406 
field, which, according to an estimate he had made, would not 
cost more than £600. In a conversation which he once had 
with Mr. Bidley, who lost his life at Liverpool, that gentleman 
stated a fact of great importance. He said that if wire or 
iron of any kind was painted after leaving the furnace, and 
before being exposed to the air, it would scarcely ever cor- 
rode. It was therefore a point to be attended to, that iron 
or wire intended for exposure to the atmosphere, should be 
coloured before the slightest corrosion takes place. 
Mr. Dunn, of the Sheffield Coal Company, remarked 
that although to many persons present the question of wire 
ropes would doubtless be an uninteresting one, yet as the 
cost of ropes formed a heavy item of expenditure in all large 
mining concerns, he hoped he should be excused for trespas- 
sing a short time on the patience of the meeting, as he had 
used three wire ropes at the Sheffield Collieries, and could 
therefore give an account of ropes actually used. For a 
general remark, it is near enough the truth to say, that a 
wire rope, able to bear the same strain as a best hempen 
rope, will cost about the same amount of money, — the weight 
of the wire rope will be about one half the weight of the 
hempen rope. The ropes he tried were of Smith's patent, 
manufactured by Wm. Fox and Co. They were tried in 
three different situations, — one as a drawing rope, which 
may be called a; one on a self-acting Incline, h ; one on a 
stationary Incline, c. The rope a w^orked over a 7 feet 
pulley, and was wound round an 8 feet drum ; its weight was 
41 lbs. per fathom : the weight of the hempen rope usually 
working in that situation was 9 lbs. per fathom. The wire 
rope was at work four months, and was then removed nearly 
broken through. The average cost of a hempen rope in that 
situation is 15s. per month ; the cost of the wire rope was 
60s. per month. The rope b worked over a pulley 3 feet in 
diameter ; its weight was 4 lbs. per fathom : the weight of 
