A FALL OF 1700 FEET.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1031, 16 November 1882, Page 3

A FALL OF 1700 FEET.

Despite al] ' the contrivances for protecting life in mines, every now and then a terrible accident happens, which shows that all precautions are in vain, Something or other that was intended to act in a particular way in certain emergencies does no! act, and the result is mutilation or death, generally the latter, for some unfortunate. Here is the account of an ' accident' in a Sandhurst mine, which happened on October 27th :—A miner named Hugh Clemence aged 23, was working at the 15G0 feet level. Requiring another truck from the surface he got into the cage, and

knocked for the engine driver to pull him up. All went right till within about 200 feet of the surface. The mine iworked with double winding gear—that is, as one cage ascend? the other is descending. In this case, when the ascending cage arose to within 20(> feet of the surface with only the weight of tli« man on it, there was—the shaft being nearly 1800 feet deep—about 1600 feet of flat Manilla rope hanging down the shaft with the other cage. The consequence was that the ascending cage began to run up the shaft, owing to the excessive weight of the descending one. The engine-driver went to the engine to turn off steam, so as to let the cage with the man come up gently. However, on getting to the engine, it is stated that

he found one of the valves out of order and consequently could not turn oil steam. With increasing velocity the doomed man was rushed up the. shaft and the cage striking the poppet-heads nearly 100 ieet above the surface of the ground, the couplings broke, the end of the broken rope flew over the poppetheads. The safety eatches on the cage, which should then have come into operation, did not act, and cage and man fell crashing down the shaft. The rest can easily be imagined. At 1560 feet there were 'doors ' in the shaft made of strong hardwood timber. Through these the cage and man fell, and through to the next staging at 1640 feet from the surface, and considerably over 1700 from the top of the poppetheads, iiere the shattered remains of the unfortunate young man were picked up.