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Deep mining in the Czech lands began at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries. Iron and hammers were mainly used for punching mine shafts, in suitable conditions with the help of so-called setting fire, during which the rock was more easily loosened. The process was laborious and slow using common mining tools and implements. With an iron and a hammer, about 2.5 cm was broken out in a 6-hour shift in a corridor with a profile of roughly 2 x 1 m. Corridors were therefore usually only made of hatch profiles. With the help of an iron and a hammer, mine shafts were excavated until the middle of the 18th century, the first use of gunpowder for blasting work in the mine was recorded in 1627 in Banská Štiavnica, from where it gradually spread to other countries.