page_title: Maaßener Gaipel
section_title: Mining
hierarchical_section_title: Maaßener Gaipel / History / Mining
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Schautafel Maaßener Treibschacht am Maaßener Gaipel
context_page_description: The Maaßener Gaipel is a pub catering for day trippers on the northeastern hillside of the Kranichsberg at a height of 420 m above NN, situated above the mining town of Lautenthal in the Harz Mountains of central Germany. The name goes back to the above-ground workings of the Maaßener Treibschacht or Maaßen Hoisting Shaft 51°51′49″N 10°17′25″E, which was located immediately east of the inn. Gaipel is a common expression in the Upper Harz for a headframe and goes back to the use of a horse whim which in German is a Pferdegöpel. Whims were used to transport men and materiel up and down mineshafts, for example using man engines, and also to operate water management equipment. Maaßen is shorthand for the name of the local pit which was the Grube Zweite, Dritte, Vierte, Fünfte und Sechste Maß nach der Sachsenzeche. Maaß, also variously spelt Maaß, Maas or Mas, is a unit of length for a pit field and in mining in the Upper Harz measured 28 Lachter or 53.8 metres.
  The pub was built in 1924 on the initiative of the Harz Club on the terrain of the old mine shaft.
context_section_description: The pit known as Grube 2., 3., 4., 5. und 6. Maß was first mentioned in 1622. But at some time before 1676 it was renamed the Grube St. Thomas ("St. Thomas Pit") and, in 1681, the mine became part of the Lautenthals Glück Pit.
  From 1720 the Maaßen Hoisting Shaft (Maaßener Treibschacht) and Maaßen Water Shaft (Maaßener Kunstschacht) of the Lautenthals Glück Pit were used to hoist ore and surplus water to the surface. At that time, both shafts were so-called winzes and did not open at the surface. From 1718, the hoisting shaft had a winding engine. From 1842 to 1844 the hoisting shaft was driven to the surface. In the subsequent period, the headframe and other above-ground facilities were added. The reversible water wheel lay 29 metres down the shaft and around 70 metres to the north. It was powered by water from the Oberer Richtschachter Graben. The old water wheel of the blind hosting shaft was another 40 metres deeper in an underground wheel room. In the Maaßen Water Shaft there was a double man engine for enabling miners to journey to and from the Lautenthals Glück Pit. These and the pumping need for water management were driven by four underground water wheels, which received their water through the Maaßen Watercourse (Maaßener Wasserlauf) which is still visible today.
  With the sinking of a new central hoisting shaft in the years 1905 to 1909 the old  Maaßen shafts lost their importance. In 1908 the hoisting shaft was filled in, and its equipment dismantled by 1920. The water shaft continued to act as a ventilation shaft until the mine was closed in 1930.
caption: Display board by the Maaßener Treibeschacht in the vicinity of the Maaßener Gaipel forest inn
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