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that a well manufactured wire rope will last three times as 
long as a hempen rope, and he has determined to substitute 
the former wherever the latter is now used in the collieries 
under his control. The patentee says that the case just men- 
tioned is the only breakage of his rope that has occurred. 
It seems that wire ropes are becoming much used in North- 
umberland and Durham ; and the best judges in mining affairs, 
both here and elsewhere, are beginning to think favourably of 
them. Mr. Stephenson — whose great and deserved fame as 
an engineer gives peculiar weight to his opinion on this and 
all other questions connected with mechanical science — has 
adopted and approved the metallic ropes. At his Claycross 
Colliery and Crich Lime Works, there are several inclined 
planes on which the wire ropes are working well. One of 
these inclines rises 1 in 3, and runs with a very heavy load ; 
and the wire rope in this, and in the other places near Ches- 
terfield, bids fair to surpass the hempen rope in economy and 
durability. 
But the most signal instance of the successful application 
of wire ropes is to be found on the Blackwall Railway. The 
line is 3^ miles long, and a round wire rope, weighing 13 lbs. 
per fathom, stretches from one end to the other. The hempen 
ropes have been gradually removed, and a great reduction in 
the expense of working the railway has been effected by sub- 
stituting wire ropes in their place. 
A careful consideration of the preceding facts and experi- 
ments will, perhaps, justify me in offering a few conclusions 
and suggestions on this subject. 
From the experience hitherto obtained, it is obvious that 
the wire ropes possess many advantages over the hempen 
ones. They cost less money, in the first instance, most 
assuredly ; for, although the present price of Smith's ropes 
varies from £70 to £80 per ton, and of Heimann's ropes 
from £65 to £100 per ton, yet their greatly diminished 
