"You no doubt observed as we came down that the shaft was circular, but
you may not have seen a second shaft of the same diameter as the hoisting
shaft forty feet away. The second shaft is used for air pipes, water pipes
and insulated electric wires.

All the electric current to run the hoists and the compressed air to
drive the drilling machines and to maintain free circulation of air
throughout the workings, comes down that shaft and all the surplus water
is pumped up it to the two-thousand-foot level, where it is carried off
by the drainage tunnel and a complete system of escape ladders-besides
at every level is a hoisting engine and cage to take the workmen up if
danger threatens them. To insure an even temperature in the mine we keep
a supply of liquid aid on every level, which is renewed daily,
connecting the liquid air chest with the pipe that supplies fresh air to
the workings. No expense is spared in taking care of the health and
safety of the workmen and if a man gets sick or injured he gets the same
pay as if he is working, and if a workman gets killed his wife receives
the same pay that he received as long as she lives, and his children are
as well provided for by the government. None but married men are
employed and there is lively competition to secure employment with us."

He informed me that they sank the shaft with rotary drilling machines,
cutting a channel one inch wide and five feet in depth, leaving a core
nine feet ten inches in diameter in which four holes were drilled four
feet six inches in depth and loaded with a new explosive as powerful as
dynamite but without its injurious fumes and perfectly safe to handle at
any temperature. They averaged in sinking twelve feet daily and as they
went down the rock became more compact and finer grained. As there were
no hot springs in the vicinity and no signs of volcanic action even in
prehistoric times, the temperature of the rock even at the