According to Todd and Laws the engine house is a gem but the stack may be a lalse one, or perhaps was never used, though there is some record of steam-stamps being employed. I await being corrected on this. 🙂

🔗GIEW-Mine-User-Album-Image-004[linkphoto]GIEW-Mine-User-Album-Image-004[/linkphoto][/link]

---

The mine was worked in various stages and the engine house re-used.
The engine house was built around 1871/2 to contain a 50"inch x 9ft stroke engine finally erected there in 1873 (ex Wheal Daniell near Chacewater)
The chimney was very definately used for the engine contained therein and its boilers and was certainly not false in any way.
By 1885 the engine amongst others was advertised for sale as part of selling of equipment from the "Old South Providence and Reeth Consols". the engine was still for sale in 1889.

The mine was re-opened by St. Ives Consolidated mines in 1908 and a tempory pumping engine (very Heath Robinson) was fitted comprising of a wooden beam rocking over the bob wall connected to the old Pit Work!!!! On the engine house side the beam was connected to gearing and a 100HP electric motor by a connecting rod to provide power.
However this was soon replaced by modern submersible pumps and by 1910 the engine house was in use as an ore bin.
At this point the chimney may have been Out Of Use but was definately part and parcel of the original structure. The mine closed with the tin slump in the early 1920's ceasing work in 1923.

Other engines were on once on site inc a 22"inch whim (masonary stump remains) and a 36"inch stamps engine of which no trace seems to exist, these were sold at the same time as the 50" I believe.

Oh and whilst its a gem of an engine house its conservation was chronic, the pointing being particularly bad!

:thumbdown:

---

Well said ICLOCK, this only proves what I said in a previous post about the rubbish that is written about Cornish mining these days

---

This from Industrial Archaeology of Cornwall by Todd and Laws. One has to remember this was written 36 years ago. There is an article in the TS Journal 1984 on the history of the mine which I must have a look at.

Local miners remember that the hoist was worked by electricity, the power being brought from Hayle on pylons, some of which can still be seen, though sawn down almost to the level of the ground. The main shaft is exposed and most unsafe, and near it are the concrete walls of three forges and immense pits in which turned the flywheels of the compressors. The ore was trammed across the present main B3311 road to Penzance near the present Giew House, formerly the counthouse and office, in 1 ton trams along a short embankment that is still clearly visible, and down the natural slope of the ground. From here it is not at all difficult to follow the sequence of processes: the remains of a . crushing shed; the water tanks, still full of water; a wall which carried the tramroad; the leve1.dressing-floors where the stamps were bolted to the masonry, though only a little of the immense wooden pillars remain, the rest having been cut away for kindling wood; a pile of rounded stones and boulders that were used for crushing; the buddling sheds; and finally the calciner and its stack, both in excellent
condition.
Once again these relics are a reminder of the difficulties of this mine, for the veins corkscrewed and the ventilation was bad. Survivors of the depression of the 1920s recall with bitterness the less lucky ones who finished their early days in the local 'bone-yard' while they themselves were forced to accept a cut in wages to keep the mine afloat or find work at thel ocal china-clay pit. So, when in 1923 the hard decision was made to close the mine, all the machinery had to be sold to placate the creditors. The same fate fell to Wheal Sisters (Margaret, Mary and Kitty) in the same parish along the valley between Trink Hill and Trencrom Hill, but somehow a set of stamps survived and these can be seen among a tangle of brambles and undergrowth; there are also two splendid engine houses as well, worthy of a group of mines that produced 12,950 tons of black tin and 10,700 tons of copper ore from 1825 to 1900.

---

Well said ICLOCK, this only proves what I said in a previous post about the rubbish that is written about Cornish mining these days

You are no doubt correct but how do you sort out the wheat from the chaff? I always understood that Dr. A.C. Todd was a respected authority on Cornish history from the 18th century onwards. I quite enjoyed his "The Search for Silver", Cornish Miners in Mexico 1824-1947.

---

I fail to see the point you are trying to make, what if it was wrtten 36 years ago?. A mines history is a mines history and the only true source of information is the Mining Joural, Record office or local press

---

All that refers to is the last re-working, Equipt in this period was-

A double geared 110hp twin drum winder.
Electric belt driven 2 cylinder compressor generating 550Cu ft per min.
Switchgear and Gen sets were British Westinghouse built being ex of Tywharnhayle. All 3 were vertical 3 cylinder gas engines coupled to 90kW motors. A secondary winding provided dc power to light the buildings.
Distribution around the mine was 650V overhead lines.
there was eventually a 6kV line connecting the consols power house to Trenwith.

---

The generating station ICLOCK refers to only worked for a short while and closed in 1916. From then on the mine took its power from The Cornwall Electric Power Co' generated by their power station at Hayle.

---

I quite agree with you and would even add manuscript sources elsewhere. All I'm attempting to say is that a good book or article should be using primary sources where possible.

---

Spitfire, I was just getting to that, I knew it wasn't permanent.... didn't they send it to New Zealand or Australia or something? 🙂

---

You're quite right, when they were taken over by the Thermo Electric Ore Reduction Corporation the plant was sent to their mine in Queensland Australia

---

Least me and thee got to the bottom of that one! :thumbsup:
I thought I'd got it roughly right,.... so thanks mate... :thumbsup:

---

I just find it odd that books cannot be a source of information. If that's the case I'm out of here.

---

I did not say that books cannot be used as a source of information, and well you know it.
To quote the figures you lifted from Todd and Law: Wheal sisters over a period of seventy five years only produced on average three tons of tin per wek and less than that of copper. If that makes sense to you, then so be it. It beggers belief to me

---

Carnkie wrote;

I just find it odd that books cannot be a source of information. If that's the case I'm out of here.



Unfortunately having a degree does not instantly make every utterance correct. If HIS source of information was a little dodgey, and for whatever reason wasn't researched to validate it, then it's quite easy for the scholar to be misled. After all, this is the way myths are started.
Remember the achronym ...GIGO. Garbage In = Garbage Out. ::)

---

I couldn't agree with you more

---

Yeah I gotta admit this all rings true.... Example .... the Valhalla book on Gangways is Bertram Baxters Stone Blocks and Iron Rails..... Everyone rates this so highly yet, Its very wrong in odd places, but as a general work is very very good..... the best info I have had however is from local history guys.... and by walking..... and by digging in archives were poss. Thus the mistakes created by reference works such as his don't get perpetuated.
As for the internet the problem is people usually only put info on to support their own views or to point people in a general direction.... I'm not on about well known PDF's etc but peoples own sites or guides or articles. Hence if it says Black is black I still end up checking if its white really before I'll key it in. 😉

---

An old carpenter gave me some good advice when I was a spotty kid, which can be applied to almost anything and that was; 'Measure twice, cut once'. It works! :thumbsup:

---

Yeah I gotta admit this all rings true.... Example .... the Valhalla book on Gangways is Bertram Baxters Stone Blocks and Iron Rails..... Everyone rates this so highly yet, Its very wrong in odd places, but as a general work is very very good.....

Another good example of that is a certain well known author of books about Welsh narrow gauge railways. Some were even written while a lot of the subject still survived, yet are full of horrendous errors not only in the text, but in the maps too!

You beat me too it, I was just going to say that there are people in this world who waste money on books by him. And not just for the photos. What a waste of time, writing books which are so full of mistakes that it's anyones guess what is correct and what is utter rubbish.