64 Original Articles. [Jan., 



The evidence of the miners themselves is sufficient to show that 

 something connected with the climbing is injurious. Nearly vertical 

 climbing in the purest air causes violent heart-beating. It is pro- 

 bably a question of intensity ; for example, you may burn a ton of 

 coals in keeping a piece of iron warm for a month, but if you burn the 

 same amount in an hour, you may melt the metal entirely. So with 

 the ladders : the peculiar position encourages violent exertion. To 

 rise 300 fathoms on a sloping hill in an hour and a half is a tourist's 

 pleasure, and yet the length is added to the height. The evil must 

 be partly mental, a constant strain on the attention, such as the fatigue 

 a man feels after passing great danger. 



The evidence is overwhelming against long ladders, whatever the 

 explanation. 



Ship. — The mode of access that seems to be the rival to the man- 

 engine is by the skip. This rises from the lowest depths in two to 

 three minutes ; at South Frances mine, four or five, to 150 fathoms. The 

 skip is an iron box with guides, so that it does not swing like the bucket. 

 There is more time saved by this than by any method, and less trouble 

 is given. The position is very cramped, you cannot move an arm when 

 two are present. Captain Trahair says, " There ought to be a sort of 

 bonnet over the men's heads ; " we felt seriously the want of this. 

 Captain Boyns does not think skips safe except in perpendicular shafts, 

 being apt to go off the line. They are used in shafts which may not be 

 quite perpendicular in their whole course. 



The skip, according to Mr. Richards, costs 11. 10s. a fathom ; the 

 man-engine 31. 10s. When a chain breaks over an uncovered skip, 

 it falls down on the heads, and even if the 'catch holds, there is no 

 safety.* The safety-catch seems successful, but not always so, still 

 this is clearly in the power of man. Shall we trust to the care and 

 memory which may fail once only during # a life, or to the skill of the 

 workman ; to the mind or to the machinery ? A safety-hoist in Man- 

 chester fell, because a pin had been forgotten, and was fatal to one Or 

 more persons ; it was safe only when all was in order. A few years 

 ago, Mr. Binyon insisted that the hoist in his sugar-works, now be- 

 longing to Messrs Fryer, Benson, and Forster, should have six ropes, 

 each of which should alone suffice for safety, and indeed, if anything 

 went wrong, it was a question difficult to answer, whether the hoist 

 would go up or down, it was so well counterbalanced. So admirably 

 has this plan answered, that the one rope, in at least six years, has 

 never broken or required changing. The conditions may be different 

 from those in the mines, but a useful idea may be perhaps obtained 

 here. 



Capt. Pascoe and Mr. Cady say that it costs 4f d. to lift a ton of men 

 or of stuff 150 fathoms. They use Bennett's patent catch, and a wire rope. 

 The men can come up in two minutes ; and without a skip, they would 

 require half ah hour's climbing. We may here remark that if 150 

 fathoms can be ascended in half an hour, whilst it requires one 



* On writing this on the 19th November, 1864, we read that eight men have 

 yesterday been killed in this way, the skip also fell. 



