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4153 26 46_Re: Blasting Oil in UK Mines (More background)14_colin [log in to unmask], 19 Jan 2002 18:50:58 -0000661_iso-8859-1 The information below should give the earliest dates on which Nitro could have used. Guncotton was discovered early in 1846 by Christian Friedrich Schonbein professor of chemistry at Basle. In July 1846 he was invited to come to Cornwall to demonstrate the explosive to the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society. In February 1847 the discovery of Nitro-glycerine was announced by Ascanio Sobrero in Turin. John Tonkin of Pool parish of Illogan in Cornwall took out a Patent (No 320 of 1862) for an explosive consisting of Guncotton and Gunpowder Nobles brother was killed in and explosion of Nitro in 1864 In [...]51_19Jan200218:50:[log in to unmask]
4180 40 60_Re: First female inderground worker in Britain for 159 years10_JOHN [log in to unmask], 19 Jan 2002 15:02:30 -0600412_iso-8859-1 My impression, gained from discussions on other websites, was that there were young girls, if not women, working underground in coal mines as late as the General Strike of the 1920s. They worked pushing mine cars of coal to the shaft bottom, particularly in Scotland, if these correspondents are correct.
Does anyone have any documentation of this, or are these old wives' tales? [...]40_19Jan200215:02:[log in to unmask]
4221 77 30_Limitations on gallery length?10_JOHN [log in to unmask], 19 Jan 2002 15:37:02 -0600603_iso-8859-1 In my mis-spent youth, we explored for copper in Zambia by hand-digging shafts up to 30 m deep. If we got high copper values, we linked the shafts by means cross-cuts in order to get the three-dimensional picture. Not an exact analogue for early coal or iron mines, but close.
The shafts themselves were circular and as narrow as they could be made and still allow access, which for the diggers was by climbing up the sides by bracing their feet against opposing walls. Typically they would be 65-75 cm in diam. They were dug through soft soil, sometimes layers [...]40_19Jan200215:37:[log in to unmask]
4299 20 45_Re: Bell Pits and Similar Early Mine Workings12_gerda [log in to unmask], 19 Jan 2002 18:35:14 -0000661_iso-8859-1 Perhaps of interest to the discussion is a recent article on the Medieval iron industry in Northamptonshire (Foard, G., 2001 'Medieval Woodland, Agriculture and Industry in the Rockingham Forest, Northamptonshire', Medieval Archaeology XLV, 41-96) where the workings for nodular ironstone are descibed as 'quarry pits' - these are fairly shallow affairs (4.5m x 2.35m x 1m deep at Southwick) but it raises the question of when does a quarry (opencast?) become a mine let alone a bell pit?! I think 'quarry pit' is an apt description for what is being found in Northanptonshire but should we start developing and agreeing [...]51_19Jan200218:35:[log in to unmask]
4320 48 45_Re: Bell Pits and Similar Early Mine Workings15_Peter [log in to unmask], 19 Jan 2002 22:53:16 +0000694_us-ascii >iron industry in Northamptonshire > where the workings for nodular ironstone >are descibed as 'quarry pits' - these are fairly shallow affairs (4.5m x >2.35m x 1m deep at Southwick)
Similar but slightly deeper features are found in the Blackdown Hills of east Devon - Reed, S. J. Blackdown Hills Ironworking Project, Archaeological Recording of an Iron Ore Extraction Pit, Broadhembury, Devon, (unpublished report, Exeter Archaeology No. 97.38, June 1997) - where the nodular ironstone was also worked. At 2-3 metres deep, À÷Æe |