>Was 'history made'? Was the rescue method, drilling a large diameter shaft
>c.240 feet to the air pocket in the mine, unprecedented?
>
No this rescue method is not unprecedented.
The German Mining museum at Bochum has examples of rescue torpedoes
which were lowered down boreholes to rescue trapped miners. The Germans
successfully developed the technique, and it has been tried before in
the USA (unsuccessfully).
Mine rescue teams (in the midlands at least) apparently had access to
borehole rescue torpedoes, but never had to use them.
Kelvin
Shropshire Caving & Mining Club ^o^
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Club introduction at http://www.xs4all.nl/~jorbons/scmc.html
and activities at http://www.serve.com/scmc/index.html
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Members of: Midland Cave Rescue Organisation, BCRA, & NAMHO ^o^
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