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94
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DE NATURA FOSS1LIUM
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Quadrigarius
writes that during the seige of Athens Lucius Sulla discovered that
things covered with asbestos did not take fire. But, as I have said, he
called it alum. Strabo is seen to have used the same name for this
mineral since he writes that burning bitumen can be extinguished by
alum. Pausanias writes that in Athens the wick of the golden lamp of
Minerva made by Callimachus was made from Carystian linon. This
is obviously ancient and this practice of the Athenians of making wicks
from asbestos is followed today by many peoples. The mineral is washed,
combed, spun and woven, although with difficulty because of the
shortness of the fibers, and not only are napkins made from it, as in
Rome, but also towels, as in Vereberg, Saxony. Hierocles writes that
the clothes of the Brahman philosophers of India were made of this
material. Sometimes funereal robes of royalty are made from it for when
the body is wrapped in this cloth and then placed on the burning pyre
the ashes of the body can be kept separate from those of the wood and
later preserved in a sepulcher. Although Pliny writes that this cloth
is very rare and when met with has a value equal to that of the finest
pearls, nevertheless since pieces of it can be seen today in the mines
of Noricum it has obviously been sold at a low price.
When
either the "cleavable stone" of Eisleben or the pyrite of Goslar is
roasted they exude a light green, dry, harsh and tenuous material on
the top of the pyre. After forming this is not entirely consumed by the
fire and thus is similar to asbestos. The "cleavable stone" yields this
mineral more copiously than pyrite.
Magnetis (mica),
not the stone which draws iron to itself but the one that is similar to
silver, differs from asbestos in form but not in natural qualities.
Actually it forms in beds in the same way as selenite but these are
very tenuous. Like asbestos it withstands fire to such an extent that
it cannot be consumed. It is of such a nature that they can make wicks
of it by joining several layers together with an iron thread.
It
is found in many places, for example, the Goldekrona mine, Misena,
about five miles from Marienburg, and in another mine near the town of
Sleta; at Wildestein, Bohemia; at Miltenberg, Franconia; in Livonia,
The color may be silvery, the most common color, and for that reason
our potters call it by a name compounded from argentum and album, a very appropriate name.10
It resembles silver so closely that it may deceive those who do not
examine it carefully. Although it has this resemblance to silver they
are not joined by any natural relationship as Theophrastus correctly
states. It may be the color of iron, e.g., the mineral sometimes found
at the Goldekrona mine, Misena. A lead colored variety is also found in
this same mine. It may have a mixed lead and silver color although it
is usually silver or iron colored. It may be mixed with a red earth, a
yellow earth and even at times with some other earth. Some is found in
very thin beds and some is not. The latter usually has a lead or
silver-lead color since
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10 Silberweia.
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