30
[Class I.
The next group of mines, and the most important inrespect of the number of veins worked, is that of SaxonyProper, of which Freiberg is the centre, and, if we mayso say, the personification. More than 40U metalliferousveins furrow in every direction the northern flanks of theErzgebirge chain, which forms the eastern boundary ofSaxony ; and the numerous mines worked on these veinsproduce on an average 800 tons (8,000 metrical quintals )of lead, .32,500 lbs. (05,000 marcs) of silver, and 120 tons(2,400quintals) of tin per annum. The mining operationsare conducted on as large a scale as those of the Hartz;aud the mining school rendered illustrious by Wernerenjoys a never-dying celebrity.
The Rhenish provinces also present a considerablenumber of metalliferous localities widely spread overtheir surface, but capable of being grouped into severalwell-marked districts. Thus from the neighbourhood ofHersberthal, on the left bank of the Rhine , to beyondBrilon on the right bank, the lines of contact of thecarboniferous limestone aud the carboniferous schists ofthe coal measures, offer a series of deposits of galena,blende, and calamine, some of which give rise to veryactive mining operations. The mines near Stolherg placedin these conditions have produced for the last three yearsfrom 12 to 14 tons of lead per day, and similar depositsoccur near Elberfeld and Brilon .
The galena is here associated with a large quantity ofblende, the abundance of which has long been an obsta-cle to the prosperity of these mines ; but since a methodhas been discovered of rendering the blende available asan ore of zinc, it has become an important source ofwealth, and the manufacture of zinc from blende is nowvery successfully carried on. The first works erected ona large scale for this new mode of treatment were placednear Mulheim .
The neighbourhood of Siegen is also one of the mostremarkable of the mining districts, spathic iron being asabundant in the Stolberg as it is in Styria and Carinthia.This ore is reduced in numerous establishments, whosemanufactured iron and steel are equally celebrated. Thisdistrict also includes veins of grey copper ore, gen-tiferous galena, nickel and cobalt ores; and the copperveins of Dillenburg have given birth to a group of smallestablishments, extremely interesting iu a metallurgicalpoint of view.
We must also mention as of great importance the minesof copper in the bituminous schist of Mansfeld, wherethe metal is distributed throughout the schist in a manneralmost homogeneous over the whole district. This deposit,the only one known of its kind, both in regard to its widerange and the condition of the ore, furnishes more thanhalf the copper produced by all the states of the Zollve-rein, amounting to 1,200 tons out of 2,000. This produc-tion is not equal to the consumption of these countries, asthey import in addition from 1,500 to 1,800 tons annually;but it must be added, that they export from 400 to 500tons in various objects manufactured in copper and brass.
Silesia, concerning which it now remains to say a fewwords, offers, by the concentration of great operations andlarge establishments, a character entirely different fromthat of the other mining districts of the Zollverein . It isthe only country in Germany where the manufacture ofiron in the English fashion is carried on on a large scale,and it owes this concentration of the iron-works to theexistence of a large coal-field in which the ores of ironare abundant. The conditions so favourable to the pro-duction of the metal possessed by England are repeatedin Silesia ; but the coal in this latter country is not bitu-minous, and yields a coke less fit for the manufacture ofiron than the coal of Staffordshire or Wales . From thisinferiority of the quality of the coal, the same resultobtains in Silesia as in France , namely, that the manu-facture of charcoal-iron proceeds parallel with that ofiron made as in England, so that it is calculated that, ofthe 25,000 tons of bar iron produced in Silesia, as muchas three-fifths are made in charcoal fires.
The production of pig iron is about 40,000 tons (400,000metrical quintals), upwards of a fourth part of that ob-tained throughout the states of the Zollverein , which isestimated by M. Von Goldenberg at about 150,000 tons.We have not had the opportunity of verifying these
figures personally; but it is certain that industrial opera-tions connected with iron have made rapid progress iuSilesia within the last ten years.
The palseozoic rocks of Silesia include valuable depositsof calamine very easily worked, and the quantity fur-nished by this Prussian province is nearly equal to thatproduced in Belgium, M. Gallon, mining engineer, havingestimated it as upwards of 20,000 tons (200,000 metricalquintals). These two countries together possess almosta monopoly of zinc for Europe , the total effect of thewhole quantity produced in England, Germany , andFrance , having but very little influence in the commerceof this metal.
The manufacture of zinc in Silesia, as in Belgium, isfavoured by the abundance of the coal; the quality ofthe fuel not being so important in reducing this metal asin manufacturing cast and wrought iron.
Besides the coal basin of Silesia, the Zollverein alsopossesses other considerable deposits of mineral fuel, oneof which, that of the basin of the Ruhr , is little morethan the prolongation of a vast carboniferous zone tra-versing Belgium, and yielding the same qualities of coal.The following statement, taken from the excellent Re-port by M. Von Goldenberg, on the exhibition whichtook place at Berlin in 1844, represents with sufficientaccuracy the production of coal at that date in the dif-ferent states of the league:—
Basin of the Ruhr in Westphalia ,
„ of the Duchy of Hesse
„ of Silesia ....
„ of Saarebruck and the provinces
the banks of the Rhine
Metrical Tons.. 1 , 000,000
. 150,000
. 50,000
50,000. 800,000
on
700,000
Total yield . . 2,750,000
To complete these notices, we have still to mention thebeds of excellent lignite found principally on the Rhine ,near Merseberg in Saxon Prussia, at Gruneberg in Sile-sia, and at Laasau near Breslau . The quantity of thismaterial worked is estimated at 2,400,000 tous per an-num, and the deposit at Laasau is considered to be themost important of ail, producing at this time 1,200,000tons of a fuel, which serves botli for domestic purposesand for manufactories, and is supposed to be capable ofyielding annually several hundred thousand tons.
The exhibition of mineral wealth from the states ofthe Zollverein, now in the Crystal Palace , does not how-ever correspond with the richness aud variety of themines, the principal districts of which we have just nowimperfectly indicated. We have already stated, at thecommencement of this Report, that the Hartz and Saxony have sent none of their products, and Silesia is indeedthe only province represented in a manner at all cor-responding to the importance of the subject. From thatcountry there are good specimens, both of its iron andzinc works.
In order to follow more conveniently the enumerationof those objects that have been noticed by the Jury, wewill group together those of the same nature, althoughthey are not all rewarded in the same manner. We areindebted for most of the observations that will appear inthis part of the Report to notes with which we have beenfurnished by Mr. Schreiber, member of our Jury from theZollverein , and we shall begin by recapitulating the twoexhibitors who have obtained the Council Medal.
The first of these Council Medals was granted to Mr.W. Guettler (6, p. 1048), of Reichenstein, in Silesia,and Professor Plattner, of Freiburg , for the process ofseparating gold from arsenical pyrites. This process,amply illustrated by the series numbered 6 in the Cata-logue, has admitted of the profitable re-opening of theauriferous mines of Reichenstein.
Tiie second is to Mr. Krupp, of Essen , for fine speci-mens of steel (649 and 677, pp. 1086, 1087), manufac-tured by a process peculiar to him.
The Jury have awarded two Prize Medals and threeHonourable Mentions for this part of the Exhibition.The following have Prize Medals:—