Mining Lore: An Illustrated Composition and Documentary Compilation with Emphasis on the Spirit and History of Mining

An encyclopedic work of 940 pages, including 459 illustrations, among them rare and precious pictures, plus 1043 footnotes. A spiritual mine of breadth and depth with valuable information and knowledge - a document of toiling and moiling, going back to the very beginning of the mining profession, "a calling of peculiar dignity", as the "Father of Mineralogy", Georgius Agricola, expressed it. Besides great scholars and famous men, the "unknown miner," the unsung hero of mining, and simple mining workmen are remembered in the same degree of respect and appreciation. Many of the poets, laborers, musicians, pastors, engineers, painters, physicians, entrepreneurs, and "torch-bearers of mankind" were inspired by mining. As the Journal of the United Mine Workers of America, Washington, D.C., December 15, 1971, states in its review about MINING LORE...: "...The author, Wolfgang Paul... a mining engineer... takes the reader from prehistoric times to the present. ..." To this day the "spirit of mining", its rich traditions and cultural elements are generally unknown. Hence, this book has been published as a testimonial - an indispensable resource not only with respect to mining, but also to the humanities, religion, ethnography, anthropology and the arts in the broadest sense. The American mining engineer and jurist, Professor Koehler S. Stout, Chairman, Engineering Division, Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology, Butte, Mt., sums it up this way, "MINING LORE..., a monumental document on miners' contribution to mankind, and, at the same time, 'a monument of personal achievement.'"