Ruina montium
Ruina montium (Latin for "wrecking of mountains") was a mining technique in Ancient Rome described by Pliny the Elder,[1] who served as procurator in Spain.[2][3] It is thought to draw on the principle of Pascal's barrel.[4] Miners would excavate narrow cavities down into a mountain, whereby filling the cavities with water would cause pressures large enough to fragment thick rock walls.[5][6][7]
Pliny described the process as follows:
Gold in our part of the world...is obtained in three ways: in the detritus of rivers, .... Another method is by sinking shafts; or it is sought for in the fallen débris of mountains [aut in ruina montium quaeritur].[8]
...
The third method will have outdone the achievements of the Giants. By means of galleries driven for long distances the mountains are mined by the light of lamps—the spells of work are also measured by lamps, and the miners do not see daylight for many months.
The name for this class of mines is arrugiae; also cracks give way suddenly and crush the men who have been at work, so that it actually seems less venturesome to try to get pearls and purple-fishes out of the depth of the sea: so much more dangerous have we made the earth![9]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Natural History 33.21
- ^ Pliny the Elder (1857) with John Bostock and H. T. Riley, trans., The Natural History of Pliny (London, England: Henry G. Bohn), vol. 6, Book 33, Ch. 21, pp. 101–104.
- ^ Healy, John F. (1999). Pliny the Elder on Science and Technology. Oxford University Press. pp. 275–290. ISBN 978-0-19-814687-2.
- ^ Ancient Engineers' Inventions: Precursors of the Present (Springer, 2009), p. 135.
- ^ Rossi, Cesare; Russo, Flavio; Russo, Russo (2009). Ancient Engineers' Inventions. Vol. 8. Springer. pp. 133–141. ISBN 978-90-481-2252-3.
- ^ Rossi, Cesare; Russo, Flavio (26 August 2016). Ancient Engineers' Inventions: Precursors of the Present. Springer. pp. 185–192. ISBN 978-3-319-44476-5.
- ^ Hirt, Alfred Michael (25 March 2010). Imperial Mines and Quarries in the Roman World: Organizational Aspects 27 BC-AD 235. Oxford University Press. pp. 32–45. ISBN 978-0-19-957287-8.
- ^ Pliny the Elder (1938). Natural History. Translated by Rackham, H. XXXIII: 66.
- ^ Pliny the Elder (1938). Natural History. Translated by Rackham, H. XXXIII: 70.
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