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Galvanised ropes only tended to be used in very wet shafts or where the ground water was particularly corrosive. For most winding purposes a regular dose of a "good quality dressing" (various recipes of oil/lubricant were 'sworn'by') was considered sufficient to protect wire (iron or steel) ropes. The only length of galvanised rope I've seen had galvanised strands, plus instead of a hemp core it had a galvanised wire core. >I don't know about galvanized rope but according to Morgan (Mining >History 13.2, 1996) wire rope was first used in a Cornish Mine in 1857 >at South Wheal Frances. A reference I have (which I can't quite put my hand on at the moment) puts the first use of wire rope at Wheal Frances as early as 1840. Other mines around the country were experimenting with wire ropes from 1840 onwards. Galloway in "Annals of Coal Mining and the Coal Trade", volume 2 lists several such mines and railways using wire rope (both flat and round) for winding or haulage from the early 1840s. The famous Wingate Colliery trial on July 27th 1844, decided in favour of wire rope being fit for winding and effectively removed opposition from miners to the introduction of the such ropes. Cheers Kelvin Lake Shropshire Caving & Mining Club ^o^ ------------------------------- Web pages under development - www.serve.com/scmc/index.html ----------------------------------------------------------- Members of: Midland Cave Rescue Organisation, BCA, & NAMHO ----------------------------------------------------------- ^o^