Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1879-06-13
BROWNS STATION.
A Cool-Hssded Enginser-Why Ac-
cidents Happen-Iussisabie -
sality-An Old Mans Stay.

"Yss. the boys do run . good many
cages into the sheaves," said Q veteran
chief engineer in conversing with .
News reporter.
'.But the only wonder Is that 30 few
accidents happen. Now, there's not q
more careful set Of mon in the world,
but il is not within human power to be
always on the alert. When a man works
for a long time at any particular branch
Of business his brain becomes crystal
lied. as it we're. and he performs his
duties mechanically. This is the main
source OF accidents. The man at the
throttle hears the bell ring. but for the
life OF him he cannot remember for two
seconds the number OF strokes. He
starts the cage up or down. autom.
atically, and probably mashss the men
at Browns station or browns them in the
stump.
..Then there are other reasons for &C
cidents which are nsv known. and are
never taken into consideration. Some
men who take charge OF engines, and who
really understand their business so
far az the machinery is concerned. are
not ft to handle the lives OF men at the
end Of a thousand-foot cable. While
being careful and conscientious, they
are al the same time mentally infirm and
cannot act promptly under exciting cir
cumstancss. Any man who understands
machinery can run an engine 80 long as
everything goes along smoothly. But
when an accident comes, that IL the
time when the uervy engineer shows up.
II his foot slips from the brake and the
lever freezes to his hand. he is gone,
and so, in all probability, are the miners
on the cage. But II be has the true
nerve in him he will manage to carry the
load through in one way or another.
"Once I saw q thing which pleased
me, though 1t certainly looked bad for
awhile. A cool-headed runner was bring.
ing up q cage filled with miners,
the last cage Of the shift, and reached
the throttle to Ease up, as the landing
was being neared. He was annoyed to
find that the throttle had In some way
become clogged and would not move.
Not a second was to DO lost. The bon.
net OF the cage appeared at the top OF
the shaft, and In q second more IL,
with its human load, would DO crushed
in the sheaves.
cit was q terrible moment. Straight
enipg himself for the exertion, tho en-.
gineer grasped the lever Of his engine,
and with a mighty effort turned her
over, reversing the motion and sending
the cage down the shaft again.
at was awful exciting. and / think
the men would have jumped from the
cage II I had not shouted to them to
stay on.
down. down. the cage was sent.
until within fifty feet Of the stump. when
the same action was repeated and the
cage was started up again. But
all this time the engineer was
busy with his wrench and oil
can, and by the time the cage reached
the top again had his machinery under
complete control. and made the landing
as neatly and quietly as II nothing had
happened. and all without so much ~ .
word.
"The miners were pretty badly scared
and somewhat shaken up, but not one
Of them was in the least hurt. OF
course they were mad at being yanked
up and down the shaft in that manner,
but when they understood how their
lives had been saved by o cool action,
their gratitude and applause knew no
bounds.
"Yss. engineering does have its
trials, but 1t has its victories as well I;
and taken all together, / reckon the
world is counterbalanced as nicely %
any OF us could do it IL We had the ar
rangement Of the gearing ourselves.
But remember that engineers arc not
always to blame for accidents which
seem to be inevitable"