Page 81 - Bulletin 17 2013

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this tramway is due. It is, of course, a valuable instrument of industrial efficiency for the
transport of materials in mining, on plantations, and the like. Messrs. Bullivant have erected
in all parts of the world over 500 miles of lines on Mr. Carrington’s system. Some of these
tramways are at work on the diamond and gold fields of South Africa. Now that the question
of transport is attracting so much attention in Natal, it is interesting to add that some 60 miles
are at work upon the sugar plantations of Mauritius.

A ride in the cableway, on the occasion of Mayor Sir John Woodhead’s laying of the final
stone in the Woodhead Reservoir, was described by Cadby in 1897:

It is only a favoured few who have been afforded an opportunity of travelling to the
top of Table Mountain in the Reservoir Aerial Gear and therefore it is possible a brief account
may be of interest to the many who have not made the journey. It is said that some of those
who have essayed the trip heartily repented themselves of their rashness before they reached
the top, and it is easy to believe this. The trip provides without doubt what Americans term a
“sensation” when undertaken for the first time. It comprises a good deal of the peculiar
feeling of a balloon voyage especially whilst traversing the perpendicular stretch of wire from
the last standard to the first precipice.
But let us begin at the beginning. …… Leaving the city by cart we arrived in due
course at Camp’s Bay, whence five minutes’ walking serves to reach the ground terminus of
the gear just above the Victoria Road. The cage we could just discern like a dull white speck
in the distance, half-way down on its journey. It soon arrived, and a closer inspection brought
to mind the cages of the Kimberley mine when open workings were the order of the day. It is
a wooden box of about 3 feet square, and 3 feet high, suspended by iron bars to a double-
wheeled pulley which runs up and down on a steel cable. The cage can carry three barrels of
cement – 1,200 lbs. – its chief freight, though sections of machinery, cranes, boilers and
numerous heavy rails, etc., have also been successfully sent up in the same way. Before the
aerial gear was brought into requisition the labour involved in getting goods up the Poort was
simply terrific; indeed, it would probably be no exaggeration to say that but for the assistance
of the gear, the work would not have been finished for another 10 years. The car is pulled up
and down by means of a one-inch endless wire rope, which runs over big grooved wheels at
either terminus, these being actuated by the stationary engine at Camp’s Bay.
Meanwhile our chariot of the air awaits our pleasure at the little wooden platform on
which stands the cement shed. There are only myself and a friend as passengers, and the
engineer, who takes his seat holding red and white flags in his hands in case an emergency
should call for a stoppage en route. We glide gently away, and are soon swinging along with
an almost imperceptible motion, except when passing over the standards – Eiffel Tower-
looking structures of about 20 ft. in height, constructed to carry the cable over the rising
slopes of the mountain. Passing the last of these, while yet some 400 yards from the mountain
side, we enter on the sensational section in which the cable runs upwards apparently to the
summit without a break for one-third of a mile. Slowly the cage ascends, the view growing
more comprehensive and magnificent each moment. Glancing directly downwards the earth
appears to be dangerously far away, and its sloping surface suggests anything but a safe and
comfortable landing should any of the apparatus give way. The idea is not altogether pleasant
and we glance quickly upwards with a view to changing our thoughts. It is not reassuring,
however, to gaze at the pair of pulleys which, running in tandem fashion on the cable, are the