AGATES AND AGATE-WORKING. 
33 
with the form which it is desired to give to the object under 
hand. Sometimes the agate is held simply in the grinder’s 
hand, but usually it is attached to the end of a short stick, and 
thus applied to the moving wheel. During the rapid rotation 
of the wheel the siliceous stones are all aglow with a beautiful 
phosphorescent light, visible even in daylight ; and the spectator 
can hardly bring himself to believe that the cornelians are not 
red hot. The phenomenon has been studied by Professor 
Noggerath.* 
One of the most striking, and at first sight painful, features 
in an agate-mill is the extraordinary position in which the 
grinders perform their work. Each stone accommodates two 
men, side by side ; but these men, instead of sitting at the 
wheel, lie stretched in an almost horizontal position, as repre- 
sented in fig. 3, PI. II. The workman lies upon a low 
wooden grinding stool, specially constructed to fit to the chest 
and abdomen, leaving the limbs free ; the hands are engaged in 
holding and guiding the agate, whilst the feet are fir ml y 
pressed against short stakes, or blocks of wood, screwed into the 
floor ; the reaction enabling the grinder to press the agate with 
much force against the moving millstone. Long experience 
has shown that in this unnatural position the workman has the 
greatest command over his work, and the grinding is, in fact, 
carried on traditionally in the same way as it was certainly done 
a century ago. Our figure, though copied from a famous work 
by M. Collini, published in I776,f fairly represents the agate- 
grinder as he may be seen to-day at Idar. It might be 
supposed that the health of the workman would suffer by this 
constant compression of his chest, but so far from this being 
the case, the grinders seem to be a strong class of men; they 
are often to be heard singing cheerfully at their work, and are 
contented though receiving extremely low wages. It is, in 
fact, the low value of labour in this rather out-of-the-way 
district that enables dealers in this country and elsewhere to 
sell polished agates at excessively low prices. 
After having been ground, the agates are polished on 
cylinders of hard wood or on metal discs, either of lead or of 
zinc ; these are caused to rotate by leather bands connected 
with the axis of the water-wheel which turns the millstones. 
Moistened tripoli is employed as the polishing agent. The hol- 
lowing-out of vessels, such as bowls ; the boring of agate-beads ; 
* “ Philosophical Magazine,” (4) vol. xlvii. p. 237. 
t “ Journal d’un Voyage qni contient differentes Observations Mineralo- 
giques ; particulierement sur les Agates et le Basalte, avec tm Detail sur la 
maniere de travailler les Agates.” Par M. Collini. The figure is repro- 
duced in Kluge’s “Edelsteinkunde,” 1860. 
NEW SERIES, YOL. I. — NO. I. D 
