Girl your smile is so big it looks like the keyboard of a piano. It is also nice to look at and I enjoy watching you display it. You do a good job of explaining things as well.
I've worked as a machinist most of my life, working on projects most machinists can only dream of, like fabricating 8 foot diameter ID gate valves for hydraulic dams that you can stand inside of, foundry equipment so large that it requires 60 ton gantry cranes to move the parts around on the CNC mill table (42'x13'x9' XYZ travel with 150 HP, a big boy), and a hundred other massive projects involving millions of dollars each, and I can say with certainty that compared to the old titans that built this place my work is childs play. Slide rules, pen, paper, steel, oil, grit, blood and sweat were the tools of the trade and they made it happen. They still managed to nail tolerances down to the thousandths of an inch across dozens of feet with nothing but direct measuring tools, no fancy 3D laser tracking voodoo like I've grown accustomed to for ensuring QC. I will always take my hat off to the old machinists of yesteryear, they were unparalleled and their likes will never be seen again in this modern computerized age.
On a tour of one of my local mines, the tour guide, whose grandfather worked in the mine, had a fun anecdote: the hoist operators would take bribes to let individuals up or down faster or slower depending on what was wanted. They also would punish people they didn't like by making them stop at all the mine levels, making the ride extremely uncomfortable, etc. Thus, the hoist operators were treated very well by all of the workers.
In case anyone was wondering why the hoist was placed so far away from the shaft house, that hoist made plenty of noise and vibrations as it operated. They wanted to place it as far from the shaft as possible to minimize the chance those vibrations could damage the mine shaft,
Dude that sounds so Fin creepy, "it's a "pleasure to watch" "Love your eye 's you really think she would jump on you. O ya big daddy love those old creepy vibes you bring.
My wife and I go to Houghton every year and have for the 28 years we’ve been together. I am absolutely enthralled with mines and with the Quincy in particular. We’ve toured it numerous times, walked the grounds and took the underground tour as well. You do a GREAT job explaining everything, and I learned a lot more than I knew before from your funny, engaging and informative video Alexis! Thank you so much for doing this, and I look forward to the other installments
Thank you so much! Especially with how familiar you are with the Quincy Mine, that's such a high compliment. I'm glad you got to learn something new! 🙂
Outstanding educational video, just love your wonderful and engaging spirit. The Keweenaw is Michigan’s most amazing area in my view. Keep up your wonderful work! Thank You
It's amazing what people were able to accomplish in those days. The creativity and ingenuity to resolve problems were genius in many cases. Thanks for the video!
this is the second video of yours I've ever watched. first of all, it's always so nice to find another woman creating content I like. but also, wow are your videos just really enjoyable! your positivity is infectious, and this really reminds me of how I felt when I watched a creator showcase tom scott did, and found the atomic frontier at 2k subscribers. just such high quality videos for a relatively small channel. I'm gonna keep watching, and i'm excited to see your channel keep growing!
It's been probably 10 years since I've taken the mine tour on our annual visit to the Keweenaw. About time to do it again. There are several other underground tours in the area too.
Interesting tidbit: the tapered sections of the drum are to give the cable less leverage as it pays out and gets heavier. That way less torque is needed to offset the imbalanced cable weights.
Those tapers are interesting to me. In order for the cable to go back and forth across the drum in the grooves.....there must be enough drum capacity to move 9,000 feet of cable as the cable moves from one side of the drum to the other (or the hoist is limited and cannot reach the bottom most layer as the other car is at the top and dumping). I would have loved an "advanced" tour of the hoist with a more in depth explanation.
I thought that the tapered sections were just old roofing tin, made to look like the cable wrapped around the spool. Tapered sections are not needed in actual operation, IMO.
Enjoyed it. I remember taking my dad to see the hoist, when he came to take me home from college ... sometime in the early 80's. I remember that I also was really impressed by its size.
WOW! I might have started chanting #2 hoist house at one point, not going to lie. I am really excited to see how you continue to breaking apart this site into smaller videos. The amount of detail about hoist was great. I really like how you both put it into a historical context in terms of its design, use and also a contemporary one of how the conservationists work with it now. Can't wait for two man vs one man drills!
I just love Michigan & Great Lakes history! Thank you for giving me more Pins to drop on destinations that are perfect weekend getaways, from Kalamazoo. My wife and I are going...
The Nordberg Steam Hoist was designed and built in Milwaukee. Like the Quincy Mine, Nordberg Manufacturing is relegated to history. Sic transit Gloria Munda. Great video.
Outstanding! Seeing the previous video on Quincy inspired me to take another tour this week. Been there done that before but I learn something new every time. Thanks. Go Blue! (I have a dark blue hard hat with the maize colored Michigan football helmet wings on it. 😁. Wore it in the Quincy tour. )
Agreed! I'm easily impressed by engineering and design as it is, ha, but seeing how things like this came together without modern computers is especially impressive!
"I think we're gonna to need a wider lens to shoot the hoist!" I really enjoyed this video. I'm glad people like us are documenting our industrial history, in particular unique examples like this! I'm curious how often the hoist needed to be calibrated because the cables must have stretched out over time.
I bought an Insta360 last week getting ready for vacations this summer. I'm sick of trying to take 20 pictures inside a space like this (or a big vista outside) and then try to stitch them into a panorama later.
I'm glad you enjoyed it! Also, that's a great question about the calibration. I didn't come across any information on that, but I'll let you know if I come across anything about the cables stretching. (Also, I didn't buy my wide-angle lens JUST for this video... but I did buy it before I started filming this series, and it absolutely came in handy, ha ha.)
This is such an enthusiastic and cheery video - loved learning about the ingenuity a century ago and you did a really good job explaining some of the mechanics and physics involved. Thank you for making it :)
A big thank you to you and the visitor's bureau for letting me know that this series of videos exist. Very well done on your part and I await the next two installments.
that Nordberg hoist really is something to see... and also, considering how late it was delivered and how they had to assemble it. VERY impressive engineering feat!
You've got great energy! I love content creators who give in-depth looks into little known, yet historical, locations like the Quincy mine. It's amazing that burning lumps of carbon to boil water moved 520,000 tons of rock a year.
Copper was the first industrial metal. It was used in tool making throughout the Copper Age, then when someone discovered that if you alloy tin with copper, it makes the copper a much better metal for tools and weapons. And thus the Bronze Age began.
The wheels at the top of the shaft are known as sheave wheels. those are some of the largest I've ever seen, and I've never seen a spoked one before. They have to take the entire load of that cable, skiff, etc and are really just as important as your winch. Fun fact, you can control the decent speed depending on where your cable lays on a drum that shape. larger diameter drops faster because of the higher circumference. also, it's gotta be Fun* when you get cable wear or something and have to remove 100' of cable and now have to either pay more off the drum (if you have it) or just accept that your cars are now parallel at a higher level. either way you have to adjust every one of those cards on the clock now. and you have to do it all with just bells to communicate... and idk about how they did it back then, but now MSHA makes you take inspection cuts on the cable to check for internal rust and degradation. so over time, the hoist markers need to creep around the clock until they are out of cable, then re-cable it (which I doubt they ever had to do in 10 years, but it's just general mine Fun* facts) *guarenteed it's not actually fun. the miners would use a different F word here... with some more color added
Just think if that drum and walls could talk eh! I walked those steps to the top of the shaft back when the bolts were all we had to step on. There’s history in all the graffiti in the hoist house and how as kids it got in places you would need a lift to get to. Your correct those folks are gone the hill is void of the energy that existed there once it’s kinda sad for us that still remember the old days.
Great series love how much history michigan holds. New to the channel and really glad to have found it. Some of the Iron mining history would be another great series. Looking forward to the next episode.
Thanks, Josh! I appreciate that. And iron mining history is definitely on my list! I might take a little bit of a mining break once this series wraps up, but I'm sure I'll circle around to iron soon enough!
Food for thought : can't imagine the amount of noise this was generating. People would be yelling at the top of their lungs just to make conversation XD
actually this machine was not very loud at all! steam engineers came and took a look at it and found that given that most of the noisiest equipment was underground, and each bearing was oiled, it would be possible to converse just above normal conversational volume with someone close to you!
I spent five wonderful years in the 1960s at Michigan Tech earning my degree in geology. We would sneak into all of these mines at night. Quincy was special. I still have some hefty nuggets of copper laboriously hammered off the rock base. The narrator mentioned nothing about the 45 degree angle shaft or all of the side stopes mined out to get at the ore. Our lamps were carbide. I can only imagine LED miner hats today. Quincy was by far the neatest mine we visited. Most of the others were horizontal. Fascinating geology in that peninsula. The most beautiful place in the world, but too far away and too cold.
This is really interesting... we'll have to take a tour next time we roll through. Driven past this a few times and never gave it much thought until now
It maybe goes without saying, but I'd recommend it! There's a lot I could capture making videos like this, but the feeling of actually being in these spaces is something that doesn't 100% translate to video. Some of my favorite moments making this series were just the times off-camera walking around the Quincy grounds. 🙂
Interesting! My great grandfather and his 3 brothers worked in mines near Calumet in the 1860s; over the last two years I have just begun to piece together their Upper Peninsula timeline (by 1870 they left the UP and bought farmland in W Michigan).
Fascinating that we Americans have been so clever! The video is excellently presented during which a great deal is learned. Thanks for sharing and the best of luck!
Awesome video and your story telling style is great. I studied video for a bit; but can't really say for sure how the hoist coils the cables; over the drum we see; or inside the drum?? Very curious as a lifetime mechanic/engineer. Thanks for your determination and creativity it take to produce these videos.
I wondered too and found this; There are two take-up drums, one mounted at each end and within the main drum to carry the surplus rope. They are operated independently of the main drum by 10 h.p. Dake engines. Now I'm even more confused as to how that would work.
Yes I really would like to see an animation of the hoist working. My guess is there were two pairs of carts. When A1 goes down, A2 goes up. When B1 goes down, B2 goes up. Probably the operator could move the cable sideways between the small and large diameter of the drum to vary speed and torque of the two pairs individually. Kind of like the different gears on a bicycle.
"The man machine" was invented 1833 in Harz, Germany. They named it Fahrkunst. They also invented the stellcable. Germany has a long Miningtradition, their knowledge spread all around the world.
I am fascinated with those old mines so historic I like all the old buildings that would not be there if it wasn’t for those mines my great grandfather worked at the Quince mine back in the day. I have his mine hat and a lot of copper ore he had. Totally facilitated.😊
If you ever get the chance check out the Molly Kathleen gold mine of Cripple Creek Colorado, they offer underground tours (level 10 1000' underground) riding a "mancage" down and back up at the control of a hoist operator is an experience in and of itself! I also know it was and still is ILLEGAL to speak to or distract an on duty hoist operator as it puts many peoples lives in danger and is a very complex and stressful position say equal for its time to a modern air traffic controllers job. Love the video. Sure would love to hear and see that huge double expansion compound steam engine in operation! Wow! Wonder if any of the whistles or signal bells? Survive anywhere...
Yeahhh, a look into the ski jump building as I like to call it. The top would make an excellent location for a Batman fight. Then when Batman is about to be defeated out from the mine's depth, Roland Deschain, and Jake Chambers, whom are being chased by Slow Mutants. Someone should write a fan fiction based on this place. That's the nice thing about antique equipment, it reminds you of the future, but as seen from the past. Just like the Antikythera Mechanism, or Marty's Hoverboard.
It's interesting to note that at 2500HP, the Nordberg at Quincy #2 was designed for efficiency, not brute strength. Ahmeek had a 6500HP hoist and somewhere in Tamarack they had 2 of those on a single shaft! Probably many more up and down Mine St. in Calumet. The late 1800's/early 1900's had copper prices high enough that your profit was basically based on how much you could process. By 1920 when the hoist featured here was built times were leaner and they were trying to save coal.
Another giant piece of industrial history is in The Henry Ford. One of the power plants that powered the Rouge factory complex is in the Museum. Actually its so large it was placed there and the museum was build around it.
Hard to believe there's no operators manual and service notes. It's a good testament to teaching/learning labor and skills not having interest to passing generations and the consequence.
Another great video, just discovered your channel, and are enjoying watching them. As trolls we love going over the bridge to the UP. And as my daughter-in-law's grandfather worked in the Quincy Mine this one was really nice, we have visited the mine, but your video was very informative. Since you seem to have a inquisitive mind maybe you could find a answer to a question I've had for years. Why is there water filling up say the Delaware Mine it would seem to be much higher than the water table in the area, but they say it would be completely filled with water if they had not drilled drain holes so the water doesn't fill the mine any more than it is.
Please visit the Homestake Mine in Leed, South Dakota. The mine is over 8,000 ft. deep. While gold is no longer produced the mine is used as a shield for a gigantic Neutrino Detector. Taking the tour is worth the time and effort just to see the gigantic hoisting machine. Also visit the 1880 Railroad Note: The steam engine is a double acting, double expansion reciprocating steam engine with Corless rotating valve gear. This is near the top of reciprocating steam engine technology. These were replaced by electric motors or steam turbines. Electric power plants use steam turbines connected to rotating alternators. Large ships use huge (100,000 Hp) reciprocating Diesel engines.
Hi any idea why the drum needed to hold so much wire on it? Was there a difference in the depth of the sides ? In a normal winding gear set the cable just makes a couple of turns around the pit-head . P/S keep the chirpy smiles coming .
Great video and I love your enthusiasm for the subject. Have you thought about including non-US measures for a metric audience? For instance, 36,000 pounds for the weight of the cable doesn’t really have a great impact for me as I tend to think naturally in kilos.
I thought you thanked Qanon for a second had to check the deets to see if I was crazy... Thankfully they confirmed I am. BTW loving the curious George/Paddington bear look you got goin on
Are you by chance related to Mark Rober the gentleman who made squirrel olympic courses in his backyard and the porch thief glitter bombs? Surprisingly similar enthusiasm and story telling!
Ha ha, oh, boy. Don't mind me, filing that away into my "novels to potentially write" folder... 😂 Actually, though, that does sound like it'd be fascinating.
@@AlexisDahl I know, right? It's so hard to imagine a normal reason why someone would want to steal steam, or why there would even be a bunch of steam lying around to be stolen. So you know there just has to be a fascinating set of circumstances behind the story. Or it could just be a heist story in a steampunk setting, which is less strange, but is still an idea I can get behind.
would have liked more explanations and any photos from when it worked. why is the drum shaped like it is? is it 1 cable on the drum or many cables? doesn't the cable fall off the tapered ends? why are there tapered ends?
How does Alexis discover these finds? By curiosity and digging, I guess. I grew up in the area and we were more focused on how to build a better sauna and how to create air conditioning in Ford cars.
......back then the prime motive and requirement ......efficient.....have we really advanced ????? Oh, yeah love you videos....being a 75 year old relic myself.....;-} thanks for posting. Having lived in BC ....never heard of the Sudbury impact.....how little we know and think we're smart, with just enough DNA to get us to work on time......?
Girl your smile is so big it looks like the keyboard of a piano. It is also nice to look at and I enjoy watching you display it. You do a good job of explaining things as well.
I've worked as a machinist most of my life, working on projects most machinists can only dream of, like fabricating 8 foot diameter ID gate valves for hydraulic dams that you can stand inside of, foundry equipment so large that it requires 60 ton gantry cranes to move the parts around on the CNC mill table (42'x13'x9' XYZ travel with 150 HP, a big boy), and a hundred other massive projects involving millions of dollars each, and I can say with certainty that compared to the old titans that built this place my work is childs play. Slide rules, pen, paper, steel, oil, grit, blood and sweat were the tools of the trade and they made it happen. They still managed to nail tolerances down to the thousandths of an inch across dozens of feet with nothing but direct measuring tools, no fancy 3D laser tracking voodoo like I've grown accustomed to for ensuring QC. I will always take my hat off to the old machinists of yesteryear, they were unparalleled and their likes will never be seen again in this modern computerized age.
The only guys that rival them are the portable machinists. Tho half of them are babied these days with laser trackers
On a tour of one of my local mines, the tour guide, whose grandfather worked in the mine, had a fun anecdote: the hoist operators would take bribes to let individuals up or down faster or slower depending on what was wanted. They also would punish people they didn't like by making them stop at all the mine levels, making the ride extremely uncomfortable, etc. Thus, the hoist operators were treated very well by all of the workers.
In case anyone was wondering why the hoist was placed so far away from the shaft house, that hoist made plenty of noise and vibrations as it operated. They wanted to place it as far from the shaft as possible to minimize the chance those vibrations could damage the mine shaft,
My 10 year old grandson’s FAVORITE part of the mine tour was the gift shop. Gotta love honesty!
Love your happy eyes, smile, & animated storytelling! A pleasure to watch!!!
Dude that sounds so Fin creepy, "it's a "pleasure to watch" "Love your eye 's you really think she would jump on you. O ya big daddy love those old creepy vibes you bring.
@@gordonfro1 Every accusation....
@@gordonfro1 no one can be complimentary these days? why are you so bitter?
I actually thought her eyes and her smile brought to the story telling
its kind of why i watch these. she seems like a genuinely good person
My wife and I go to Houghton every year and have for the 28 years we’ve been together. I am absolutely enthralled with mines and with the Quincy in particular. We’ve toured it numerous times, walked the grounds and took the underground tour as well. You do a GREAT job explaining everything, and I learned a lot more than I knew before from your funny, engaging and informative video Alexis!
Thank you so much for doing this, and I look forward to the other installments
Thank you so much! Especially with how familiar you are with the Quincy Mine, that's such a high compliment. I'm glad you got to learn something new! 🙂
Outstanding educational video, just love your wonderful and engaging spirit. The Keweenaw is Michigan’s most amazing area in my view.
Keep up your wonderful work!
Thank You
Thank YOU! I very much appreciate that.
It's amazing what people were able to accomplish in those days. The creativity and ingenuity to resolve problems were genius in many cases. Thanks for the video!
Agreed! It was so interesting to learn about. Glad you enjoyed it!
I took the Quincy mine tour in August 2023 and this is such a wonderful way to see parts of that all over again! Thank you so much.
this is the second video of yours I've ever watched. first of all, it's always so nice to find another woman creating content I like. but also, wow are your videos just really enjoyable! your positivity is infectious, and this really reminds me of how I felt when I watched a creator showcase tom scott did, and found the atomic frontier at 2k subscribers. just such high quality videos for a relatively small channel. I'm gonna keep watching, and i'm excited to see your channel keep growing!
It's been probably 10 years since I've taken the mine tour on our annual visit to the Keweenaw. About time to do it again. There are several other underground tours in the area too.
Yes!! The Delaware Mine is another fun mine to tour!
Interesting tidbit: the tapered sections of the drum are to give the cable less leverage as it pays out and gets heavier. That way less torque is needed to offset the imbalanced cable weights.
Those tapers are interesting to me. In order for the cable to go back and forth across the drum in the grooves.....there must be enough drum capacity to move 9,000 feet of cable as the cable moves from one side of the drum to the other (or the hoist is limited and cannot reach the bottom most layer as the other car is at the top and dumping). I would have loved an "advanced" tour of the hoist with a more in depth explanation.
I thought that the tapered sections were just old roofing tin, made to look like the cable wrapped around the spool. Tapered sections are not needed in actual operation, IMO.
Enjoyed it. I remember taking my dad to see the hoist, when he came to take me home from college ... sometime in the early 80's. I remember that I also was really impressed by its size.
ABSOLUTELY GREAT VIDEO, ALEXIS!! BRAVO! KEEP UP THE GOOD WELL RK! Luvvv how you speak with your hands! 👌👏 AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY COMING SOON! “Aunt” Kathy
Thank you!! I'm glad you liked this one! 💛🥳
WOW! I might have started chanting #2 hoist house at one point, not going to lie. I am really excited to see how you continue to breaking apart this site into smaller videos. The amount of detail about hoist was great. I really like how you both put it into a historical context in terms of its design, use and also a contemporary one of how the conservationists work with it now. Can't wait for two man vs one man drills!
Thanks, Randall! I really appreciate the specific feedback here; it's so helpful. 🙂
So much amazing history UP North. Toured Fayette the old iron smelting operation. Different but, like this just incredible.
Giant Steam Hoist, with Alexis for scale (appropriately wearing yellow). :)
Thanks for another fun and informative video.
Wanted this in a separate comment. I love how excited and enthusiastic you are learning a out these things and doing the videos to share with people.
I just love Michigan & Great Lakes history! Thank you for giving me more Pins to drop on destinations that are perfect weekend getaways, from Kalamazoo. My wife and I are going...
The Quincy Mine is a must see if you are in the area. It's a long drive, but the UP is amazing.
The Nordberg Steam Hoist was designed and built in Milwaukee. Like the Quincy
Mine, Nordberg Manufacturing is relegated to history. Sic transit Gloria Munda. Great video.
I sailed on the Myron C Taylor as well as the Calcite II.
Both were repowered with Nordberg diesel engines in the 1960s.
You are simply delightful. It’s charming to watch someone be so enthusiastic about rocks.
Outstanding! Seeing the previous video on Quincy inspired me to take another tour this week. Been there done that before but I learn something new every time. Thanks. Go Blue! (I have a dark blue hard hat with the maize colored Michigan football helmet wings on it. 😁. Wore it in the Quincy tour. )
Ah, that's awesome! I'm glad you enjoyed the tour! (Also, that hard hat sounds wonderful. What a fun thing!)
Boy if hands could talk 😃awesome job Alexis!!
Best episodes so far, congratulations.
Love your mechanical Documentary style, please don’t stop
It's so cool to see the things people came up with even without computers! Necessity is the mother of invention, no doubt about it.
Agreed! I'm easily impressed by engineering and design as it is, ha, but seeing how things like this came together without modern computers is especially impressive!
@@AlexisDahl even with computers it would be amazing.
"I think we're gonna to need a wider lens to shoot the hoist!" I really enjoyed this video. I'm glad people like us are documenting our industrial history, in particular unique examples like this! I'm curious how often the hoist needed to be calibrated because the cables must have stretched out over time.
I bought an Insta360 last week getting ready for vacations this summer. I'm sick of trying to take 20 pictures inside a space like this (or a big vista outside) and then try to stitch them into a panorama later.
I'm glad you enjoyed it! Also, that's a great question about the calibration. I didn't come across any information on that, but I'll let you know if I come across anything about the cables stretching.
(Also, I didn't buy my wide-angle lens JUST for this video... but I did buy it before I started filming this series, and it absolutely came in handy, ha ha.)
Thank you for this. I'm taking my 2 daughters up in July. Can't wait to see this in person.
This is such an enthusiastic and cheery video - loved learning about the ingenuity a century ago and you did a really good job explaining some of the mechanics and physics involved. Thank you for making it :)
A big thank you to you and the visitor's bureau for letting me know that this series of videos exist. Very well done on your part and I await the next two installments.
that Nordberg hoist really is something to see... and also, considering how late it was delivered and how they had to assemble it. VERY impressive engineering feat!
thank god they preserved this piece of industrial history
You've got great energy! I love content creators who give in-depth looks into little known, yet historical, locations like the Quincy mine. It's amazing that burning lumps of carbon to boil water moved 520,000 tons of rock a year.
“I am pumped “now that would be above your normal extreme enthusiasm which is wonderful ?
Ha ha, I don't have an exact scale of enthusiasm... but I was definitely more excited than average to film that underground video.
You have excellent enthusiasm and presentation style!
Shucks, thank you! I very much appreciate that.
@@AlexisDahl You're welcome!
I love your excitement and passion in the subject. You made a 'boring' subject fun and exciting, now im excited haha love ur vids
Cool video! That's the largest braking system (the parts painted orange) that I've ever seen!
Those are Corliss valve gear engines running the hoist, strange looking wrist plate tho
My father worked in the Quincy Mine when he was a teenager.
Copper was the first industrial metal. It was used in tool making throughout the Copper Age, then when someone discovered that if you alloy tin with copper, it makes the copper a much better metal for tools and weapons. And thus the Bronze Age began.
gosh dang, the more i watch, the more i like! Keep being you!
My grandfather worked at the No. 2 mine as a carpenter until around 1940.
The wheels at the top of the shaft are known as sheave wheels. those are some of the largest I've ever seen, and I've never seen a spoked one before. They have to take the entire load of that cable, skiff, etc and are really just as important as your winch.
Fun fact, you can control the decent speed depending on where your cable lays on a drum that shape. larger diameter drops faster because of the higher circumference.
also, it's gotta be Fun* when you get cable wear or something and have to remove 100' of cable and now have to either pay more off the drum (if you have it) or just accept that your cars are now parallel at a higher level. either way you have to adjust every one of those cards on the clock now. and you have to do it all with just bells to communicate... and idk about how they did it back then, but now MSHA makes you take inspection cuts on the cable to check for internal rust and degradation. so over time, the hoist markers need to creep around the clock until they are out of cable, then re-cable it (which I doubt they ever had to do in 10 years, but it's just general mine Fun* facts)
*guarenteed it's not actually fun. the miners would use a different F word here... with some more color added
Amazing video and fun to watch! Thanks again!
wow, that's pretty cool but also kinda scary in an overwhelming way. Like when you look down from tall building
Just think if that drum and walls could talk eh! I walked those steps to the top of the shaft back when the bolts were all we had to step on. There’s history in all the graffiti in the hoist house and how as kids it got in places you would need a lift to get to. Your correct those folks are gone the hill is void of the energy that existed there once it’s kinda sad for us that still remember the old days.
Unreal share, huge thanks. Saved to my steam engines playlist.
I’m in love with this channel. I love seeing someone explore my home area.
Great series love how much history michigan holds. New to the channel and really glad to have found it. Some of the Iron mining history would be another great series. Looking forward to the next episode.
Thanks, Josh! I appreciate that. And iron mining history is definitely on my list! I might take a little bit of a mining break once this series wraps up, but I'm sure I'll circle around to iron soon enough!
Food for thought : can't imagine the amount of noise this was generating.
People would be yelling at the top of their lungs just to make conversation XD
They had a signal system because even yelling wasn't enough
actually this machine was not very loud at all! steam engineers came and took a look at it and found that given that most of the noisiest equipment was underground, and each bearing was oiled, it would be possible to converse just above normal conversational volume with someone close to you!
You have good energy
I spent five wonderful years in the 1960s at Michigan Tech earning my degree in geology. We would sneak into all of these mines at night. Quincy was special. I still have some hefty nuggets of copper laboriously hammered off the rock base. The narrator mentioned nothing about the 45 degree angle shaft or all of the side stopes mined out to get at the ore. Our lamps were carbide. I can only imagine LED miner hats today. Quincy was by far the neatest mine we visited. Most of the others were horizontal. Fascinating geology in that peninsula. The most beautiful place in the world, but too far away and too cold.
Love your channel! the Sudbury meteorite was what got me watching. Just watched Quincy Mine #1 & #2 but cant find #3 & #4.
I really enjoy your videos the information is very well done and you are such a happy person and so enjoyable to explore with
This is really interesting... we'll have to take a tour next time we roll through. Driven past this a few times and never gave it much thought until now
👏👏 love to hear this!
It maybe goes without saying, but I'd recommend it! There's a lot I could capture making videos like this, but the feeling of actually being in these spaces is something that doesn't 100% translate to video. Some of my favorite moments making this series were just the times off-camera walking around the Quincy grounds. 🙂
Never thought I'd be so interested in some old mine. Love the content.
My great grandfather worked in that mine
Interesting! My great grandfather and his 3 brothers worked in mines near Calumet in the 1860s; over the last two years I have just begun to piece together their Upper Peninsula timeline (by 1870 they left the UP and bought farmland in W Michigan).
Fascinating that we Americans have been so clever! The video is excellently presented during which a great deal is learned. Thanks for sharing and the best of luck!
Awesome video and your story telling style is great. I studied video for a bit; but can't really say for sure how the hoist coils the cables; over the drum we see; or inside the drum?? Very curious as a lifetime mechanic/engineer. Thanks for your determination and creativity it take to produce these videos.
I wondered too and found this;
There are two take-up drums, one mounted at each end and within the main drum to carry the surplus rope. They are operated independently of the main drum by 10 h.p. Dake engines.
Now I'm even more confused as to how that would work.
Yes I really would like to see an animation of the hoist working. My guess is there were two pairs of carts. When A1 goes down, A2 goes up. When B1 goes down, B2 goes up. Probably the operator could move the cable sideways between the small and large diameter of the drum to vary speed and torque of the two pairs individually. Kind of like the different gears on a bicycle.
Thanks for making the great videos that you do! :-)
It's my pleasure, genuinely!
"The man machine" was invented 1833 in Harz, Germany. They named it Fahrkunst. They also invented the stellcable. Germany has a long Miningtradition, their knowledge spread all around the world.
Incredible ! Thank you.
was up in the up a bit before covid, took the mine tour and that drum is massive in person.
I am fascinated with those old mines so historic I like all the old buildings that would not be there if it wasn’t for those mines my great grandfather worked at the Quince mine back in the day. I have his mine hat and a lot of copper ore he had. Totally facilitated.😊
If you ever get the chance check out the Molly Kathleen gold mine of Cripple Creek Colorado, they offer underground tours (level 10 1000' underground) riding a "mancage" down and back up at the control of a hoist operator is an experience in and of itself! I also know it was and still is ILLEGAL to speak to or distract an on duty hoist operator as it puts many peoples lives in danger and is a very complex and stressful position say equal for its time to a modern air traffic controllers job. Love the video. Sure would love to hear and see that huge double expansion compound steam engine in operation! Wow! Wonder if any of the whistles or signal bells? Survive anywhere...
During the tour, they mention that the miniature operators work in silence - it was too loud to hear, and they couldn’t be distracted
first 1min and 22 sec, and i was subscribed.
Excellent video, looking forward to the rest of the series.
Yeahhh, a look into the ski jump building as I like to call it. The top would make an excellent location for a Batman fight. Then when Batman is about to be defeated out from the mine's depth, Roland Deschain, and Jake Chambers, whom are being chased by Slow Mutants. Someone should write a fan fiction based on this place. That's the nice thing about antique equipment, it reminds you of the future, but as seen from the past. Just like the Antikythera Mechanism, or Marty's Hoverboard.
It's interesting to note that at 2500HP, the Nordberg at Quincy #2 was designed for efficiency, not brute strength. Ahmeek had a 6500HP hoist and somewhere in Tamarack they had 2 of those on a single shaft! Probably many more up and down Mine St. in Calumet. The late 1800's/early 1900's had copper prices high enough that your profit was basically based on how much you could process. By 1920 when the hoist featured here was built times were leaner and they were trying to save coal.
Hey, I like your videos :) I was wondering there the 3rd video of down in the mine is? I couldn't find it in your videos. :)
Another banger, keep it up!
Another giant piece of industrial history is in The Henry Ford. One of the power plants that powered the Rouge factory complex is in the Museum. Actually its so large it was placed there and the museum was build around it.
You are fantastic!! Thank you
Hard to believe there's no operators manual and service notes. It's a good testament to teaching/learning labor and skills not having interest to passing generations and the consequence.
Thanks for this great information
Keep it up more about Michigan thank you
I started going to Copper Harbor every year to go to mtb, and I always passed this structure kinda crazy I've been driving by some cool history
Another great video, just discovered your channel, and are enjoying watching them. As trolls we love going over the bridge to the UP. And as my daughter-in-law's grandfather worked in the Quincy Mine this one was really nice, we have visited the mine, but your video was very informative. Since you seem to have a inquisitive mind maybe you could find a answer to a question I've had for years. Why is there water filling up say the Delaware Mine it would seem to be much higher than the water table in the area, but they say it would be completely filled with water if they had not drilled drain holes so the water doesn't fill the mine any more than it is.
Please visit the Homestake Mine in Leed, South Dakota. The mine is over 8,000 ft. deep. While gold is no longer produced the mine is used as a shield for a gigantic Neutrino Detector. Taking the tour is worth the time and effort just to see the gigantic hoisting machine. Also visit the 1880 Railroad
Note: The steam engine is a double acting, double expansion reciprocating steam engine with Corless rotating valve gear. This is near the top of reciprocating steam engine technology. These were replaced by electric motors or steam turbines. Electric power plants use steam turbines connected to rotating alternators. Large ships use huge (100,000 Hp) reciprocating Diesel engines.
Well Done!!!
Thanks, Richard! I appreciate it!
Working in a steam powered building it’s amazing how it all works.
You should check out the largest steam shovel here in Kansas. It is massive.
Hi any idea why the drum needed to hold so much wire on it? Was there a difference in the depth of the sides ? In a normal winding gear set the cable just makes a couple of turns around the pit-head . P/S keep the chirpy smiles coming .
Great video and I love your enthusiasm for the subject. Have you thought about including non-US measures for a metric audience? For instance, 36,000 pounds for the weight of the cable doesn’t really have a great impact for me as I tend to think naturally in kilos.
This is Tom Scott level! Great!
WOW. Just WOW!
An impressive #2 shaft!
I thought you thanked Qanon for a second had to check the deets to see if I was crazy... Thankfully they confirmed I am.
BTW loving the curious George/Paddington bear look you got goin on
Are you by chance related to Mark Rober the gentleman who made squirrel olympic courses in his backyard and the porch thief glitter bombs? Surprisingly similar enthusiasm and story telling!
I dig this!
Great video.
My great grandfather was killed in that mine, 1902.
I thought the title said "Steam _Heist_ " at first, and now I really want to hear that story.
Ha ha, oh, boy. Don't mind me, filing that away into my "novels to potentially write" folder... 😂 Actually, though, that does sound like it'd be fascinating.
@@AlexisDahl I know, right? It's so hard to imagine a normal reason why someone would want to steal steam, or why there would even be a bunch of steam lying around to be stolen. So you know there just has to be a fascinating set of circumstances behind the story.
Or it could just be a heist story in a steampunk setting, which is less strange, but is still an idea I can get behind.
It's been awhile but isn't that a videogame with steam powered robots?
@@HaddaClu Apparently SteamWorld Heist is, but I had never heard about it until now.
thanks for all you do? have you made it to Isle Royale yet?
would have liked more explanations and any photos from when it worked. why is the drum shaped like it is? is it 1 cable on the drum or many cables? doesn't the cable fall off the tapered ends? why are there tapered ends?
You clearly have a smooth brain
How does Alexis discover these finds? By curiosity and digging, I guess. I grew up in the area and we were more focused on how to build a better sauna and how to create air conditioning in Ford cars.
Is that all cable on that drum?
What a monument to American mining and manufacturing!
......back then the prime motive and requirement ......efficient.....have we really advanced ????? Oh, yeah love you videos....being a 75 year old relic myself.....;-} thanks for posting. Having lived in BC ....never heard of the Sudbury impact.....how little we know and think we're smart, with just enough DNA to get us to work on time......?
Where are videos #3 and #4? I can't seem to find them
Yeah this is the place wife and I toured!