62 Original Articles. [Jan., 



opening for the ladder seems to be the only spot on which ytfu can 

 step ; you must look carefully. Once we were struck behind on the 

 hard rim of the hat ; the rock itself had done it, and we were thereby 

 informed that we must keep the head close to the beam, and not stand 

 quite so much at our ease as the men do in the plate. At another time 

 we were struck on the right elbow, and then on the left, and thus with 

 authority informed that we must keep from the sides. These are all 

 evils easily remedied. The hard rim of the hat is a great protection 

 to the head ; this is the cause of its constant use in mines, a lesson to 

 those who too severely depreciate our common head-covering which 

 has saved many lives. 



We have shown the single man-engine. The double one has no 

 steps or platforms on the rocks. There are two rods with steps, ex- 

 actly like that seen in the centre of Fig. 1 and on Fig. 2. One faces 

 the other : when one falls, the other rises. The man leaps on the 

 steps, not exactly as it passes by him, for it stays an instant to reverse 

 the motion. We may go in this way at double speed. There is one 

 put up at Mariemont, in Hainault, by M. Warocque, which seems to 

 give greater protection to the men, who are not brought in con- 

 tact with the side of the shaft. The mechanism is ingenious, but 

 need not be described here.* The price of this engine, steam engine 

 included, was 20,000 fr. for 228 metres ; 32,000 for 600 metres ; say 

 800Z. for 114 fathoms, on 1,280Z. for 300 fathoms. A fathom is not 

 quite two metres. 



Advantage of the man-engine. — Mr. Croch says, " A man was work- 

 ing in Wheel Reeth in a very close end, and disease of the chest was 

 coming on ; he went to work where there was a man -engine and reco- 

 vered. He and others also recovered much more rapidly than men 

 who were put into better air, and still did not use the man-engine." 



Captain Stevens says, " Before we had the man-engine, we could 

 not get men above twenty years of age to go down to the bottom of 

 our mine." Now there are men up to sixty. 



Captain Daw says, " They would rather stay down two hours 

 than climb up from the bottom of the mine." They get more expe- 

 rienced men now, and fifteen per cent, more labour. 



Captain Stevens considers that in all mines a saving of a quarter 

 is made by the engine ; in deep mines still more, in shallow mines less. 

 Others consider that a man-engine will not pay itself unless the mine 

 is 100 fathoms deep. 



Objections. — The objections to the man-engine are its expense, being 

 ill-fitted except for well-established mines ; that it demands the con- 

 stant attention of the men ; if they make one false step it is fatal. Is 

 human nature fit for such exactness '? and what class of men, or what 

 individual, is capable of passing through life without one mistake ? 

 However wearied, these men must be on the alert, and perform exactly 

 every six seconds an act on which life dej>ends. As to the first objec- 

 tion, we cannot expect a man-engine for every new mine, but every 

 new mine docs not require it. The beginning cannot be deep. The 



* See 'Exploitation des Mines.' Par M. Ch. Combes, vol. iii. p. 176. 



