Samson Pit
Encyclopedia
The Samson Pit or Samson Mine is an historic silver mine
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 in Sankt Andreasberg
Sankt Andreasberg
Sankt Andreasberg is a town and a former municipality in the district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 November 2011, it is part of the town Braunlage. It is situated in the Harz, approximately 7 km west of Braunlage proper, and 20 km east of Osterode am Harz.- History :Sankt...

 in the Upper Harz
Upper Harz
The Upper Harz refers to the western and higher part of the Harz mountain range in central Germany. Much of the Upper Harz is over , but at its eastern edge in the High Harz it climbs to over on the Brocken massif.- Geography :...

 region of central Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

The pit has one of the oldest man engine
Man engine
A man engine is a mechanism of reciprocating ladders and stationary platforms installed in mines to assist the miners’ journeys to and from the working levels...

s in the world still working and it can be seen in operation during guided tours. The man engine, installed in the Samson Pit in 1837, used to be driven by the water power of the Rehberg Ditch (Rehberger Graben). The start of this ditch is the Oderteich
Oderteich
The Oderteich is an historic reservoir about seven kilometres northeast of Sankt Andreasberg in the Upper Harz in central Germany. It was built by miners from St. Andreasberg in the years 1715 to 1722 and, today, is an important component of the water supply network known as the Upper Harz Water...

 reservoir, which is part of the Upper Harz Water Regale
Upper Harz Water Regale
The Upper Harz Water Regale is a system of dams, reservoirs, ditches and other structures, much of which was built from the 16th to 19th centuries to divert and store the water that drove the water wheels of the mines in the Upper Harz region of Germany...

. The large water wheel
Water wheel
A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of free-flowing or falling water into useful forms of power. A water wheel consists of a large wooden or metal wheel, with a number of blades or buckets arranged on the outside rim forming the driving surface...

 (with a 12 m diameter), which drove the man engine until 1922, is only powered by water today for demonstration purposes; an electric motor has taken over the operation of the man engine.

History

When it was a working mine the Samson Pit was, for a long time, the deepest in the world.
Mining in Sankt Andreasberg began before 1487. The precise date when the Samson Pit first opened cannot be determined due to a lack of primary sources, but it is estimated as the early 1520s and some secondary sources fix the opening date at 1521. The first definite record of the pit is dated 1537. The oldest, mining office records referring to the Samson Pit come from the year 1661.

Mining in Sankt Andreasberg experienced its first boom during the 1560s. But times of high yield were frequently accompanied by sharp drops in output, until mining operations finally ceased. The routine problem of water shortages caused by low precipitation or frost was solved by the construction of the New Rehberg Ditch (1699 to 1703) to feed water to the wheel. From 1700 to 1730, mining in the Sankt Andreasberg area went through a second boom with silver outputs of 1,000–2,000 kg per year. On 12 December 1777 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...

 entered the Samson Pit as part of his first Harz visit and later noted in his diary Entered Samson in the evening, came out by God's grace. Was very dismal to me this time.

At the beginning of the 19th century, silver production almost always exceeded 2,000 kg per year, the record being 3,040 kg in 1822. But towards the end, silver production at the Samson Pit declined - in 1905 364 kg was won and in 1909 a mere 90 kg. - to the point where it was no longer economic and the mine finally closed in 1910. The last shift of 80 miners left the pit on 31 March 1910. The mine had 42 galleries and a total depth of about 840 m.
The mine was famous in the 18th century for its finds of rare and exotic minerals, which were sold inter alia through a mineral depot in Clausthal
Clausthal-Zellerfeld
Clausthal-Zellerfeld is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located in the southwestern part of the Harz mountains. Its population is approximately 15,000, Clausthal-Zellerfeld is also the seat of the Samtgemeinde Oberharz....

. Especially sought after were the silver minerals pyrargyrite
Pyrargyrite
Pyrargyrite is a sulfosalt mineral consisting of silver sulfantimonide, Ag3SbS3. Known also as dark red silver ore or ruby silver, it is an important source of the metal....

 (dark red silver ore), dyscrasite
Dyscrasite
The silver antimonide mineral dyscrasite has the chemical formula Ag3Sb. It is an opaque, silver white, metallic mineral which crystallizes in the orthorhombic crystal system. It forms pyramidal crystals up to 5 cm and can also form cylindrical and prismatic crystals.-Crystallography and...

 (silver antimony) and pyrostilpnite (feuerblende), the calcite
Calcite
Calcite is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate . The other polymorphs are the minerals aragonite and vaterite. Aragonite will change to calcite at 380-470°C, and vaterite is even less stable.-Properties:...

 crystals in various forms (paper spar - Papierspat, leaf spar - Blätterspat, cannon spar - Kanonenspat, cube spar - Würfelspat, composite spar - Compositenspat), analcime crystals (Andreasberger Tautropfen), pink apophyllite
Apophyllite
The name apophyllite refers to a specific group of phyllosilicates, a class of minerals that also includes the micas. Originally, the group name referred to a specific mineral, but was redefined in 1978 to stand for a class of minerals of similar chemical makeup that comprise a solid solution...

, scherbenkobalt (native arsenic
Arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...

), ganomatite (Gänsekötigerz) breithauptite
Breithauptite
Breithauptite is a nickel antimonide mineral with the simple formula NiSb. Breithauptite is a metallic opaque copper-red mineral crystallizing in the hexagonal - dihexagonal dipyramidal crystal system. It is typically massive to reniform in habit, but is observed as tabular crystals...

, native antimony
Antimony
Antimony is a toxic chemical element with the symbol Sb and an atomic number of 51. A lustrous grey metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite...

, chlorargyrite
Chlorargyrite
Chlorargyrite is the mineral form of silver chloride . Chlorargyrite occurs as a secondary mineral phase in the oxidation of silver mineral deposits. It crystallizes in the isometric - hexoctahedral crystal class. Typically massive to columnar in occurrence it also has been found as colorless to...

 (Buttermilcherz) and others. The very rare mineral samsonite
Samsonite (mineral)
Samsonite is a silver manganese antimony sulfosalt mineral with formula Ag4MnSb2S6. It crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system with a typical slender radiating prismatic habit. It is metallic black to steel black with no cleavage and a brittle to conchoidal fracture. In thin fragments it...

 was named after the pit.

Museums

In 1950 the Samson Pit Mining Museum opened and, since 2001, the Harzer Roller Canary Museum has been located in the horse gin (Gaipel) at the pithead.

Monument status

In 1987 the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers is a professional body, specifically an engineering society, focused on mechanical engineering....

 placed the Samson Pit on the list of internationally historic engineering monuments.

Electricity generation

In the shaft of the Samson Pit today there are several turbines belonging to firm of Harz Energie (Osterode
Osterode am Harz
For the town in East Prussia formerly called Osterode, see Ostróda.Osterode am Harz often simply called Osterode, is a town in south-eastern Niedersachsen on the south-western edge of the Harz mountains. It is the seat of government of the district of Osterode. The town is twinned with Scarborough,...

), which convert the water power of the Oderteich reservoir into electrical energy. They supply the bulk of the electrical power needed by the mining town. At a depth of 130 m is the Grüner Hirsch Power Station (installed in 1922), whose water is channelled by the 1.4 km long Grünhirscher Tunnel (total length 10.2 km) to the River Sperrlutter
Sperrlutter
The Sperrlutter is a roughly long tributary of the Oder between Sankt Andreasberg and Bad Lauterberg in the Harz Mountains. It rises at about 700 m in the vicinity of the Glückaufklippen. It flows initially south through the village of Silberhütte and the Sperrlutter valley...

. The Sieberstollen Power Station lies at a depth of 190 m and is drained by the 3.1 km long Sieber Adit (total length 13.1 km) into the Sieber
Sieber (river)
The Sieber is a 35 km long, right hand tributary of the Oder in the Harz mountains of Germany.It rises at 760 m on the Bruchberg massif and flows through Herzberg before discharging at Hattorf into the Oder which, in turn, flows into the Rhume...

.

Sources

  • Lieber, W. and Leyerzapf, H. (1986): German Silver. An Historical Perspective on Silver Mining in Germany, Mineralogical Record, 17: 3-18.

External links

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