160 COALFIELDS AND COLLIERIES OF AUSTRALIA. 



quantity of air is able to pass through a narrower space. The 

 sides of the casino- are made to taper with the blades. The 

 tips of the blades bend away from the direction of motion. 

 The fan is driven by a single cylinder horizontal engine of 10 

 horse power, supplied by H. P. Gregory and Co., of Sydney. 



The water in the mine is partly fresh from surface drain- 

 age, and partly brackish. The Northern District is thirty 

 feet below the level of the sea, but several chains inland. There 

 are two pumps employed to drain the mine, one a single acting 

 2^ in. plunger pump worked oft' the tail rope, which is given 

 a turn round a pulley: the other a geared ram having a 3 in. 

 delivery pipe. The latter pump, together with a Stephenson 

 Ilocket oil engine for driving it, was supplied by Robt. 

 Stephenson, of Westminster. At first the porcelain ignition 

 tubes of .the engine gave trouble bv breaking, but now the 

 blacksmith makes steel tubes which work well. 



The skips are gathered by horses of 15 or 16 hands high, 

 but for any specially low places, ponies are used. The horses 

 are stabled at the surface. The skips are hauled in and out 

 of the mine by a main and tail rope system, at a rate of about 

 twelve miles per hour. The main rope is 3in. in circumfer- 

 ence, and the tail rope 2-1 in. This system is employed in 

 both the Northern and Western Districts, but as there is only 

 one engine for the two districts, onlv one district can be worked 

 at a time. The connection for either district is made a short 

 distance from the entrance to the mine, where the return line 

 for the empties of the Northern District cuts through the kip of 

 the Western District, the space being bridged over by loose 

 rails when it is required to draw out from the Western Dis- 

 trict. The ropes are wound up on drums bv a duplex engine of 

 Tangyes 1 make, K size, geared 3 to 1. The drums are thrown 

 in and out of gear by means of claw clutches, and strap brakes 

 are situated between the drums. This engine is installed in a 

 chamber underground, where it is protected from the sea air. 

 Communication along the haulage ways and the engine-driver 

 is made by means of electric signals in the usual manner. 

 Steam for the various engines is generated in a Cornish boiler 

 at the surface. 



At present the colliery is dependent on water carriage, 

 both for its stores and as a moans of transport for its coal, ex- 

 cept a limited amount of stores that is lowered down over the 

 clift from the main road in a box which is worked up and down 

 an aerial rope by means of a friction winch that is usually 

 employed in hauling skips of slack to the top of a storage 

 hopper. Convenient as sea carriage may be as the jetty goes 

 straight out into the Pacific Ocean and has 110 protection from 

 the waves and sea breezes, there are times when the company's 

 steam-boats cannot lay along side, but it is understood that 



