Falun mine

Carl von Linne (Linnaeus) described the Falun mine as follows .. . Out of the mine a constant smoke ascended. Never has a poet described a Styx, nor a theologian a hell so awful, as that seen here, for... 

The Falun Mine Is the Oldest Copper Mine in Sweden. It was worked in the 13th century, and has been run almost continually ever since. Its present output of copper is small, but iron pyrite is still produced. The pyrite from this mine was the first source of selenium. Gahn, the discoverer of manganese, and Sefstrom, the discoverer of vanadium, lived in Falun. 

In 1815 J. Berzelius, the discoverer of the element, named it thorium in honour of Thor, the ancient Scandinavian god of thunder. But the famous Swedish chemist anticipated the events no new element was discovered by him that year. He analysed a rare mineral from Falun mines in which he discovered what he believed to be the oxide of an unknown... 

It is difficult to extract copper from an ore of the type described. Typical copper metallurgy was developed by work over many generations. The processing of the ore from the Falun mine has been investigated by a study group L The results can be concluded as follows ... 

In 1816 Hans Peter Eggertz, Baron Johan Nordin, and J. G. Gahn founded at Falun a small plant for the manufacture of imitation paekfong from the nickeliferous ores of the Slattberg and Kuso mines. This plant was in operation until 1821, when it was destroyed by fire (132). 

About a hundred miles northwest of Stockholm there lies among barren hills the famous old mining-town of Falun (or Fahlun). The... 

They use at Falun [he said] for the manufacture of sulfur, pyrites occurring at various places in the copper mine. The pyrites are often mixed with galena, blende, and several foreign substances. The pyrites are placed on a layer of dry wood, in long, horizontal furnaces, the upper part of which is covered with earth and decomposed pyrites the fumes pass from these furnaces into horizontal tuyeres, the fore part of which is of brick and the rest of wood. The wood is lighted below, and the heat causes the excess sulfur to distil from the lower layer of the pyrite the gaseous sulfur is carried by the current of warm air, and is finally deposited as flowers in the tuyeres,. . . ... 

In 1831 the Swedish chemist Nils Gabriel Sefstrom discovered a new element in iron from the Taberg mine in Smaland. Sefstrom was bom on June 2, 1787, at Ilsbo Socken, Norra Helsingland (2). He studied medicine, and received his medical degree at the age of twenty-six years. After four years of practice in a hospital, he became a professor of chemistry and science at the Caroline Institute of Medicine and Surgery, and from 1820 to 1839 he taught chemistry at the newly erected School of Mines at Falun (2,54). 

Nils Gabriel Sefstrbm, 1787-1845. Swedish physician, chemist, and metallurgist. Head teacher at the School of Mmes at Falun from 1822 to 1838, later adviser to the Mining Society in Stockholm, director of the Mineral Cabinet, Chemical Laboratory, and Library of the Royal Mining College, and editor of the Annals of the Corporation of Ironmasters See ref. (59)... 

Hegel s approach as much as the Natural Philosophers pull into one plane, if at different rates, the unfurling of human history and natural history, human time and nature s time, an overlapping of one on the other. Time was well reputed to go awry in the mine, and such confusion was just that imbrication of human and natural time. A true story that seized the imagination of many was reported in the chapter on The Organic World in Schubert s tales from the night side of natural science. In 1719, in the copper mines at Falun, at a depth of 130 metres, the perfectly preserved body... 

The Falun Copper Mine Foundation, Falun, Sweden, 1999. 

At the end of the 19 century new rich copper deposits were discovered in the world, starting in the Lake Superior region in the United States. The dominance of the mine in Falun ceased but production continued into the 1990s. During the last decades, large quantities of pyrite were mined for production of sulfuric add and red ochre. Today the mine is a historical museum and a valued tourist attraction. 

The Swedish copper ores in the Skellefte field have been formed in just the described way. Hydrothermal solutions streamed out over the sea bottom in a region with much volcanic activity round 2000 miUion years ago. A metamorphosis followed and created the deposits of our day, distinguished mainly by copper but also with gold and silver The old mine in Falun has a similar origin. 

From the day he started his work at the school in Falun his interest in medicine declined and he was completely absorbed in research and education closely connected to mining and metallurgy. 

Mr. d EUiuyar also visited the copper mine in Falun as can be seen from the mine visitors book for 22 May 1782. He wrote his name De Luyarte Espagnol . 

M3 Cold-silver alloy, elec-trum Au-Ag from the copper mine in Falun. The sample is from the 350 m level. 

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