Seiger smelters (from German seigern, “separate,” “trickle”) were smelters going back to the 15th century that used a new process – and soon on a large scale – to separate silver from copper (Smelting techniques). Many copper mineral deposits have a certain silver content, such as the deposits in Slovakia, the copper shale of the region around Eisleben and in Poland, and the fahlores of Schwaz-Brixlegg in Tyrol. The earliest Seiger smelter is documented for Nuremberg around 1460; earlier references (Nuremberg and Venice around 1420) are disputed [3. 181]. After 1460, Seiger…
Seiger smelter(903 words)
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Bartels, Christoph, “Seiger smelter”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 05 June 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_SIM_027381>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20210601
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