The Mechanical Transmission of Power (1): Stangenkunst | LOW←TECH MAGAZINE
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‘Stangenkunst, showing driving wheel, feldkunst, and kunstkreuz’. Image: ‘Acta historico-chronologico-mechanica circa Metallurgiam’, Hennig Calvör, 1763
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Long-distance power transmission predates the invention of electricity by almost four centuries. From the 1500s onwards, engineers developed mechanical power transmission and distribution technologies, called “Stangenkunsten”, that became ever more sophisticated.
Networks of pivoted, wooden field rods conveyed power from water wheels in the valleys to mining machinery up the mountains over distances of up to 4<br>km, operating pumps and bellows, hoisting ores, and transporting miners up and down shafts.
Later systems replaced wooden rods by steel cables. Many Stangenkunsten remained in use well into the twentieth century, long after the introduction of steam engines and electricity.
Revival of the Mining Industry
Electricity allows us to build power plants in distant locations because it is easy to transport using power transmission lines. Before the advent of electricity, however, the configuration for any wind or water-powered industrial process usually placed both the machinery and the power source in the same location.
A mill not only housed the sails or the wheel, but also the machinery that it operated. The power generated by wind or water was transferred to the machinery over a very short distance via a set of wooden gears or cranks. This meant that factories and workshops using wind or water as an energy source could only be operated in locations were a mill was available.
However, this was not always possible. Power production was especially problematic in the mining industry, since mines are situated in relation to mineral deposits, regardless of whether wind or water power is available. Mines needed mechanical energy for draining and ventilating mine shafts, for hauling up ores, for transporting miners, and for processing ores.
European mining activity had declined substantially after the demise of the Roman Empire, but an urban revival at the turn of the millenium<br>brought a revival of the mining industry along with it. New mines were discovered and exploited, most notably in Germany. The Rammelsberg mines in the Harz Mountains were opened in 968 AD, followed by the Freiberg mining field in the Ore Mountains (“Erzgebirge”) in 1168 AD. Silver, copper and lead were the most important products of these famous mines, which would remain active for many centuries.
Stangenkunst in Huttal, east of Clausthal-Zellerfeld in the Harz Mountains, 1765. The drawing was made by the GeoMuseum of the Technische Universität Clausthal.
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Initially, mining operations required relatively little energy, as ores were extracted from shallow depths. Hauling up the ores and draining the mine of unwanted water, if necessary, was done by means of human-powered machines. However, when the most easily accessible ore deposits became exhausted and miners were forced deeper underground, more powerful machines were needed.
The Rammelsberg mines resorted to this in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with the Freiberg mines following in the fourteenth century. The main problem the mines faced was drainage: once you dig shafts and tunnels below groundwater level, flooding becomes a constant concern. Hauling up water to the surface requires more energy as the mine gets deeper, as does hauling up ores.
A Stangenkunst in Pershyttan, Sweden. Image: Bengt Oberger.
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One solution, already applied by Roman miners, was the construction of drainage adits. These gently sloping tunnels, which could be many kilometres long, connected the mine and a neighbouring valley. Excess water drained into the valleys by gravity alone. However, this only worked as long as the adit could be built above ground level. If miners dug deeper than the valley floor, the problem persisted. Initially, the solution lay in more efficient pumps and in substituting animal-powered lifting machines for human-powered lifting machines.
However, horse whims were very expensive to operate and water-powered machines soon replaced them. (Wind power was not very practical for use in mining.) This implied, of course, that a running stream of water was available at the mine shaft. Most often, this was not the case.
Solution One: Bring Water to the Mine
The common method of sourcing water involved the construction of leats, derivation channels, tunnels and aqueducts. This solution also took care of...