In the language of miners, every movement underground—even walking—is referred to as “traveling.” The miner “travels” even when he is on foot. Once he had found the coveted ore and extracted it from the rock, it then had to be brought to the surface.

Since the beginnings of mining, ladders and stairs made from tree trunks served to connect the various levels of a mine. Besides water management, the transport of rock represented the greatest technical challenge.

As early as the beginning of the 12th century, windlasses came into use. Wooden hoisting vessels attached to a rope were moved by winding and unwinding the rope around a horizontally mounted wooden shaft. The windlass was operated by a specially assigned windlass operator, who hoisted the ore from one mine level to the next higher one. In some cases, boys also took over the transport: they carried the ore on metal sheets or in tubular leather sacks to the surface.