This e-mail brought to mind an article I read some time ago about the 
Lidgett colliery nr Barnsley.

It was published by the Industrial Railway Society in issue 54 of the 
Industrial Railway Record dated June 74 by Trevor J Lodge

It is available on-line at http://www.irsociety.co.uk/

They mention the use of coal cutters in the pit  from about 1890, various 
makes and power sources were tried.

The pit experimented with several types and finally developed there own type

There is also a photograph of a Clarke, Steavenson machine being moved in 
the pit.

Hope this is useful

Regards

Gavin


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Christopher Jones" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2010 7:04 PM
Subject: Coal cutting by machinery


Dear All,

I wondered if I might call upon the collective wisdom of the group for any 
references/sources/examples they may have of early use of coal-cutting 
machinery in longwall coal mining in the UK and elsewhere.

This topic was recently mentioned in the NMRS 'British Mining' No.88 
Memoirs, 2009, in Mike Gill's interesting article 'The ‘Iron Man’ coal 
cutter' .

I'm particularly interested in the development of electrical (DC but also 
AC) machinery in the period 1887-1919, prior to importation of US machinery. 
British firms interested in this work before the 20th Century include: the 
Electrical Coal Cutting Contract Corporation Ltd (bar-machines); Davis and 
Sons of Derby (Jeffrey US chain machine); Diamond Coal Cutter Co of W. Yorks 
(disc, and later chain and bar etc); Clarke, Steavenson & Co Ltd of Barnsley 
(disc machines); Ernest Scott and Mountain of Gateshead (disc, chain etc) - 
and of course the compressed air machines of Gillott and Copley and the 
Yorkshire Engine Co in England and the Rigg and Meiklejohn in Scotland also 
come to mind, prior to the big two of Mavor and Coulson and Anderson Boyes, 
with others as the 20th Century progressed.

I'm conscious this in a well-trodden path in some respects (Gresley's work 
on diffusion of technology and the subsequent 'path-dependence' discussions 
of apparent British lag in adopting effective new methods. Equally there are 
some excellent modern sources, for example Jones, A.V. and Tarkenter, R.P. - 
Electrical Technology in Mining: The Dawn of a New Age (IEE History of 
Technology) P. Peregrinus, 1992 [ISBN 0863411991], but I am interested in 
whether anyone has come across more isolated examples of machines in use or 
development at other collieries/mines beyond what is reported in the 
proceedings of professional societies and parliamentary papers. Pioneers 
(and failures) were not always so well reported, and yet can often reveal 
most about the internal history of technology.

Chris Jones