The traditional Cornish miners helmet manufactured from resin impregnated
felt were still being made by Simpson the haters & outfitters of Penzance &
St. Just in Penwith in the 1930's.
The last batch of these were supplied to some miners who were refurbishing
/ retimbering a shaft / drive used to collect water for the (then) Penzance
water supply.
(One of the miners being my grandfather)
The shaft being situated adjacent to the Boscathano reservoir, with a
castalated, flat roofed granite pump-house built over the top of the shaft
(still in existance).
The machine used to produce the helmets consisted of a small boiler, a
steam cylinder that operated a male / female die or mould the shape of the
Tull with small holes to allow steam to heat / soften the felt. In operation
blanks of felt were placed between the dies & the dies closed. The exhaust
steam was used to heat a container of resin which the steamed / pressed
Tulls were dipped in, befor being placed on a rack to harden off.
From recolection there were several sets of dies in different sizes.
This machine was still in existance in around 1963, but being made mainly
of brass it ended up at the scrap yard.
Would be a good attraction to build one of these machines at one of the
many mining heritage sites to demonstrate how Tulls were made, & then
oviouslt sell them with candle & clay.
Traditionaly a linen scull cap was worn under the Tull, & these were still
available in 1974. Being used by foundry workers at the Holmans of Camborne
works.
Hope this is of interest.
Regards, Bob Orchard.
----- Original Message -----
From: "D.R.Poyner" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 10:10 PM
Subject: Re: Head protection in UK mines
> I have seen a wax (or resin?) impregnated bowler hat which was worn
> underground by Henry Johnson, a consulting mining engineer in South
> Staffordshire in the late 19th Century.
>
>
> David Poyner
>
>
> On 8 Mar 2004 at 21:09, Rick Stewart wrote:
>
> > Interesting discussion.
> >
> > One point that has not been broached is regional variation in helmets.
For
> > example here in Cornwall the full brimmed variety seems to be favourie
> > whilst elsewhere in the Country the peaked variety appears to be
ubiqitous.
> >
> > Right up to the end of production mining in Cornwall the standard
issue at
> > South Crofty was the full brimmed MSA V Gard. Even up to the present
day
> > there still seems to be a prefernce for full brimmed helmets.
> >
> > I assume that this is largely a consequence of tradition. 19th
century
> > photos show that a large majority of Cornish miners adopted full
brimmed
> > helmets. As I understand it the helmets then in use were merely
normal
> > felt hats impregnated with some form of resin to stiffen them, hence
the
> > brim.
> >
> > The full brimmed helmet would seem to have no inherant benefit over
any
> > other design (except in shafts when it stops the drips going down your
> > neck) and thus its ongoing popularity in Cornwall would seem to be a
result
> > of historical accident. If this is the case why is the full brimmed
helmet
> > not used in the rest of the UK? To speculate; were Cornish miners
using
> > helmets before anyone else and so had to improvise. (I get the
impression
> > that helmets did not appear in the coal industry until the 1950s
whilst
> > they were widespread in Cornwall at the back end of the nineteenth
century).
> >
> > It is also interesting to note that the Cornish miner, certainly into
the
> > 1950's, wore a cotton skull cap under the helmet. Up to the time of
the
> > the introduction of the helmet mounted lamp it seems to have been
commom
> > practice to abandon the helmet at the working place and work in the
skull
> > cap. Was the skull cap used in any other British minig field?
> >
> > Rick Stewart
> >
>
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