122 MINING INDUSTET. 



revolved, turning the tappets upward entirely out of the path of the cage 

 when the latter is to be lowered. The cage in ascending, striking the tappets, 

 raises them in passing, when they fall again into place and the cage is lowered 

 upon them. When the cage is ready to descend again it is first raised a few 

 inches, the tappets are turned up out of the way by means of a lever within 

 reach of the lander, or man who attends to the car, and held in that position 

 until the cage has passed down. This contrivance is illustrated in Fig. 3, on 

 Plate VII. The drawing represents a section of the mouth of the shaft and 

 of the platform of the cage, taken through the line i i of Fig. 1. 



P, Fig. 3, is the platform of the cage, and^, ^ are the cross-bars of the 

 frame, to which the tappets, h, h, ajBTord support when in the position shown in 

 the drawing. The tappets are fixed on light, round shafts below the floor, and 

 may be revolved slightly toward or from the cage by means of levers, one 

 end of which, the handle L, is within reach of the attendant, and the action 

 of which may be readily understood by an inspection of the drawing. The 

 dotted lines indicate the position of the various parts of this contrivance 

 when the lever L is drawn back, so as to turn the tappets out of the way of 

 the descending cage. By this movement the springs, j, j, are forced into the 

 position indicated by dotted lines, and cause the tappets to return to their 

 former place as soon the lever L is released by the attendant. A similar ar- 

 rangement is sometimes employed at the different stations in the shaft, though 

 usually, when hoisting is in progress from any particular station, it is common 

 to place a few planks across the shaft for the cage to rest upon. 



The car, while on the cage platform, is held securely in place, sometimes 

 by hooks fitting into staples in the body of the car, sometimes by tappets, 

 which being fixed under the platform may be turned up so as to block the 

 wheels of the car or turned down again to permit its exit. These blocks are 

 controlled by handles, k, k, on the sides of the cage, as may be seen in the 

 drawings. It will be observed that the handles not only extend in opposite 

 directions but are attached to opposite sides of the cage, as shown in Fig. 1. 



The speed with which cages are hoisted varies in the different mines 

 from 300 or 400 to 800 feet per minute, or even more. With an average 



