Just uploaded some drawings of Mose Kellow's Hydraulic Drills, the 1898 original and the 1906 development. If I get a chance I'll transcribe Rodney Weavers report which described them.

Cheers

Grahami

Photograph:

🔗Croesor-Slate-Mine-Archive-Album-Image-36701[linkphoto]Croesor-Slate-Mine-Archive-Album-Image-36701[/linkphoto][/link]

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Is that the same as this one?

🔗Croesor-Slate-Mine-Archive-Album-Image-36562[linkphoto]Croesor-Slate-Mine-Archive-Album-Image-36562[/linkphoto][/link]

Kellow was certainly an innovator of the highest order, developing equipment on all sorts of scales.

There's a short biography at this http://www.croesor.org.uk/Tramway/kellow.htm 

The comments on the rock drill are as follows:

Kellow's greatest contribution was the Kellow Rock Drill, which unusually was powered by high-pressure water rather than compressed air. The drill was powered by a pelton wheel (later a reaction turbine) and drove the shaft via epicyclic gears, all contained within a lightweight aluminium alloy case.

The complete drill weighed little more than one hundredweight (112lb/50.9kg) and developed 55 hp. The drill was capable of drilling a 2.5" (63mm) hole at a rate of 60 inches (1.5m) per minute in hard slate. In comparison, a modern rock drill is able to drill 40 inches per minute at 1.75 inches (44mm) diameter. Kellow diverted some of the waste water out through the drill it to remove debris from the hole, helping to minimise the health risks of dust in the underground workings.

Admittedly I'm a bit concerned about something weighing 51kg, but that's actually about the same weight as a 15hp marine outboard motor, so at 55hp it's quite impressive.

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Probably.... not had time to do the transcription yet (it's on the way) which will make more things clearer and give a lot more detail of the development phases of the drill.. Can't find the weight at the moment - but what does a conventional air driven rock drill with a 7ft bit weigh?

Grahami

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This is of particular interest to me in as much as they were supplied to Talybont Lead Mines Ltd, a company formed in 1910 to work the Alltycrib Mines, and here is an excerpt from my yet to be published book, “The Lost Mine Of Talybont”
The company had driven a new level, “Pryce’s Level” named after the mineral lords, Pryce’s of Gogerddan., and they used these drills.

An added attraction was the newly developed Kellow Rock Drills. These would be ideal for the driving of a wide dead straight level such as Pryce’s, and would have enabled the level to have been driven for a fraction of the cost of conventional drilling equipment. The 1912 plans of the Talybont Mine shows the level driven as straight as an arrow and at a width that suggests a double tramway, the likely reason for this is the use of the Kelldrills.
These drills were manufactured by Moses Kellow of the Kelldrill Works at Croesor Slate Mine near Blaenau Ffestiniog. Kellow was another Cornishman in Wales being born at Delabole in 1862. Besides being the owner of the Kelldrill Company he was manager of the quarry. These drills worked on hydraulic pressure using water, and are arguably the most powerful rock drills ever produced. High pressure water acted on a Pelton turbine, later a reaction turbine, which drove the shaft of the drill by elliptic gears. The drill developed 55h.p. and was twice as efficient as a modern rock drill. In operation, water provided the motive power as well as suppressing the dust. The water was supplied under pressure by a pump installed outside the adit entrance; this was operated by a steam engine, a boiler being installed there for the purpose. The drill itself would have been a rather bulky affair, which probably explains why it never caught on big time; however the casing was made of aluminium which kept its weight down to little over one hundredweight. Most of these drills where used, understandably, at the Croesor quarry where they were manufactured, but were supplied to other quarries as well, their use at metal mines was rare. Besides Talybont, these drills were also only sold to two other metal mines, the May Mining Company at Cwmystwyth and the Rio Tinto.
We are fortunate in that we have a photograph of one of these drills at Cwmystwyth. It is mounted on a carriage that spans a double rail track. In practice, these drills must have eaten through the rock at a terrific speed; it seems to me that each serious venture has some kind of technology behind it that was new at the time.

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OOOh - I didn't know thay'd been used even that widely, Roy, fascinating. Any chance of a sight of the photo?

:flowers:

Cheers

grahami

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Give me an hour or so, I had it from Simon Hughes, but I do not think he will mind me posting it.

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Here it is, courtesy of Simon Hughes.

[photo]Personal-Album-128-Image-36759[/photo]

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Here it is, courtesy of Simon Hughes.

Excellent!

Any idea what the bottom line of the writing reads?

Looks like:

"Ready to start work
?? May ..."

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Wow! Many thanks, Roy. Just look at that mounting - mind you, according to RW's notes (and I'm still typing) the force on the drill bit amounted to 2-3 tons in slate and "in trials in granite loads as high as twenty tons were employed."

I presume there was provision for clamping that truck to the track, or the side walls of the level....

Grahami

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The writing with a bit of help from the computer:
Ready to start work
KE (Crossed out with 3 lines) MAY TE?-D ---NE

I fancy its may as in "may be" not the company or a month

I also fancy that it was a beast to control and only useful if mounted on the carriage shown for the purpose of driving headings.

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So we have a date for the photo of around 1910-12 ? Do you have any dates for when the drills were used elsewhere (apart from Rhosydd, Llechwedd and the trials at Oakeley, of course)?
Or how many drills were employed - I wonder if they were actually purchased or leased?

Curiouser and curiouser.

Grahami

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Graham, you are aware of Adrian Barrells CD?

Frankly, I need to get a disk to you. It would have to be DVD or pendrive, there is a mass of stuff. Adrian must have devoted his life to this task, yet his disk is available for free distribution.

I am thinking maybe a drop off point in Wales somewhere?
Simon H at Talybont has a copy.

Briefly, the drills were invoiced even to Croesor.

May, Talybont, and Rio were all in 1912

Invoice figures sugest spares rather than complete drills.

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I have an old copy of Adrian's Croesor File - I am afraid he and I lost contact some while back, though we bumped into one another at the NAMHO meeting at Llangollen a couple of years ago. I did not know he had carried on with it further. I could send you a pen drive to copy it onto if that's OK ? Just pm me your snail mail - I was only thinking this week (having been going through my copy of the file) I ought to rejoin the Welsh Mines Society and see if Adrian was still around.

Cheers


Grahami

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My address is common knowledge, no need to pm

Roy A Fellows
Greengables
Stafford Road
Great Wyrley
Walsall
WS6 6AX

The disk is 2.98 gig. You will be a day or so going through it, but its worth the time.
Oh, by the way, rejoining Welsh Mines is a condition. Just kidding.
Its everyones favourite society.

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I'll get that (and my application form for WMS) off hopefully later today. You're not far away, I work in Wolverhampton.

Many thanks,

Graham

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OK. Transcription of Rodney's 1978 report on the Kellow Drill is complete and I've uploaded it to the Croesor section. I hope its of interest. It describes technical features and the various patents as well as its actual application at Croesor. Not having seen the latest developments in Adrian's research, I'll add comments etc. at a later date. It is worth noting that some of the info in Rodney's report came from the course team being fortunate enough to interview Jack Morgan of Penrhyndeudraeth, who was the last man to use a Kellow Drill at Croesor and then Llechwedd.

Grahami

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Roy -Thanks for the excellent photograph.

Please note that pre 1920 and subsequent to the demise of the Kelldrill workshops the manufacturing rights for the Kelldrill were taken over by Holmans of Camborne (ref. "The Quarry" P269 October 1920).

The drills were definitely used at Llechwedd since an article by M.I. Willaims on the Llechwedd Slate Quarries in the QMJ for June 1933 shows one in use and the text makes it clear that they were in use at that time.

Digressing slightly I have always wondered how much Kellow and M.I.Williams-Ellis communicated. Both were pioneers of technology in Slate Quarrying and were inventive Engineers.

Regarding the Adrian Barrells Kellow File I know that Adrain has always been keen to share his researches with interested parties so I will contact him to see if he minds parts of it being uploaded to this site. It is a fascinating piece of reaserch although what I most enjoyed reading was the extracts from Kellows letter books - these, more than anything I have ever read gave an insight into what it was really like to run a quarry. In days before emails or telephones same day responses were often requested to letters, although the quote I liked the most, if I remember it correctly, was in reply to a request from head office for an explanation as to why a report had not been submitted on time. Kellow dryly replied that only those who have had to negotiate with Welsh Quarryman to reduce the rate per bargain will know how long this takes thus leaving no time for anything else.

Could I end with a moan/suggestion. This site generates some fascinating information - this thread being typical. However to be of use to future generations the good information contained therein needs to be condensed into articles of some kind. Any offers to write up the Hunter Tunneler or the Kellow Drill ?

Could I end with a moan/suggestion. This site generates some fascinating information - this thread being typical. However to be of use to future generations the good information contained therein needs to be condensed into articles of some kind. Any offers to write up the Hunter Tunneler or the Kellow Drill ?

Interesting you should say that...

The site has got the facility for articles to be added, albeit that feature has not been switched on as yet. As far as I'm aware (and the absent SimonRL may have to confirm this), it will work along the lines of text and images being submitted and the relevant page being assembled by Simon and then added and linked. Articles would, of course, be very welcome! :flowers:

There is also some work being done to provide some basic information on locations in the form of downloadable PDFs, but that's one for another day...

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Does anybody know the name of the person in this photograph?

It's interesting to speculate on the location of the photograph.
Given that it is from Simon Hughes then let's accept Cwmystwyth mine.
It is not Lefel Fawr, far too big. I can not think of any adits that now appear that big.
Speculation:-
How big was Mitchels adit and was it open then?
At that time work was done sampling the old Comet lode workings on Copa hill, could it be Kings or Queens adit?
Could it be the new trial on the top of the hill above the Kingside workings?

Please speculate! :smartass: