Last updated A Radstube with water wheel in the Rammelsberg MineReinsberg: looking into the Radstube chamber of the reversible water wheel of the Lichtloch IV of the Rothschönberger Stolln. In the Radstube used to be a wheel with a diameter of 11.9 metres and a width of 1.6 metres.
Radstube means something like "wheelhouse" or "wheel room" and is the German mining term for a surface or underground structure designed to house a water wheel in order to drive a flatrod system.
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef or placer deposit. These deposits form a mineralized package that is of economic interest to the miner.
A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel, with a number of blades or buckets arranged on the outside rim forming the driving surface.
The flatrod system was an invention of the mining industry that enabled the mechanical movement generated by a water wheel to be transferred over short distances. It was invented in the 16th century and by the 18th century was being used to transmit power up to four kilometres. Flatrod systems were widely used in the Harz and Ore Mountains of Germany as well as in Cornwall, England and Bergslagen in Sweden.
The fast-developing mining industry in Europe in the Middle Ages led to big increases in the quantities of materials used, mineshafts being sunk to ever increasing depths and, in particular, sharply rising demands on the water management of mines, all of which required suitable sources of power. One option for fulfilling these requirements was hydropower and the construction of water wheels. These were enclosed in buildings, or Radstuben, to protect them from the weather. The name Radstube was later also applied to underground chambers designed to accommodate a water wheel.
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages.
The installation of underground Radstuben was particularly difficult and expensive.
Literature
Alfred Nehls: Aller Reichtum lag in der Erde. Verlag Gronenberg, Gummersbach, 1993, ISBN3-88265-180-6
The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.
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