be the only important machines of the subsequent century? G. E. Lohneyss,[12] writing a little over a half century after the publication of De re metallica, declared:

Figure 6.—Stangenkunst, Showing Driving Wheel, Feldkunst, and Kunstkreuz. From H. Calvör (see footnote 15).

The Stangenkunst, which can be roughly translated as “rod work with crank,” was a piston pump driven through a crank and rods by a prime mover located at a distant point. Agricola describes a crank-driven piston pump, calling it a new machine invented ten years earlier.[13] But it is not driven bya distant prime mover. Like his other water-powered hauling machines it can only be used “when a running stream can be diverted to a mine.” So far as we can determine from internal evidence, Agricola did not know the Stangenkunst.

Although the full development of the Stangenkunst came later, it was apparently introduced in Agricola’s time. Its introduction to the Erzgebirge has been put as early as 1550.[14] According to another authority it was introduced to the Harz in 1565 by one Heinrich Eschenbach of Meissen.[15] Its significance is only made clear to us by later authorities. As shown in figure 3 it was adapted to the utilization of a distant stream, through the Feldstangen, an extended horizontal series of reciprocating rods, and the Kunstkreuz (fig. 6), a lever in the shape of a cross for changing at right angles the direction of power transmission. These improvements may have been almost contemporaneous with Agricola, as Calvör mentions the use of the Feldkunst, which term signified the extended rods, as having been known in 1565.

The disadvantage of moving the weight of a long extension of rods was obviated, during the 17th century, through the use of a double set of balanced rods, resembling a pantograph. At some later date the horse whim was fitted with a crank and adapted to the