Hi Peter,
The lime kilns at Morwellham certainly did use draught control. Not only do
the furnace holes at the bottom have wrought iron doors on them, they also
had cast iron surrounds - indicative of great heat being expected - perhaps
more than would be experienced by a lime kiln. The arched openings or
'eyes' on the frontage also had (presumably wooden) doors - their hinges
remain. Other kilns in the vicinity occasionally have draught control doors
on side passages to rodding holes and on draught passages around the rears
of the kiln wells, but seldom have doors at the base or on the eyes.
Robert
-----Original Message-----
From: mining-history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Peter Claughton
Sent: 29 October 2011 00:33
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Coke
At 21:52 28/10/2011, Rick Stewart wrote:
>Dear List I've been thinking about coke recently , particularly in
>relation to Devon Great Consols. My initial thoughts concerned
>the foundry which would have required a supply of coke. It then
>struck me that the mine would also have required a huge amount to
>coke for the refining furnaces at the arsenic works. I am fairly
>sure that coke was produced on the mine, a reference (not to hand)
>relating to the duties of Agents at DGC includes coke
>manufacture. The question is where - my current thinking is that
>it may have been part of the huge 1860s arsenic works. Anyone got
>any ideas? Did other large arsenic works have facilities for
>producing coke? Digressing slightly Robert Waterhouse and I were
>musing on lime kilns being used for coke production - any
>thoughts? Rick Stewart
Rick,
Using a lime kiln would not be practical as they are designed to
admit air into the process whilst the air intake into a coking oven
is carefully controlled.
It is unlikely that coke solely for fuel was produced on site at DGC.
There is no local source of coking coal and the byproducts would just
go to waste unless you had a gas production plant - something you
might consider as a source of coke in the locality, perhaps Tavistock
or Plymouth?
Peter
Dr Peter Claughton,
Blaenpant Morfil, nr. Rosebush, Clynderwen, Pembrokeshire, Wales SA66 7RE.
Tel. +44 (0)1437 532578; Fax. +44 (0)1437 532921; Mobile +44 (0)7831 427599
Hon. University Fellow - College of Humanities, University of Exeter
http://people.exeter.ac.uk/pfclaugh/about.htm
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