Page:Walker (1888) The Severn Tunnel.djvu/204

Rh midnight. The two cages were adjusted by additional wire-ropes to balance each other, so that the engine only had to lift the weight contained in the cages, and not the cage itself. The bond broke just as the one cage, containing four loaded skips of rock, had reached the top; the other cage was at the bottom. The first cage was not sufficiently high to allow the banksman to turn the tumblers under it, and when the bond broke, the upper cage being loaded, and the other empty, the loaded cage rushed down the pit with terrible velocity, throwing the light cage up against the head-gearing at the top of the pit, smashing the pulleys and the other wire-rope; and then the light cage also fell to the bottom, and both cages lay together broken.

It is noteworthy that the wheels under the loaded skips of rock which fell 200 feet into the tunnel, being made of Hadfield’s steel, were not broken.

As the work was now so far advanced, I decided not to replace these large cages, and fixed instead two single cages, only large enough to carry the cobs that were used in this part of the work for hauling the skips. While the alterations were being made, four of these cobs had to be stabled at the bottom of the pit.

The following pages will show how fortunate it was that at this very time we had taken these precautions with regard to the head-walls and doors,