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> use of gunpowder in the sinking of Ovington's pit, East Rainton ....1776. R L Galloway, in his Annals of Coal Mining and the Mining Industry said that he believed this to be the earliest notice of the use of gunpowder for blasting rock. I think you can take the use of gunpowder back about hundred years before the incident noted above. Thomas Cletschers, a Swede, commenting on the working of the North Molton Copper Mine, in north Devon, in 1696 - 'They are working in the German manner, first hacking out the rock then blasting it.' (transcript in Liverpool University, Harold Cohen Library, Special Collections MS 7.1 (21) Not the first recorded use of blasting in British mining but certainly an early one. Peter ______________________________________________ Peter Claughton, Blaenpant Morfil, Rosebush, Clynderwen, Pembrokeshire, Wales SA66 7RE. Tel. 01437 532578; Fax. 01437 532921; Mobile 07831 427599 University of Exeter - School of Historical, Political and Sociological Studies (Centre for South Western Historical Studies) E-mail: [log in to unmask] Co-owner - mining-history e-mail discussion list. See http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/files/mining-history/ for details. Mining History Pages - http://www.exeter.ac.uk/~pfclaugh/mhinf/ _____________________________________________