Whim Gin

Horse Engine


An engine is a device which produces mechanical power to run other machinery. A horse engine is an engine using draft horses as its power source, a sort of large treadmill on which one or more horses walk. Other names are horse power or horse-power, whim, whim gin, or horse capstan.

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Mining landscape in Banská Štiavnica characterised by horse-drawn horse whims (1726). Public Domain.
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Horse whim with at least 4 horses, centre left, end of the 15th century, Kutná Hora, Czech Republic. Public Domain.
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Horse whim of the slate mine in Lehesten, Germany. Public Domain.
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Reconstructed horse whim in Wieliczka Salt Mine, Poland. Public Domain.
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Horse whim from a book by Georg Engelhard von Löhneysen (1660). Public Domain.
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Treadmill with donkey in Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight. Public Domain.

The whim is the simplest machine with which the muscle power of a person or draft animal can be transferred to an axle. The muscle power is converted into a rather slow rotation. If other speeds are required, the rotation of the main axle must be converted to a different speed via a gear transmission. The rotary motion is transmitted to external machines via wooden drive shafts or belts.

Mining started on the surface with open pits, but at a certain depth the water, groundwater and rainwater began to flow into the mine and flood it. So it was necessary, absolutely essential, to have a way of pumping out water. This is a very specialized application because it has to be pumped continuously and the amount of energy required is much higher than what a miner can manage with muscle power. In addition, it should be possible to pump much more if necessary, as flooding could occur after heavy rainfall or if an aquifer was cut. On the other hand, a mine is immobile, it was possible to use an engine which was stationary. In the Middle Ages, there were two possible types of power source, water power and muscle power. We deal with water power on a separate page, here we look at the various systems powered by muscles. Some say that a third source was the wind, but the wind-wheels were not efficient enough, and they were also too unreliable; when the wind failed, the pumps stopped. Before the invention of steam engines, horse mills were used if water power was not available. The first applications of mechanical power in mining were used for pumping and transporting miners and ore. This page is about mining-related machinery and terminology, so these are the most widespread types of muscle powered engines related to mining.

The use of engines began in mining in Central Europe in the 14th century. Historical works such as Georgius Agricola's book De Re Metallica Libri XII describe the first uses. This early machinery was built in wood, as metal was very expensive. As a result, only a few are still in existence today, although some have been reconstructed from old engravings. The types of engines are differentiated according to how the power is transmitted to the shaft. There are two fundamentally different types, horizontal (horizontal) and vertical (vertical) axis.

The simplest whim simply had a winch, a drum on which the rope was wound, directly on the axle. So the turing of the axis wound or unwound the rope directly. When switching from pulling up to lowering, the horses had to change their walking direction. Moreover, transport was only the second most important task. The most important task, pumping mine water, required pumps in the mine, because pumps can only draw up to a height of 10 metres but can pump much higher. So the movement to the pump had to be transported down into the mine, either by rotating beams or by moving forwards and backwards. There were also pit horses that lived in the mine and drove a winch underground, so the power didn't have to be transported so far.

Over the course of time, the whims got better and better. The turning of the wheel, the rotary motion, was first passed to a planetary gear system. Then it was transported with moving wooden beams into the mine where the pumps were driven to pump the water. If it was used to drive the cage in the shaft, the possibility of reversing the direction was added. However, the age of horses ended with the introduction of the steam engine. The transport of power via rods was also replaced by decentralized engines, compressed air, hydraulics and electricity.

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