Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A form of elevator or power-ladder used in some deep mines for raising and lowering men.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • We chanced to be there just at the hour to see one of the unique sights of America, -- the working of the man-engine that brings the miners up from their work.

    Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science Old Series, Vol. 36—New Series, Vol. 10, July 1885 Various

  • We sat still a little while, and I acquired sufficient strength and nerve, so that I did not feel the slightest alarm in the operation of ascending by the man-engine.

    Autobiography Airy, George Biddell, Sir 1896

  • We all met at the bottom of the man-engine 260 fathoms below the adit.

    Autobiography Airy, George Biddell, Sir 1896

  • "Oh, my father will go, of course; but he said I'd better not go till the mine was more dry, and the man-engine had been made and fitted."

    Sappers and Miners The Flood beneath the Sea George Manville Fenn 1870

  • "Going to have a man-engine, are they?" muttered Dinass, as he sat watching the two lads from the corners of his eyes.

    Sappers and Miners The Flood beneath the Sea George Manville Fenn 1870

  • Time went on, and at the end of a year Ydoll Mine was in working order, with a good staff, the best of machinery for raising the ore, a man-engine for the work-people's ascent and descent, a battery of stamps to keep up an incessant rattle as the heavily-laden piles crushed the pieces of quartz, and in addition a solid-looking building with its furnaces for smelting the tin.

    Sappers and Miners The Flood beneath the Sea George Manville Fenn 1870

  • "Every man," said the Colonel; "but some of the last up were nearly drowned, for the water had risen to their necks at the foot of the shaft when they reached the man-engine."

    Sappers and Miners The Flood beneath the Sea George Manville Fenn 1870

  • Several of the men were there standing about the square iron-bound box attached by a wire rope to a wheel overhead, and known as the skep, which, with another, would be the conveyances of the ore that was to be found, from deep down in the mine to the surface, or, as the miners termed it, to grass; and until the man-engine was finished this was the ordinary way up and down.

    Sappers and Miners The Flood beneath the Sea George Manville Fenn 1870

  • "Grip's been on the man-engine and got his fore-legs crushed."

    Sappers and Miners The Flood beneath the Sea George Manville Fenn 1870

  • To avoid them various inventions have been devised, one of which is known as the mounting machine, or man-engine.

    The Mines and its Wonders William Henry Giles Kingston 1847

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