No. 2 Shaft Hoist Machine Room

These hoisting machines were used to move the cages up and down. When in operation, workers signalled each other among the pithead, pit bottom and the controller’s stand of the hoisting machines with bells or telephone. One drum has wire rope wound clockwise and the other anti-clockwise. Using different directions of winding, two cages were moved as counterbalances. 410m of a 36mm thick wire rope was wound around a 3.9m diameter drum for a maximum loading capacity of 8 tons. The brakes of the hoist machines were pneumatic pressure type and there used to be an air pressure tank on the bottom floor of the hoist machine room. When it was electrified around 1950, all the machinery including the motors, was transported using the the Miike Railway and was unloaded with the steel crane stretching from the hoist machine room. The current hoist machine room went through fortification work so that the structure should withstand an earthquake of 5-6 on the Japanese seismic scale. The room consists of engines and turbines, drums with wire ropes wound around, depth indicator, safety system and the controller’s stand. The wire ropes of the hoist machine room were taken over to the Tower and connected to the cages.

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