LA CONTAGIOSA FIEBRE DEL WOLFRAM

"Entre tanto, la locura del wólfram iba invadiéndolo todo. Cada cortijero que veía una piedra negruzca en su huerto, se creía dueño de una mina con la que se haría millonario en cuatro días. Cuando aparecía el ingeniero Rezola por el pueblo, se formaban colas de gente que le traía piedras para que las analizase. El ingeniero, al principio, los recibía con una amabilidad basada, tal vez, en la posibilidad de que pudieran traerle alguna muestra interesante. Pero acabó por hartarse, y sin mirar siquiera las piedras, mandaba a todos a paseo.

Es cosa sabida que en esa época, se organizaban en la frontera gallega pedreas simuladas de chiquillos, con el fin de que las piedras con señales de wólfram que se encontraban en la parte española llegasen a poder de los ingleses, que tenían preponderancia en Portugal."

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THE CONTAGIOUS WOLFRAM FEVER

In the meantime, wolfram/tungsten madness invaded everything. Every farmer who saw a blackish stone in his land, thought he was already the owner of a mine and that, in a few days he would become a millionaire. When Rezola, the engineer, appeared in the village queues of people would come with their stones in order to have them analysed. At first, he received everyone with great friendliness thinking they might bring him an interesting specimen, however, he soon became fed up and, without even looking at the stones, would quickly dispatch them.

It was well known at the time that in the Galician border, stone-throwing by kids were simulated in order that stones marked with wolfram, found on the Spanish side, would reach the English who were preponderant in Portugal.