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The ventilation of mining operations includes all the physical and chemical reactions and the means employed in the context of mining technology that serve the following purposes: (1) conveying enough breathable air to the miners and animals working underground, (2) safeguarding the air that the mining lamps need for combustion, (3) dilution and removal of the explosive (“pounding”), stifling (“stagnant”), and noxious (“evil”) gases (s0-called mine air), and mitigating excessive heat by supplying cooler air to create a bearable working temperature [5]. Generation of a…

The term  mining lamp denotes any source of artificial light employed to illuminate the underground spaces created in the mining of mineral resources. The German miners’ term  Geleucht became a common collective term for mining lamps [1]. In comparison to other areas of early modern mining technology, many forms of mining lamps were developed, depending on the type of mining and the region, but until well into the 18th century their construction, function, and fuel were based on principles that had developed in part in prehist…

1. DefinitionThe term mining technology embraces all the technological methods and tools employed in extracting underground mineral resources. In the 16th century, this technology was already being systematized in a scientific framework, as is especially clear in the work of G. Agricola (1494–1555) [1], which outlined the essential areas of mining technology: sinking shafts and boring drifts, shoring, extraction, haulage, water management, ventilation, illumination, and mine surveying (Markscheidewesen). Agricola also described surfac…