582 



FARMERS' REGISTER— DEEP COAL MINE. 



No. *, Farmers' Register, have been, by virtue of 

 only two lines ol" introduction, appropriated by the 

 editor of the aforesaid * * * * * *, as I 

 learn by seeing the passage quoted from that pub- 

 lication (instead of yours,) by both our Southern 

 Agriculturist, and Southern Planter. This suffi- 

 ciently proves tliat the editors of both those jour- 

 nals were deceived by the ibrin thus given to the 

 article. 



From an English Paper. 

 THE DEEPEST MINE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



The shaft at present sinking at Monkwear- 

 moulh Colliery, near Sunderland, luus attained a 

 considerably greater depth than any mine in Great 

 Britain, (or estimating its depth from the level of 

 the sea, than any mine in the world.) Pearce's 

 shaft at the Consolidated Mines in Cornwall was, 

 till lately, the deepest in the island, being about 

 1,470 feet in perpendicular depth, of which 1,150 

 feet are below the surface of the sea. The bot- 

 tom of Wolf's shaft (also at the Consolidated 

 Mines) is 1,230 Icet below the sea; but its total 

 depth is less than that of Pearce's shaft. The 

 bottom of the JMonkwearmouth shaft is already 

 upwards of 1,500 feet below high water mark, 

 and 1.600 feet below the surface of the ground. 

 It w^as commenced in May, 1826. The upper 

 part of the shaft passes through the lower magne- 

 sian limestone strata, which overlap the south- 

 eastern district of the Great Newcastle Coal-field, 

 and which, including a stratum of "freestone 

 sand" at the bottom of the limestone, extended, 

 at Montwearmouth, to the thickness of 330 feet, 

 and discharged towards the bottom of the strata 

 the prodigious quantity of 3,000 gallons per mi- 

 nute — lor the raising of wliich into an ofi-take 

 drift, a double-acting steam-engine, working with 

 a power of from 180 to 200 horses, was found ne- 

 cessary. Tiie first unequivocal stratum of the 

 coal formation, viz., abed of coals one and a hall 

 inches thick, was not reached till August, 1831, 

 (being about 344 feet below the surface,) after 

 which the tremendous influx of water which had 

 so long im|)eded the sinking operations Vv-as "stop- 

 ped back" by a cylindrical "metal tubbing" or 

 casing, fitted (in a series of small portions) to the 

 shaft, and extending from below the above bed of 

 coal to within 26 yards of the surface. The sink- 

 ing now proceeded with spirit — still, no valuable 

 bed of coal Vt'as reached, although the shaft had 

 passed considerably above 600 feet into the coal 

 measures, and much deeper than had hitherto 

 been found requisite for reaching some of the 

 known seams. It became evident that the miners 

 were in unknown ground. A new "feeder of wa- 

 ter" was encountered at the great depth of 1,000 

 feet, requiring fresh pumps and a fresh outlay of 

 money. The prospects of the owners became un- 

 promising in the eyes of most men, and were de- 

 nounced as hopeless by many of the coal- viewers! 

 Coal-viewing, however, had as yet been limited 

 to some 200 or 220 fathoms; and the views of the 

 Messrs. Pemberton (the enterprising owners of 

 this collieiy) were not to be bounded b}^ such oitli- 

 nary depths; they considered rightly that the thick- 

 ness of the coal formation might be vastly greater 

 where protected by the super-incumbent lime- 

 stone, than where ex))osed to those denudations 

 which in the neighborhood of the "rise" collieries 



had probably swept away the strata through 

 which their own shaf\ had hitherto been sunk; 

 that they were therefore justified in anticipating 

 the larger and known seams at greater dejjlhs; 

 and that, in case these larger seams had been split 

 into smaller strata, the same causes which in 

 other ])laces had prodviced their subdivision might, 

 at Monkwearmouth, have efiected their junction. 

 They continued iherelbre their sinking, and in 

 October last reached a seam of considerable value 

 and thickness, at the depth of 1,578 feet below the 

 surface, and presuming that this newly discovered 

 seam was identified with the Bensham scam of 

 the Tyne (or Maudlin seam of the Wear,) they 

 are rapidly deepening their shafts, in anticipation 

 of reaching the Hutton or most valuable seam, at 

 no distant j)eriod, but which (if their anticipations 

 are well founded) will be found at a depth ap- 

 proaching 300 fathoms from the surfiice! ! In the 

 meantime, however, workings have very recently 

 conmienced in the supposed Bensham seam. A 

 party of scientific gentlemen descended into these 

 workings on Saturday last, and aided by every fa- 

 cility and assistance which could be afforded 1o 

 them b}' Messrs. Pemberton, made several barom- 

 etric and thermometric observations, the detail of 

 vvliich will be deeply interesting to many of our 

 readers. A barometer at the top of the shaft (87 

 feet above high water mark) stood at 30,518, its 

 attached thermometer (Fahrenheit) being 53. On 

 being carried down to the new workings (1,584 

 feet below the top) it stood at 32,280, and in all 

 probability higher than ever before seen by human 

 eye! the attached thermometer being 58. Four 

 workings or drifts had been commenced in the 

 coal, tlie longest of them being that "to the dip," 

 twenty-two yards in length, and nearly two in 

 breadth — to the end of which the cun-ent of fresh 

 air lor ventilating the mine was diverted — (and 

 from which the pitmen employed in the excava- 

 tion had just departed) was selected for the follow- 

 ing thermometric observations. (Temperature of 

 the current of air near the entrance of the drift 62 

 (Fahrenheit:) near the end of the drift, 63; close 

 to the fiice or extremity of the drift, and beyond 

 the current of air, 68.) A piece of coal was 

 hewn from the face; and two thermometers placed 

 in the spot just before occupied by the coal (their 

 bulbs being instantly covered with coal dust) rose 

 to 71. A small pool of water was standing at the 

 end of the drift. Temperature of this water at 

 eleven o'clock, 70; three hours later, 69^. A re- 

 gister thermometer was buried 18 inches deep be- 

 low the floor, and about ten j'ards li'om the entrance 

 of the drift; forty minutes afterwards its maximum 

 temperature was 67. Another register thermoni- 

 eter was similarly buried near the end of the drift, 

 and afler a similar period indicated a maximum 

 temperature of 70. It was then jilaced in a deep- 

 er hole and covered with small coal: — some v\'atcr 

 oozed out of the side of this hole to the depth of 

 six or eight inches above the thermometer, which, 

 upon being examined after a sufficient interval of 

 time, indicated a temperature of 71^. A stream 

 of gas bubbles (igniting with the flame of a can- 

 dle) issued through the water collected in this 

 hole; the bulbs of two very sensible thermometers 

 were immersed under water in this stream of gas, 

 and indicated a temperature constantly varying 

 between 71.5 and 72.6. A thermometer was 

 lowered to the bottom of a hole drilled to the depth 



