ABSTRACT
Situated southeast of the German city of Hanover, the ore-rich veins of
the Harz mountain region had been mined since the middle of the tenth
century. Because the deeper parts tended to fill with water, they could only
be mined so long as pumps kept the water at bay. During the seventeenth
century water wheels powered these pumps. Unfortunately, this meant that
the lucrative mining operations had to shut down during the cold mountain
winter season when the streams were frozen.
