Borrowdale Graphite Mine· Page 2

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Jeff
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15 years ago

#21

Samples taken during 2006 directly from the late graphite-chlorite veins and from selected exposures within the pipes (legally) were of good quality. As yet I do not have the actual content percentages but I will get then at some point.

Quoting from an earlier technical paper (1998) samples from the mine had the following percentages:
Graphite content 45-85%,
Carbon content 99%.

Jeff

Vanoord
54.4% (Neutral)
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15 years ago

#22

I've edited the link in Jeff's post and made it clickable - here's the direct link to download the document: http://www.aditnow.co.uk/documents/Borrowdale-Graphite-Mine/Graphite-at-Seathwaite.pdf but note it's 5Mb in size!

Cheers for uploading that, Jeff, it's fascinating reading! :thumbup:

Hello again darkness, my old friend...

Jeff
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15 years ago

#23

Thanks for the link and comment Vanoord, much appreciated mate.

Jeff

AR
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15 years ago

#24

So there's still some left but it sounds like there's not enough to have been worth extracting in the final days of mining there.

Follow the horses, Johnny my laddie, follow the horses canny lad-oh!

jagman
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15 years ago

#25

May I gently point out that there is no U in Borrowdale please!

[tweak]Thread title edited ;)[/tweak]

Monty Stubble
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15 years ago

#26

"jagman" wrote:
May I gently point out that there is no U in Borrowdale please!

[tweak]Thread title edited ;)[/tweak]

I beg to differ - there's plenty of 'em. This time of year they've got their lambs with them too. ::)

The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.
Henry David Thoreau

jagman
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15 years ago

#27

"Monty Stubble" wrote:

"jagman" wrote:
May I gently point out that there is no U in Borrowdale please!

[tweak]Thread title edited ;)[/tweak]

I beg to differ - there's plenty of 'em. This time of year they've got their lambs with them too. ::)

Smart arse 🙂

ttxela
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15 years ago

#28

"AR" wrote:
So there's still some left but it sounds like there's not enough to have been worth extracting in the final days of mining there.

Suprised they didn't extract all those naturally occuring fifty pence pieces though :lol:

derrickman
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

#29

baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ...... :lol:

so, what are the actual veins like? I get the impression from the pictures that they are quite narrow, so even if there are remnants of producing veins there would be no blocks

it was always my understanding that items like pencil leads and motor brushes were sintered ( formed in moulds from powder under heat and pressure )

''the stopes soared beyond the range of our caplamps' - David Bick...... How times change .... oh, I don't know, I've still got a lamp like that.

Morlock
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15 years ago

#30

"derrickman" wrote:
it was always my understanding that items like pencil leads and motor brushes were sintered ( formed in moulds from powder under heat and pressure )

You are probably correct, I think pencil leads also contain a fair bit of clay.

Jeff
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15 years ago

#31

Reply to Derrickman. so, what are the actual veins like? I get the impression from the pictures that they are quite narrow, so even if there are remnants of producing veins there would be no blocks.

Yes the veins in general are quite narrow and very similar to many mineral veins within mines and too insignificant in size to be excavated for profit.
From memory I think that there are small graphite nodules within the veins. The graphite-chlorite veins are an important geological feature of the mine, especially as they are, in general, intact (at the moment).

As mentioned in a earlier post I had never spotted them until accompanying experts.

Glad the miners left them alone and concentrated on the much more productive pipes.

Jeff

derrickman
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15 years ago

#32

"Morlock" wrote:

"derrickman" wrote:
it was always my understanding that items like pencil leads and motor brushes were sintered ( formed in moulds from powder under heat and pressure )

You are probably correct, I think pencil leads also contain a fair bit of clay.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencil

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brush_(electric)

''the stopes soared beyond the range of our caplamps' - David Bick...... How times change .... oh, I don't know, I've still got a lamp like that.

Morlock
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15 years ago

#33

"derrickman" wrote:

"Morlock" wrote:

"derrickman" wrote:
it was always my understanding that items like pencil leads and motor brushes were sintered ( formed in moulds from powder under heat and pressure )

You are probably correct, I think pencil leads also contain a fair bit of clay.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5144181.html

Thanks, another of the many gaps in my knowledge filled. 🙂

I did a fair bit of commutator turning and brush bedding many years ago, satisfying times. 🙂

grover dave
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

#34

leave the trip till late spring early summer the outdoor traing bods will have done a bit of rigging over the grand pipe by then let me know when you are going its fun , Dave

allways look on the bright side

Tamarmole
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15 years ago

#35

"grover dave" wrote:
leave the trip till late spring early summer the outdoor traing bods will have done a bit of rigging over the grand pipe by then let me know when you are going its fun , Dave

I seem to recall traversing over a bloody great 'ole clipped in to a ratty bit of in situ tat.

Peter Burgess
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15 years ago

#36

"Tamarmole" wrote:
[
I seem to recall traversing over a bloody great 'ole clipped in to a ratty bit of in situ tat.

You should take up writing rigging guides with such evocative descriptions!
:lol:

Tamarmole
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15 years ago

#37

"Peter Burgess" wrote:

"Tamarmole" wrote:
[
I seem to recall traversing over a bloody great 'ole clipped in to a ratty bit of in situ tat.

You should take up writing rigging guides with such evocative descriptions!
:lol:

Funny you should mention that - I co authored the North York Moors Cave Guide "Moorland Caver" - the disclaimer read something like " caving is a potentially dangerous activity, if you kill yourself don't come crying to us"! -

Making a serious point - it is up to the individual cave or mine explorer to make an informed decision as to what is safe and what is not and the degree of risk one is prepared to accept.

Monty Stubble
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15 years ago

#38

The lower reaches of the Grand Pipe are very dodgy - take care.

The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.
Henry David Thoreau

JRarchMAR12
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15 years ago

#39

Jeff,

I am an archeaologist with the Jamestown Rediscovery Project in Jamestown, Virginia USA. Over the last several years of excavations at the first permanent English settlement in North America, we've discovered several pieces of graphite that would have come with those first colonists in 1607-1610. There is no place else this graphite would have originated other than the Seathwaite Mine.

I am interested in any information on the earliest period in which graphite was used as a lubricant for the military and other uses. We have pieces that have been sharpened into pencils for certain, but there was a piece we found the other day that was approxiamately the size of a chicken egg. Not sure what they were using pieces that size for...to make more pencils from or something else? Any sources you can point me to or other information would be lovely!

Thank you so much!

[/i]MAR[i]

Graigfawr
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15 years ago

#40

Too rare and expensive to use as lubricant at that early date. Larger egg-sized pieces potentially used to mark sheep (reputedly the original use of graphite by shepherds who initially found the deposit) - and maybe other animals?