A winding system based on the principles of the Koepe winder. The drive to the winding ropes is the frictional resistance between the ropes and the driving sheaves. Multirope friction winders are usually tower mounted, with either cages or skips, and provided with a counterweight. The sheaves are from about 6 to 12 ft (1.8 to 3.7 m) in diameter with a direct coupled or geared drive. Four ropes are favored and these operate in parallel and share the total suspended load. The system was introduced partly because of the difficulty of winding heavy loads from deep shafts with a single large-diameter winding rope. Modern winding ropes have become large and heavy, being 2-1/4 in (5.72 cm) in diameter locked coil, weighing 16.5 st (15 t) for a 1,000-yd (915-m) shaft; therefore, the introduction of the friction winder, with its counterweight, and using four smaller ropes side by side in place of one. Such ropes need be only 1-1/4 in (3.2 cm) in diameter to give equivalent breaking strain.