Whilst at the Gloucestershire Cave Rescue Group Depot at the weekend I came across a number of metal containers which I am told are drawing tubes which used to hold mining maps etc of the Royal Forest of Dean area.
The drawing tubes date from the 19th century and were being thrown out by Forest Enterprise. The have recently moved over to archiving in carboard tubes and these were surplus to requirements.
The tubes themselves are an interesting piece of mining history due to their former contents but also in their own right as showing metal working development. The earlier onese are in several jointed smaller sections, as (I am told) sheet steel couldn't be made in larger sections. The developments in steel technolgy can be seen in the progression of quality of the tubes. I have a number suitable for A1 size drawings, which I intend to use for archiving drawings - Not I should add for historic mining documents which ought to be properly stored (hence FE moving over to cardboard). There are others available some of which are much larger - some are 9 inch diameter and up to about 10ft long. Some even have writting on them showing which plans were originally included inside. If anyone on the list would like one/some, or know of a mining museum that would be interested let me know. I'm not looking to "sell" them but a donation to Glos Cave Rescue Group would be appreciated.
Regards
David
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