Old Imperial Pit
| Old Imperial Pit | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
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| Information about the mining company | |||
| Start of operation | 1st century / 1854 | ||
| End of operation | 1935 | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Lead, silver | ||
| Greatest depth | 120 m | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 50 ° 20 '13.2 " N , 8 ° 38' 48.3" E | ||
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| Location | Ober-Mörlen | ||
| District ( NUTS3 ) | Wetteraukreis | ||
| country | State of Hesse | ||
| Country | Germany | ||
The Alte Kaisergrube (also called Kaisergrube or Alter Kaiser ) was a mine for lead and silver east of Wehrheim in the municipality of Ober-Mörlen im Taunus . Mining probably began in Roman times, was revived in the 19th century and ended with last prospecting attempts in 1935.
Roman mining
The pit is located in the immediate vicinity of the former Roman Limes border and the small Roman fort Kaisergrube . The Roman toughness found in the Limes ditch and the way in which the underground mine workings were supported make Roman mining from the end of the first century AD appear likely, there are no written evidence. The Limes ditch cuts through the pingen field of the pit.
Mining from 1854
The mine was rediscovered in 1837 by the German Mining Co. under Henry Mancur, but was soon forgotten again. It was not until 1853 that a detailed investigation was carried out by the mining inspector August Storch, he found numerous densely packed pings and remains of spoil heaps, which indicated mining near the surface, the shafts were only a few meters deep. In addition to this very old mining industry, Storch also found traces of more recent activities which had ended well before 1800 and which had shafts as deep as 20–30 m .
For further investigation, Storch had a shaft ( location ) sunk 4 m away from the old Pingenzug, which received a crosscut in the direction of the Pingen field at a depth of 12 m . After only 2 m you came to old mine workings, the heavily clogging water masses did not allow further expansion of the cross passage. Storch let the now called Mathildenschacht sink further down to a depth of 24.3 m, a second cross passage reached a lead ore vein with a thickness of 50 cm after just 75 cm - again, old mine workings were encountered. A second shaft, the Wilhelminenschacht, south of the Mathilde shaft, has now been sunk for dewatering and for dividing the work (separation of dewatering from ore extraction). Several levels were created, the first at 39.5 m depth, the fourth at 79 m depth.
After Storch initially did not develop any mining activities of his own , he assumed the mine field in 1854 and on February 19, 1856 it was enfeoffed as the Old Imperial Mine. Storch founded the Taunus mining company with mostly Frankfurt trades . Shortly thereafter, his son Ludwig Storch (mountain administrator at the Count's Solms-Rödelheim lignite mine in Bauernheim) took over the mine management.
Mathilde shaft went through an old in 39.5 m depth tonnlägigen bay. Its lining was classified as of Roman origin, "because the holes in the shaft, which was made of bolt-shot , did not overlap with the shark wood, but were inserted with pegs into the corresponding holes in the shark wood". The total depth reached in ancient times will not have fallen below 45 to 50 m because An unscratched (untouched) deposit was found at a depth of 58 m.
The mined ores consisted mainly of galena with pale ore , the lead content was classified as excellent, 78 to 84.5% lead content was measured. The silver yield, on the other hand, was quite low; 0.3 to 0.4 g of silver could be obtained from one kilogram of ore. The lead ores were also particularly suitable as glaze ores.
Between 1856 and 1863, a total of 800 t of ore was mined with the roof construction . From 1863 the mine was temporarily closed because the penetrating water masses were too strong.
Mining from 1884
A new trade union Kaisergrube reopened the mine in 1884. In January 1885, the mine property was divided into 1,000 shares by the union and 1,000 Kux notes were sold to secure the financing. The two old shafts were cleared and a steam engine was used for the first time to keep water flowing. The machine shaft was sunk to 120 m and a 5th, 6th and 7th level set up. Operations were stopped again in 1887. During this second operating period, 600 tons of ore were mined.
It was not until 1899 that the mine started operating again, the union was now headed by Emil Ruthemeyer. To improve the water solution and to investigate the deposit, the Klarastollen was driven from 1900 to 1901 ( Lage ). At a length of 325 m, this met a spring; it was expanded a further 5 m, but with a total length of 330 m the tunnel had to be abandoned. The tunnel was still a long way from the mine field, only with a length of 600 m would it have reached the mine field at a depth of 80 m. A second test tunnel also did not reveal a positive perspective ( location ). Ruthemeyer then stopped all work.
In 1920 and 1935 there were two new investigations, but mining operations were not started because it was no longer worthwhile to dismantle the remaining deposit. The buildings of the mine that have been preserved are now used by a beekeeping facility.
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- ↑ a b Bergverwalter L. Storch: The old Kaisergrube , presented to the General Assembly on July 31, 1858, recorded by Friedrich Rolle , p. 1. Online (PDF), accessed on March 6, 2017.
- ↑ a b c Rainer Slotta : Technical monuments in the Federal Republic of Germany , Der Metallerzbergbau , Volume 4/1, German Mining Museum Bochum, 1983, ISBN 3-921533-25-2 , p. 389.
- ↑ a b c R. Jakobus: The ore veins of the eastern Taunus , in: Geologisches Jahrbuch Hessen, Volume 120, published by the Hessian State Office for Soil Research, Wiesbaden 1992, p. 152.
- ↑ Note: Haithholz- one of the two shorter woods from a shaft square.
- ↑ Note: The coordinate given in Jakobus for the experimental tunnel has a misprint in the legal value.
Map with all coordinates: