A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



turn stroke was then made by the momentum 

 of the fly-wheel assisted by the weight of the 

 connecting rod and the action of the cold 

 cylinder. The exhaust steam from the hot 

 cylinder passed to the smaller or cold cylinder 

 by means of the connecting pipe, which be- 

 ing constantly immersed in cold water acted 

 as a condenser, producing sufficient condensa- 

 tion to reduce it to atmospheric pressure as it 

 entered and filled the cold cylinder. The 

 cold piston having arrived at the top of its 

 stroke, and its cylinder being thus filled with 

 steam, the injection valve was opened, thus 

 admitting a jet of water which condensed 

 the steam so that the unbalanced atmospheric 

 pressure assisted in the down stroke. 



This form of engine came into general use ; 

 and an engine of this kind, in use at Wreah 

 Pit, Hensingham, up to 1878, may be seen 

 in the South Kensington Museum. 



Since the days of the Heslop engine many 

 improvements have been made in winding 

 and pumping machinery. Firstly, with the 

 inventions of Watt and others the closing 

 in the top of the cylinder, the parallel motion, 

 and making the steam act on both sides of 

 the piston came the vertical and beam en- 

 gines made on the Boulton and Watt 

 principle. These, in their turn, have been 

 replaced by horizontal high pressure engines, 

 which are now generally used for winding in 

 West Cumberland. 



The present winding engine at Henry Pit, 

 Whitehaven, is an example of one of the best 

 modern engines of that class in the coalfield. 

 It was erected in 1871 ; has two horizontal 

 cylinders, 36 in. diameter with 6 ft. stroke, 

 and Cornish valves ; and a drum 18 ft. 4 in. 

 diameter, fitted with a powerful steam brake. 

 Round steel wire ropes, 5^ in. circumference, 

 are used for winding. The engine raises four 

 steel tubs (on two decks in each cage), each 

 tub carrying about 14 cwt. of coal. The 

 conductors are flat-bottomed steel rails, 50 Ib. 

 per yard. 



There were no guides or conductors for the 

 baskets in their journeys through the shafts, 

 William Pit, Whitehaven, being the sole excep- 

 tion ; and it was therefore not surprising that 

 the ascending and descending baskets, swinging 

 at the end of the ropes, should collide at 

 ' meetings,' and sometimes precipitate their 

 freight occasionally workpeople going to or 

 coming from their work to the bottom. 



The general adoption of cages with guides, 

 the regulations of the Mines Acts, and the use 

 of detaching hooks at most of the pits in the 

 district, have reduced the hazards in raising 

 and lowering persons in shafts to a minimum. 

 When coals were drawn by horse-gins, round 



hemp ropes were used, but when the steam 

 engine came to be applied to winding, flat 

 hemp ropes were adopted because the varying 

 diameter of the rope roll, due to the coiling 

 and uncoiling of the rope, tended to counter- 

 balance the engine. Lastly, the flat hemp 

 ropes were succeeded by flat wire ropes, and 

 these, again, by the round wire ropes now 

 invariably used for winding. 



In the earliest days of coal-mining, the 

 only ventilation which circulated in the 

 limited area of workings was that resulting 

 from natural causes. But when the work- 

 ings became more extensive, and it became 

 imperative to deal more effectually with the 

 firedamp that was given off in larger quanti- 

 ties as new fields of coal were opened out, the 

 underground furnace was the means generally 

 adopted to create artificial ventilation, and was 

 continued in use for that purpose at all of the 

 collieries in the county until about 1870, when 

 mechanical ventilation came into vogue. 



The furnace was, in some cases, placed on 

 the surface in connection with a tall chimney 

 or air-tube, but its usual situation was at the 

 bottom of the upcast shaft, where better 

 results were obtained. 



The furnace was a huge open fire, placed on 

 a grate I o or 1 2 ft. wide by 8 or 9 feet long, 

 a short distance from the shaft foot in a brick 

 archway ; and all the return air from the 

 workings passed over it. In other coalfields 

 ' dumb ' drifts were used to carry the return 

 air into the upcast shaft without passing over 

 the furnace, which was fed with a ' split ' of 

 fresh air ; but this practice did not obtain in 

 Cumberland. 



At Duke Pit, Whitehaven, in 1806, fire- 

 damp was piped to the bottom of the shaft, 

 and burned there to produce a ventilating 

 current ; but this practice did not last very 

 long. A velocity of four miles an hour was 

 obtained, whereas common furnaces seldom 

 produced more than three miles an hour. 1 



Notwithstanding all the care that could be 

 used, the open furnace, especially without a 

 dumb drift, was a constant source of danger. 



In 1814, Mr. Swinburn, agent for Mr. 

 Curwen, invented a mechanical ventilator, 

 which was tried at Union Pit, Workington ; 

 but it did not prove to be a success. 



In 1840, Mr. James Reed, engineer at 

 Whitehaven Colliery, constructed a ' fanning 

 machine,' which was tried at Duke Pit, White- 

 haven, but after running a few years was 

 discontinued. 



It was not until 1870 that mechanical ven- 

 tilation, as it is now understood, was intro- 



Monthly Magazine, xxiii. 499. 



356 



