Placer miners panned and sluiced the gold bearing gravel that had washed into rivers and streams. Early miners braved unbelievable cold and swarms of mosquitoes to mine hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold using a simple technology of wheels and axles, levers, pulleys, wedges, inclined planes and screws, and gears. Each description below is linked to some historical photographs of miners using these machines. All of the photographs are courtesy of Candy Waugaman, to whom we are very grateful for helping us understand the significance of the pictures. Wheels and Axles Peter, Jaye, and Eddie Wheels and axles are simple machines that have wheels connected together with axles.
Axles are rods that connect wheels and the whole unit is connected to a vehicle that moves.
Miners might have used wheels and axles to help them move from place to place. Some equipment that miners would have used wheels and axles on would be wagons, trains, wheelbarrows, and ore carts. Photographs Levers Carol, Alex, Kaylyn, and Wolfgang A lever is a long stick that can be used with or without a wedge-shaped fulcrum. A lever with a fulcrum makes the work of moving large objects much easier. The early gold miners might have used levers to move large boulders.