What WOULD you find in a dwarven mine?

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Pumps to prevent flooding (unless they're operating entirely above the water table - which is possible if they're half way up a mountain)

One of those things that get forgotten at times:

• "Outhouses" - wood or stone board with a hole in it over your standard issue 10'-adventurer-catching pit, with whatever privacy partitions dwarves may or may not want.
• The unfortunate sod who has to empty the pits, and his tools. Buckets and shovels, but I'm thinking a chain-bucket loop would be more dwarfy than just a bucket on a rope ;)
• The cart for moving the nightsoil
• some place to process/rot the nightsoil before using it as a growth medium for... mushrooms probably. And probably composting other materials as well. You'll need good ventilation here because of the methane and heat being generated - both of which are pollution in a mine.
• The farm where the product of the composting is used. Regular mushrooms, fantasy giant mushrooms, regular old crops under weird artificial lights?

Which I know as a composting toilet. Note in the link the seperate collector for urine, which will have numerous applications for dwarven chemists.

[jason taylor]

Sleeping chambers? Tolkien never said where Dwarves lived. Do they each have a chamber? Do they buy and sell clusters of caves the way humans do with houses?

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Pumps to prevent flooding (unless they're operating entirely above the water table - which is possible if they're half way up a mountain)

<hydrology rant>
There will be aquifers within mountains, unless there is no rain at all. In my landscape (equivalent to Mediterranean / Texas-Kansas) the highest rainfall areas are the large hills and mountains. These don't supply water to the lower slopes and plains by surface water flows, but by shallow and medium depth aquifiers. What we call the water table is just the location of those aquifers closest to the surface. There are other distinct bodies of water deep down below. These distinctions are a direct consequence of changes in geology, rock type, positioning of strata, and fragmentation of strata.
</hydrology rant>

Short version: They'll need pumps regardless of where they are in the subterranean environment.

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by Witchking

If you do not have a copy I would recommend:

Life in a Medevil City by Geis.

http://www.amazon.com/Life-Medieval-...al+cities+gies

Oh. Excellent. Ta muchly Witchking.

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Sleeping chambers? Tolkien never said where Dwarves lived. Do they each have a chamber? Do they buy and sell clusters of caves the way humans do with houses?

Excellent question Jason. Will address / muse upon in a separate thread.

[Eben]

I think I'd find dwarves.......

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip

Short version: They'll need pumps regardless of where they are in the subterranean environment.

This pretty much forces them to be at the low end of TL 5.

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by Anthony

This pretty much forces them to be at the low end of TL 5.

Darn. Maybe this is the major limitation for dwarves, finding somewhere drain water. They could use qanat type drains, which could in turn be used to supply water to agricultural races with which they trade.

This would obviously be a limiting factor for where dwarves could establish mining complexes deep underground.

Ok. No high tech pumps, manually powered bellow style pumps, with a short head, and drains aka canals.

[Anaraxes]

Why are pumps TL5 minimum? Sure, having a Newcomen engine is nice. But there are earlier means of moving water uphill. For that matter, I think they're still using the Archimedes screw in some places in the Netherlands.

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Why are pumps TL5 minimum? Sure, having a Newcomen engine is nice. But there are earlier means of moving water uphill. For that matter, I think they're still using the Archimedes screw in some places in the Netherlands.

I think the issue is the motor, not the valving etc. But thank you for reminding me of Archimedes screws.