I'm sure they thought it was a good idea given the constraints of the time. They also lacked a lot of modern knowledge and so couldn't do it the new way. Likely if someone had tried the new way at the time they would - rightly - criticism how unsafe and unreliable it would be. Modern engineering and electronics have made a lot of improvements in the last 120 years, which in turn makes the modern stuff a good choice now.

To be fair, he wasn't wrong!

Unless I'm missing something, that photo is of the new hoist installation.