MAN-ENGINE 



197 



fathoms, and on June 20, 1843, it was finished ; its length being 290 fathoms and 

 the mine being at this time 311 fathoms deep below the adit. 



The second man-engine was constructed by Hocking and Loam, in 1845 at the 

 Great United Mines in Gwennap. The temperature was 120 Fahr. at the bottom of 

 the mine, and it was an urgent necessity to diminish the fatigue of the miners as 

 much as possible. They contented themselves with copying the plan which had suc- 

 ceeded so well at Trevesean, only making some slight differences in detail. 



In 1851 the late Captain Puckey and Mr. West, an engineer, adopted a' new system 

 for the Fowey Consols mine. 



A single rod, furnished with steps, worked in the shaft ; a series of platforms are 

 fixed at different parts of the shaft ; these have, like the steps, spaces of 12 feet 



1430 



1431 







\ 



between them, and they are placed on a level corresponding with the steps at the 

 extremity of the stroke of the rod. The miner, quitting one step, waits on the plat- 

 form until the next reaches him. This man-engine can also be used at the same 

 time by miners ascending and by miners descending. The stoppage at the plat- 

 form is of sufficient length for one man to pass on to the step which another has just 

 abandoned. 



The machine with a single rod has been since applied by Mr. Hocking to Levant 

 mine, and in 1854 to that of Dolcoath. It may thus be considered as being now the 

 most used in Cornwall, and it possesses an incontestable superiority over machines 

 with two rods. 



The man-engines in the Cornish mines are so much alike in their construction, that 

 it is quite unnecessary to describe each of them. Their general . characters will ba 

 understood by examining the accompanying woodcuts, figs. 1430 and 1431. 



At Fowey Consols the machine is worked by a water-wheel of about 50 horse-power, 



