In message <3EC9C7DA.19914.DC69C@localhost>, David Kitching
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>Thanks to everyone for their responses to my posting about winding from multiple
>shafts. I am still trying to get my mind around the idea of winding from 16 shafts
>and an inclined plane. I can see that the use of rappers to signal to the engineman
>would be quite feasible and it is interesting to learn of historic systems surviving
>out of use until quite recently.
>
>I have now read the article about waterwheel winding at Grassington Moor and will
>look at the suggested PDMHS Bulletins when I can source them. My immediate reaction
>is that there may be an answer to the control conundrum in the number of winds being
>made. My impression of coal mining is of winding being an almost constant feature
>with cages being loaded swiftly and efficiently to ensure maximum production and this
>would make control over a number of shafts more difficult to co-ordinate. In the
>metal mining fields such as that at Grassington I wonder whether it was possible to
>wind from a number of shafts from one power source because the winds were
>intermittent due to a much lesser volume of material being raised to the surface.
>
>The economics of building enginehouses and erecting winding engines must have been a
>strong incentive to use what you already had in situ.
>
>Interesting stuff and I would welcome further comment.
>
Hi David,
Find attached the newspaper cuttings with the details of the two
accidents involving multiple-winders.
Hope they're interesting.
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Derbyshire Times.
Saturday 12th. January 1861.
Page 2 Col. 4.
Fatal Mine Accident.
An inquest was held by Mr. Busby, at the Peacock Inn, Cutthorpe,
on Friday, the 4th. inst., on the body of John Smales, when the
following evidence was adduced: - James Howe, of Newbold, engine-
tenter, deposed: I am engine-tenter at the Abbey Dale Ironstone Mines,
at Newbold, belonging to Samuel Beale, and others. There are eight
different ironstone pits, all worked by the same engine. The nearest pit
is about 110 yards from the engine house. The furthest is 200 and odd.
Three pits are north east of the engine; three lie east, and two south
east. They vary in depth from 34 to 60 yards. There is one drum, with
eight different sizes regulating the ropes for each pit. In usual
working we draw up and down the eight pits at the same time, that is up
four pits and down four pits. We have no printed rules. There is no
means of signalling from or to the bottom of any of the pits. If there
is an accident, a little lad who hangs on shouts up the shaft to the
banksman, who is either there or emptying his corves. There are three
bells, one at each for the three pits in different directions. If there
is a bell at the banksman's pit, who hears of the accident, he rings it;
if not, he shouts to the banksman as whose pit the bell is, and the
latter rings it. When they ring, if the engine is going on, I stop it.
If they ring when the engine is stopping, I wait for them to bring me
word of what to do. In our regular work we go on without signalling. I
can see two pits from the engine house, and the banksman "stands at
ease" as a signal for me to go on either in raising or lowering. Some of
the pits are old coal shafts, but I don't know which. I have known the
pits two years and five months. On Thursday, the 3rd. instant, I was in
the engine house. Six of the eight pits were working; two were stopped.
Smales had been working at one of the pits south-east of the engine
house, next but one to the engine house; and about 160 or 170 yards off.
He had come to the drums by the engine house to grease the ropes of the
eight pits; that is, the parts of the ropes that lap on the drum. He was
on a ladder raised against the prop which supports the drum. About two
minutes before the accident I saw him standing on the brick pillar that
the drum rests on; he was greasing one of the lower ropes. I spoke to
him. The engine was moving at the time. I had gone out for a minute or
two to speak to deceased. I returned to the engine house; the engine was
still moving. I stopped the engine when I returned, and afterwards drew
twice up and down the pits. When I drew up the second time I heard
deceased's voice crying out. The tubs were then by the indicator in the
middle of the shaft. I stopped my engine directly. I went to the drums
to look for deceased. I saw deceased between the engine house wall and
the drum, all torn to pieces. I thought that the ladder on which he had
been standing must have slipped. He had been setting one foot on the
ladder and the other foot on a plank of wood. The piece of wood broke on
which his left foot had been resting; and the up going rope, which that
piece of wood was carrying, caught deceased and took the leg round the
drum, and when he was getting round I must have heard his voice. It is a
perpendicular drum. He had not been carried round a quarter of the drum;
the rope held him and wedged him into a very narrow space between the
engine house wall and the drum. His leg was between the rope and drum,
and his body wedged into the narrow space. His head was crushed to a
mummy and the lower part of his body torn all to pieces. He was quite
dead. The piece of wood he was resting on was not put up nor calculated
for that manner. He was not on it when I spoke to him, and I don't know
that he intended to do so. Charles Hall, Newbold, overlooker of Newbold
Mines, said: The pits where the accident occurred are called the Abbey
Dale Mines, in Newbold Township. They are ironstone mines, the coal has
been got: It lay 11 yards below the ironstone, 5 of the 8 shafts are old
coal shafts. There are no Rules established under the recent Act, there
has never been any printed Rules. William Needham, Cutthorpe, coal and
ironstone miner, said: I saw deceased three minutes before the accident,
he was standing on a ladder besides the drum; I was 150 yards off and
couldn't see whether he had both feet on the ladder. I thought I saw his
legs going round the drum. The engine stopped the moment deceased cried
out. I ran to deceased, deceased had been caught by his left leg; the
ropes were round his neck, and his body was crushed between the drum and
wall. Verdict, "Accidental Death".
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Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald.
Saturday 12th. August 1865.
Page 2 Column 5.
Fearful Accident at the Glass-House Pits.
On Tuesday morning an accident of a most alarming character
occurred at the Ironstone Pits, Glasshouse Common, belonging to Messrs.
Renishaw and Co. Renishaw Park Iron Works. Before allowing work-people
to descend the pits it is the practice each morning to test the ropes by
sending down and up full corves. Attached to the engine are two drums,
one vertical and one horizontal, working 17 pits and the incline
(underground). These drums may be worked either separately or together.
About a hundred men and boys were waiting this testing on the day
mentioned about 7 o'clock, when two corves were bought to bank, and
Daniel Cook, and two other boys got into one corve; James Clark with Wm.
Booth got into the other, and were lowered into the pits, which are a
considerable distance from each other. At the same time seven full
corves in the other pits were drawn up. They had scarcely reached the
top when a loud report was heard, and it was seen that the rope had
broken and the "laggings" off the drums were flying in various
directions. The Engineman at once applied the brakes and succeeded in
stopping the horizontal drum. But it was soon found that the cog-wheel
attached to the vertical drum was broken. The sudden descent of the
seven laden corves caused the two corves to ascend so rapidly that
neither Cook nor Booth had time to get out. The two boys with Cook
succeeded in jumping into the roadway. Clark whilst jumping was caught
by the leg and thrown down. Cook and Booth were carried up to the
headgear and then dashed to the bottom of the pits. Cook's head was
split open; he fell a depth of 56 yards; he was 16 years of age. Booth's
head, it is thought, was caught by the head-stocks by a large pulley,
and the top of the head was cut off, the brains being scattered for many
yards round the top of the pit. His thumb was found nine yards and a
half from a portion of his brains. The body was completely smashed and
every bone broken. Booth was 15 years old. The pulley by coming in
contact with his head, was thrown a distance of 21 yards. It weighs
about 7 cwt. Had it gone a few yards further several persons would have
been in danger. One boy had a very narrow escape, being engaged in
greasing a pulley, when he heard a noise he jumped down the rope snapped
and the tiles of the workshop were knocked in. The escape of so many is
marvellous. The cause of the accident is a mystery. The engineer is a
steady, experienced workman.
Inquest on the Bodies.
On Wednesday morning an inquest was opened before C.S.B. Busby
Esq., at the house of Vincent Cook. on the bodies of Wm. Booth and
Daniel Cook, who were killed at the ironstone shafts of Mr. Appleby, on
Tuesday. The Jurymen, having been sworn, preceded to the scene of the
accident, where there are sixteen ironstone shafts in work, part of
which were described to be on Glasshouse Common, in the parish of
Whittington, and the other part on Grasscroft, in the township of
Unstone, in the parish of Dronfield. The two shafts where Booth and
Cooke came to their deaths are in the parish of Whittington. The engine,
which is made to do work of the whole of the shafts, is high pressure -
eighteen horse power. The shafts are situate at various distances from
the engine, the nearest being about forty and the farthest from three to
four hundred yards, with depths varying from fifty to seventy yards.
Nine of the shafts were connected with the engine by a vertical or
upright cast-iron spindle fixed in a strong framework of wood, having a
solid ashlar foundation. Upon the vertical spindle nine drums of
different diameters were fixed, and the ropes of the various shafts were
wound by the engine upon these drums. The pulley wheel over the shaft,
where Booth was killed, was, by the violence of the re-acting wire rope,
thrown some yards from the pit head, and the rope which appeared to be a
very strong one was snapped asunder. On the upper part of the brickwork
of the shaft was to be seen a portion of Booth's brains, and the
appearance of the place was that of great confusion, out of which
several men were engaged in an endeavour to produce order. The Jury then
proceeded to view the bodies, the sight of which was sickening. The
upper part of the skulls of both youths had been carried away and their
bodies otherwise mutilated. Vincent Cooke, father of the deceased Daniel
Cooke, and Elizabeth Booth, mother of the deceased Wm. Booth, identified
the bodies, and the requisite order for their internment having been
given, the inquest was adjourned to the 31st. day of August, at noon, at
the Fleur-de-Lis Inn, Unstone, when the Government Inspector will be in
attendance.
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--
David Williams
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