Alvaro Alonso Barba was a secular Catholic priest and
metallurgist born in
Lepe
Lepe is a Spanish town in the province of Huelva, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is near the Portugal, Portuguese border. According to the 2009 census, the city has a population of 25,886 inhabitants ...
in
1569
Year 1569 ( MDLXIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
January–June
* January 11–May 6 – The first recorded lottery in England is performed nonstop, at the we ...
.
Antonio (1786) says, "Baeticus ex oppido Lepe, apud Potosi"; hence Barba is assumed to be of
Andalusian origin, from the ancient Roman province of Baetica.
He lived at
Potosí
Potosí, known as Villa Imperial de Potosí in the colonial period, is the capital city and a municipality of the Department of Potosí in Bolivia. It is one of the highest cities in the world at a nominal . For centuries, it was the location o ...
during the period when its silver mines were most productive and luxury among the Spanish residents and mine owners had nearly reached its height. Father Barba divided his time between his priestly duties and a close study of the ores of this region and their treatment. There had been, since 1570, a complete revolution in the treatment of silver ores, through the application of
mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
, and a number of improvements followed, of which Barba had knowledge.
In 1609, he invented the ''
pan amalgamation'' process (in Spanish the ''cazo'' or ''fondo'' process) for extracting silver from ore by mixing it with salt and mercury and heating it in shallow copper vessels. In 1640 he published in
Madrid a book entitled ''Arte de los Metales'', the earliest work on South American ores and minerals. It includes information on mineral localities in Bolivia. The book has been republished in Spanish, French, English and German.
Notes
References
*
Nicolas Antonio
Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to:
People Given name
* Nicolas (given name)
Mononym
* Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer
* Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer
Surname Nicolas
* Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...
, ''Bibliotheca hispana nova'' (A Library of
New Spain
New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...
; Madrid, 1786)
;Attribution
* Cites:
**Pinelo, Epitome, etc., (1738), II;
**Nicolas Antonio, Bibliotheca hispana nova (Madrid, 1786);
**Mendiburu, Dicc. Hist. -biog., etc., (Lima, 1876), II;
**Relaciones geograficas de Indias (Madrid, 1885), II, Appendix iv.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barba, Alvaro
Metallurgists
Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown