Underground Life
Or, Mines and Miners

The 1869 translation of an illustrated work on mining, originally published in 1867 and regarded as having inspired Zola's Germinal.

Louis Simonin (Author), H. W. Bristow (Edited and translated by)

9781108072014, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 28 August 2014

660 pages, 164 b/w illus. 16 colour illus. 14 maps
24.4 x 17 x 3.4 cm, 1.04 kg

Born in Marseilles, Louis Simonin (1830–86) became a leading mining engineer of his age. He travelled widely on government and private commissions, particularly around the United States, where he was held in very high esteem. His posthumous renown rests primarily on this substantial work on mining, first published in 1867. The book is divided into three parts, dealing with coal mining, metal mining, and the mining of precious stones. It covers metallurgy and mineralogy, the history of mining, and techniques, methods and equipment. Bringing the struggles of miners to life, and enhanced by numerous illustrations by some of the leading engravers of the day, the book is regarded as having inspired and informed Émile Zola, whose great novel Germinal (1885) depicts coal miners' lives during a strike. Simonin's work reached a wide readership in his native France, and this English translation appeared in 1869.

Author's preface
Note by the translator
List of coloured illustrations
List of geological maps
Table of illustrations
Part I. Coal Mines: 1. Coal mines - past and present
2. Origin of coal
3. History and tradition
4. The black country
5. How coal is discovered
6. Shafts and levels
7. How the coal is worked
8. The field of battle
9. Falls of roof and inundations
10. The perilous passage
11. The soldier of the abyss
12. Today and tomorrow
Part II. Metalliferous Mines: 1. The stages of the human race
2. The laboratory of nature
3. The princes of the mineral kingdom
4. The metalliferous world: Europe and Asia
5. The metalliferous world: America, Polynesia, Africa
6. Eureka
7. Hidden treasures
8. The attack on the ground
9. The sisters of the catacombs
10. Crushing and washing
11. The phalanx of miners
12. The wealth of nations
Part III. Mines of Precious Stones: 1. The family of gems
2. In the east and under the tropics
3. The seekers
Index.

Subject Areas: Mining technology & engineering [TTU]