Baron von Eschwege and his bloomery ironworks, Fabrica Patriotica

摘要

Von Eschwege was born in 1777 in the small village of Aue near Eschwege V in Hesse, south-east of Kassel in Germany. He studied law at the University of Gottingen, then geology, mining and metallurgy at the University of Marburg and finally joined the school of mining and metallurgy at Clausthal. From here, he expanded his knowledge of mining by working in different mining areas in Germany, where, in 1800, he made the acquaintance of F L Varnhagen, later to become his friend, in Portugal and, following the Napoleonic invasion of that country, on fleeing to Brazil. In 1803 he travelled to Portugal at the request of the hessian minister Waitz von Eschen. At that time the mining industry in Portugal was primitive. There were no skilled workers, no entrepreneurial activity and no mining tradition existed. In 1801 Jose Bonifacio d'Andrada - who was born in Brazil - had become chairman of the regional mining inspectorate. -(He was later to became a Brazilian minister and friend of Alexander von Humboldt, the famous explorer of South America). In Portugal, d'Andrada attempted to initiate new developments. Eschwege was invited to became director of the iron and steel plant at Foz d Alge at the age of only 26 years. He travelled to Germany to hire skilled workers and produced the first iron after his return. In his notes on mining and metallurgical in Portugal, including its history, he describes in detail the organisation of the administration (Junta da administracao) and the people involved. As an example, he mentions the technical head of the iron works, who was '....a monk, escaped from an Irish monastery, who was usually drunk'.