Does anyone on the list know of any information or illustrations etc. of a
surface waterwheel being used to operate an underground inclined plane via
rods down a vertical shaft ?
Llechwedd slate mine had one prominently visible on several archive
photographs called "Olwyn Goch" but it is always in the very far distance
and I have never seen any closeup ilustrations of it, the only reference
being in Ivor Wynne Jones' various Quarry Tours guidebooks where it is said
to have driven the Hen Sinc-y-Mynydd Incline on floor 2 some 200ft below the
surface. I can understand a rope drive, there being many examples of
colliery haulages underground being driven by engines on the surface, but
rods??
Any help appreciated.
Graham Isherwood
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