Mining

The depths were first plumbed in the mining activities of early man. Copper may have been available on the surface, but as other metals became important in the creation of tools and weapons, men were compelled to go deeper and deeper to find the ores so necessary for their new ways of life. Ingenious pre-engineers thought far more about lifting under the ground than above it. The steam engine was invented and improved as a means of pumping out the lowest mine levels and later to move the ore out and the miners up and down. As human safety became a factor, the broken rope safety, stronger hoist rope and the traction sheave were accompaniments to the drive engine at the mine site. The combination was to find even more value when it was found expedient to move men and materials far shorter distances above ground. The hoist ropes, safeties and traction drives lifting passengers in the modern times were given birth below the ground!