COBRIMAL-BALGOWNIE COLLIERIES. 203 



pany was formed. Formerly the Corrimal and Balgownie 

 Mines were two separate collieries, but they are now under 

 one ownership, and the workings are connected. Mr. W. B. 

 Pendletoii has been in charge for the past five or six years. 



The Balgownie Colliery has a main haulage and intake, 

 on the right hand side of which is a return airway, while on 

 the left hand side is another parallel heading which used 

 to be a second return airway, but is now used as an intake , 

 while the return air travels through old workings to the 14ft. 

 indestructible Walker's fan, which provides 85,000 cubic feet 

 of air per minute, with I.Tin, water gauge. Since the shaft has 

 been connected with the workings the volume of air circulat- 

 ing exceeds 111,000 cubic feet per minute, and the water gauge 

 has been reduced to 1.5 inches. This fan is driven by an 

 engine having a 16in. diameter cylinder, with a 2Jft. stroke, 

 provided with a Meyer's cuVoff valve. Where the property 

 widens, there are four parallel headings, two intakes, and two 

 returns. The area of the airways is increased as the workings- 

 are extended, for by so doing the speed of the current is 

 diininshed, and the friction "a gainst the sides correspondingly 

 lessened. 



There is only one tunnel at Corrimal, which is an intake. 

 The gate in front of it is hung up to the roof when work is- 

 proceeding, but when the mine is idle it is let down. Being 

 made of iron bars, it interferes very slightly with the venti- 

 lation. Now that the air shaft is completed, it acts as an in- 

 take airway, but in the course of a year or two it will probably 

 become the only outlet for the ventilating current. The men 

 proceed to their work in both mines through the Balgownie 

 tunnel. All the coal (except that required for the Balgownie 

 boilers), is drawn through the Corrimal tunnel, as all the 

 conveniences of the self-acting incline happen to be near it& 

 mouth. Two endless rope systems are worked from the Bal- 

 gownie tunnel ; they run parallel for a short distance, when 

 one continues in a westerly direction, and the other turns off 

 northerly towards the Corrimal. The main haulage way has 

 two curves in it, both having a deflection of about 30 degrees. 

 The skips are conveyed by the main endless rope as far as the 

 branch rope, which takes them 011 to the old main and tail 

 rope that draws them out at Corrimal at the rate of about six 

 miles per hour. There is a 90ft. slide between Balgownie and 

 Corrimal, which has to be negotiated by the north and south 

 endless rope system, so the roadway had to be driven in rock 

 at a grade of 1 in 3J. Horses of 15.3 hands are used for gather- 

 in sr up the skips. At present the horses come to the surface 

 every day, but later on, as the workings are extended, they 

 will be stabled underground. 



The endless rope haulage engine was made at the Atlas 

 Works, Sydney, and was originally designed for a main and 



