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Argentum, Silver

Argentum, Silver Page of 453 Argentum, Silver Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
ARGENTUM.
71
an ore of its own, giving nothing else ; or else united with silver, and the two ores are smelted together. Of this mixture that which first runs off in the furnace is called ' Stagnum ;' the next that comes off is Silver: the residuum in the furnace is galena, amounting to a third of the charge of ore. This melted over again produces Lead, with a loss of two parts in nine." (This residuum, therefore, must have been Litharge, or lead oxidised by the great heat required to smelt the combined ore. As charcoal was the only fuel then used, this oxide gained suffi­cient carbon in the second melting to convert it into metallic lead.)
The ancients, who classed minerals by the eye for the most part, considered Quicksilver as a rare variety of this metal, occurring in the same mines, like a running issue, always liquid, proceeding from the metallic veins, "vomica liquoris asterni." They considered it as something quite different from the Hydrar­gyrum extracted from the Minium (Sulphuret of Mercury) by sublimation. This Minium,' the Vermilion used in painting, Theophrastus relates, was, eighty years before his time, dis­covered by Callias, an Athenian, who, from its brilliant red, imagined it contained gold, and, making experiments upon it, failed in that attempt, but obtained the pigment. This was in a silver-mine at Ephesus. But when Pliny wrote, Minium was brought to Rome only from Sisapon in Baetica (Almaden): the mine being the property of the State. The ore was not allowed to be prepared on the spot, but brought in sealed packages to Borne, where it was ground and washed; and the price fixed by law to 70 sesterces (17-1/2 denarii) the pound weight. As much as 2000 lbs. were annually exported from Spain. This kind was exclusively used as a pigment: an inferior sort, the Secun-darium, found in the same mines, only assumed a vermilion colour after it had been roasted : this was used for adulterating the native Minium, and also for making Hydrargyrum.2 This
Argentum, Silver Page of 453 Argentum, Silver
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