12 



Where a mine, which already is being worked, is to be reformed, the first 

 care should iu most cases be to widen and regulate the passages, in order to 

 obtain a more rational and effective transport than the present one, and to pre- 

 pare the way for the use in the- working places themselves of larger drill-holes 

 and more powerful explosives. 



In cases, where a thorough execution of this measure appears impracticable, 

 because it requires either too heavy an outlay or too much time, for the begin- 

 ning maiu-galleries might at all events be created, to which the ores could be 

 taken from the pitches in the old fashion. These main-galleries should, if pos- 

 sible, be furnished with tramways, or at least with runners for Hungarian carts 

 or wheelbarrows. 



Where large quantities have to be lifted to considerable heights, mechanical 

 aids such as windlasses or winding machines, driven by horse — , water — , or even- 

 tually steam-power, should be employed. 



Iu all those mines, where work is carried on below the water-adit, a wide 

 field is open for improvements in the drainage. 



In many instances the conditions for affording a remedy, without any dis- 

 proportionate outlay, are already in existence. 



It is at the more important mines nearly always the case, that there between- 

 the upper-workings and the water-adit is a fall of several hundred feet, and also 

 a considerable quantity of water, which at present flows into the sump, without 

 doing any work whatsoever ; if this water were collected in a proper manner, 

 and conducted over the water-adit, it might easily be made to serve for driving 

 a water-pressure engine or a turbine, in some instances perhaps also a water- 

 wheel. Under favorable circumstances these motors might do service not only 

 for tbe drainage, but also for the hoisting. 



In such places, where there is not sufficient water-power, steam-engines might 

 be erected in the interior of the mine, to drive suction — or force — pumps, and iu 

 many instances the old workings above the adit might by a proper arrangement 

 be used as chimney for the subterranean boiler . By either of these, compara- 

 tively inexpensive, methods or by others based upon the application of comp- 

 ressed air many a mine, that is now abandoned because of the water, could as- 

 suredly again be made profitable. 



In extensive mines, where large masses of water have to be lifted, it would, 

 however, be necessary, for central hoisting and drainage, to establish regular 

 shafts supplied with proper machinery. 



Good ventilation might be procured, on the one hand iu the usual way, by a 

 proper regulation of the natural air-current, and — where requisite — by veutilators, 

 by larger dimensions of the passages &c. ; on the other hand by using for illu- 

 minating purposes a material, that fouls the air less than burning bamboo. 



