146 MmMG INDUSTET. 



bell-wire or rope can be readied from the cage and a signal communicated 

 thereby. 



When a cage arrives at the surface from the mine, bringing a loaded car, 

 the latter is received by the attendant and disposed of according to its char- 

 acter. If the contents of the car be milling ore, it is moved upon a track 

 to the ore-house and its load deposited in one of the bins ; if the car contain 

 waste-rock it is moved on through the ore-house to the waste -dump, and there 

 discharged. The landing, or floor, about the mouth of the shaft, and at the 

 intersection of tracks in the ore-house, is covered with boiler-plate, so that a 

 car may easily be turned in any direction without the use of a turn-table. 

 The ore-house has twelve bins of large capacity into which the ore, arriving 

 at the surface from the mine, is dumped, to await transportation to the miUs. 

 The ore is delivered from the bins through sliding doors which are placed 

 sufficiently high above the road to permit the wagon or car to stand under- 

 neath and receive its load without handling. 



Each hoisting compartment of the mine shaft is provided, on its two 

 open sides, with light gates that are made of stout iron wire, and so arranged 

 as to slide up and down between guides. The ascending cage, reaching the 

 mouth of the shaft, comes in contact with the gate and lifts it up, so that the 

 way is open from the cage to the landing ; as soon as the cage is lowered the 

 gate resumes its place before the shaft-mouth. Before the introduction of 

 this simple preventive some fata,l accidents occurred, men having sometimes 

 stepped into the shaft and fallen to the bottom. A case of this kind took 

 place in the spring of 1868, when one of the attendants was pushing an 

 empty car toward one of the compartments to await the arrival of the cage 

 which was then below. Finding that the car was moving with too much 

 speed he endeavored to check it, but without success, and in his attempts to 

 prevent the car from falling into the shaft, held on to it so persistently that 

 he lost control of himself and fell in with it. 



The shops appertaining to these works are amply provided with all 

 necessary facilities for the construction and repair of hoisting cages, cars, 

 wheelbarrows, and similar machinery used in the mine ; and there are 

 timber-framing machines by means of which aU the timbers used under- 

 ground are easily and cheaply prepared. The value of this estabhshment is 

 placed at $150,000 in the pubhshed statement of the assets of the company. 



