🔗Personal-Album-1228-Image-50678[linkphoto]Personal-Album-1228-Image-50678[/linkphoto][/link]
It is hard to believe but this rig was at work in the Lumpsey Ironstone Mines in 1895!
The machine could be driven by water pressure, electricity or petrol engine.
🔗Personal-Album-1228-Image-50679[linkphoto]Personal-Album-1228-Image-50679[/linkphoto][/link]
This is a similar machine driven by a priestman petrol engine
c1891

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Theres a photo of the first one kicking around, i'll dig it out tonight.

That will be great :thumbup:

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Found it.

🔗Lumpsey-Iron-Mine-Archive-Album-Image-50680[linkphoto]Lumpsey-Iron-Mine-Archive-Album-Image-50680[/linkphoto][/link]

The author of the book I scanned it from posts here, so i'm sure he'll tell me if there are copyright issues.

"round and round went the bloody great wheel"... that seems to be an auger type rotary drill, the sort of thing that would work well in relatively soft ironstone

I'd be curious to know if that was actually working regularly in the mines, or just an experimental prototype. Victorian and Edwardian machinery catalogues often contain ranges of possible combinations which were never actually built, or were tried and not found successful.

Loco manufacturers like North British sometimes record machines being returned as unsuccessful in service. The ex-Bowater Bagnall "Monarch" has had a long life partly because it never did any real work, being too troublesome and being passed from hand to hand as apparently worthwhile but less so on further experience; its sisters ( sent to South Africa ) don't appear to have been much better

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The period of the 1880s-90s was a great one for experiimentation in all forms of drilling and similar techniques as first steam, then compressed air, high pressure water and electricity became available. Without that experimentation we would not have the successful tools of today. I've posted about the Kellow hydraulic drill before, but there were others, and in the '90s there was considerable interest in the slate quarries in electric drilling - both percussive and rotary. The 'Marvin' drill comes to mind. However, they were generally not as succesful as the compressed air drills, one Oakeley manager commenting "the principle is good, but the blows feeble." Whether this was due to voltage drop or other undetermined problems remains to be seen.

The development of the rock drill and its application is quite interesting - as is the development of the coal cutter. In passing although Cooke and Hunter refer to their disc based machines (not the tunneller) of the 1860s as being applicable to coal cutting, and Cooke mentions it in his paper, I've never come across any reference to it being tried in a coal mine.

I'll post some drills when I get minute.

Cheers

grahami

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In coal cutting technology, the 'great leap forward' was when mid to late C19 mechanical attempts (e.g. at Risca) to emulate the action of a collier undercutting with a pick were abandoned and different forms of motion (rotating discs and chains; rotating and reciprocating augers - misleading termed 'bar machines') were used, resulting in viable machines - though still entirely based on undercutting. It was only after the premium for large coal declined and industrial consumers mainly demanded smaller sizes of coal, that modern coal cutters were developed - ploughs, shearers, etc.

Initially compressed air was used; both compressed air and electricity were used in the early C20, with electicity winning as soon as the technology became robust and safe enough for continuous use in collieries.

So - certainly some parallel technologies to slate, and to hard rock drilling in general, but also as many differences.

🔗Personal-Album-1228-Image-50782[linkphoto]Personal-Album-1228-Image-50782[/linkphoto][/link]
I think this is the machine that Graigfawer was referring too

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