INDUSTRIES In 1586 and 1602 four hours in the twenty-four was the longest time during which a tinner could remain at work, 1 but by Pryce's time it had become possible to extend this to six hours, 2 and, fifty years afterwards, to eight. 3 Another result of the better ventilation was that instead of being forced to sink air shafts at a distance of about 30 fathoms from one another, the miners, by the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth century, could proceed 100 fathoms from a shaft without feeling discomfort. 4 The old-fashioned methods of descent into the mines by means of long ladders, so injurious to the health of the men, have, within the last century, been superseded in the larger mines by the use of the man-engine, which was first intro- duced in i842. 5 The expense of this arrange- ment, however, has proved too great to allow of its use in all works, and even where in operation the plan of the Cornish tin mines is usually so irregular that the use of ladders can be only partially superseded. In other mines is used the wire rope and cage method of descent so well known in the collieries. 6 Some time after the improvements in drainage came the introduction of the steam-engine for drawing ore and rubbish from the mine, a work previously done by application of horse power. A saving of 50 per cent, hastened its adoption, especially in view of the fact that a modern mine of any depth could not employ horses enough to raise its rubbish. 7 ' Kibbles,' or heavy iron buckets, are still clung to in many of the works. In others this clumsy method of haulage has been supplanted by the use of ' skips,' which travel between guides after the fashion of ordinary freight lifts. 8 The transportation of ore had been effected by means of pack-horses, but, as mines became deeper and more extensive, this method grew not only expensive, but entirely inadequate. So much ore was raised in 1750 at Polberran, St. Agnes, that carts had to be pressed into ser- vice. The Fowey Consols, one of the larger mines, maintained in its service mules by the hundred. 9 Tramways were the first to super- 1 Childrey, Britannia, 8. R. Carew, Survey of Corn- wall (ed. 1 8 1 1 ), p. 35. 1 Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis, 178. 3 ' Improvements in Mining,' by Jos. Carne, Trans. Roy. Geol. Soc. Corniv. iii, 64. R. N. Worth, Histori- cal Notes concerning the Progress of Mining Skill, 58. 4 ' Improvements in Mining,' by Jos. Carne, Trans. Roy. Geol. Soc. Cormv. iii, 63-64. ' Worth, Historical Notes concerning the Progress of Mining Skill, 26. Rep. on Stannary Act Amend. Bill (1887), 0.710,711. 6 Galloway, Annals of Coal Mining and the Coal Trade, 283. 7 ' Improvements in Mining,' by Jos. Carne, Trans. Roy. Geol. Soc. Cornto. iii, 61. 8 Hunt, British Mining, 596-597. 9 Worth, Historical Notes concerning the Progress of Mining Skill, 48. sede the pack-horse, their introduction into Cornwall occurring in i8i8, 10 but in the course of a few decades we find them pushed aside by the steam railway, with its branch lines reach- ing to the shaft's mouth. With the deepening and better drainage of the tin mines, came improvements in their general engineering. Originally the lodes were followed from the shafts at points where they were rich, and without any attention to order or regularity, the workmen throwing the deads behind them into the worked-out places as they proceeded. They were led on by a bunch of ore, and when that failed their work was done. While lifting power was limited, this was, un- doubtedly, the most economic mode of pro- cedure, but it remained at best a hand-to-mouth sort of arrangement, inevitably destined to give way to other and better forms. It was probably difficult to pursue this system where the water was ' quick,' so another was adopted, namely, that of sloping downward from the shaft (i.e. hewing away the lode in stairs, or steps, of 6 or 8 ft. in height, one man following another). On this system, as soon as the shaft is sunk 6 or 8 ft. under the adit, if the lode is productive the first step is commenced, a second follows it, and a third as soon as the shaft is sufficiently deep. 11 The facilities for exploring the lode, and making new discoveries, were scarcely greater by this system than by the last, and a further improvement soon followed, namely, that of driving levels, or horizontal galleries, on the lode from the shafts, and sloping the lode downward from one level to another. On this plan, al- though the mine was explored by the levels, the ore was taken away almost as fast as the shaft was sunk, and if any unexpected changes took place, if, for instance, the lode should, even for a short space, become unproductive, the mine had no resources in itself to furnish the means of paying its ordinary expenses. 12 Independently of the risk, this system was enormously expen- sive, for, in the first place, obviously, even if all the lode were ore, a mass can be taken away from above at much less cost than from below. This, however, was the least important part. In sloping downward the whole lode, good or bad, had to be removed, as it was impossible to get at the ore without removing the dead ground also, all of which work had to be done before the lode was properly drained. The mixture of ore 10 There is no mention to be found of any use of the self-acting planes and other devices preceding the tram in the northern coal mines. The Cornish mines are very tardy in their introduction of the tram. It had been employed in the coal mines as early as 1765 (Galloway, Annals of Coal Mining and the Coal Trade, 283, 318, 3z9-33i,.37)- 11 ' Improvements in Mining,' by Jos. Carne, Trans. Roy. Geol. Soc. Cornw. iii, 67. 12 Ibid. 69. 553 70
