Michael Loam
From Graces Guide
Michael Loam (1797 - 1871) a Cornishman who invented the Man Engine, a device to carry men up and down the shaft of a mine. He won the prize for this design, offered by the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society in 1834.
Inspired by German designs and constructed of a series of moving platforms, the Man Engine was finally erected at the Tresavean mine, in Lanner near Redruth in 1842.
He was trained as an engineer at Wheal Abraham by Arthur Woolf
Michael Loam remained active in the metal mining and smelting industries in Cornwall and is noted as an investor in the Tamar Tin Smelting Co in 1863
Sources of Information
[1] Wikipedia