Quicksilver, or mercury, is the only metal which remains liquid at
ordinary temperatures. It is white and very brilliant, as may be seen in
common thermometers. It boils at six hundred and sixty degrees of heat;
and freezes, and assumes a crystalline texture, at forty degrees below
zero. It is extensively used in its various forms in the arts, and also
for medicinal purposes. The thermometer and barometer illustrate some of
its uses in its pure state; the backs of our common mirrors are covered
with it, which gives them their reflecting power; it is used extensively
in separating some of the purer metals from the mixtures with which they
are found; and in some of its forms or combinations, it is the basis of
calomel, corrosive sublimate, vermilion, &c.
Mercury is found in various parts of the world. Among its principal
mines are those of Almaden, near Cordova, in Spain, and of Idria, near
Carniola, in Austria; though it is also found in Peru, California, Italy
and China. Formerly most of the quicksilver came from Germany; but more
recently the largest production is probably in Spain. So extensively is
it used, that in 1831, over three hundred thousand pounds were brought
from the continent into England; and for the fourteen years ending in
1828, the imports of it into Canton, by the English and Americans,
averaged nearly six hundred and fifty thousand pounds a year, worth some
three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Of all the quicksilver mines, those of Idria, mentioned above, are some
of the most interesting, and demand a particular description, as they
have been celebrated in natural history, poetry and romance. The ban of
Idria, is a district of Austria, lying west of Carniola. The town, which
is small, is seated in a deep valley, amid high mountains, on the river
of the same name, and at the bottom of so steep a descent, that its
approach is a task of great difficulty, and sometimes of danger.
The mines were discovered in 1497, before which time that part of the
country was inhabited by a few coopers only, and other artificers in
wood, with which the territory abounds. One evening, a cooper having
placed a new tub under a dropping spring, to try if it would hold water,
on returning the next morning, found it so heavy that he could scarcely
move it. He at first was led by his superstition to suspect that the tub
was bewitched; but spying, at length, a shining fluid at the bottom,
with the nature of which he was unacquainted, he collected it, and
proceeded to an apothecary at Laubach, who, being an artful man,
dismissed him with a small recompense, requesting that he would not fail
to bring him further supplies. From this small beginning, the product of
these mines has steadily increased; and now might easily be made six
hundred tuns per year, though to uphold the price of the metal, the
Austrian government has restricted the annual production to one hundred
and fifty tuns. In 1803, a disastrous fire took place in these mines,
which was extinguished only by drowning all the underground workings.
The mercury, sublimed by the heat in this catastrophe, occasioned
diseases and nervous tremblings in more than nine hundred persons in the
neighborhood.
The subterraneous passages of the great mine are so extensive, that it
would require several hours to pass through them. The greatest
perpendicular depth, computing from the entrance of the shaft, is eight
hundred and forty feet; but as these passages advance horizontally,
under a high mountain, the depth would be much greater if the measure
were taken from the surface. One mode of descending the shaft is by a
bucket, but as the entrance is narrow, the bucket is liable to strike
against the sides, or to be stopped by some obstacle, so that it may be
readily overset. A second mode of descending, which is safer, is by
means of a great number of ladders, placed obliquely, in a kind of
zigzag: as the ladders, however, are wet and narrow, a person must be
very cautious how he steps, to prevent his falling. In the course of the
descent, there are several resting-places, which are extremely welcome
to the wearied traveler. In some of the subterraneous passages, the heat
is so intense as to occasion a profuse sweat; and in several of the
shafts the air was formerly so confined, that several miners were
suffocated by an igneous vapor, or gaseous exhalation, called the
fire-damp. This has been prevented by sinking the main shaft deeper.
Near to it is a large wheel, and a hydraulic machine, by which the mine
is cleared of water.
To these pernicious and deadly caverns, criminals are occasionally
banished by the Austrian government; and it has sometimes happened that
this punishment has been allotted to persons of considerable rank and
family. The case of Count Alberti is an interesting instance of this
kind.
The count, having fought a duel with an Austrian general, against the
emperor’s command, and having left him for dead, was obliged to seek
refuge in one of the forests of Istria, where he was apprehended, and
afterward rescued by a band of robbers who had long infested that
quarter. With these banditti he spent nine months, until, by a close
investment of the place in which they were concealed, and after a very
obstinate resistance, in which the greater part of them were killed, he
was taken and carried to Vienna, to be broken alive on the wheel. This
punishment was, by the intercession of his friends, changed into that of
perpetual confinement and labor in the mines of Idria; a sentence which,
to a noble mind, was worse than death. To these mines he was accompanied
by the countess, his lady, who belonged to one of the first families in
Germany, and who, having tried every means to procure her husband’s
pardon without effect, resolved at length to share his miseries, as she
could not relieve them. They were terminated, however, through the
mediation of the general with whom the duel had been fought, who as soon
as he recovered from his wounds, obtained a pardon for his unfortunate
opponent; and Alberti, on his return to Vienna, was again taken into
favor, and restored to his fortune and rank.