This Aerial Ropeway Moves 330 Tons a Day Without Using Any Power

Different engineering solutions define different eras, and as time passes, new becomes old. In this particular case, English YouTuber and educator Tom Scott explains the story of the U.K.'s last aerial ropeway.

The Forterra brickworks at Claughton, Lancashire, make 50 million bricks per year from shale, quarried a mile and a half away. Today, we'd have an underground conveyor belt or trucks loading up and driving back and forth to carry the goods, but that wasn't always the case, of course. To carry that shale to the brickworks, they employed the country's last aerial ropeway which needs no fuel or electricity. While these were formerly common, that isn't the case anymore and by 2036, the last, which was opened in the 1920s, one will be gone. Still, the ropeway is over 100 years old and working in great condition without any fuel.

All in all, it seems like a practical, cost-saving, and green way of doing business, which makes the video all the more interesting. If you want to learn more, make sure you watch the video embedded above.