Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1853-11-02
Digging Quicksilver.

twice great as that of all the mines oil the same
kind in Carniola, Hungary, the Palatine and Pc
ru put together. s..sa ..
The diseased forms of the men working an ex-
cavatars belong only too prominently to picture
| of Almaden. You meet men in the street with
wasted faces, fetid breaths, and trembling hands;
blind, parylitic. The heat in the lower workings
of the mine is very considerable, the ventilation
is imperfect, vapor Of quicksilver floats upon the
air, and condenses on the walls, down which it
trickles in little runlets Of pure liquid metal
Even visitors are sensby affected by it, and re-
tain for some time the metallic favor in their
mouths. The mners-who number more than
four thousand-are divided into three gangs, or
watches, working six hours each, and leaving the
fourth six hours of the twenty -four-from ten at
night till four in the MORNINGS an interval OF
perfect rests. On account of the heat, and the
deleterious nature of the vapor, summer is made
the idle tlme-winter the great period of activity
among the population, AS the winter closest the
appearance of the miners begins very emphatical-
ly to tell its own tale, and great numbers hasten
to their native plains and mountains to recruit.
Their homes chiefly scattered about Es-
tremadura, Audalusia, and Portugal. Crowds of
Portuguese, after harvest flock to obtain employ
mint at Almaden-selling not their labor only, but
their health. The most robust can not work in
the mine longer than for about fourteen days in
succession; generally eight or nine days make
long period Of such labor as can be endured with
out rest. Those who exceed that tine are obliged
eventually to give up work, breathe unadulterated
air for perhaps two months together. If they work
without due precaution, and almost inevitably if
they indulge in wine, miners at Almaden aged
between twenty-five and thirty waste away, lose
hair and teeth, acquire and insufferabe breath,
or become sometime afflicted with tremblings that
render them unable to supply their own wants;
they have to be fed like infants. If the disease
be not checked vigorously, cramps and nervous
attacks of the most agonizng kind follow upon
these symptoms, and lead on the death. They
who work within due bounds, and live moderate
ly, using good deal of milk, if they take care
always to cleanse their persons thoroughly, after
each six hours work-the full days labor-live
not seldom to old age. These diseases afflict the
miners only, The men engaged upon the ore
and quicksilver outside the mines, in smelling.
and other operations, do not suffer.
There used to be disasters frequently OCCASION
ed by the sinking of the works, and by fires
The last fire ragged Tor upward of two years and
half. The employment of wood except for tenn
porary purposes, has, therefore, been abandoned,
and MAJ .iticent arched galleries of stone are
built through every one of the new cuttings The
deposits are almost vertical and great pains are
taken to supply the void left by the removed ore
with sufficiently strong body of masonry. Half
the ore is, however, everywhere lett standing as
reserve, in OF any future accidents; and the
whole yearly supply drawn from the mine is linn
ted to twenty thousa nd quintals. This supply is
drawn by mule power from the bowels of the hill
through grand shaft constructed on the usual
impressive scale.
The ore lies in a lode, almost perpendicular
There are three veins OF it, called, respectively,
St. Nicholas, St. Francisco and ST. Diego, which
traverse the length of the hill and intersects it
vertically at the point where they converse gal
leries connect them all together. The thickness
of the lode varies beeween fourteen and sixteen
feet; it is much thicker where the.veins ntersect,
and seems to be practically inexhaustable; for as
the shaft deepens the ore grows richer, both in
quality and quantity. The yield consists of "a
compact, gray quartz, impregnated with cinnabar
! and red lead.
The quicksilver is produced out of the ore by
sublimation over brick furnaces about five feet in
height; and as the furnaces are fed with the wood
Of cstus and other aromatic shrubs, this part of
the process is extremely grateful to the senses.
There are thirteen double furnaces and two
quadruple ones, partly erected at Almaden, partly
at Aim adeneio s-Litte Almaden-in the neigh
borhood. The minerals having been sorted, are
placed in the chumbers over the furnaces accord
ing to their quality. in different proportions and
positions, the best at the bottom.
The whole mass, piled upon open arches in the
form of dome, is then rooted over with soft
bricks made of kneaded clay and fine PARTICLES of
of suphuret OF mercury, free space of about
eighteen inches being left between the ore and
roof, in which the vapor can collect and crcu-
! late. ;4.
The mercurat vapor finally conducted along
stone-ware tubes, luted together condensing as it
goes, is deposited in cutters which conduct it
across the masonry of terrace into cisterns pre-
pared to receive it.
The quicksilver there carefully collected is
then put into jars of wrought iron, weighing about
sixteen pounds apiece, and each holding about
twenty five pounds, English, of the finished pro-
duce of the mines.
AS for the antiquity of the mines at Almaden,
that is immense. Pliny says that the Greeks had
vermillion from it seven hundred years before
| Christ, and that the Romans in his day were OBJ
talning from: it ten thousand pounds of cinnabar
vearly, for use in their paintings. The working
of the mine fell. of course, into abeyance in the
| 1 -.