Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

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            <p type="caption">
              <s>
                <pb pagenum="160"/>
              ground, which miners place under the hoppers which are close by the shaft
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              houses, these are usually hollowed out of single trees. </s>
              <s>Hoppers are generally
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              made of four planks, so cut on the lower side and joined together that the
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              top part of the hopper is broader and the bottom part narrower.</s>
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            <p type="main">
              <s>I have sufficiently indicated the nature of the miners' iron tools and
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              their vessels. </s>
              <s>I will now explain their machines, which are of three kinds,
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              that is, hauling machines, ventilating machines, and ladders. </s>
              <s>By means of
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              the hauling machines loads are drawn out of the shafts; the ventilating
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              machines receive the air through their mouths and blow it into shafts or
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              tunnels, for if this is not done, diggers cannot carry on their labour without
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              great difficulty in breathing; by the steps of the ladders the miners go
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              down into the shafts and come up again.</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>Hauling machines are of varied and diverse forms, some of them being
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              made with great skill, and if I am not mistaken, they were unknown to the
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              Ancients. </s>
              <s>They have been invented in order that water may be drawn from
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              the depths of the earth to which no tunnels reach, and also the excavated
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              material from shafts which are likewise not connected with a tunnel, or if
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              so, only with very long ones. </s>
              <s>Since shafts are not all of the same depth, there
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              is a great variety among these hauling machines. </s>
              <s>Of those by which dry loads
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              are drawn out of the shafts, five sorts are in the most common use, of which
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              I will now describe the first. </s>
              <s>Two timbers a little longer than the shaft are
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              placed beside it, the one in the front of the shaft, the other at the back.
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              </s>
              <s>Their extreme ends have holes through which stakes, pointed at the bottom
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              like wedges, are driven deeply into the ground, so that the timbers may remain
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              stationary. </s>
              <s>Into these timbers are mortised the ends of two cross-timbers,
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              one laid on the right end of the shaft, while the other is far enough
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              from the left end that between it and that end there remains suitable
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              space for placing the ladders. </s>
              <s>In the middle of the cross-timbers, posts are
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              fixed and secured with iron keys. </s>
              <s>In hollows at the top of these posts
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              thick iron sockets hold the ends of the barrel, of which each end projects
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              beyond the hollow of the post, and is mortised into the end of another
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              piece of wood a foot and a half long, a palm wide and three digits thick;
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              the other end of these pieces of wood is seven digits wide, and into each
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              of them is fixed a round handle, likewise a foot and a half long. </s>
              <s>A
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              winding-rope is wound around the barrel and fastened to it at the
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              middle part. </s>
              <s>The loop at each end of the rope has an iron hook which
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              is engaged in the bale of a bucket, and so when the windlass revolves by
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              being turned by the cranks, a loaded bucket is always being drawn out of the
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              shaft and an empty one is being sent down into it. </s>
              <s>Two robust men turn
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              the windlass, each having a wheelbarrow near him, into which he unloads
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              the bucket which is drawn up nearest to him; two buckets generally fill a
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              wheelbarrow; therefore when four buckets have been drawn up, each man
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              runs his own wheelbarrow out of the shed and empties it. </s>
              <s>Thus it happens
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              that if shafts are dug deep, a hillock rises around the shed of the windlass.
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              </s>
              <s>If a vein is not metal-bearing, they pour out the earth and rock without
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              discriminating; whereas if it is metal-bearing, they preserve these materials, </s>
            </p>
          </chap>
        </body>
      </text>
    </archimedes>
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