The method invented by Colin Mather, and manufactured by Mather and Platt, of Oldham, employed largely in England for deep boring, seems to combine the advantages of the systems hitherto used, and to be free from many of their disadvantages. The distinctive features of this plan, which is shown in Figs. 189 to 195, are the mode of giving the percussive action to the boring tool, and the construction of the tool or boring-head, and of the shell-pump for clearing out the hole after the action of the boring-head. Instead of these implements being attached to rods, they are suspended by a flat hemp-rope, about 1/2 inch thick and 4-1/2 inches broad, such as is commonly used at collieries; and the boring tool and shell-pump are raised and lowered as quickly in the bore-hole as the bucket and cages in a colliery shaft. [Illustration: LARGE BORING MACHINE. _Longitudinal Section._ Fig. 192.] The flat rope A A, Fig. 189, from which the boring-head B is suspended, is wound upon a large drum C driven by a steam-engine D with a reversing motion, so that one man can regulate the operation with the greatest ease. All the working parts are fitted into a wood or iron framing E E, rendering the whole a compact and complete machine. On leaving the drum C the rope passes under a guide pulley F, and then over a large pulley G carried in a fork at the top of the piston-rod of a vertical single-acting steam cylinder. [Illustration: _Large Boring Machine._ _Transverse Section._ Fig. 193.] This cylinder, by which the percussive action of the boring-head is produced, is shown to a larger scale in the vertical sections, Figs. 192, 193; and in the larger size of machine here shown, the cylinder is fitted with a piston of 15 inches diameter, having a heavy cast-iron rod 7 inches square, which is made with a fork at the top carrying the flanged pulley G of about 3 feet diameter and of sufficient breadth for the flat rope A to pass over it. The boring-head having been lowered by the winding drum to the bottom of the bore-hole, the rope is fixed secure at that length by the clamp J; steam is then admitted underneath the piston in the cylinder H by the steam valve K, and the boring tool is lifted by the ascent of the piston-rod and pulley G; and on arriving at the top of the stroke the exhaust valve L is opened for the steam to escape, allowing the piston-rod and carrying pulley to fall freely with the boring tool, which falls with its full weight to the bottom of the bore-hole. The exhaust port is 6 inches above the bottom of the cylinder, while the steam port is situated at the bottom; and there is thus always an elastic cushion of steam retained in the cylinder of that thickness for the piston to fall upon, preventing the piston from striking the bottom of the cylinder. The steam and exhaust valves are worked with a self-acting motion by the tappets M M, which are actuated by the movement of the piston-rod; and a rapid succession of