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Chris, our very able guide took us around the
site and gave us a good lesson in social history as well as knowing the
technical side of things. |
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Pretty soon, he had us walking down a very
dark tunnel to the site of the famous Man Engine; an ingenious device for
taking miners down to the great depth at which they worked the 'Lode'. |
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I have to say, we looked down quite a few
holes and I'm not sure which one this was. They were all very un inviting.
Sobering to be told that boys as young as 7 years old worked long hours
down here. |
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Even the relatively newly equipped shaft near
the main pumping engine shows how quickly metal deteriorates in the
humidity and salt laden sea air. |
 |
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This (slightly fuzzy) pic shows
the different levels at which the mine operated. Up to 70 plus miles of
tunnels stretching out well under the sea. With waters natural tendency to
go down, it presented a huge problem of drainage to the engineers of the
day.
|
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Chris continues to fascinate us with his
account of how it all worked. |
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On Fridays during the season, the engine
is in steam and although we arrived late in the day and the fire was low,
there was still enough steam to give us an impressive demo of Victorian
engineering. |
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looking up... |
 |
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...and down from the gallery |
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the regulator is opened... |
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and all hell lets loose in the heavy metal
department! A little noise but a sight to please any admirer of Britain's mechanical heritage.
And it very nearly was all scrapped.
A great visit and its just a few miles
north of Lands End. |
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