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I have written a first draft of the article in the hope that others can add further details and references.Peterlewis (talk) 17:44, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
About the use of water and vinegar
editIt is written in this artikle, that the rock was fractured by thermal shock. That is wrong. The rock was fractured by thermal expansion, and the pressure from the side walls. In Norway was this method used for the last time commercially 1890 and in Sweden 1875. I have looked in old Scandinavian encyclopedias from this periode, and no one mention the use of water, neither do the Encyclopædia Britannica 2008 edition.
About the use of vinegar can i just say that it is probably more a myth than a fact. Hannibal was just making a passage, not a tunnel. If Titus Livius, who is a possible source Plinius can have used have written that they stayed there in just four days, before they could go further (maybe they just had to breake som big rocks). If they had stayed longer the beasts they had with them would have starved to death. This means that the story is not a good evidence for the use of neither vinegar and water in this method, but it is of course ok to mention it.--Kittilhagen (talk) 19:22, 24 November 2008 (UTC)
strange introduction
editThe introduction has "Written sources from Antiquity (see below) usually claim that this would cause the stone to fracture by thermal shock, but experiments have instead indicated that the water (or any other liquid) did not have a noticeable effect on the rock, but rather helped the miners' progress by quickly cooling down the area after the fire[1][2].", but that's the very definition of thermal shock. I can't check the references because [2] is in German and I can't find [1], but it looks like it should say "...the water would cause the stone to fracture by [some other process], but experiments...". If someone could find what the references say and fix this, that would be great. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.29.119.173 (talk) 09:35, 10 August 2010 (UTC)
Agricola -> Medieval Europe
editI have changed a chapter from 'Agricola' to 'Medieval Europe' to broaden the theme, as there was a lot of fire-setting predating Agricola by far. Glückauf! --Christian Rößler (talk) 11:35, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
Introduction
editThe introduction of this article needs to be rewritten. For example, "fire-setting is a method of traditional mining used since prehistoric times up to the Middle Ages" is inaccurate. Fire-setting was commonly used until the 1800s, well after the Middle Ages and it is still rarely used in some countries. This is an example of fire-setting being used in the 1990s. Volcanoguy 02:38, 23 August 2012 (UTC)