in the mines

   A " grande école", one of France's prestigious engineering schools, founded by King Louis XVI in 1783; originally specialising in mines, it today trains experts in various fields of civil engineering. Its full name is the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris. See Higher Education in France

mine¹ [min]

( = physionomie) expression

• ... dit-il, la mine réjouie... he said with a cheerful expression on his face

• ne fais pas cette mine-là stop making that face

• tu as bonne mine you're looking well

• ton rôti a bonne mine your roast looks good

• tu as bonne mine maintenant ! now you look a complete idiot!

• il a mauvaise mine he doesn't look well

• avoir une sale mine (inf) to look awful (inf)

• il a meilleure mine qu'hier he looks better than he did yesterday

• tu as une mine superbe you look wonderful

► faire mine de to pretend to

• faire mine de faire qch to pretend to do sth

• j'ai fait mine de le croire I pretended to believe it

• j'ai fait mine de lui donner une gifle I made as if to slap him► mine de rien (inf)

il est venu nous demander comment ça marchait, mine de rien he came and asked us all casually (inf) how things were going

• mine de rien, il n'est pas bête you wouldn't think it to look at him but he's no fool (inf)

• mine de rien, ça nous a coûté 1 500 € believe it or not it cost us 1,500 euros

mine² [min]

1. feminine noun

   a. ( = gisement) mine

• mine d'or gold mine

• région de mines mining area

• travailler à la mine to work in the mines

   b. ( = source) [de renseignements] mine

• une mine inépuisable de documents an inexhaustible source of documents

• cette bibliothèque est une vraie mine this library is a real treasure trove

   c. [de crayon] lead

• mine de plomb graphite

   d. ( = explosif) mine

2. compounds

► mine de charbon coal mine

► mine à ciel ouvert opencast mine

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1) ( expression) expression; ( aspect) look

2) ( apparence)

3) ( pour dessiner) lead

4) ( gisement) mine

5) ( source) source

6) Armée mine

mines nom féminin pluriel ( minauderies) simpering [U]

- mine de crayon

- mine de plomb

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1. nf

1) (= physionomie) expression, look

2) (apparence) [personne] appearance

3) [crayon] lead

4) (= gisement, exploitation) mine

5) (= explosif) mine

6) (autres locutions)

2. mines nfpl

péjoratif simpering

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mine

A nf

1 ( expression) expression; ( aspect) look; avoir la mine boudeuse to have a sulky expression, to look sulky; faire triste mine to have a gloomy expression, to look gloomy; tu en fais une mine! why are you looking like that?; ne fais pas cette mine! don't look like that!; sous sa mine aimable, c'est quelqu'un de très dur beneath his/her pleasant exterior, he/she is very hard; juger les gens sur leur mine to judge people by appearances; faire mine d'accepter/de ne pas comprendre to pretend to accept/not to understand; faire mine de partir/frapper to make as if to go/to hit; elle nous a dit, mine de rien○, que she told us, casually, that; il est doué, mine de rien○ it may not be obvious, but he's very clever; mine de rien○, elle arrive toujours à ses fins without being obvious about it, she always gets her way; elle a raison, mine de rien○ she's right, you know;

2 ( apparence) avoir mauvaise mine to look a bit off-colour^GB; avoir une sale○ or petite mine to look a bit off-colour^GB; avoir une mine resplendissante to be glowing with health; avoir une mine de papier mâché to look washed out; avoir bonne mine [personne] to look well; [tarte, rôti] to look appetizing; j'aurais bonne mine! iron I would look really stupid!;

3 ( pour dessiner) lead; crayon à mine dure/grasse hard/soft pencil;

4 Mines gén mine; ( de charbon) gén colliery GB, mine; ( puits) pit GB, mine; mine à ciel ouvert opencast mine; travailler à la mine to be a miner, to work in a mine; l 'exploitation des mines mining; une région de mines a coal-mining area; mine d'or lit, fig gold mine;

5 ( source) source; mine d'informations fig mine of information; une mine d'adresses utiles a source of useful addresses;

6 Mil mine; sauter sur une mine to be blown up by a mine; mine terrestre land mine; mine antichar/antipersonnel antitank/antipersonnel mine.

B mines nfpl

1 ( minauderies) simpering ¢; faire des mines to simper;

2 Admin les Mines official body responsible for regulating weights and measures and changes made to motor vehicles; ⇒ école.

mine de crayon lead; mine de plomb graphite ¢.

ne pas payer de mine○ not to look anything special○.

[min] nom féminin

1. [apparence] appearance, exterior

2. [teint]

[visage, contenance] look, countenance (littéraire)

3. GÉOLOGIE deposit

[installations - de surface] pithead ; [ - en sous-sol] pit

4. [source importante]

5. [d'un crayon] lead

6. MILITAIRE [galerie] mine, gallery, sap

[explosif] mine

7. [explosif]

ouvrir une roche à coups de mine to blast a rock

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mines nom féminin pluriel

1. [manières]

2. GÉOGRAPHIE mining area, mines

a. ADMINISTRATION ≃ the Department of Transport (UK), ≃ the Department of the Interior (US)

b. ÉDUCATION the (French) School of Mining Engineers

   Deposits of the mineral wolfram or tungsten ore are found in central and northern Portugal. Essential for the war industry, for hardening steel in aircraft, tanks, small arms, artillery, and ammunition, wolfram played an unexpectedly important part in Portugal's economy and society during World War II when the belligerents sought large supplies of it. Nazi Germany had its principal supplies of wolfram in Asia, until its invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 cut off these supply routes. Thereafter, Germany sought to acquire wolfram in Spain and Portugal, which between them possessed the largest wolfram deposits in Europe.

   Wolfram had been mined in Portugal since 1900, in the mountainous Beira Alta province. As of 3 September 1939, when Portugal declared its neutrality, most of the wolfram mines were owned by British and American firms, but the post-1941 wartime demand for it had an impact on Portugal's economy, finance, and neutrality. Although the Allies could obtain most of their tungsten ore in North America, Germany came to depend on exports from wolfram mines in Portugal and Spain. To obtain more wolfram supplies, Germany arranged to purchase wolfram mines, as well as to purchase and import wolfram from mines owned by Portuguese investors. To thwart the German wolfram program, the British and Americans launched an extensive wolfram preemption program that cost more than $US1 billion during the period from 1942 to 1944.

   The booming wolfram industry had a significant, if brief, impact on the poor, rural regions where the mines were located, and there was increased income and employment. Wolfram revenues for Portugal also affected its position as a debtor to ally Britain and, by the end of the war, Britain owed Portugal more than 90 million pounds for war-related products and services. After the war, this windfall enabled Portugal to upgrade its merchant marine fleet. Complex diplomatic negotiations between Portugal and both sets of belligerents ensued, and "the wolfram question" represented a foreign policy nightmare for Prime Minister Antônio de Oliveira Salazar. On 6 June 1944, Salazar came to a controversial decision about wolfram. In what was hoped to be perceived as an even-handed new policy, to satisfy both the Allies and the Axis, Portugal decreed a halt to the wolfram industry for the remainder of the war. Thus, within a few weeks, the wolfram mines were closed, and all mining, sales, and export of the mineral ceased. It was not until the 1950s that wolfram mines reopened. However, the industry gradually declined and, at present, wolfram mining and production is relatively small.

    See also Foreign policy.

SUBJECT AREA: Mining and extraction technology

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Huntingdon Beaumont was a younger son of a landed family whose estates included coal-mines at Coleorton and Bedworth. From these, no doubt, originated his great expertise in coal-mining and mine management. His subsequent story is a complex one of speculation in coal mines: agreements, partnerships, and debts, and, in trying to extricate himself from the last, attempts to improve profitability, and ever-greater enterprises. He leased mines in 1601 at Wollaton, near Nottingham, and in 1603 at Strelley, which adjoins Wollaton but is further from Nottingham, where lay the market for coal. To reduce the transport cost of Strelley coal, Beaumont laid a wooden wagonway for two miles or so to Wollaton Lane End, the point at which the coal was customarily sold. In earlier times wooden railways had probably been used in mines, following practice on the European continent, but Beaumont's was the first on the surface in Britain. The market for coal in Nottingham being limited, Beaumont, with partners, attempted to send coal to London by water, but the difficult navigation of the Trent at this period made the venture uneconomic. With a view still to supplying London, c.1605 they took leases of mines near Blyth, north of Newcastle upon Tyne. Here too Beaumont built wagonways, to convey coal to the coast, but despite considerable expenditure the mines could not be made economic and Beaumont returned to Strelley. Although he worked the mine night and day, he was unable to meet the demands of his creditors, who eventually had him imprisoned for debt. He died in gaol.

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f; -, -n

1. BERGB. mine

2. MIL., NAUT. mine; Minen legen lay mines; auf eine Mine laufen hit a mine

3. eines Bleistifts: lead; eines Kugelschreibers: cartridge; (Ersatzmine) refill

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(Bergwerk) mine;

(Bleistift) lead;

(Kugelschreiber) refill;

(Sprengkörper) mine

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f -, -n

1) (MIN) mine

2) (MIL) mine

3) (= Bleistiftmine) lead; (= Kugelschreibermine, Filzstiftmine) reservoir; (= Farbmine) cartridge; (austauschbar) refill

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1) (the part of a pencil that leaves a mark: The lead of my pencil has broken.) lead

2) (a place (usually underground) from which metals, coal, salt etc are dug: a coalmine; My father worked in the mines.) mine

3) (a type of bomb used underwater or placed just beneath the surface of the ground: The ship has been blown up by a mine.) mine

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1. (für einen Bleistift) lead no pl; (für einen Filz-, Kugelschreiber) refill

2. (Sprengkörper) mine

auf eine \Mine laufen to strike [or hit] a mine

3. (Bergwerk) mine

in die \Minen geschickt werden to be sent down the mines

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1) (Erzbergwerk) mine

2) (Sprengkörper) mine

3) (BleistiftMine) lead; (KugelschreiberMine, FilzschreiberMine) refill

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Mine f; -, -n

1. BERGB mine

2. MIL, SCHIFF mine;

Minen legen lay mines;

auf eine Mine laufen hit a mine

3. eines Bleistifts: lead; eines Kugelschreibers: cartridge; (Ersatzmine) refill

* * *

1) (Erzbergwerk) mine

2) (Sprengkörper) mine

3) (BleistiftMine) lead; (KugelschreiberMine, FilzschreiberMine) refill

SUBJECT AREA: Mining and extraction technology

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He was the eldest son of Wolf Christopher Polhamma, a merchant. The father died in 1669 and the son was sent by his stepfather to an uncle in Stockholm who found him a place in the Deutsche Rechenschule. After the death of his uncle, he was forced to find employment, which he did with the Biorenklou family near Uppsala where he eventually became a kind of estate bailiff. It was during this period that he started to work with a lathe, a forge and at carpentry, displaying great technical ability. He realized that without further education he had little chance of making anything of his life, and accordingly, in 1687, he registered at the University of Uppsala where he studied astronomy and mathematics, remaining there for three years. He also repaired two astronomical pendulum clocks as well as the decrepit medieval clock in the cathedral. After a year's work he had this clock running properly: this was his breakthrough. He was summoned to Stockholm where the King awarded him a salary of 500 dalers a year as an encouragement to further efforts. Around this time, one of increasing mechanization and when mining was Sweden's principal industry, Pohlem made a model of a hoist frame for mines and the Mines Authority encouraged him to develop his ideas. In 1693 Polhem completed the Blankstot hoist at the Stora Kopparberg mine, which attracted great interest on the European continent.

From 1694 to 1696 Polhem toured factories, mills and mines abroad in Germany, Holland, England and France, studying machinery of all kinds and meeting many foreign engineers. In 1698 he was appointed Director of Mining Engineering in Sweden, and in 1700 he became Master of Construction in the Falu Mine. He installed the Karl XII hoist there, powered by moving beams from a distant water-wheel. His plan of 1697 for all the machinery at the Falu mine to be driven by three large and remote water-wheels was never completed.

In 1707 he was invited by the Elector of Hanover to visit the mines in the Harz district, where he successfully explained many of his ideas which were adopted by the local engineers. In 1700, in conjunction with Gabriel Stierncrona, he founded the Stiersunds Bruk at Husby in Southern Dalarna, a factory for the mass production of metal goods in iron, steel and bronze. Simple articles such as pans, trays, bowls, knives, scissors and mirrors were made there, together with the more sophisticated Polhem lock and the Stiersunds clock. Production was based on water power. Gear cutting for the clocks, shaping hammers for plates, file cutting and many other operations were all water powered, as was a roller mill for the sheet metal used in the factory. He also designed textile machinery such as stocking looms and spinning frames and machines for the manufacture of ribbons and other things.

In many of his ideas Polhem was in advance of his time and Swedish country society was unable to absorb them. This was largely the reason for the Stiersund project being only a partial success. Polhem, too, was of a disputatious nature, self-opinionated almost to the point of conceit. He was a prolific writer, leaving over 20,000 pages of manuscript notes, drafts, essays on a wide range of subjects, which included building, brick-making, barrels, wheel-making, bell-casting, organ-building, methods of stopping a horse from bolting and a curious tap "to prevent serving maids from sneaking wine from the cask", the construction of ploughs and threshing machines. His major work, Kort Berattelse om de Fornamsta Mechaniska Inventioner (A Brief Account of the Most Famous Inventions), was printed in 1729 and is the main source of knowledge about his technological work. He is also known for his "mechanical alphabet", a collection of some eighty wooden models of mechanisms for educational purposes. It is in the National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm.

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SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy

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Agricola was a physician, scientist and metallurgist of note and it was this which led to the publication of De Re Metallica. He studied at Leipzig University and between 1518 and 1522 he was a school teacher in Zwickau. Eventually he settled as a physician in Chemnitz. Later he continued his medical practice at Joachimstal in the Erzgebirge. This town was newly built to serve the mining community in what was at the time the most important ore-mining field in both Germany and Europe.

As a physician in the sixteenth century he would naturally have been concerned with the development of medicines, which would have led him to research the medical properties of ores and base metals. He studied the mineralogy of his area, and the mines, and the miners who were working there. He wrote several books in Latin on geology and mineralogy. His important work during that period was a glossary of mineralogical and mining terms in both Latin and German. It is, however, De Re Metallica for which he is best known. This large volume contains twelve books which deal with mining and metallurgy, including an account of glassmaking. Whilst one can understand the text of this book very easily, the quality of the illustrative woodcuts should not be neglected. These illustrations detail the mines, furnaces, forges and the plant associated with them, unfortunately the name of the artist is unknown. The importance of the work lies in the fact that it is an assemblage of information on all the methods and practices current at that time. The book was clearly intended as a textbook of mining and mineralogy and as such it would have been brought to England by German engineers when they were employed by the Mines Royal in the Keswick area in the late sixteenth century. In addition to his studies in preparation for De Re Metallica, Agricola was an "adventurer" holding shares in the Gottesgab mine in the Erzegebirge.

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SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping, Public utilities, Weapons and armour

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The only son of a corn merchant, Alderman William Armstrong, he was educated at private schools in Newcastle and at Bishop Auckland Grammar School. He then became an articled clerk in the office of Armorer Donkin, a solicitor and a friend of his father. During a fishing trip he saw a water-wheel driven by an open stream to work a marble-cutting machine. He felt that its efficiency would be improved by introducing the water to the wheel in a pipe. He developed an interest in hydraulics and in electricity, and became a popular lecturer on these subjects. From 1838 he became friendly with Henry Watson of the High Bridge Works, Newcastle, and for six years he visited the Works almost daily, studying turret clocks, telescopes, papermaking machinery, surveying instruments and other equipment being produced. There he had built his first hydraulic machine, which generated 5 hp when run off the Newcastle town water-mains. He then designed and made a working model of a hydraulic crane, but it created little interest. In 1845, after he had served this rather unconventional apprenticeship at High Bridge Works, he was appointed Secretary of the newly formed Whittle Dene Water Company. The same year he proposed to the town council of Newcastle the conversion of one of the quayside cranes to his hydraulic operation which, if successful, should also be applied to a further four cranes. This was done by the Newcastle Cranage Company at High Bridge Works. In 1847 he gave up law and formed W.G.Armstrong \& Co. to manufacture hydraulic machinery in a works at Elswick. Orders for cranes, hoists, dock gates and bridges were obtained from mines; docks and railways.

Early in the Crimean War, the War Office asked him to design and make submarine mines to blow up ships that were sunk by the Russians to block the entrance to Sevastopol harbour. The mines were never used, but this set him thinking about military affairs and brought him many useful contacts at the War Office. Learning that two eighteen-pounder British guns had silenced a whole Russian battery but were too heavy to move over rough ground, he carried out a thorough investigation and proposed light field guns with rifled barrels to fire elongated lead projectiles rather than cast-iron balls. He delivered his first gun in 1855; it was built of a steel core and wound-iron wire jacket. The barrel was multi-grooved and the gun weighed a quarter of a ton and could fire a 3 lb (1.4 kg) projectile. This was considered too light and was sent back to the factory to be rebored to take a 5 lb (2.3 kg) shot. The gun was a complete success and Armstrong was then asked to design and produce an equally successful eighteen-pounder. In 1859 he was appointed Engineer of Rifled Ordnance and was knighted. However, there was considerable opposition from the notably conservative officers of the Army who resented the intrusion of this civilian engineer in their affairs. In 1862, contracts with the Elswick Ordnance Company were terminated, and the Government rejected breech-loading and went back to muzzle-loading. Armstrong resigned and concentrated on foreign sales, which were successful worldwide.

The search for a suitable proving ground for a 12-ton gun led to an interest in shipbuilding at Elswick from 1868. This necessitated the replacement of an earlier stone bridge with the hydraulically operated Tyne Swing Bridge, which weighed some 1450 tons and allowed a clear passage for shipping. Hydraulic equipment on warships became more complex and increasing quantities of it were made at the Elswick works, which also flourished with the reintroduction of the breech-loader in 1878. In 1884 an open-hearth acid steelworks was added to the Elswick facilities. In 1897 the firm merged with Sir Joseph Whitworth \& Co. to become Sir W.G.Armstrong Whitworth \& Co. After Armstrong's death a further merger with Vickers Ltd formed Vickers Armstrong Ltd.

In 1879 Armstrong took a great interest in Joseph Swan's invention of the incandescent electric light-bulb. He was one of those who formed the Swan Electric Light Company, opening a factory at South Benwell to make the bulbs. At Cragside, his mansion at Roth bury, he installed a water turbine and generator, making it one of the first houses in England to be lit by electricity.

Armstrong was a noted philanthropist, building houses for his workforce, and endowing schools, hospitals and parks. His last act of charity was to purchase Bamburgh Castle, Northumbria, in 1894, intending to turn it into a hospital or a convalescent home, but he did not live long enough to complete the work.

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SUBJECT AREA: Land transport, Railways and locomotives, Steam and internal combustion engines

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Trevithick's father was a tin-mine manager, and Trevithick himself, after limited formal education, developed his immense engineering talent among local mining machinery and steam-engines and found employment as a mining engineer. Tall, strong and high-spirited, he was the eternal optimist.

About 1797 it occurred to him that the separate condenser patent of James Watt could be avoided by employing "strong steam", that is steam at pressures substantially greater than atmospheric, to drive steam-engines: after use, steam could be exhausted to the atmosphere and the condenser eliminated. His first winding engine on this principle came into use in 1799, and subsequently such engines were widely used. To produce high-pressure steam, a stronger boiler was needed than the boilers then in use, in which the pressure vessel was mounted upon masonry above the fire: Trevithick designed the cylindrical boiler, with furnace tube within, from which the Cornish and later the Lancashire boilers evolved.

Simultaneously he realized that high-pressure steam enabled a compact steam-engine/boiler unit to be built: typically, the Trevithick engine comprised a cylindrical boiler with return firetube, and a cylinder recessed into the boiler. No beam intervened between connecting rod and crank. A master patent was taken out.

Such an engine was well suited to driving vehicles. Trevithick built his first steam-carriage in 1801, but after a few days' use it overturned on a rough Cornish road and was damaged beyond repair by fire. Nevertheless, it had been the first self-propelled vehicle successfully to carry passengers. His second steam-carriage was driven about the streets of London in 1803, even more successfully; however, it aroused no commercial interest. Meanwhile the Coalbrookdale Company had started to build a locomotive incorporating a Trevithick engine for its tramroads, though little is known of the outcome; however, Samuel Homfray's ironworks at Penydarren, South Wales, was already building engines to Trevithick's design, and in 1804 Trevithick built one there as a locomotive for the Penydarren Tramroad. In this, and in the London steam-carriage, exhaust steam was turned up the chimney to draw the fire. On 21 February the locomotive hauled five wagons with 10 tons of iron and seventy men for 9 miles (14 km): it was the first successful railway locomotive.

Again, there was no commercial interest, although Trevithick now had nearly fifty stationary engines completed or being built to his design under licence. He experimented with one to power a barge on the Severn and used one to power a dredger on the Thames. He became Engineer to a project to drive a tunnel beneath the Thames at Rotherhithe and was only narrowly defeated, by quicksands. Trevithick then set up, in 1808, a circular tramroad track in London and upon it demonstrated to the admission-fee-paying public the locomotive Catch me who can, built to his design by John Hazledine and J.U. Rastrick.

In 1809, by which date Trevithick had sold all his interest in the steam-engine patent, he and Robert Dickinson, in partnership, obtained a patent for iron tanks to hold liquid cargo in ships, replacing the wooden casks then used, and started to manufacture them. In 1810, however, he was taken seriously ill with typhus for six months and had to return to Cornwall, and early in 1811 the partners were bankrupt; Trevithick was discharged from bankruptcy only in 1814.

In the meantime he continued as a steam engineer and produced a single-acting steam engine in which the cut-off could be varied to work the engine expansively by way of a three-way cock actuated by a cam. Then, in 1813, Trevithick was approached by a representative of a company set up to drain the rich but flooded silver-mines at Cerro de Pasco, Peru, at an altitude of 14,000 ft (4,300 m). Low-pressure steam engines, dependent largely upon atmospheric pressure, would not work at such an altitude, but Trevithick's high-pressure engines would. Nine engines and much other mining plant were built by Hazledine and Rastrick and despatched to Peru in 1814, and Trevithick himself followed two years later. However, the war of independence was taking place in Peru, then a Spanish colony, and no sooner had Trevithick, after immense difficulties, put everything in order at the mines then rebels arrived and broke up the machinery, for they saw the mines as a source of supply for the Spanish forces. It was only after innumerable further adventures, during which he encountered and was assisted financially by Robert Stephenson, that Trevithick eventually arrived home in Cornwall in 1827, penniless.

He petitioned Parliament for a grant in recognition of his improvements to steam-engines and boilers, without success. He was as inventive as ever though: he proposed a hydraulic power transmission system; he was consulted over steam engines for land drainage in Holland; and he suggested a 1,000 ft (305 m) high tower of gilded cast iron to commemorate the Reform Act of 1832. While working on steam propulsion of ships in 1833, he caught pneumonia, from which he died.

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See also: Blenkinsop, John

SUBJECT AREA: Mining and extraction technology

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After leaving Durham college of Physical Science and having been apprenticed in different mines, he received the certificate for colliery managers and subsequently, in 1887, was appointed Manager of all the mines of Charlaw and Sacriston collieries in Durham. He remained in this position for the rest of his working life.

Frequent explosions in mines led him to investigate the causes. He was among the first to recognize the role contributed by coal-dust on mine roads, pioneered the use of inert rock-or stone-dust to render the coal-dust harmless and was the originator of many technical terms on the subject. He contributed many papers on explosion and was appointed a member of many advisory committees on prevention measures. A liquid-air rescue apparatus, designed by him and patented in 1910, was installed in various parts of the country.

Blackett also developed various new devices in mining machinery. He patented a wire-rope socket which made use of a metal wedge; invented a rotary tippler driven by frictional contact instead of gearing and which stopped automatically; and he designed a revolving cylindrical coal-washer, which also gained interest among German mining engineers. His most important invention, the first successful coal-face conveyor, was patented in 1902. It was driven by compressed air and consisted of a trough running along the length of the race through which ran an endless scraper chain. Thus fillers cast the coal into the trough, and the scraper chain drew it to the main gate to be loaded into trams.

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SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy, Mining and extraction technology

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Educated at Wittenberg University during 1547–8, Ercker obtained in 1554, through one of his wife's relatives, the post of Assayer from the Elector Augustus at Dresden. From then on he took a succession of posts in mining and metallurgy. In 1555 he was Chief Consultant and Supervisor of all matters relating to mines, but for some unknown reason was demoted to Warden of the Mint at Annaberg. In 1558 he travelled to the Tyrol to study the mines in that region, and in the same year Prince Henry of Brunswick appointed him Warden, then Master, of the Mint at Goslar. Ercker later moved to Prague where, through another of his wife's relatives, he was appointed Control Tester at Kutna Hora. It was there that he wrote his best-known book, Die Beschreibung allfürnemisten mineralischen Ertz, which drew him to the attention of the Emperor Maximilian, who made him Courier for Mining and a clerk of the Supreme Court of Bohemia. The next Emperor, Rudolf II, a noted patron of science and alchemy, promoted Ercker to Chief Inspector of Mines and ennobled him in 1586 with the title Von Schreckenfels'. His second wife managed the mint at Kutna Hora and his two sons became assayers. These appointments gained him much experience of the extraction and refining of metals. This first bore fruit in a book on assaying, Probierbüchlein, printed in 1556, followed by one on minting, Münzbuch, in 1563. His main work, Die Beschreibung, was a systematic review of the methods of obtaining, refining and testing the alloys and minerals of gold, silver, copper, antimony, mercury and lead. The preparation of acids, salts and other compounds is also covered, and his apparatus is fully described and illustrated. Although Ercker used Agricola's De re metattica as a model, his own work was securely based on his practical experience. Die Beschreibung was the first manual of analytical and metallurgical chemistry and influenced later writers such as Glauber on assaying. After the first edition in Prague came four further editions in Frankfurt-am-Main.

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Grammatical information: n.

Meaning: `mine, quarry' (Hdt., Th., X., Att. inscr.), late also `mineral, metal' (Nonn., AP, backformation from μεταλλεύω).

Compounds: As 1. member in μεταλλ-ουργός `miner' with - έω, - εῖον (D.S., Dsc.).

Derivatives: 1. μεταλλεῖα n. pl. `minerals, metals' (Pl. Lg. 678 d), substantiv. of *μεταλλεῖος `belonging to a mine'. 2. μεταλλικός `belonging to the mines' (D., Arist.). 3. μεταλλεύς m. `miner' (Lys., Pl. Lg., Att. inscr.; Boßhardt 60f.); from there, or from μέταλλον, 4. μεταλλεύω `be miner, work in the mines, dig up from quarries' (Pl., LXX, Arist.) with μεταλλ-εία (Pl., Str.), - ευσις (Ph. Bel.) `mining', - ευτής = μεταλλεύς (Str.; Fraenkel Nom. ag. 2, 63 f.), - ευτικός `belonging to mining' (Pl. Lg., Arist., pap.). 5. μεταλλίζομαι `be condemned to the mines' ( Cod. Just.). 6. μεταλλῖτις γῆ τις H. (Redard 108). -- On itself stands μεταλλάω `investigate, inquire, examine' (Il., late prose), cf. below.

Origin: PG [a word of Pre-Greek origin]

Etymology: Technical term for mining and as such suspect to be a loan. The attempt to explain μέταλλον from μεταλλάω as backformation (Eichhorn, De graecae linguae nominibus deriv. retrogr. conformatis. Diss. Göttingen 1912, S. 47 f.; rejected by Kretschmer Glotta 6, 299, but accepted by id. Glotta 32, 1 n. 1), does not help, as for the verb no convincing etymology has been found; the explanation from μετ' ἄλλα, prop. "(inquire) after other (things)", e.g. Buttmann Lexilogus 1, 139 f. (with Eust.), Kretschmer l.c., is hardly convincing. Much more probable is, to see in the denominative μεταλλάω an orig. tecnical term, which was by ep. poets used in metaph. sense, but further came out of use. -- For foreign origin a. o. Debrunner Eberts Reallex. 4: 2,525, Krahe Die Antike 15, 181, Kretschmer Glotta 31, 13; on Pre-Greek - αλλ- Beekes, FS Kortlandt. Vain IE a. Sem. interpretations in Bq. -- Lat. LW [loanword] metallum `mining, metal', from where NHG Metall etc.; on further derivv. in western and eastern languages Maidhof Glotta 10, 14 f.

Page in Frisk: 2,216-217

f mine ( also fig)

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miniera s.f.

1 mine; pit: miniera di carbone, coalmine (o coal-pit o colliery); miniera di rame, copper mine; miniera d'oro, goldmine; (fig.) money-spinner; scoprire una miniera d'oro, to discover a goldmine; miniera a cielo aperto, (open) pit; miniera in sotterraneo, underground mine; sfruttare una miniera, to work a mine; scendere in miniera, to go down the pit; lavorare in miniera, to work in the mines // pozzo di miniera, mine shaft

2 (fig.) mine: una miniera d'informazioni, a mine of information; un attore che è una miniera di barzellette, an actor who has an endless supply of jokes.

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sostantivo femminile

1) (giacimento) mine, pit

2) fig. (fonte) mine

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miniera

/mi'njεra/

sostantivo f.

 1 (giacimento) mine, pit; lavorare in miniera to work in o down the mines, to work at the pit

 2 fig. (fonte) mine; una miniera di informazioni a mine o treasure house of information

COMPOUNDS

miniera di carbone coalmine, coal pit, colliery; miniera a cielo aperto opencast mine; miniera d'oro gold mine (anche fig.).

•

1. noun

1) a place ( usually underground) from which metals, coal, salt etc are dug:

2) a type of bomb used underwater or placed just beneath the surface of the ground:

2. verb

1) to dig (for metals etc) in a mine:

2) to place explosive mines in:

3) to blow up with mines:

SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping

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Symington was the son of the Superintendent of the Mines Company in Lanarkshire, and attended the local school. When he was 22 years old he was sent by Gilbert Meason, Manager of the Wanlockhead mines, to Edinburgh University. In 1779 he was working on the assembly of a Watt engine as an apprentice to his brother, George, and in 1786 he started experiments to modify a Watt engine in order to avoid infringing the separate condenser patent. He sought a patent for his alternative, which was paid for by Meason. He constructed a model steam road carriage which was completed in 1786; it was shown in Edinburgh by Meason, attracting interest but inadequate financial support. It had a horizontal cylinder and was non-condensing. No full-sized engine was ever built but the model secured the interest of Patrick Miller, an Edinburgh banker, who ordered an engine from Symington to drive an experimental boat, 25 ft (7.6 m) long with a dual hull, which performed satisfactorily on Dalswinton Loch in 1788. In the following year Miller ordered a larger engine for a bigger boat which was tried on the Forth \& Clyde Canal in December 1789, the component parts having been made by the Carron Company. The engine worked perfectly but had the effect of breaking the paddle wheels. These were repaired and further trials were successful but Miller lost interest and his experiments lapsed. Symington devoted himself thereafter to building stationary engines. He built other engines for mine pumping at Sanquhar and Leadhills before going further afield. In all, he built over thirty engines, about half of them being rotary. In 1800–1 he designed the engine for a boat for Lord Dundas, the Charlotte Dundas; this was apparently the first boat of that name and sailed on both the Forth and Clyde rivers. A second Charlotte Dundas with a horizontal cylinder was to follow and first sailed in January 1803 for the Forth \& Clyde Canal Company. The speed of the boat was only 2 mph (3 km/h) and much was made by its detractors of the damage said to be caused to the canal banks by its wash. Lord Dundas declined to authorize payment of outstanding accounts; Symington received little reward for his efforts. He died in the house of his son-in-law, Dr Robert Bowie, in Wapping, amidst heated controversy about the true inventor of steam navigation.

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