Can anyone on the list supply details of a ‘Hunt’s boring machine’? It is mentioned in the Quarterly Reports of the Mining Registrars and Surveyors in the context of driving a tunnel in a gold mine in Victoria, Australia in late 1869. I’m assuming it refers to a machine invented by Robert Hunt. In 1850 Robert Hunt, E.R.S., made low-tension electric fuses and used them in sinking a pit of the Abercarn Colliery, South Wales, the firing of the fuses having been performed by means of an electric battery. The holes were bored in one operation, and fired simultaneously in volleys. The holes were placed so as to obtain a "sink" of ground from the blast. [See Weston, E. M. (1910). Rock Drills: Design, Construction and Use. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York and London, page 6]. Rock drills (Low designed) were first used in a Victorian mine at Maldon in 1867, so the use of the ‘Hunt’s boring machine’ is also an early application of the technology.
Regards,
Peter Evans
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