SSO ANNUAL REGISTER, 1794. 



vei-y considerably by sinking several 

 new pits. 



The fields of coal already drained 

 by these two engines have been ex- 

 plored from north to Koutli about 

 three miles, and may probably be 

 extended about three miles more 

 •when wanted. The coal nov/ drain- 

 ed, and ready to be wrought In the 

 several working pits at present, 

 will serve for about twenty years, 

 according to the quantity now 

 drawn. Pits, however, being in 

 some time naturally exhausted, it is 

 thought prudent now and then to 

 drive what is called trial drifts, in 

 order to explore the fields of coal, 

 and to find proper places where to 

 make new pits, when the same may 

 be wanted. 



■ Abo\it twelve years ago, these 

 two engines being nearly worn out, 

 z iiC-w one was erected at Saltom, 

 capable of drawing more water 

 than the two old ones. It has two 

 boilers, each fifteen feet in diame- 

 ter, a cylinder seventy inches in 

 diameter, and a working-barrel ele- 

 ven inches and a half. It can draw 

 all the water in eight hours which 

 is produced in summer in twenty- 

 four hours, and in winter it requires 

 double that time as there is double 

 the quantity of water. This engine 

 was repaired about three years ago 

 at a veiy great expence, witli a new 

 cylinder, new regulating beam, 

 and new cylinder and spring beams. 

 At this time it is admitted, by se- 

 veral professional men who have ex- 

 amined it, to be the best engiiTfe of 

 the size within the kingdom. Its 

 maximum in working is fifteen 

 strokes, each six feet and a half 

 long, in a minute ; each stroke 

 draws twenty-seven gallons of v/a- 

 ter, that is, four hundred and live 



gallons per minute, or nine thou- 

 sand two hundred and forty hogs- 

 heads every hour. 



All the bands or seams of coal in 

 this colliery dip or desceiid nearly- 

 due w<*st, sloping towards the ho- 

 rizon with a descent of one yard in 

 eight to one in twelve, and the 

 seams are always and invanably 

 equally distant from each other, 

 whatever be th; depth. However, 

 though these seams of coal are thus 

 always equally distant from each 

 other, yet they are not equally deep 

 from the earth's surface. The seams, 

 as before-mentioned, constantly dip 

 or descend towards the west, and 

 rise towards the east, till at length 

 they shew themselves in some places 

 on or near the earth's surface. 



Besides this general descent or 

 ascent, the seams are in some places 

 abruptly broken off by a bed of 

 stone or other matter of a consider- 

 able thickness, betwixt the coal, 

 and which there is generally a ca- 

 vity or hollow called at Whitehaven 

 a gut. When a seam of coal is 

 thus interrupted by the interposition 

 of other matter, the workmen know 

 that they will find the same seam 

 either above or below this place, 

 or, as they term it, they know that 

 the scam is thrown either upward 

 or downward. In order to know 

 whether the seam of coal will be 

 found above or below, they endea- 

 vour to discover which way the 

 stone or other separating matter 

 hangs or slopes. If it recedes from 

 the coal, sloping ever so little up- 

 wards, they conclude that the seam 

 of coal is thrown upwards (as they 

 call it), that is, in such a case the 

 seam is always found above tliQ 

 break. If the slope be hanging 

 over the coaU, sloping towards the 



surface, 



