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Figure 15.—1845 Pian of the mining and transportation facilities. (L.C.N.C.) 
solved by constructing an inclined loading chute at 
Mauch Chunk that extended downward from Mount 
Pisgah to a coal-loading house along the Lehigh River. 
The coal house projected over the river’s edge to fa- 
cilitate loading the boats. The inclined chute was 
double tracked for the steepest descent and single 
tracked thereafter. The length of the chute was 700 
feet and the difference in elevation was 215 feet. 
Individual wagons were unloaded at the bottom of 
the incline by a projecting bar which contacted the 
lower end of the wagon and knocked it open, thus 
releasing the coal into the loading pocket. 
A large wooden drum was installed at the top of 
the chute around which a rope or small cable wound. 
The turning of this drum on a horizontal axis released 
the rope and controlled the descent of the loaded 
108 
wagon. At the same time, the other end of the rope, 
which was fastened to the empty wagon, wound up 
and returned the empty wagon to the top. A metal 
band was fitted around this drum to prevent it from 
revolving at too great a speed and was tightened or 
loosened by a lever attached to the band. The capacity 
of the loading chute was 200 wagons a day.** 
During 1838, the company installed, on the 1200- 
foot plane on the Room Run road, an iron band (one- 
twelfth of an inch thick by three inches wide) as a 
substitute for the rope or small cable that was used 
previously to hoist the coal wagons up and down the 
incline. The experiment proved successful and similar 
°! SILLIMAN, op. cit., p. 9. 
BULLETIN 252: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 
