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Ore-Washing Sieve: Tub Staves, Iron Hoops and a Clipped Iron-Wire Bottom (Agricola, 1556)
The large ore-washing sieve of a 16th-century mine, from Agricola's De Re Metallica, Book VIII (1556): about a cubit across and half a foot deep, built like a little tub of staves bound with iron hoops, with a bottom of crossed iron wires clipped at every crossing, an iron band and two iron cross-rods, and a handle each side for shaking it in a tub of water.
Intermediate
About 2 days
Instructions
1
1
Size in metric
Size in metric
Loading Jupyter Notebook...
2
2
Read De Re Metallica, Book VIII
Read De Re Metallica, Book VIII
"The sieve is generally a cubit broad and half a foot deep."
3
3
Make the wire bottom
Make the wire bottom
Lay straight and cross iron wires so the holes stop the larger broken rock, and bind every crossing with a small iron clip. Fix it in an iron band braced by two iron cross-rods.
Materials for this step:
Iron Wire1 piece
Mild Steel Flat Bar1 piece
Mild Steel Round Bar2 piecesTools needed:
Blacksmith Forge
Anvil
Hammer
Flat-Nose Pliers
Hacksaw4
4
Make the tub body
Make the tub body
Make the rest of the sieve of staves in the shape of a little tub, a cubit broad and half a foot deep, closed round the wire bottom. Bind it with two iron hoops, or with three hoops of hazel or oak. Fit a handle on each side.
Materials for this step:
White Oak Board2 pieces
Iron Hoop2 piecesTools needed:
Hand Saw
Hand Plane
ChiselsHammer5
5
Wash ore
Wash ore
Set it in a tub nearly full of water. Throw in the earth, sand and broken rock with a shovel; shake the sieve up and down, turning it alternately to right and left, so the smaller material passes through. The larger pieces left in it go to the stamps.
Tools needed:
Wooden Bucket
20-Liter Bucket6
6
Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting
Sieve troubleshooting.
Flow
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7
7
History and honest limits
History and honest limits
From Georgius Agricola, **De Re Metallica** (1556), Book VIII, translated by Herbert C. and Lou H. Hoover, 1912 (checked on the archive.org scan georgiusagricola00agri, p. 292). He gives no wire spacing; the metric figures and the tools are ours.
Materials
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