Open-pan salt making from lead using wood as a fuel. In Britain they established towns for salt production at Droitwich in Worcestershire, and Nantwich, Middlewich and Northwich in Cheshire. In the early Middle Ages these developed into the 'wich' towns of Cheshire. Small 'wich' houses containing several lead pans to evapourate the brine into salt, clustered around brine springs within each of the towns. The open-pan process continued largely unchanged throughout the medieval period. A 17th-century German wood-cut by Georgius Agricola shows the process in detail. Excavated evidence has uncovered wooden rakes to draw salt crystals to the side of the pan, and
California State Mining and Mineral Museum California State Mining and Mineral Museum The California State Mining and Mineral Museum is a museum in the state park system of California, USA, interpreting the state's mineral resources and mining heritage. It is located in Mariposa on the Mariposa County fairgrounds. The big news of 1848 was the discovery of gold in California. This event created international interest and soon a mass immigration of fortune seekers and pioneers trekked their way to pan the streams for gold in the Sierra Nevada foothills. More than a century later, gold and legends of Old West mining continue to fascinate historians. Although