XXXVI.
MERCURY.
PROPERTIES AND PECULIARITIES OF MERCURY, OR QUICKSILVER.—AMALGAMATION.—CINNABAR.—WHERE IT IS FOUND.—ALMADEN AND OTHER MINES.—CURIOUS CUSTOMS AT IDRIA.—MODES OF WORKING.—HUANCA VELICA.—QUICKSILVER MINES IN CALIFORNIA.—CALIFORNIA LAWSUITS. - WONDERFUL PROPERTIES OF SPANISH TITLES.—AN UNHAPPY ACCIDENT.—PRACTICAL VALUE OF AN EARTHQUAKE—AN UNDERGROUND CHAPEL.
One of the most valuable mineral substances is the one which is known as Mercury, or Quicksilver. It has many properties peculiar to no other metal. At an ordinary temperature it is a fluid. At thirty-nine or forty degrees below zero (Fahrenheit) it becomes solid, and resembles lead. At six hundred and sixty-two degrees (Fahrenheit) it boils, and is thrown out on an invisible, transparent vapor, like steam. Before it reaches the boiling point, if it is exposed to the air at a high temperature, it absorbs oxygen, and is converted into red oxide. Strong nitric acid will absorb mercury. Acids affect it somewhat, but not to any great extent. It mixes with lead, zinc, gold, and silver, and it may be separated from them by a chemical process, and be made perfectly pure. Sometimes the cheap metals are used to adulterate mercury; but the effect of this mixture is to produce an amalgam, whose adulterations can be easily detected. It is found sometimes in a native or pure form, and sometimes amalgamated with silver; but these instances are so rare that deposits of this sort cannot be relied upon as sources of supply.
Sometimes mercury is found in its natural state in cavities in the earth, so that it may be dug up in considerable quantities. The chief source of supply, however, is in the form ofcinnabar. Cinnabar is said to be an East Indian name, originally given to the mixture of the blood of the dragon with that of the elephant, and afterwards applied to the common ore of mercury. On account of its beautiful red color, known as vermilion, this ore has been worked in various parts of the world for more than three thousand years. Some of the Roman historians refer to the use of mercury in amalgamating gold; and the mines of Almaden, in Spain, which still produce cinnabar, are known to have been worked for thousands of years before the Christian era. Cinnabar consists of eighty-six per cent. of mercury, and fourteen per cent. of sulphur. It forms beds and veins in certain rocks, and in many places the rocks near the veins will have cinnabar distributed through them. When finely ground it makes a brilliant red paint, and, as before stated, is known as vermilion; and it is said that the Indians of California first called the attention of the Spanish settlers to the presence of quicksilver by their use of cinnabar in ornamenting their faces.
CINNABAR MINES.
The most important mines of mercury in the world are those of Almaden, in Spain; New Almaden, in California; Idria, in Austria; and Huanca Velica, in Peru. There are smaller mines in Hungary, Bohemia, Bavaria, China, Japan, Brazil, and a few other countries. Formerly the Almaden mines, in Spain, controlled the quicksilver market of the globe. The owners of the mines could affect the price of the article just as they pleased. If they raised or lowered it, the other mines were obliged to lower or raise their prices.
Almaden is situated in New Castile, about fifty miles north of Cordova. Apart from its mining peculiarities, it possesses no feature of attraction, as it consists simply of one long street, built on a ridge of rock, where the cinnabar ore is found. The town has a mining school, half a dozen or more ordinary schools, three hospitals, and a liberal supply of churches, and about ten thousand inhabitants. Until about the beginning of the present century the mines were worked by convicts, who were compelled to wear chains, and werekept at such severe toil that they never lived long. Later, however, the mines have been worked on a voluntary labor system, and employ about five or six thousand persons. Each laborer is required to toil only six hours a day. A longer exposure than this to the quicksilver is considered injurious to the health. The annual production of the Almaden mines is about two million pounds of pure metal.
MINES IN AUSTRIA AND PERU.
The mines of Idria, in Austria, are about thirty-two miles northeast of Trieste. The town is a small one, its population being less than five thousand. Its annual production is about three hundred thousand pounds. A single shaft has been sunk to a depth of about one thousand feet. The excavations are made through horizontal galleries extended from this shaft. The descent into the mine is accomplished partly by steps cut in the rock and partly by ladders. About five hundred miners are employed. They preserved a peculiarity by wearing a uniform of their own, and, though the occupation is unhealthy, the appointment of a miner at Idria is greatly sought. The mines have been worked about four hundred years, and are the property of the government. The product of the other smaller mines of this metal throughout Europe is so inconsiderable as to have no material effect on the market. The same may be said of the quicksilver mines of China, Japan, and Australia.
The Peruvian quicksilver mines have been worked since the beginning of the sixteenth century. At the great mines of Huanca Velica the ores are found in sandstone and shales along a belt of ground or rock about four hundred feet thick. Most of the excavations are open ones, and appear as if laid out without much plan or method. Accidents frequently occur, and at one time two hundred workmen were buried by the caving in of the earth. The total annual yield of the Peruvian mines is about four hundred thousand pounds.
Mercury is found in many places in Mexico, but no mines of it are now worked, the deposits not being sufficient to pay for the exploitation. The quicksilver mines of California were first opened and worked in 1845, by one of the Spanishsettlers. It was known that for a long time the Indians had made use of cinnabar to ornament their faces, and it was found that they had made pits fifty or sixty feet deep into the mountain in search of it. The first attempt made by the Spaniards in these Indian mines was to work the cinnabar ore for silver; but no silver could be found. The war of 1846 stopped the working of the mine, and nothing was done after that until 1848, when operations were recommenced on a large scale. A company of Mexicans and English worked the mines from 1850 to 1858, when they were stopped by the United States court on account of a lawsuit about the title.
QUICKSILVER MINES OF NEW ALMADEN.
QUICKSILVER MINES OF NEW ALMADEN.
BLASTING IN THE QUICKSILVER MINES.
BLASTING IN THE QUICKSILVER MINES.
NEW ALMADEN IN CALIFORNIA.
The New Almaden mines are situated about twelve miles from San José, an important town fifty miles south of San Francisco. It was my pleasure to visit these mines several years ago, and learn something of the mode of working them. A small party of us took the train from San Francisco, and proceeded to San José, whence we travelled in carriages over an excellent road, which undulated just enough to make it interesting. Unfortunately for us, at the time of our visit, no work was in progress in the lower mines in consequence of one of those lawsuits for which the region is famous. Consequently we did not go down into the mine itself, but were obliged to content ourselves with an inspection of the reduction works.
I may remark, by the by, in speaking of these lawsuits of the New Almaden mine, that it is a peculiar dispensation of providential care or human cupidity to afflict every valuable piece of property in California with a lawsuit. I would not wish to assert that there is a dishonest man in all California, as the assertion might be followed by an assault on the writer by some enthusiastic resident of the Golden State; but I do say that the result of my observation was, that nothing could be found in California worth the having but that some claimant under a previous title would be sure to present himself. The New Almaden mines, as soon as their value became known, found plenty of claimants under Spanish titles and Indian titles. A great part of their revenue has been swallowedup in legal proceedings. When all these questions shall have been settled finally, I presume some claimant will turn up who holds a title given him by Columbus or Queen Isabella, and possibly by the founder of the Christian religion. Titles in California can go back to a wonderfully distant period, and they are always so indefinite as to afford holding-ground for a legal anchor.
FRAUDULENT TITLES.
I do not think a single mine or very valuable property in California has ever escaped legal difficulties. A rocky island in San Francisco Bay was pointed out to me as the locality of a Spanish claim. It had stood very quietly unoccupied, and was not considered worth ten cents for any practical purpose. By and by the government wished to use it as the site of a fortification. Immediately there arose a claimant under a Spanish title, and he came very near compelling the government to pay him a handsome price for the property. I presume, if a volcanic island should be thrown up in the middle of the bay, and somebody should take possession of a piece of it, somebody else would have a Spanish or Indian title to it, or would possibly produce a title from his Satanic Majesty, who had caused the island to be made for the especial benefit of the claimant, in return for valuable services rendered in times past or present.
On reaching the mines, we proceeded at once to the Reduction Works, and were politely shown around by Mr. Butterworth, the superintendent. We amused ourselves trying to lift flasks of quicksilver, and were nearly choked with the fumes arising from the places where the ore was being reduced. The reduction works are very simple affairs. They consist of piles of brick with furnaces beneath them, and with large cavities, down which the ore is placed. The ore is roasted, and the mercury rises in vapor, and is condensed. The furnaces are, most of them, forty feet long, eight feet wide, and ten feet high, and fixed near each other. Each furnace is divided into compartments, the fire occupying one at the end and a little below the compartment, where the ore is placed. The heat does not come in direct contact with the ore, but is driven through it by means of flues.
THE CONDENSING CHAMBERS.
There are several Condensing Chambers, so called, each of them eight feet long, four feet wide, and about six feet high. The chamber where the ore is placed is connected with the condensing chambers by means of a flue. Eight or ten tons of ore are placed in the furnace at one time. Seven other condensing chambers succeed the first, and the fumes are passed through one after the other, and finally into a tank, where they are condensed in water. Each chamber is so constructed that the mercury will flow into the iron tank, where it is collected and put in flasks. About sixty hours are required to extract the mercury from a charge of ore.
In spite of all precautions a great deal of mercury is lost. At the time of our visit, new furnaces had been constructed to take the place of some old ones, which had been torn down a year or two before. They showed us an immense cavity in the earth, where the quicksilver had accumulated and settled. Its weight had made places for it in some instances, while in others the ground was thoroughly saturated. These deposits were discovered quite by accident, and I was told that several tons of quicksilver had been taken from them.
One of our party became aware of the peculiar properties of quicksilver in a way that was not at all satisfactory. At the tank where the material was waiting to be placed in the flasks there were several gallons of mercury, and we amused ourselves by forcing our hands beneath the surface. The sensation was peculiar, and to most of us entirely new. Our friend was wearing a ring on one of the fingers that he thrust into the metal. The quicksilver allied with the gold, and suddenly it was discovered that the ring had turned white. His attention was called to it by our guide, who suggested that the ring must be removed instantly and heated. It was taken from the finger, not without considerable difficulty, placed upon a shovel, and heated. A goodly portion of the mercury, which had adhered to it, was driven away; but I believe the ring subsequently tumbled to pieces, and became valueless.
Men and animals employed about the Smelting Works are salivated and otherwise injuriously affected by the mercury; but I believe no like effects are experienced in the mines. The ore is found irregularly distributed in the hills a little more than a mile from the smelting works. The vein is very irregular; in fact, it is less a vein than a series of chambers. The mine is entered through a level, which extends twelve hundred feet into the hill. Side galleries are excavated on the line of deposits, and sometimes they follow these deposits four or five hundred feet. The earthquake of 1865 opened up several new chambers in the rock, and gave an increased value to the property—about the only property which an earthquake was ever known to benefit. Most of the laborers in these mines are of Indian or Spanish origin. They have a chapel in the mine, similar to chapels which are fitted up in the mines of Catholic countries all over the world. The chambers of the mine are occasionally used forfêtesand celebrations, and at such times are quite interesting.
EXTENT OF THE PRODUCTION.
The quantity of quicksilver produced annually at the New Almaden mine is about two million pounds. Sometimes it falls short of this amount, and sometimes exceeds it; but the production is largely in the control of the managers, and they can raise or lower it almost at will. The stock of this company has been the subject of a great deal of speculation in Wall Street. Some men have made money by it, and others have lost. The speculations in it have been so extensive that it has become a sort of financial football, which prudent people would do well to let alone.
The New Idria mine was opened subsequently to the opening of the New Almaden mine. The mercury of New Almaden had driven that of Spain from all the American markets, and fairly controlled the world. The mine at Idria, together with mines at other places in California, produced a comparatively small amount, so that the market of the New Almaden mine was not seriously affected.
A universal system is followed over the entire globe, so far as the packages in which mercury is placed are concerned.The Almaden mines of Spain adopted the plan of enclosing the mercury in iron flasks, containing seventy-six and one half pounds, and the example is followed elsewhere. Sometimes half flasks and quarter flasks are made; but the standard of seventy-six and a half pounds for a whole flask is universally maintained.
HOW MERCURY IS USED.
The greatest consumers of mercury are the Chinese, not physically, or for mechanical or chemical purposes. The Chinese use a great many paints, and especially red ones. As a natural consequence, quicksilver enters largely into their composition. Other uses of quicksilver are in the extraction of silver and gold from their ores in the amalgamating process, and also for coating or silvering the backs of mirrors. Mercury is employed in the construction of philosophical instruments, and is preferred to other fluids for filling thermometers and barometers. It is used in medicine to a considerable extent; and doubtless many of my readers are familiar with it. Its most general form is in what is known as the blue pill. Nearly all physicians prescribe it, but they always enjoin great caution in its use. One celebrated medical writer says, “Few medicines produce such a marked sense of depression, both mentally and bodily, as mercury, even of ordinary doses; and when the system is brought thoroughly under its influences, the effects become distressing.”