Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 2
Industrial Use of Mercury in the Ancient World
WILLIAM E. BROOKS
soon replaced mercury brought across the Atlantic from
the centuries-old Almaden Mine in Spain (Putman, 1972).
The slaves and indigenous workers at Huancavelica were
exposed to cinnabar powder from mining, mercury fumes
from mining and retorting, dust that contained silica and
arsenic compounds, cold, high altitude, carbon monoxide,
cave-ins, and poor ventilation; therefore, Huancavelica
came to be known as the “mina de la muerte” [mine of
death] (Brown, 2001).
In Europe in the 1800s, mercury was widely used
for gilding domes and interiors of cathedrals, domes of
government buildings, and religious fi gures and also for
mirror backing. Mercuric nitrate was widely used for mak-
ing hats, and the term “mad hatter” was associated with
those who were affected by the fumes released during the
process. The term “vermeil” was also used in the 19th cen-
tury; it referred to a sterling silver product, for example, a
wine cooler, with all surfaces coated with a minimum of
10 karat gold that was of a minimum thickness of 2.5 µm;
however, this process was banned because the artisans
became blind as a result of exposure to mercury. Tableware
made by this metallurgical process is kept on display in the
Vermeil Room in the White House, Washington, DC. Along
with polished copper, brass, silver, and obsidian, the refl ec-
tive qualities and movement of native mercury made it
intriguing as a scrying, or fortune-telling, mirror. Mercury
has also been used as a mirror to refl ect light for transmit-
ted light microscopes.
Powdered cinnabar, or vermillion, was widely used as
an artist's pigment in Europe from the 1300s until the
1900s (Windhaven Guild, 2004) and is still available from
art suppliers (Iconofi le, 2010). Mercury compounds were
used to inhibit mold in some household paints; however,
because of its toxicity, mercury is no longer used for this
application.
THE OLD WORLD AND ASIA
THE NEW WORLD
CONCLUSION
Mercury and cinnabar, the common ore of mercury, were
known and used by ancient people in Africa, Asia, Central
America, Europe, Mexico, and South America. Archaeolo-
gists have shown that cinnabar was mined and mercury was
produced more than 8000 years ago in Turkey. Cinnabar
was a multiuse pigment in many parts of the ancient world,
and mercury was used for gilding or placer gold amalgama-
tion. Mercury was the earliest known treatment for syphilis,
and its use is described in the Canon of Medicine by the
Persian physician Ibn Sina (Avicenna) in 1025
CE
.
Even though cinnabar and mercury are found world-
wide, the most well-known occurrences include those in
Almaden, Spain; California; Huancavelica, Peru; Idrija,
Slovenia; the Sizma district, Turkey; and the Yangtze region,
China. The mineral name “cinnabar” may have been
derived from Sinop, also called Cinab, a Black Sea port that
was an export center for cinnabar and mercury (also called
“ruddle”) produced in ancient Turkey (Barnes and Bailey,
1972). An undated Chinese saying “where there is cinnabar
above, yellow gold will be found below” (Herz and Garrison,
1998) suggests that the Chinese understood the geometry
of mineral deposits and that the presence of cinnabar might
be used to locate some types of gold occurrences.
Far more is known about mercury in the 1500s and
later. For example, Agricola (1556) details mercury use
and retorting techniques and discusses the health effects
of breathing the fumes released during mercury retorting
in Europe in the 1500s. In the 1600s, mercury from the
Santa Barbara Mine, Huancavelica, Peru was essential to
Spanish Colonial silver processing at Potosí, Bolivia, and
