On a Mining Shift

The author of the picture, Johannes Esaias Nilson, tried to show the appearance of the mine as fully as possible. You can see many details of the daily life of miners from the 18th century. 

Miners descend down the shaft on a rope in hemp saddles, attached to a thick rope. The dense darkness was illuminated by the frail light of a torch. 

Miners bounced a large block of salt off the wall with wedges and pickaxes. 

The salt cuboids chipped off in the chambers were divided into smaller ones. Large wooden hammers were used to beat the wedges.

Then the block of salt was divided into smaller cylindrical forms. Such a form was easy to transport and roll with wooden poles. Salt loaves were the main product of the Cracow Saltworks. Their weight reached up to 2000 kg. 

Smaller pieces of salt were packed into barrels using wooden shovels and rammers. In the sources we encounter information about the salt barrels, in two size 280 and 140 kg. 

Barrels of salt were transported using horses and special sledges

And then to the surface with the help of a wooden horse cross machine.

Horses intended for work in the mine were lowered down the shaft in special suspenders.

They had stables specially prepared for them. In the 18th century there were about 60 horses in the mine. 

Methane exploded. Unfortunately, sometimes there were accidents.

Carpenters played a large role in security, laying horizontally stacked beams in the mine galleries to protect the chambers from collapse

Measurements of underground workings and drawing maps were extremely important in the development and proper functioning of the mine, Wieliczka together with the Bochnia mine formed the largest industrial enterprise in Poland and one of the largest in Europe.

There is also a scene of a service in the underground chapel 

and even a feast held in the chamber.