Large nife batteries found at a colliery site today did these have a specific mining related use?

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3FT long fire poker? found on a Durham colliery/siding

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Old fire stand ?? At a remote drift mine in woodland Durham

Can anybody tell me more ?

nife cells - loco battery?

poker from a steam shunting engine?

Definately a poker used in a short firebox such as found a locomotive - its almost exactly the same shape and size as one I use on an 0-4-0 locomotive when clearing light clinker off the firebars (there is a much heavier and longer one for clearing heavy clinker!).

The batteries could be for the shaft signals or the telephone system

Knife cells were flat lead acid or Le-Clanche cells which were back up batteries for the shaft signalling system. When FLP (flameproof) electrics became a requirement for underground use the shaft signalling systems used low voltage battery based systems instead of the higher mains powered systems in FLP housings.

Knife cells were designed to be packed into these low voltage housings at the pit top and powered both surface, winder, and underground shaft signals. They were connected in parallel to give more amperage for longer use, and if any went flat during a loss of power they were simply replaced with charged knife cells.

In the event of a power outage in the winding house the emergency winder could be bought to site with its own generator and the shaft signals could still be used. They als had plug in signals at many sites so the emergency winder operator had his own set at the side of him so he didn't rely on hand signals from the shaft controller.

Nife or NiFe Cells, without a "K", are Nickel Iron Alkaline Cells.

Definitely not Lead-Acid.

True, but many variations of them were used and they were generally lead acid replacements which were used in many mines shaft signals. This was because they could be maintained by lamproom staff along with standard cap lamp batteries, and they nearly all became lead acid towards the end of large scale mining.

Many other variants were used, Nickel Cadmium (Ni-cad) and new silver based rechargeable cells or stacks were coming in during the late 1980's to coincide with the new non maintainable and monitoring systems.

They were all made to the same format, blade type packs which were rechargeable and could be fitted in parallel so an individual pack could be replaced without losing power.