In the early modern period, extraction of metals almost always involved smelting; in Europe, other processes such as amalgamation [2] were employed only for extracting gold. In the first centuries of the period, the latter achieved substantial importance in the extraction of precious metals in Central and South America because of the scarcity of wood and charcoal there. Wet chemical processes were used in assaying, but they found no place in the production of metallic raw materials [1]; [4] apart from the quantitatively insignificant cementation of copper, practice…
Smelting process(831 words)
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Bartels, Christoph, “Smelting process”, 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 02 December 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_SIM_027125>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20180208
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