A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



ventilation, which is usually spoken of as splitting 

 the air. It was introduced in the Felling Colliery 

 in 1 815, which was probably one of the first to 

 adopt it, but its use spread rapidly, and a very 

 few years after that date it was in general use in 

 the collieries of the Wear district. The use of 

 centrifugal fans seems to have been first brought 

 forward in a practical form in the year 1835, but 

 had not become general until considerably after 

 the latter half of the century. One of the earliest 

 forms to be adopted in the north of England was 

 the Guibal fan, invented in Belgium, which 

 came into use in the collieries of the North about 

 the year i860. Once ventilating fans were in- 

 troduced, improvements in detail followed, but 

 it may be said that the only substantial advance 

 realized has been in increasing their speed of 

 running, whilst at the same time decreasing their 

 dimensions, so that very large quantities of air 

 can readily be dealt with, and all the require- 

 ments even of modern coal-mining can be amply 

 met. The Biram anemometer was invented in 

 1 842, and the water-gauge appears to have been 

 introduced about the same time. 



Among the important changes in mining en- 

 gineering which affected the coal industry of 

 the county of Durham was that introduced by 

 Mr. T. Y. Hall, consisting of the substitution 

 of cages travelling in guides for the old-fashioned 

 corves which had hitherto been the principal 

 means of raising coals. This was tried first in 

 1834 at South Hetton, where it was not entirely 

 successful, but the same engineer introduced the 

 method in an improved form at Ryton in con- 

 junction with tubs running on flanged wheels 

 upon suitably-shaped rails. The use of tubs and 

 cages very soon became universal. About the 

 year 1842, flat wire ropes for winding were in 

 use at Wingate Grange, round wire ropes being 

 first used about 1850. Although the employ- 

 ment of iron wire ropes was at first resisted by 

 the colliers, their advantages were not long in 

 making themselves felt, but as soon as steel wire 

 was introduced, this superior metal rapidly dis- 

 placed iron, until now practically none other than 

 steel wire ropes are employed. 



Underground haulage engines seem to have 

 been first used in Hetton Colliery in 1826, and 

 large underground appliances are known to have 

 existed in the years 1 84 1 and 1846 at Haswell 

 and Monkwearmouth. About this same time 

 main and tail rope haulage was introduced, it is 

 said, by Mr. T. E. Forster. Although horses 

 were employed underground as early as 1763, it 

 was not until eighty years afterwards, namely, 

 in 1843, that ponies were first introduced to 

 replace hand-putting in what is now usually 

 spoken of as secondary haulage. 



Although, as has been pointed out, powder 

 had been used in the eighteenth century in the 

 stonework of collieries, it does not seem to have 

 been applied to blasting coal until about the 



year 1825, when it appears to have been used in 

 the Derwent district. Previous to this time, 

 wedging alone was employed. The great saving 

 of labour due to the introduction of blasting 

 caused its general adoption, but it was not long 

 before it was recognized that gunpowder was 

 capable of igniting fire-damp, and thus causing 

 explosions, whilst about the middle of the cen- 

 tury the theory, now quite generally adopted, 

 that finely-divided coal dust suspended in the air 

 was also capable of being exploded, began to 

 meet with a certain measure of credence. Various 

 explosives, which were claimed to be safe even 

 in an explosive atmosphere, were soon upon the 

 market under the name of ' flameless ' or ' safety 

 explosives.' These were undoubtedly less dan- 

 gerous than gunpowder, but the fact that all of 

 them were nevertheless capable of bringing about 

 explosions was ultimately proved conclusively by 

 the Flameless Explosives Committee of the North 

 of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical 

 Engineers, who concluded their labours in the 

 year 1898. It is interesting to note that this 

 committee in its experiments used the same fire- 

 damp from Hebburn Colliery that was used by 

 Sir Humphry Davy in his investigations. 



Shot-holes were always put in by the methods 

 used originally by the metal miner, namely, by 

 striking a drill with a hammer, or occasionally 

 by jumping holes in by the churn drill. It 

 would seem that in the year 1865 an ingenious 

 blacksmith devised the twisted drill or auger for 

 drilling oil shale in the West Calder district, 

 Scotland ; soon after its introduction a number 

 of improvements were made, the ratchet princi- 

 ple being applied to it in 1S67. Very soon 

 after this date similar machines were in use in 

 the north of England, one of the earliest avail- 

 able records showing that a ratchet drill was in 

 use in Durham in 1869. It appears probable 

 that this drill was first employed for drilling 

 stone, and it was only a kw years after its 

 original introduction that it was applied to the 

 drilling of coal. It was found to be so well 

 adapted for this purpose that long before the end 

 of the century the hammer and drill were prac- 

 tically extinct, and it would be difficult to find 

 nowadays a coal miner capable of using the older 

 implement, so completely have they been dis- 

 placed by the machine, although scarcely a 

 generation has gone by since the latter was in- 

 troduced. 



In an interesting manuscript in the possession 

 of the north of England Mining Institute, ' A 

 summary of the condition and state of pitmen on 

 the Tyne in the year 1800,' by Mr. Thomas 

 of Denton Hall, addressed to Sir John Swin- 

 burne, a good picture is given of the average 

 coal-miner at the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century. The writer states that lads com- 

 mence to work in the pits at seven or eight 

 years of age or sometimes at six ; they receive 



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