Archive image from page 611 of De re metallica (1950). De re metallica deremetallica50agri Year: 1950 574 BOOK XII. A—Tunnel. B—Bucket. C—Pit. In hot regions or in summer, it is poured into out-of-door pits which have been dug to a certain depth, or else it is extracted from shafts by pumps and poured into launders, through which it flows into the pits, where it is condensed by the heat of the sun. In cold regions and in winter these vitriol waters are boiled down with equal parts of fresh water in rectangular leaden caldrons ; then, when cold, the mixture is poured into vats or into tanks
Archive image from page 611 of De re metallica (1950). De re metallica deremetallica50agri Year: 1950 574 BOOK XII. A—Tunnel. B—Bucket. C—Pit. In hot regions or in summer, it is poured into out-of-door pits which have been dug to a certain depth, or else it is extracted from shafts by pumps and poured into launders, through which it flows into the pits, where it is condensed by the heat of the sun. In cold regions and in winter these vitriol waters are boiled down with equal parts of fresh water in rectangular leaden caldrons ; then, when cold, the mixture is poured into vats or into tanks, which Pliny calls wooden fish-tanks. In these tanks Ught cross-beams are fixed to the upper part, so that they may be stationary, and from them hang ropes stretched with little stones; to these the contents of the thickened solutions congeal and adhere in transparent cubes or seeds of vitriol, like bunches of grapes. ' Misy when it effloresces in no great quantity from the others is like a kind of pollen, other- ' wise it is nodular. Melanteria sometimes resembles wool, sometimes salt.' The sum and substance, therefore, appears to be that misy is a yellowish material, possibly ochre, and sory a blackish stone, both impregnated with vitriol. Chalcitis is a partially decomposed pyrites ; and melanteria is no doubt native vitriol. From this last term comes the modern melanterite, native hydrous ferrous sulphate. Dana (Sj'stem of Mineralogy, p. 964) considers misy to be in part eopiapite—basic ferric sulphate—but any such part would not come under Agricola's objection to it as a source of vitriol. The disabilities of this and chalcitis mav, however, be due to their copper content.
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