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The deeper the miners went into the rock, the more expensive it was to drag ore and sterile rock to the light of day. With the tiny advance which could only be made every day by chiselling, the miners probably removed the product of their daily work in their pointed hats or in knapsacks. Larger quantities were taken out in trolleys, called mine-dogs, and those hauling the trolleys were called mine-dog pushers. At Schneeberg, this work was not highly specialized, and presumably even children were set to work, as was customary in Medieval times throughout Europe.
Vertical extraction was carried out using simple pulleys or winches. From top to bottom, the material was allowed to fall down vertical shafts. From simple tilted elevators using buckets of water as counterweights, underground transport to Schneeberg developed until oblique elevators were used, composed of several sections and worked by electricity, in the St. Martin gallery. As late as the 1950s, three mules, whose names were Giacomo, Piero and Gina, hauled empty trolleys in the St. Martin gallery. Loaded trolleys came out unaided, thanks to the slight gradient. The last stage of this evolution occurred after 1968, when the Poschhaus gallery was equipped with a small train.
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history
history of mining on Schneeberg
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