quartz battery
- noun
- Archaic
:
batería de cuarzo
- During the 19th century, miners relied on the quartz battery to process tons of ore.
Examples
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A tour of the site featured a demonstration of the restored quartz battery in operation.
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The abandoned gold field still has a quartz battery standing near the creek.
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The quartz battery is essential for gold extraction.
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Many miners rely on quartz batteries for their operations.
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During the 19th century, miners relied on the quartz battery to process tons of ore.
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A tour of the site featured a demonstration of the restored quartz battery in operation.
-
The abandoned gold field still has a quartz battery standing near the creek.
Synonyms
3
9.5
A set of heavy machines used to crush rock in a mine
A machine that crushes quartz rock to get gold or other metals
A machine with heavy metal weights that fall to crush rock to get gold
Surface Forms
Morphology
Although 'quartz' is transparent, the noun 'battery' here uses a specialized, historical mining sense ('a series of heavy stamps') that is not part of general B1 knowledge (common senses are 'electric cell' or 'artillery unit'). The overall meaning — a machine for crushing quartz ore — cannot be reliably derived by a B1 learner who only knows the ordinary senses of the constituents, so the expression is opaque.
Etymology
Quartz battery: The noun quartz battery names an old mining machine. One popular story says the word battery here refers to a line of heavy iron stamps that would 'beat' and 'crush' pieces of quartz to free the gold inside, so quartz battery means the set of machines used to crush ore.