The Application of Water Power in Mining
A mining history conference to be held at the University of Wales,
Aberystwyth, UK, July 2002.
Preliminary notice and 1st call for papers.
Water has proved a hindrance to mining since its inception but it has also
been used to the benefit of operations from antiquity until the present day.
The positive use of water power was initially limited to the hydraulic
working of alluvial and soft rock deposits. By the late medieval period it
had been applied as the motive power for pumping and other processes
ancillary to mining. Its heyday came during the nineteenth century when
waterwheels and turbines provided the power for a range of applications on
mine sites across the world.
In Wales, the metal mines of the Cambrian mountains provided ideal locations
for the application of water power to pumping, winding and, later, for
generating electricity. A high average rainfall and locations remote from
the major coalfields meant water generally found favour over the use of
steam power. Examples of the use of water power, and the infrastructure
developed to support it, from the period of Roman occupation through to the
20th century can be found within easy reach of the conference venue at
Aberystwyth.
Papers are invited on the subject of the application of water power in all
aspects of mining from across the world. In addition to examples of its
application based on archival and archaeological research, papers are
particularly requested on technological innovation and the economics of
water power.
Outlines of papers for submission should be sent to the conference
co-ordinator-
Peter Claughton, Blaenpant Morfil, Rosebush, Clynderwen, Pembrokeshire,
Wales SA66 7RE, UK - e-mail [log in to unmask]
This conference will be the central theme of the UK based National
Association of Mining History Organisations (NAMHO) meeting for 2002, hosted
by the Welsh Mines Society, with a full progamme of related field trips and
underground visits.
Further information will be posted to the Internet at the following URL
http://www.exeter.ac.uk/~pfclaugh/mhinf/namho_02.htm
______________________________________________
Peter Claughton, Blaenpant Morfil, Rosebush, Clynderwen,
Pembrokeshire, Wales SA66 7RE.
Tel. 01437 532578; Fax. 01437 532921; Mobile 07831 427599
University of Exeter - Department of History
School of Historical, Political and Sociological Studies
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Co-owner - mining-history e-mail discussion list.
See http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/mining-history/ for details.
Mining History Pages - http://www.exeter.ac.uk/~pfclaugh/mhinf/
_____________________________________________
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|
