Mercury mines and brassworks in Italy
Date
20 September 1664
Creator
Unknown, Artist
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
vol1 p235
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 300mm
width (page): 180mm
width (page): 180mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Figures of the processing of quicksilver at the mines in Friuli, Italy (fig. 1, below) and of the wind-producing contrivance at the brass works in Tivoli (fig. 2, above). From Walter Pope's letter to John Wilkins dated 20 September 1664, Venice. The letter was read at the meeting of the Royal Society on 11 January 1665 and this became the first illustration to be printed in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (vol. 1, no. 2 (April 1665)).
This is copied from LBO/1/203a.
This is copied from LBO/1/203a.
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 11 January 1665, ‘Dr. Wilkins produced a letter written to him from Dr. Pope, dated at Venice, September 2, 1664, about the mines of mercury in Friuli, viz. how the mines are ordered; how this mineral is digged, of what colour, hardness, and weight it is; how it is got out of the ore; what engines are used; and what accidents befall the labourers, &c. The same letter contained likewise a description of the contrivance of blowing the fire in the brass works of Tivoli, where the water blows the fire, not by moving the bellows, but by making wind. It was ordered, that this letter be entered in the letter-book; and that Mr. Hooke consider of the engine mentioned in it to produce air by the fall of water’ (Birch 2:6).
Printed in Walter Pope to John Wilkins, 'Mines of Mercury in Friuli, and a way of producing Wind by the fall of water', Phil. Trans. vol. 1, no. 2 (April 1665), pp. 21-26 (reference to figs at pp. 22, 25-26). Fig. I, the mines of mercury in Friuli. Fig. II, contrivance of producing wind in the Brassworks of Tivoli near Rome.
Printed in Walter Pope to John Wilkins, 'Mines of Mercury in Friuli, and a way of producing Wind by the fall of water', Phil. Trans. vol. 1, no. 2 (April 1665), pp. 21-26 (reference to figs at pp. 22, 25-26). Fig. I, the mines of mercury in Friuli. Fig. II, contrivance of producing wind in the Brassworks of Tivoli near Rome.
Related fellows
John Wilkins (1614 - 1672, British) , Natural philosopher
Walter Pope (1627 - 1714, British) , Astronomer
Walter Pope (1627 - 1714, British) , Astronomer
Associated place