1700s

With wooden tracks in the mines, transportation became easier. But at the same time, the problem arose of keeping the carts on the tracks and preventing them from rolling off. In Stora Kopparbergs mine in Falun, Dalarna, in the 1700s, there was a clever construction. It was a mine cart that stopped on the track by itself.

On the cart, between each pair of wheels, there was a horizontal wheel. They kept the cart in place on the track. A reconstruction of the cart stands on the wooden track in the mine next door and is built according to the drawing on the wall inside the mine.

It is not entirely clear, but the inventor could have been the well-known engineer Christopher Polhem.

Caption: Stora Kopparberg mine in the 1700s.