The life of a silver mine in the 16th century, according to Heinrich Groff
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The foundry and refining[Print 24]
The last operation that the ore undergoes is the melting. The charcoal, brought in baskets, feed the melting furnace (zoom 1) (on the left) and the refining furnace (zoom 2) (on the right). The two bellows are operated by a hydraulic wheel. The reduction (melting of ore at high temperature) in the melting furnace frees the very impure melted lead, which seeps to the front where the miner "skims" the slag. This melted ore is then sent to the refining furnace where the intense heat and oxidization cause a reaction called "coupellation".
