BOOK IX. 399 



alloy of gold and lead is obtained which is put into the cupellation furnace. 

 Two parts of roasted pyrites or cadmia which contain gold, arc put with 

 one part of unroasted, and are smelted together in the third furnace whose 

 tap-hole is always open, and are made into cakes. When these cakes have 

 been repeatedly roasted, they are re-smelted in the furnace whose tap- 

 hole is temporarily closed, or in one of the two others whose tap-holes are 

 always open. In this manner the lead absorbs the gold, whether pure or 

 argentiferous or cupriferous, and the alloy is taken to the cupeUation 

 furnace. Pyrites, or other gold ore which is mixed with much material that 

 is consumed by fire and flies out of the furnace, is melted with stone from 

 which iron is melted, if this is at hand. Six parts of such pyrites, or of gold 

 ore reduced to powder and sifted, four of stone from which iron is made, Uke- 

 wise crushed, and three of slaked lime, are mixed together and moistened 

 with water ; to these are added two and a half parts of the cakes which 

 contain some copper, together with one and a half parts of slag. A basket- 

 ful of fragments of the cakes is thrown into the furnace, then the mixture 

 of other things, and then the slag. Now when the middle part of the 

 forehearth is filled with the molten material which runs down from the 

 furnace, the slags are first skimmed off, and then the cakes made of pyrites ; 

 afterward the alloy of copper, gold and silver, which settles at the bottom, 

 is taken out. The cakes are gently roasted and re-smelted with lead, and 

 made into cakes, which are carried to other works. The alloy of copper, 

 gold, and silver is not roasted, but is re-melted again in a crucible with an 

 equal portion of lead. Cakes are also made much richer in copper and gold 

 than those I spoke of. In order that the alloy of gold and silver may be 



Historical Note on Gold. — There is ample evidence of gold being used for ornamental 

 purposes prior to any human record. The occurrence of large quantities of gold in native 

 form, and the possibility of working it cold, did not necessitate any particular metallurgical 

 ingenuity. The earliest indications of metallurgical work are, of course, among the 

 Egyptians, the method of washing being figured as early as the monuments of the IV 

 Dynasty (prior to 3800 B.C.). There are in the British Museum two stelae of the XII Dynasty 

 (2400 B.C.) (144 Bay I and 145 Bay 6) relating to officers who had to do with gold mining in 

 Nubia, and upon one there are references to working what appears to be ore. If this be true, 

 it is the earliest reference to this subject. The Papyrus map (1500 B.C.) of a gold mine, in 

 the Turin Museum (see note 16, p. 129), probably refers to a quartz mine. Of literary evidences 

 there is frequent mention of refining gold and passing it through the fire in the Books of Moses, 

 arts no doubt learned from the Egyptians. As to working gold ore as distinguished from 

 alluvial, we have nothing very tangible, unless it be the stelae above, until the description of 

 Egyptian gold mining by Agatharcides (see note 8, p. 279). This geographer, of about the 

 2nd century B.C., describes very clearly indeed the mining, crushing, and concentration of ore 

 and the refining of the concentrates in crucibles with lead, salt, and barley bran. We may 

 mention in passing that Theognis (6th Century B.C.) is often quoted as mentioning the 

 refining of gold with lead, but we do not believe that the passage in question (iioi) : 

 " But having been put to the test and being rubbed beside (or against) lead as being refined 

 " gold, you will be fair," etc. ; or much the same statement again (418) will stand much 

 metallurgical interpretation. In any event, the myriads of metaphorical references to fining 

 and purity of gold in the earliest shreds of literature do not carry us much further than do those 

 of Shakespeare or Milton. Vitruvius and Pliny mention the recovery or refining of gold with 

 mercury (see note 12, p. 297 on Amalgamation) ; and it appears to us that gold was parted 

 from silver by cementation with salt prior to the Christian era. We first find mention of parting 

 with sulphur in the 12th century, with nitric acid prior to the 14th century, by antimony 

 sulphide prior to the 15th century, and by cementation with nitre by Agricola. (See historical 

 note on parting gold and silver, p. 458.) The first mention of parting gold from copper occurs 

 in the early i6th century (see note 24, p. 462). The first comprehensive description of gold 

 metallurgy in all its branches is in De Re Metallica. 



