The well was 17 feet deep and only three feet across.
It was July 30, 1966, near Picton, Ontario. Lyle C. Mitchell, a 24-year-old farmer, had lowered a gasoline-powered pump into the well after its water had been removed.
Mitchell climbed down using stones that projected from the walls. He operated the pump at the bottom for several minutes.
Then he began feeling dizzy.
Mitchell turned off the pump and climbed toward the opening. A neighbor tried to help him over the edge, but Mitchell lost consciousness before he could get out.
He slipped from the man’s grasp and fell back to the bottom.
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The neighbor left to summon help. Word of the accident soon reached Joseph H. G. Allison, a 19-year-old student.
Allison went to the well with two other men.
The gasoline motor had stopped, but its fumes remained in the confined space.
The same air that had overcome Mitchell was still waiting below.
Allison tied a rope to a log lying across the well’s opening.
Then he descended.
At the bottom, he found Mitchell unconscious. Allison tied the free end of the rope around him and climbed back to the surface.
The men began pulling Mitchell upward.
The rope slipped over his arms.
Mitchell fell back down.
Allison entered the well a second time.
He retied the rope around Mitchell. By then, Allison was having trouble breathing and beginning to feel dizzy himself.
He climbed back out.
More men arrived and helped pull on the rope. Again, they raised Mitchell toward the opening.
Again, the rope slipped.
He remained at the bottom.
Allison was tired. He had already entered the well twice and felt the effects of the fumes on each trip.
He went down a third time.
This time, the men above tied another rope around Allison so they could retrieve him if he lost consciousness. As he descended, Allison kept talking continuously.
The men could not see everything happening below. His voice told them he was still awake.
At the bottom, Allison tied the rope around Mitchell in a different way. He was again having difficulty breathing, but the new arrangement held.
Allison climbed out.
The men pulled Mitchell from the well.
He was unconscious and had stopped breathing, but those at the scene revived him. He later recovered.
Allison also made it out safely.
The rescue was not delayed by a lack of effort. It was delayed by a rope that would not stay in place around an unconscious man being lifted through a narrow shaft.
Each failure returned the situation to where it had started.
Mitchell was still at the bottom.
The fumes were still inside.
Someone still had to go down.
Allison did not solve the problem by repeating the exact same action. On the third descent, he changed how the rope was tied. He also stayed in contact with the men above by speaking as he worked.
The risk increased with every trip. The longer Allison spent inside the well, the greater the chance that he would become unconscious beside Mitchell.
He understood that by the third descent.
He went anyway.
What He Did And Why It Is Worth Noticing
Joseph H. G. Allison entered a 17-foot well after gasoline fumes caused Lyle Mitchell to lose consciousness and fall to the bottom. Allison tied a rope around him and climbed out, but the rope slipped during the attempted lift.
Allison descended again.
When the rope slipped a second time, he entered the well a third time despite feeling tired, dizzy, and short of breath. He kept talking so the men above would know he was conscious, secured Mitchell differently, and climbed out before the fumes overcame him.
That is what he did.
It is worth noticing because Allison did not enter a danger that disappeared after the first attempt. The fumes remained, and he felt their effects more strongly each time.
The problem also required more than courage. It required adjustment. The first two knots did not hold. On the third trip, Allison changed the arrangement and stayed in verbal contact with the people controlling his safety rope.
An unconscious man lay at the bottom of a narrow well. Twice, the rescue rope failed.
Allison went down a third time and made it work.
That changed what happened next.
After two failed attempts and signs that the fumes were affecting you, would you enter the well a third time?