The Prosperity of Germany, Part Two

and not dissipated by being driven off as smoke. But since men are most difficultly torn away from inveterate custom and opinion, the matter must be endured as it is, which nevertheless could succeed far more happily and would redound in much greater emolument to them if this mineral were treated and preserved in the due manner. There is also a vein of zinc in Westphalia, judged by metallic operators to be a lead vein on account of the plumbago graphite/lead ore mixed in, which, when the smelters attempted to melt it with fire applied underneath, vanished with the smoke, and it was deemed a vein of lapis calaminaris and abandoned.

Concerning Lapis Calaminaris.

Of this stone, mined in many places in Germany, no vein is more well-known and frequent than that which is in the territory of the city of Aachen, which is entirely devoid of all plumbago, and that of Goslar and the one in Westphalia is better, presenting itself as most suitable for making brass, which is prepared in great multitude there. It approaches very closely to a golden nature, and yet it does not possess so much gold that it can be separated from it with profit. Nevertheless, the nature and property of no minerals is so much a partaker of gold as the nature and essence of this one, which, if it could be matured—which I do not doubt can be done—would undoubtedly supply a great deal of gold. What can further be achieved with this mineral, I have revealed heretofore in the 1st and 2nd parts of my furnaces, so that there is no need for a fuller and more extensive description in this place.

Concerning Common Sulfur.

Sulfur is the most well-known, most used, and most combustible of all minerals; what uses it has in medicine and in the chemical separation of metals can be understood from my already published works as well as the writings of others. It only needs to be said here that it is the origin and root of all metals, since rarely is any metallic vein found in which sulfur does not also have its place among the other minerals.