Tony Brooks says "Peele is out of date. Almost all shafts tn metal mines today are circular."
I agree wholeheartedly with this comment. Having been to, and written technical articles about,
around 140 mines in all five continents in my days with Mining Magazine, I would say that most
shafts sunk in the twentienth century for coal and metal mines were circular.
However, the discussion, as befits this group, is about older mines, and I thought the comments
in Peele's book might embody some of the thinking handed down from earlier times.
Peele's "Mining Engineer's Handbook" first appeared in 1918, with second and third editions in
1927 and 1941 respectively. My copy, tenth printing, dated 1963, therefore carries the text as in
1941and, for all I know, some of it may well be still as it was written in the first, 1918, edition.
Without wishing to be disloyal, I would say that many of the points made by lecturers in the
mining course at the RSM around 1950 were often more out-of-date than leading edge.
Professor Ritson, lecturing on coal mining, for example, made a point which has stuck in my
mind -- that all ponies taken underground in a given year should be given names beginning with
the same initial letter. If you asked a lad what was the name of his pony, and he told you "Bonny",
for example, you would know instantly how many years it had been down the mine. Really
important stuff like that, which I have never forgotten, though I never needed to use it!
I do remember, however, it being said that if a shaft's main purpose was to be for ventilation
rather than hoisting, then it should be circular.
Tony Brewis
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