ABSTRACT
Where the access to an underground mine is by a shaft sunk from the surface, it is necessary to hoist the mined broken ore or coal up the shaft. In some cases, the ore haulage cars are placed directly in cages and hoisted and sometimes the ore is drawn from ore pockets into special ore skips and hoisted up the shaft, where it is automatically dumped into a bin on the surface. For deep mines, hoisting chains were used instead of hemp rope, as at the Rammelsberg mine in 1565. Spectacular developments in steam hoisting took place later in the nineteenth century and in the early twentieth century. Considerable improvements were made in rope manufacture, in engine design, and in the shape of hoisting drums. Most steam winders used drums on which the ropes were alternately stored and paid out as the conveyance was hoisted up or down its shaft compartment.
