A short translation of French archives at the company headquarters in Belgium regarding the engines at Rotherhope:
In 1937 the new budget was proposed with the further production of Haggs and Rodderup Fell in mind.
For the sum of £368,15 the company purchased a three cilindered Brown&Wade (Broom & Wade?) compressor. 600 square feet of pressure at 100lbs. Cilinders were 11.1/2” x 12” and the machine required (?) 184hp.
For the sum of £1758 the electric installation was finished. Two vickers generators of 130pk and 100pk were mounted on a custom made concrete base. The generators had a combined power of 10000 Volt, so a new 300KVA transformator was purchased to reduce the current to 420 Volt.
A purchase of nearly 1,5 armoured electric wire was made.
A sum of 15611,48sh was made available for the development of a newly discovered flat horizont near the central shaft.
Actually the archives were incomplete or the writer was misinformed. The Vickers were the engines driving the compressors and not 'the generators' for electricity, which was delivered by the Mid-Cumberland electricity supply. This is illustrated in the Mining & Quarry Engineering of 1938.
“The old hydraulic engine was scrapped and the elaborate engine house used to
accommodate the following plant :— a 130 h.p. Metro-Vick slip-ring type motor at 970
r.p.m. is driving a 3-cyl., 111/2 by 12 in. Broom and Wade compressor giving 600 cu. ft. free
air per min. at 325 r.p.m. A similar make and type of motor but of 100 h.p., and running at
965 r.p.m. is driving a 3-cyl., 10 by 12 in. Broom and Wade compressor giving 450 cu. ft.
free air at 315 r.p.m. In both cases vee-rope drives are employed. Power is taken from the
Mid-Cumberland Electricity Supply Co. Ltd., at 11,000 V direct to the engine room which,
as already stated, is 1,400 yards from the adit mouth. Metro-Vick transformers step the
current down to 400 V and 1 10 V for power and lighting respectively.”
The archives also mention:
Approximately 35.000KwH of electricity was used in one month, at a cost of +/- 0.9d.
Photograph:
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