front cover of The Forge and the Crucible
The Forge and the Crucible
The Origins and Structure of Alchemy
Mircea Eliade
University of Chicago Press, 1979
Primitive man's discovery of the ability to change matter from one state to another brought about a profound change in spiritual behavior. In The Forge and the Crucible, Mircea Eliade follows the ritualistic adventures of these ancient societies, adventures rooted in the people's awareness of an awesome new power.

The new edition of The Forge and the Crucible contains an updated appendix, in which Eliade lists works on Chinese alchemy published in the past few years. He also discusses the importance of alchemy in Newton's scientific evolution.
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front cover of History of Metals in Colonial America
History of Metals in Colonial America
James A. Mulholland
University of Alabama Press, 1981
The story of the introduction and growth of the technology of metals in the North American colonial period entails significant developments beyond the transfer of the technology from the Old World to the New. In the struggle to create an indigenous industry, in the efforts to encourage and support the work of metals craftsmen, in the defiance of British attempts to regulate manufacturing of metals, the colonial society developed a metals technology that became the basis for future industrial growth.
            The author traces colonial industrial development from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries in nine chapters: “Before Jamestown,” “Metals in the Early Colonies,” “Copper in the Colonies,” “Colonial Iron: The Birth of an Industry,” “Metals Manufacture in the Colonial Period,” “Colonial Iron: Regulation and Rebellion,” “Metals and the Revolution,” “The Critical Years,” and “Reflections on the End of an Era.”
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front cover of Ores to Metals
Ores to Metals
The Rocky Mountain Smelting Industry
James E. Fell, Jr.
University Press of Colorado, 2009
This comprehensive treatment of the smelting industry of Colorado, originally published in 1979, is now back in print with a new preface by the author. Packed with fascinating statistics and mining data, Ores to Metals details the people, technologies, and business decisions that have shaped the smelting industry in the Rockies.

Although mining holds more of the glamour for those in and interested in the minerals industry, smelters have continuously played a critical role in the industry’s evolution since their introduction in Colorado in the 1860s. At that time, miners desperately needed new technology to recover gold and silver from ores resistant to milling. Beginning as small independent enterprises, progressing to larger integrated firms working in urban centers, and finally following a trend toward mergers, the entire industry was absorbed into one large holding company—the American Smelting and Refining Company. Over time, fortunes were won and lost, business success was converted to political success, and advances were made in science and metallurgy. Drawing on archival material, Fell expertly presents the triumphs and troubles of the entrepreneurs who built one of the great industries of the West.

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