Mike - and All
I'm glad you found the references useful and I would agree with your
judgement on the open library, I particularly like the way it places the
yellow tags on the "book" for you when you do a search.
The French traveller seems particularly impressed with the concept of
getting rent from both the surface and the subsurface.
In the 1835 reference it suggest that the first case of working the pillars
was in 1795 at the Walker colliery does anybody have an earlier reference?
Best Regards
Gavin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Syer" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, September 13, 2008 7:39 AM
Subject: Re: Working the pillars
Thanks Gavin (and others)
I had not come across Open Library site. What an excellent resource.
There are loads of references to bord and pillar working, which I
shall spend some time looking through. (And I was particularly
impressed by the concept of "subterranean farming" in the Google book
source you gave. And I thought that today's "wind farming" was a
modern euphemism!)
Mike
---
On 12 Sep 2008, at 19:50, Gavin McLelland wrote:
> I have found the Open Library and Google books useful in finding
> information on old mining practices.
>
> Available on Google books is the rather snappily titled
>
> http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Xz4JAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA199&dq=Journal+of+a+Tour+and+Residence+in+Great+Britain+During+the+Year+1810+%26+1811+by+a+French+Traveller+Volume+2&lr=&as_brr=1#PPA75,M1
>
> "Journal of a Tour and Residence in Great Britain During the Year 1810 &
> 1811 by a French Traveller"
>
> 2nd Volume
>
> Published in 1815
>
> On page 58-60 (70-72 of the PDF file) he describes descending a coal mine
> near Newcastle and how the miners remove the pillars and allow the strata
> to settle and rather optimistically states that the properties above are
> unaffected.
>
> Available in the Open Library is
>
> http://openlibrary.org/
>
> "Coal Mining" by TC Cantrill published by Cambridge in 1914
> This has a description of what he describes as "whole working" where the
> gates and bords are driven through the seam and then broken or pillar
> working where the pillars are worked. There is also a diagram showing
> whole and pillar working. He does not describe the pillar removal in
> depth as he says there are so many ways.
>
> "The History and Description of Fossil Fuels, the Collieries and Coal
> Trade of Great Britain" Published by Whittaker in 1835
>
> In chapter 12 "Getting the Coal" page 232 the author describes pillar
> working in the North East and states that it was first performed in 1795
> at the Walker Colliery near Newcastle. He describe a couple of methods
> of pillar working with diagrams and also the problems caused by creep
> (the floor of the mine lifting) and how this was sometimes exploited by
> the miners to allow them to work the pillars. ( I won't try to explain,
> it's easier to look at the diagram)
>
> I found these by searching using terms like coal mining and coal mining
> and england etc.
>
> I suspect that the reason that the mine you describe with shallow seams
> it may have caused too many problems with surface subsidence to rob the
> pillars
>
> Hope this helps
>
> Gavin
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Syer" <[log in to unmask]
> >
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 9:59 PM
> Subject: Working the pillars
>
>
> Please can some one advise about the practice of working pillars left
> in coal that had first been mined some time earlier?
>
> The following is an extract from an 1848 report by the Bishop of
> Durham’s agent, who was assessing the value of remaining coals in the
> Quarrington royalty, in order to place a value on it prior to the
> renewal of its lease. It refers to one of the coal mines in that
> royalty. The original workings had been in the 18th century.
>
> “What is left is small pillars not workable to profit if workable at
> all. The Seam being near the surface, the Pillars left are of
> extremely small dimensions.”
>
> That suggests to me that there had not just been two processes, namely
> (1) hewing out the roads & bords and then (2) removing the pillars,
> but also an intermediate one (or the final one, if some coal was left
> permanently unworked), namely (3) the PARTIAL removal of the pillars.
> I have read elsewhere of this practice being called “robbing the
> pillars” and that it led to creep - making the rest of the coal either
> less workable or, perhaps, just less worth working, in the days when
> small coals were not valued.
>
> Thanks
>
> Mike
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> I search the web and raise money for the Bowburn Banner Group with
> Everyclick.
> Join me: http://www.everyclick.com/msyer
> -----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
I search the web and raise money for the Bowburn Banner Group with
Everyclick.
Join me: http://www.everyclick.com/msyer
-----------------------------------------------------------
|