BOOK IX. 



391 



charcoal and earth, as is also a large crucible, one-half of which lies under the 

 furnace and the other half outside it, into which runs the lead. The 

 smelter, having first skimmed off the slags and other things with a hoe, pours 

 the lead with a ladle into moulds, taking out the cakes after they have 

 cooled. At the back of the furnace is a rectangular hole, so that the fire 

 may be allowed more draught, and so that the smelter can crawl through it 

 into the furnace if necessity demands. 



The Saxons who inhabit Gittelde, when smelting lead ore in a furnace 

 not unlike a baking oven, put the wood in through a hole at the back of the 

 furnace, and when it begins to bum vigorously the lead trickles out of the 

 ore into a forehearth. When this is full, the smelting being accomplished, 

 the tap-hole is opened with a bar, and in this way the lead, together with the 

 slags, runs into the dipping-pots below. Afterward the cakes of lead, when 

 they are cold, are taken from the moulds. 



In Westphalia they heap up ten wagon-loads of charcoal on some hill- 

 side which adjoins a level place, and the top of the heap being made flat, 

 straw is thrown upon it to the thickness of three or four digits. On the top of 



among the spoil captured by Thotmes III. Leaden objects have frequently been found in 

 Egyptian tombs as early as Rameses III. (1200 B.C.). The statement is made by Pulsifer 

 (Notes for a History of Lead, New York 1888, p. 146) that Egyptian pottery was glazed with 

 lead. We have been unable to find any confirmation of this. It may be noted, incidentally, 

 that lead is not included in the metals of the " Tribute of Yu " in the Shoo King (The Chinese 

 Classics, 2500 B.C. ?), although silver is so included. 



After 1200 or 1300 B.C. evidences of the use of lead become frequent. Moses (Numbers 

 xxxi, 22-23) directs the Israelites with regard to their plunder from the Midianites (1300 B.C.) ; 

 " Only the gold and the silver, the brass [sic], the iron, the tin, and the lead. Everything 

 " that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean ; neverthe- 

 " less, it shall be purified with the water of separation, and all that abideth not the fire ye shall 

 " make go through the water." Numerous other references occur in the Scriptures (Psalms 

 xii, 6 ; Proverbs xvii, 3 ; xxv. 4, etc.), one of the most pointed from a metallur- 

 gical point of view being that of Jeremiah (600 B.C.), who says (vi, 29-30) : " The bellows 

 " are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire ; the founder melteth in vain ; for the wicked 

 " are not plucked away. Reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected 

 " them." From the number of his metaphors in metallurgical terms we may well conclude that 

 Jeremiah was of considerable metallurgical experience, which may account for his critical 

 tenor of mind. These Biblical references all point to a knowledge of separating silver and lead. 

 Homer mentions lead (Ihad xxiv, 109), and it has been found in the remains of ancient Troy 

 and Mycenae (H. Schliemann, " Troy and its Remains," London, 1875, and " Mycenae," 

 New York, 1877). Both Herodotus (i, 186) and Diodorus (11, i) speak of the lead used 

 to fix iron clamps in the stone bridge of Nitocris (600 B.C.) at Babylon. 



Our best evidence of ancient lead-silver metallurgy is the result of the studies at Mt. 

 Laurion by Edouard Ardaillon {Mines du Laurion dans I'Antiquite, Paris, 1897). Here the very 

 extensive old workings and the slag heaps testify to the greatest activity. The re-opening of 

 the mines in recent years by a French Company has well demonstrated their technical char- 

 acter, and the frequent mention in Greek History easily determines their date. These deposits 

 of argentiferous galena were extensively worked before 500 B.C., and while the evidence of 

 concentration methods is ample, there is but little remaining of the ancient smelters. Enough, 

 however, remains to demonstrate that the galena was smelted in small furnaces at low heat, 

 with forced draught, and that it was subsequently cupelled. In order to reduce the sulphides 

 the ancient smelters apparently depended upon partial roasting in the furnace at a pre- 

 hminary period in reduction, or else upon the ferruginous character of the ore, or upon 

 both. See notes p. 27 and p. 265. Theognis (6th century B.C.) and Hippocrates (5th century 

 B.C.) are frequently referred to as mentioning the refining of gold with lead ; an inspec- 

 tion of the passages fails to corroborate the importance which has been laid upon them. 

 Among literary evidences upon lead metallurgy of later date, Theophrastus (300 B.C.) 

 describes the making of white-lead with lead plates and vinegar. Diodorus Siculus (ist 

 century B.C.), in his well-known quotation from Agatharchides (2nd century B.C.) with 

 regard to gold mining and treatment in Egypt, describes the refining of gold with lead. 

 (See note 8 p. 279.) Strabo (63 B.C. — 24 a.d.) says (in, 2, 8) : " The furnaces for 



