Working in shallow ground down to 30 feet, in a fairly damp shaft, where the well was bailed once a week or less, the dangerous carbon dioxide formed close to the water.

The first ten feet up the ladder was where most fatal accidents occured as a result of miners not lowering a lighted candle on a line.

When this gas formed a candle was quickly snuffed out. A couple of buckets of water thrown down the shaft soon cleared the air, especially a two compartment shaft. The water went down one, the foul air forced its way up the other.

In shallow ground a steady dripping of water made a sweet shaft. Shafts sunk to around the one hundred feet level, sprouted what was called a "windsail" made of calico suspended from a pole above the shaft. A section called "wings" was kept open by cords tied to pegs. This could be swung around to catch the slightest breeze. Calico, in the form of a pipe, attached to the sail hung down the shaft.

The reason windsails were rigged over shafts was to catch the hot north winds in summer time. These winds are light so blowi ng over a shaft without a sai I they rarely penetrated to any depth.

In the alluvial mines below 300 feet, a furnace built at the bottom and connected by pipe to the chimney stack on the Surface caused an updraught to suck up smoke and fumes. This in turn created a down draught of fresh air from the surface.

In 1863, the Defiance Company had three of these furnaces trying to clear the foul air in the mine.

The United Albion Company put in an air pump called a "duck" machine - a simple contrivance that consisted of a square air tank like a diving bell with a hollow tube in the centre, forced down at every stroke of the bob into a cistern of water. As the air tank rose a valve opened which let in the air. The downward stroke forced the enclosed air down the air pipe to any part of the mine, wherever needed. Thus, the drives were blown sweet and clean.

In the Albion No. 1 on the Woolshed Lead, they used what was described as a very ingenious contrivance - a lead pipe down the shaft, supplied by water from the surface. At the end of the lead pipe, was a box with four jets playing from it into a zinc tube, fifteen feet long and fastened to the air pipe which passed around the mine. A box at the end allowed water to escape into the well. These water jets carried a strong current of air to the whole of the mine.

The Band of Hope Company had an air pump with a cylinder thirty inches in diameter - the same construction as the cylinder of a steam engine, only the piston worked the air instead of the steam working the piston. It had a double action with a stroke of thirty-six inches, and sent down 260 cubic feet of fresh air per minute.

This took over the place of the old duck machines.

The St George Company in the early stages used what was called a "water-fall"; water running down the shaft from a tank on the surface to break up the foul air, as well as a steam jet leading from one of the boilers.

For bailing water from the early shafts, canvas, hide, wood and iron buckets were in general use.

As the leads headed west into deep ground, poppet heads were mounted over the shafts. Iron tanks were then used with a trip or catch above the collar of the shaft at the surface so placed to engage a trap door on the tank, releasing its load of water. This method of bailing was slow, cumbersome and expensive, so when the first steam driven pump was installed, and proved more efficient, most mines scrapped their bailing tanks.

The favourite on the Plateau at this time was the Cornish draw lift pumps, averaging 12 to 22 inches in diameter and driven by either vertical cornish beam engines or horizontal engines from 12 to 90 horse power.

They operated the great wooden shaft rods which transmitted the engine power to the actual pumps in the shaft. The fly-wheels of the horizontal rotary engines were 14 to 20 feet in diameter, weighing seven to ten tons.

These engines, built for strength were the best for heavy pumping. The constant strain and jerking of the pumps mean solid bluestone foundations, cemented and bolted together t keep the engines steady. These engines were christened by, each company and had such names as "Old Faithful", and "Ever-Ready".

Take the Band of Hope engine, the "Lady Bessy" as example. A single action nine foot stroke; 30 inch cylinder; pump stroke eight feet; working 12 strokes per minute, forking or throwing 30,000 gallons of water per hour. The housing of such a tall iron monster, the engine house, was quite unique, rising 42 feet on solid foundations sunk 12 feet into the ground. It was three stories high with an inside measurement of 14 x 18 feet. The ten ton beam of the engine was 35 feet above the ground floor. This 70 horse-power vertical beam engine was working double pump plungers.