POLDARK!!!!..........I can't help but think that the researchers, if indeed there were any, failed on an immense scale, to understand even the most basic workings of the Cornish pumping engine.
The most important requirement for any such engine, is that it be connected to the pumping mechanism in the shaft, by means of a pump rod, a device clearly absent in the engine of 'Wheal Grace'.
As for the headframe and the way it has been mounted, on the bob plat........I'd better stop now before the ranting fluid rises too much.....:curse:

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Must admit I have spent watching the last three programmes trying to work out how the 'pergola' for want of a better description on the bob wall helped to pump water. There are glimpses of a bob but......

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Ignoring the strange headframe erection, which surely would have been ripped of the engine house as soon as any hoisting started, that surely must have been connected to the earliest twin drum hoist ever! Also, they were very forward thinking to put an access off the main shaft into the boiler house, to save the miners coming up into the cold!

Bloody artists!

the bob was a newcome type and the valve gear was a Cornish engine type ! also noted this week the engine house had sprouted a household chimney

Being a veteran of the FIRST "Poldark" I can assure you that research for THAT series was nil, although they DID have a number of CSM students and graduates as extras and stage hands - one even spoke a line - and it did have the benefit of some of the underground scenes being filmed at Great Condurrow.

There was a suggestion that the Mitchell's Shaft engine be used as a location but that came to nothing.

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Before we all get too excited!!

Poldark - written by Winston Greene in the 1950's as a hysterical, sorry, historical romance.

The depictions of life in the late 18th century have little basis in fact, the farming scenes have little basis in fact, and the mining scenes have little basis in fact. Just enjoy it for the nonsense that it is.

Lets face it - which idiot would try to re-start a Cornish copper mine, when Parys Mountain was at its zenith.

.... but WG's account of the Poldark novels (currently back in print, for obvious reasons) contains a good deal about his research, and SOME aspects of the novels are based on identifiable issues (although the overall context is wildly amiss in some respects)

The obvious comparison would be the Aubrey/Maturin novels, by Patrick O'Brian. I don't know how strictly accurate they are but they give a very credible picture of life on a Napoleonic warship, Aubrey is largely based on various historical characters (although quite which one, varies rather from book to book) - and the film is great stuff.

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Let's face it, Poldark is just acceptable porn for women. They don't watch the story, just froth over that chap.

Meanwhile, the enthusiasts are straining at the screen saying "See that, that's Allen's Shaft headgear from the 1980s"

This guy is totally unique, the FPOP not Polly, where would the forums be without him.

Sock it to em Stu
:lol:

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I would say that "you can't watch Colin Firth fall in a lake forever" but the evidence seems to point otherwise.

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Winston Graham also wrote a book entitled Marnie which was dramatised by Hitchcock.
I wonder what he would have done with Poldark 😮

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Tippi Hedren, I saw it when it first came out:o

Lozz.

Did she fall in a lake?

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http://www.aditnow.co.uk/SuperSize/Personal-Album-Of_108647/ 

Just for reference this is how the house looked during filming and prior to loads of post filming CGI. For a start it was 'turned around'.

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Is that guy painting the granite the right colour? :angel:

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.... but WG's account of the Poldark novels (currently back in print, for obvious reasons) contains a good deal about his research, and SOME aspects of the novels are based on identifiable issues (although the overall context is wildly amiss in some respects)

The obvious comparison would be the Aubrey/Maturin novels, by Patrick O'Brian. I don't know how strictly accurate they are but they give a very credible picture of life on a Napoleonic warship, Aubrey is largely based on various historical characters (although quite which one, varies rather from book to book) - and the film is great stuff.

In terms of "historic" novels my vote goes to George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman novels. Well researched and a cracking read.

In terms of "historic" novels my vote goes to George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman novels. Well researched and a cracking read.

I read his autobiography "Quartered Safe Out Here" about his time in Burma in WW2. A truly excellent read. I gave a copy to my father who lent it to all his friends.

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I have kept out of this discussion, even trying not to think to much about it. However, wondering why SWMBO was so interested I took a look at last week's episode. Please note that, particularly with reference to a previous post, my interests might not be the same as hers.
There is research, inadequate research or making it up as you go along - how appalling could the scenes in and around the mine be? With so much information and so many images available how could anyone get it so wrong? Pumping aside (but why?), how do the programme makers think men descended and ore was taken from the mine? Oh!, of course, it was by way of the open ended sheds on the surface, which provided a sort of portal into another dimension, transporting those who enter vertically down (was it below 55 fathoms in the last episode?) in seconds and back again, carrying the dead and injured back up just as quickly. Nice clean clothes too.
Some authenticity e.g. vertical descents would have added to dramatic effect. Filming time is limited (hence walking in and out of the "portal"?) but did no-one think of that?
The lack of smoke must have been of course, through very efficient firing of the boiler - or was it because Poldark was down to his last bag of coal and was really making it last?
Enough!

There was smoke in one episode, however, that was before the engine was installed.....why else? ::)

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