Since then, the mine has been worked by the state,
though the Rothschilds have controlled the sale of the product.
According to Vitruvius, the works for manufacturing vermilion from
Spanish ore in Rome were situated between the temple of Flora and
Quirino. The ore was dried and treated in furnaces, to remove the
native mercury it contained, and was then ground in iron mortars and
washed. In addition, small quantities of quicksilver and vermilion
were made at Almaden. The ancients describe other methods, among which
Theophrastus speaks of using vinegar, which, however, appears from
modern investigations to have been an erroneous account. Nothing
definite is known concerning the methods of the Moors; we possess only
as a proof that they produced mercury, an account of a quicksilver
fountain in the marvelous palace of Abderrahman III., at
Medina-Zahara, and the works of Rasis, an Arab. The Moors probably
extracted mercury at Almaden, from the eighth to the twelfth century,
by the use of furnaces called "xabecas," which latter, in the
fourteenth century, were still employed by the Christians, who
continued them till the seventeenth century, when German workmen
replaced them by "reverberatory" furnaces, which in turn were
superseded in 1646 by aludel or Bustamente furnaces.
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