Hi guys. I know that one of you local guys will know the answer. Trying to find the name of the mine that the small engine house at the entrance to United Downs tip belonged to.

Also out of interest anyone else read a book called "Deep Down". Friend of mine bought it for 1p on Amazon, & I have since downloaded it for free onto my Kindle!. Allowing for when it was written, 1800's, and therefore does not read as easy as today, the mining description is amazing. Particularly when they mine into flooded workings. :thumbsup:

The engine house is Eldon's and pumped water from United Mines, most of which is now under the land fill site.

The book is good isn't it.

All the best

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thanks, knew you would not let me down. I thought it might be a stamps engine as it looks very small for a pumping engine. But I bow to superior wisdom.

I also replay the old Poldark series with new eyes after becoming interested in Cornish mining history, and espescially after a trip down Great Condurrow near King Edward, where the guide informed me that the underground scenes were shot.
Thanks for your info. :flowers:

The reason it is such a small house is that it only pumped
condensing water to the engine ponds for the larger engines

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Thank you Spifire. That clears it all up, particularly when you compare it with the size of pumping engine houses such as Taylors, :thumbsup:

Hi guys. I know that one of you local guys will know the answer. Trying to find the name of the mine that the small engine house at the entrance to United Downs tip belonged to.

Also out of interest anyone else read a book called "Deep Down". Friend of mine bought it for 1p on Amazon, & I have since downloaded it for free onto my Kindle!. Allowing for when it was written, 1800's, and therefore does not read as easy as today, the mining description is amazing. Particularly when they mine into flooded workings. :thumbsup:

I'm reading it at the moment, it's superb!
It was written by the Scottish author R M Ballaltyne, he of "Coral Island" fame.
The reason it's so accurate apparently, is due to someone pointing out a mistake he made in Coral Island re the thickness of coconut shells!
His subsequent works were meticulously researched, & for Deep Down he spent months living & working in & around Cornish mines!
A terrific read.

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The reason it is such a small house is that it only pumped
condensing water to the engine ponds for the larger engines

They worked it like hell though. I think it pretty much did 14 strokes a minute. A lot of the top was chopped off when the dumps were reworked and that engine house was the office for the project.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=vCwPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA551&lpg=PA551&dq=cardozo 's+engine+united+mines&source=bl&ots=Oi76uPS1Hg&sig=rt41XRXvxNJAjDKaLxWNrSZbULo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mHi3UtTuA5CqhAfL5YHQAw&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=cardozo's%20engine%20united%20mines&f=false

Cardozo's engine (90") formerly stood just inside the tip, but was knocked down in the 50's, I think. There is a book called "The history of Gwennap" which has photos of a few of the united engine houses (including Poldory, which was another 90). For such a famous mine, both consols and united have pretty much no photos of any period before about 1960.

If anyone does know of any, of if it's bullen's next book, I would be interested. That area is the apex of cornish mining IMO.

1p was a bargain. My mum has been collecting first editions of the book for years (40 ish) and it rarely crops up.

Not read it for years, I will get a copy and re-read it over Christmas.

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There is a new one (reprint) in the studies library for £3 IIRC.

The reason it is such a small house is that it only pumped
condensing water to the engine ponds for the larger engines

They worked it like hell though. I think it pretty much did 14 strokes a minute. A lot of the top was chopped off when the dumps were reworked and that engine house was the office for the project.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=vCwPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA551&lpg=PA551&dq=cardozo 's+engine+united+mines&source=bl&ots=Oi76uPS1Hg&sig=rt41XRXvxNJAjDKaLxWNrSZbULo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mHi3UtTuA5CqhAfL5YHQAw&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=cardozo's%20engine%20united%20mines&f=false

Cardozo's engine (90") formerly stood just inside the tip, but was knocked down in the 50's, I think. There is a book called "The history of Gwennap" which has photos of a few of the united engine houses (including Poldory, which was another 90). For such a famous mine, both consols and united have pretty much no photos of any period before about 1960.

If anyone does know of any, of if it's bullen's next book, I would be interested. That area is the apex of cornish mining IMO.

14 strokes a minute! where did that come from?
I would have thought an engine working at that speed would have one of two results:- A wrecked engine or smashed pitwork.
The highest I can find regarding this engine is 10.96 SPM.

When the bob on New Cook's 90" broke in 1950 an uncle of mine timed Robinson's. That was doing just over 11SPM.
The driver informed him that although he thought he could push the engine faster he was under strict instructions not to do so, for fear of wrecking the pitwork. If that had happened that would have been the end of Crofty there and then.

As for United none of the engines large or small hardly ever stroked above 10, the normal being between 7 & 8.
By the way the Poldory engine also known as Loam's was a 85" not a 90"

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Are you quoting Lean's Engine Reporter?

I don't have copies by me, but I recall that Poldory did have a 90 for a time. There was a period (I forget when) where quite a few of the 90s on united/consols were replaced with 85s. To the point that Consols started off with several 90s and ended up with only one (Woolfs). I think the only engine on Consols which wasn't an 85 or 90 was Pearces (at that time). I think United had 2 90s, one being on Poldory and one being on Cardozos, then it went to 3 85's, one being on Taylors, another not on cardozos and the other in poldory. I also thought that as you say, Loam's Shaft was one of the poldory engines and the other one may not have been. Old Engine shaft perhaps?

The little engine is in the reporter doing some ridiculous work. It was only pumping from adit, which is about 80m there, so not much pitwork in movement. I assume it was probably balanced from surface with probably only one plunger lift sat in a sump. I don't think there is any record, but I don't imagine it was running big bore pitwork either.

There was an engine on poldice (which is in lean's reporter, but not in "On the steam engines of cornwall" or whatever the DBB book was called). Which was a big one (80+) and did something like 12 or 14 spm. Trussals, I think. It's not one of the well known poldice engines.

I was thumbing through the original bound copies of Lean's Engine Reporter in the studies library. IIRC it starts off at 1812. It is a fascinating document.

I'm not 100% sure. I'm always keen on finding more information about the area as it is a fascinating place. The Gwennap book (old one) is brilliant. That's also in the studies library

The engine that was on Poldory before Loam's 85" was put in was a 63" by Sims as were most of the engines on United at that time c!833

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http://www.cruquiusmuseum.nl/cornishenginedatabase01/engines.asp 

There we are!

You are right according to this. I'm convinced the centre chapter (whatever it is in the book) "On the steam engines of cornwall" says about a 90 on Poldory.