The Rise of the European Emperor

A monthly income of 5,000 pounds of silver made Marin extremely excited. You know, this is equivalent to 4166 pounds of gold, and it can mint silver coins worth more than 530,000 gold coins!

However, considering that this is the result of the hard work of 50,000 to 60,000 strong men, Marin is unhappy again, what will happen after these people are sent to America? Without enough miners, this output cannot be achieved...

However, Marin felt more at ease when he asked Gartz, the mine supervisor. Gartz told Marin that in fact, the energy of the 5.78 million miners had not been released, and at most less than 20,000 miners had released the energy.

why? Because the mine tunnel is narrow, no matter how many people you have, you won't be able to squeeze in. Therefore, most miners are not actually digging ore, but digging new mine tunnels, and then placing a load-bearing wooden frame inside the mine tunnel to prevent the mine tunnel from collapsing. Moreover, generally speaking, miners will not enter the mine to mine until it appears stable after a period of time.

Of course, in the mines of Beihai State, when the wooden frame is secured, mine car tracks are also laid along the way. Once the mine is built, a group of miners can be sent into it to mine.

However, the choice of mine tunnels is not to be dug casually, but to be excavated under the supervision of engineers. Engineers will take samples first, and estimate the direction of the veins based on the survey results. Then, new mine tunnels will be excavated according to the direction of the veins. At the same time, underground water systems must also be avoided.

Groundwater is not evenly distributed, it also has some water systems. To put it simply, the groundwater system is like blood vessels in the human body, with large arteries and small branches. If the main vein of groundwater is dug, you must try your best to block it, or give up the mine.

As for some small branches of groundwater that have a small water flow, they will pump water out of the pit while trying to block them as much as possible. For example, the steam engine is much better than artificial pumping in this respect.

Goslar is okay, because it is located in the inland Harz Mountains, and the groundwater system is not very developed. The Tara lead-zinc mine in Ireland, which Marin had planned before, was rather pitiful. Ireland is too rich in water resources, and the Tara lead-zinc mine is hundreds of meters deep. Even if the steam engine is used to pump water, it is difficult to cope with the surging groundwater. In this era when people need to mine in person, such underground mines where the groundwater cannot be controlled have no mining value. Unless, that is a very high-grade gold and silver mine.

Therefore, in ancient times, surface mines were generally mined. Except for high-grade gold and silver mines or high-value copper mines, most people don't like to mine in wells.

Goslar has been mining for hundreds of years, and there is no surface silver mine to mine, so it has to go down to mine. As for the 5.78 million Hungarian prisoners of war and the original seven or eight thousand miners, their main tasks are actually digging new mines and looking for new veins. At the same time, groundwater systems are being carefully detected and avoided. However, after hundreds of years, craftsmen have been roughly familiar with the underground water system here. At least, there is no problem avoiding the main vein of groundwater. As for the small branches, they can only rely on pumping.

And the original mature mine,

In fact, less than 20,000 people are mining ore. Others are mainly digging new mines and looking for new veins. Once a large number of new mines are excavated, the output will double by then. Then, there will be a high-yield period of several years or even ten years.

Then, when the potential of these new mines is exhausted, it will fall into a trough again. At that time, it is necessary to mobilize a large number of engineers and dispatch a large amount of manpower and material resources to find new veins and dig new mines. If it is found, it will usher in a new wave of high production, otherwise, the mine will begin to decline...

Marin remembered that the silver mines in the Harz Mountains seemed to have been mined in the 1980s. Therefore, under the existing mining conditions, it is very difficult for the Goslar silver mine to decline. Because the amount of resources is there.

Today, the problem of pumping water from mines has been solved by steam engines and sump pumps. Then, as long as the main vein of groundwater is avoided, mining can continue.

However, it is too difficult to mine underground at a depth of tens of meters or even hundreds of meters. Among them, underground lighting is a big problem.

In this era, torches were generally used for underground lighting. Miners go down the shaft with torches, which they then stick in the walls of the work area to provide light as they dig. Or, use candles or oil lamps or something. But in terms of light, the effect of torches is better.

It's just that the torches inserted on the wall are very taboo to be wet. If the top of the tunnel is wet and seepage, the torches are easily doused by dripping water.

Therefore, in the mines of this era, after the new mine tunnels are excavated, they need to be ventilated and dried for a period of time before they can start operation. In addition to safety considerations, there are also reasons to prevent water seepage at the top of the mine from dousing the torches. After all, without lighting, it is impossible to work in a deep well of tens of meters or hundreds of meters.

Just like the new mine dug by these tens of thousands of strong Hungarian men, it will take a long time to start mining...

Marin frowned. Is the lighting moisture-proof? Except for the electric lights of later generations... By the way, lanterns!

Marin suddenly remembered that in the 1990s, rural electricity was very unstable. Therefore, every household is equipped with kerosene lamps. At that time, oil prices in Huaxia were very cheap, and there were very few cars. Using kerosene lamps is much more cost-effective than flashlights. Because the flashlights at that time could only use dry batteries, and when they ran out of power, they had to buy new batteries, which cost a lot. Therefore, except for running errands at night, most people don't use flashlights at night, but use horse lanterns, which are the most suitable to carry among kerosene lamps!

Lantern is actually a kind of kerosene lamp that can be carried by hand or hung on the wall. The reason why it is called a horse lantern seems to be that it was hung on the saddle by American western cowboys who drove at night for lighting in the 19th century, so it is called a "horse lantern".

Because the wick of the lantern is surrounded by a glass cover, the lantern is not afraid of wind and rain. When he was a child, Marin even saw fishing boats hanging lanterns outside to illuminate the boats on stormy nights. Even, lanterns can be used to attract fish into the net at night...

Speaking of it, the structure of the horse lantern is very simple. The bottom is a metal base, which is also a place for kerosene. Then, attach the lamp cap and wick to it. Around the lamp head is a glass cover fixed with metal strips, which can be lifted up and replaced. On the top, there are air outlets to the surroundings to exchange air between the lantern and the outside world. At the same time, because of the angle problem, it also prevents raindrops from entering the interior...

In his previous life, when Marin was still a few years old, he often carried a lantern to help his parents illuminate in the middle of the night. Especially in the autumn harvest season, in order to rush to harvest rice and wheat and avoid the rainy season, adults often have to harvest rice and wheat at night. At that time, Marin, who was only a few years old, was responsible for providing lighting on the side with a lantern...

Therefore, Marin couldn't be more familiar with the lantern. After all, he was a professional lantern bearer when he was a child...

When he was a child, he was influenced by some third-rate writers who made up chicken soup, and he heard that Edison liked to take apart things. So, he also foolishly demolished houses everywhere, like a Erha.

At that time, Marin had disassembled the lantern many times, and was very familiar with the structure of the lantern, and could easily assemble the lantern back. However, later, Ma Lin got older and started to disassemble the TV at home... Then, because the difficulty was too high, he couldn't put it back together, so he was beaten by his parents for a long time...

The past is hard to look back on, but when I was young, I learned how to dismantle houses in Erha, and I was familiar with the structure of lanterns. Then, with the help of craftsmen, Marin easily restored the lantern.

However, the biggest problem with using horse lanterns is not a technical problem, but an energy problem. There are too few sources of kerosene!

Previously, most of the oil Marin obtained from the Galicia region of Poland was used by him to extract gasoline. Even, because gasoline was not enough, Marin also extracted the kerosene part and mixed it into gasoline to increase firepower.

But if you start to use kerosene lamps, you must pay attention to control the separation of gasoline and kerosene in the future. In fact, the distinction between gasoline and kerosene is somewhat blurred. The oil near the critical point of the two can be used as gasoline or kerosene, depending on which one you prefer. In later generations, the demand for gasoline will be greater, so gasoline will naturally be more preferred. But in the 19th century...it was said that gasoline was disposed of as a dangerous waste...until the advent of the gasoline engine...

In fact, the human petroleum industry was originally intended to provide kerosene for kerosene lamps. As for gasoline and diesel, they were useless by-products at the time. Gasoline and diesel were not "wasted" until the internal combustion engine appeared later...

However, from a military point of view, Marin has always been more inclined to gasoline. But in underground mining, kerosene lamps are very useful. Therefore, after some ideological struggle, Marin chose to "invent" the lantern. At least, it is very valuable to promote the use of horse lanterns in the Rammelsberg silver mine in Goslar. After all, Marin is short of silver now...

The fact that the lantern is not afraid of moisture is indeed very beneficial to underground mining operations, bringing great convenience to the silver mining in Goslar...