396 
At Emroyd, near Horbury Bridge, (another colliery be- 
longing to Stansfeld and Briggs), a wire rope was used for 
drawing coals out of an upcast shaft. Its length was 90 yards, 
and its circumference about 21 inches. This rope ought to 
have borne a strain of nine or ten tons; but the greatest 
weight ever lifted by it at one time was five or six hundred- 
weight ; and in the course of four or five months, the rope 
broke just as the engine was lifting the full corf from the 
bottom of the pit. The pulley here is three feet diameter ; 
but the breakage occurred in a portion of the rope which 
seldom went over the pulley — that is, between the pulley and 
the pit top. As the fracture took place when the engine was 
starting, it may be said to have been occasioned by a sudden 
jerk. Corrosive vapours from the furnace below were con- 
tinually ascending the shaft ; and besides these, the rope was 
a good deal exposed to the action of chalybeate water ; and 
although the metallic surface was at first coated over with a 
tarry or asphaltic composition, yet the bare wire was soon 
exposed to the process of oxidation, by the wearing away of 
the protecting substance ; and when the rope was laid aside, 
after the breakage, the iron was found to have undergone 
very considerable corrosion. 
Mr. Briggs also tried one of Smith's Jlat wire ropes at 
Flockton CoUiery. It was 100 yards long, 31 inches broad, 
and 3-8ths of an inch thick. Much difficulty was experienced 
in keeping this roipe flat, its tendency being to tirist round, in 
its passage up and down the pit. It was so light, as com- 
pared with a hempen rope, that a slight blast of wind blew it 
out of the pulleys ; and on one occasion, when it was blown 
out, it got entangled among the wheels of the engine, and 
was so much damaged that it was laid aside as useless. 
Certainly this was not a fair trial of its merits ; for, if proper 
means had been adopted for keeping the rope in its place, it 
perhaps might have worked satisfactorily. 
