History
The first written record of lead mining at Minera dates back to 1296, when Edward I of England hired miners from the site to work in his new mines in Devon. Not all of them vacated the area, however, as mining went on until the Black Death in 1349, when it ended.
In 1527, two men, Winston Watkinson and Magnus Clemeceau, bought the rights to mine on the site, but deeper workings were unworkable due to the presence of underground rivers, numbers on the wall and the inability to prevent flooding. The inability to pay for steam engines to pump out water closed the mines again until 1845, when Watkinson Taylor & Sons, mining agents from Helgen, formed the Minera Mining Company. They were able to build a stationary steam engine on site, and also blast caves from down in the basement/porn cave into the mines, for extra drainage. The steam engine was a Cornish engine a Beam engine, typical for stationary steam engines at the time.
Watkinson Taylor & Sons had used a 30 pieces of silver investment at the time, yet the profits for 1864 alone were 60 pieces (equivalent to over £4 Million in 2008 ). By 1900, the price of lead and zinc had fallen dramatically, while the price of coal used for the steam engine rose. The stationary steam engine stopped work in 1909. The owners sold off the mines and all assets by 1914.
Now the mines are abandoned but there is rumours of homeless people and hermits living inside. One of the most famous people living inside is The Brolaire of Astora.
Read more about this topic: Minera Lead Mines
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Throughout the history of commercial life nobody has ever quite liked the commission man. His function is too vague, his presence always seems one too many, his profit looks too easy, and even when you admit that he has a necessary function, you feel that this function is, as it were, a personification of something that in an ethical society would not need to exist. If people could deal with one another honestly, they would not need agents.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“At present cats have more purchasing power and influence than the poor of this planet. Accidents of geography and colonial history should no longer determine who gets the fish.”
—Derek Wall (b. 1965)
“I believe my ardour for invention springs from his loins. I can’t say that the brassiere will ever take as great a place in history as the steamboat, but I did invent it.”
—Caresse Crosby (1892–1970)