It's true that the rock drill spread very slowly through Cornish mining though I
wonder if, given the state of the industry for much of this period, the costs
might have been too prohibitive for many of the mines.
J. J. Fowle was previously an assistant to John Couch, presumably a Cornish
ex-pat, of Philadelphia, who patented a steam-driven rock drill (the Lance) in
1849. The Singer Brothers had patented another steam-powered drill in 1838. This
was a couple of decades after Richard Trevithickdevised a rail-mounted
steam-powered rotary borer for quarrying limestone for the Plymouth breakwater.
Pete Joseph
On 23 August 2010 at 11:45 Tony Brewis <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Talking of rock drill usage in Cornish mines, one web-site says:
> "Mining rock drills, however, were not adopted in the region until the last
> quarter of the
> nineteenth century, well after Joseph Fowle of Boston, USA, invented them in
> 1851."
> Tony Brewis
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