Regarding Gartsherrie Coal Cutters,
I assume "Gartsherrie" is/was a place name in
Scotland
From a diagram the machine was a compressed air
powered, jib and chain machine running on rails .
There is a reference to three
machines being imported into Australia around 1879 by the
Australian Kerosene Oil and Mineral Company Ltd for use in their Joadja
shale mines. (Redwood I.I. Mineral Oils and Their Products, 1979)
These were the first mechanical coal cutters in
Australia
Redwood states that these machines were at
that time in use at the "Young's Parrafine Oil and Mineral Co's mines in
Scotland" where Mr Alexander Russell (who by 1878, undermanager at Joadja) had
previously worked them. So they must have been in
use in Scotland well before 1879.
John Shoebridge