Some 

 Miniature Painter*, in Antiquary ( vols. xiii.-xiv. ) ; .1 . W . 

 Bradley, Dictionary of Miniaturitts (3 vols. 1888-89) ; 

 and J. L. Propert, History of Miniature Art (1839). 



Minir. ('i.vrnK &TIEXNE, inventor of the Mini 

 rifle, was born in Paris in 1814, enlisted in the army 

 as a private soldier, and quitted it as colonel in 

 1858. He devoted his principal thought to the per- 

 fecting of firearms, and in 1849 invented the Mmid 

 rifle (see HIKLES). In 1858 the khedive of Egypt 

 appointed him director of a small-arms factory and 

 musketry school in Cairo. He died in 1879. 



Minims (t'rntre* Minimi, ' Least Brethren' 

 so called, in token of still greater humility, by 

 contrast with the Fratret Minaret or Lesser 

 Brethren of St Francis of Assisi), an order of the 

 lioman I'aihulic Church, founded by another St 

 Francis, a native of Paula, a small town of Cala- 

 bria, about the middle of the loth century. See 

 FRANCESCO DI PAULA. 



Mining. The art of mining comprehends all 

 the processes whereby the useful mineials are 

 obtained from their natural localities iieiieath the 

 surface of the earth, and the snli-ec|iient operations 

 by which many of them must be prepared for the 

 purposes of the metallurgist. The art has been 

 practised from the remotest times. It is referred 

 to in the -jsih chapter of the Hook of .lob; and 

 an Egyptian papyrus, drawn in 1400 H.C., pre- 

 served in the museum at Turin, depicts the work- 

 ings of a gold-mini 1 . The first writer who treated 

 mining systematically was (icorgius Agricola. In 

 1656 he published in Latin an exhaustive treatise 

 on the subject. The introduction of gunpowder 

 M a bJMting-agcnt in Hi-Jo completely Gauged the 

 conditions under which mining had up to that time 

 been carried on, and the enlarged scale on which 

 milling operations arc now conducted has led to 

 the invention of new methods of working, and to 

 the introduction of machines of greater precision 

 and power. 



All mineral deposits are divided into two very 



brood divisions. The first includes the bed- or 

 seams i if iron ore. coal, ami salt. These are 

 deposiis laid out more or less liori/ontully and 

 parallel to the stratification of the surrounding 

 r<K-ks. The second class includes mineral veins or 

 lodes (see OKK-IIKI-OSITS). Various mimes ]i,,\i> 

 been given to these deposits. In the l!ritisl 

 colonies, for example, they are termed reefs 

 GOLD), a somewhat misleading name. A lo.l. 

 may be defined us a repository of mineral matter 

 which fills more or less completely a former lissure 

 in the earth's surface. 



The mining appliances employed are very differ- 

 ent in the two classes of deposits. In the lirst class, 

 it is desirable to make a nole of tbe shortest JMI-- 

 sible depth from the surface of the ground to the 

 bed of mineral. A shaft is therefore sunk through 

 valueless licds until the mineral is reached. Machin- 

 ery of the best class is then used to extract the 

 whole of the mineral, due precautions being taken 

 to avoid danger from falls of roof and from noxious 

 gases. In the second class of deposits, the inclina- 

 tion of the mineral vein has to lie taken into 

 account, as the deposit varies considerably in in- 

 clination and in size. The vein must therefore be 

 studied foot by foot, downwards from the top. 

 The miner does not look favourably on vertical 

 veins. Certainly in most cases it would appear 

 that the chance of vertical lodes being productive, 

 is much less than in inclined ones. In some cases 

 a vertical shaft is sunk, and passages, known as 

 cross-cuts, are driven from this to the vein at 

 different levels. A vertical shaft presents the 

 advantages of greater ease in sinking, hauling, 

 and pumping. At the Comstock lode, in Nevada, 

 thousands of pounds were wasted in sinking a per- 

 pendicular shaft, the advantages of which were 

 urged with considerable plausibility. A deep shaft 

 may cost from 10,000 to 50,000. In the case 

 of an inclined shaft the ore obtained from the 

 shaft itself enables some of the charges to 1 

 recouped. In a well-known Cornish copper mine, 

 Trescvcan, after an inclined shaft had DM0 used 

 for many years, a new shaft, 1800 feet in depth, was 

 sunk at a cost of 20,000 ; bat success had already 

 been assured before this great outlay was contem- 

 plated. The liest arrangement for an extensive 

 mine is to have a main vertical shaft and several 

 secondary inclined ones. With inclined shafts it is 

 out of the question to put in the highly -perfected 

 engines used at collieries, the object lieing not tin- 

 removal a* quickly as possible of large quantities 

 of material, but the exploration of the vein hv 

 slow and can-fill degrees at many points and with 

 a moderate numlwr of men. 



In searching or prospecting for mineral deposits 

 large sums of money are spent, sometimes in vain. 

 The surface of the mi-k is usually covered by 

 deposits of sand and gravel, vegetable matter, vege- 

 tation, and. in some ca-c-, peat bogs. In conse- 

 quence, many notable mines have been discovered 

 by accident. Thus, tin- olisemition of the pellets 

 ]iicked up by birds led to the discovery of veins of 

 gold ore in Lower Hungary. The famous silver- 

 mines of 1'otosi are said to have- been discovered 

 1>\ an Indian who, taking hold of a bush to pie- 

 vent his falling, pulled it up by the roots and 

 thereby disclosed glittering ma-sc.-, of native silver. 

 i. gold wit> di-covered in California by James 

 W. Marshall, in 1848, while cutting a small 

 mill-race. In ancient times the search for 

 mineral deposits was based on the indications given 

 by the Divining-rod (q.v.); and there still exist, 

 intelligent miners who Iwlieve in this curious my t h. 



In the search for mineral deposit*, the best evi- 

 dence is obtained by putting down bore-holes. 

 These are made by various methods, and aie put 

 down to a depth of a few feel when required for 



