> Accounts prepared by George Greenwell in the 1850s refer to "skreened" and
> "brush" coal. I presume that "skreened" is larger coal that had passed
over
> the screens, but what is "brush"?
Greenwell (in his Glossary of Terms used in the Coal trade of Northumberland
and Durham) describes SKREEN as
"A frame 4 of 5 feet wide, and 11 to 15 feet long, the upperside of which
inclines from the hempstead to the top of the coal waggon; it is furnished
with iron or metal bars placed at the distance of from 3/8 to 3/4 of an inch
part, upon which the coals are teemed as they are drawn out of the pit. The
coals which pass over the skreen are sent away as best skreened coals; and
the small coal which passes through the bars falls into the duff box, from
whence it is taken to the apparatus."
No reference to Brush coal
Written by the same guy - my copy is 1888 but the preface indicates it was
first published in 1849 but has been "entirely re-written". It would be
interesting to know what he wrote about Skreens in 1849 (this being about
the time he was involved in the Radstock Area.
A point of note is that the screens we are finding in the South
Gloucestershire area are generally flat sheets with holes (either round or
square) of various sizes. This type of screen was also used in local
quarries. I don't know if this is common to other coal fields or whether
the bar type screens Greenwell refers to are the norm.
Over to you guys...
Regards
David
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