BOOK VI. 



i6i 



which they unload separately and crush and wash. When they draw up 

 buckets of water they empty the water through the hopper into a trough, 

 through which it flows away. 



A — Timber placed in front of the shaft. B — Timber placed at the back of the 

 SHAFT. C — Pointed stakes. D — Cross-timbers. E — Posts or thick planks. 

 F — Iron sockets. G — Barrel. H — Ends of barrel. I — Pieces of wood. 

 K — Handle. L — Drawing-rope. M — Its hook. N — Bucket. O — Bale of the 



bucket. 



The next kind of machine, which miners employ when the shaft is 

 deeper, differs from the first in that it possesses a wheel as well as cranks. 

 This windlass, if the load is not being drawn up from a great depth, is turned 

 by one windlass man, the wheel taking the place of the other man. But if the 

 depth is greater, then the windlass is turned by three men, the wheel being 

 substituted for a fourth, because the barrel having been once set in motion, 

 the rapid revolutions of the wheel help, and it can be turned more easily. 

 Sometimes masses of lead are hung on to this wheel, or are fastened to the 

 spokes, in order that when it is turned they depress the spokes by their weight 

 and increase the motion ; some persons for the same reason fasten into the 

 barrel two, three, or four iron rods, and weight their ends with lumps of lead. 

 The windlass wheel differs from the wheel of a carriage and from the one 



