MINE. 



351 



Working 



! Cjl'.i. 



Viewer*. 



New IJTI- 



tem of p*n 

 D*l wurk 

 I.T Mr. 

 Buddie. 



PtT 



r, t . i. 



attending it; for if water broke out in any particular spot 

 of the colliery, it was al'ogether impossible to prevent 

 it from proceeding to the engine pit, and if the venti- 

 lation was obstructed no idea could be formed where 

 the cau-e was likely to be found, there being instan- 

 ce* of no less than thirty miles of air courses in one 

 colliery ; and if from such an obstruction an explo-ion 

 of the gas took place while many workmen were em- 

 ployed along the extended wall faces, it wns altoge- 

 ther impossible to form any judgment where the mis- 

 fortune had taken place, and consequently tlie viewer* 

 or managers, with their assistants, could not direct 

 their steps to that point where they were most likely 

 to relieve the workmen who had survived the shock of 

 the desolating explosion. 



To the mining engineers of the northern counties: of 

 England, known in that quarter by the name of I'irie- 

 en the world i indebted for many great improve- 

 ments which have been made in the most difficult and 

 dangerous points of coal mining. They are a class of 

 men who, to a knowledge of physical science, add pa- 

 tient perseverance, resolute determination, contempt 

 of danger, and unwearied application ; nor are these 

 qualities called only occasionally into action, they are 

 required every day of their lives, while they direct the 

 operations of extensive and deep mines, where inflam- 

 mable air abounds. 



All the expedients proposed having fa'lrd to correct 

 the evils attending the working of deep and extensive 

 mines where inflammable air abounded, and as one of 

 the great ol'jects was to raise us much coal as possible 

 from a given area, in place uf lo*ii g a third or a half as 

 before-mentioned, a system altogether new ha* been 

 invented and brought forward, by Mr John Huddle, of 

 Wallsend Colliery, Newcastle. This system,' the result 

 of the greatent i xperience, and of much study, has, 

 under his immediate direction, been put in practice 

 with a success equal to his most -anguine hopes, and is 

 now adopting by the mining engineer* in the north of 

 England. 



This system of Mr. Ruddle's is named pannel work- 

 ing, because in place of the colliery, or winning of a 

 coal-field, being carried on in one extended area of 

 rooms and pillars, it is divided into quadrangular pn- 

 nels, each pannel containing an area of from eight to 

 twelve acres ; and around each patmel is left a solid 

 wall of coal of from 40 to 50 yards in thickness ; 

 through the pannel walio, roads and air courses are cut 

 in order to work the coal contained within the walls. 

 In this way, all the pannel* are connected together as 

 to roads and ventilation with the -hafts or pit ; and 

 for the more immediately diniingtiUhing any particu- 

 lar part of the colliery, each district or nannel is nam- 

 ed after places or countries, such as London, Kdin- 

 burgh, Dublin, &c. ; so that any circumstance regard- 

 ing the operation of the colliery, accidents as to falls 

 and crushes, ventilation, and, above all, the safety of 

 the workmen, can be referred to a precise pot, under 

 denned limits, viz. within the walls of any particu- 

 lar funnel. Fig. I. Plate CCCXCII. represents a 

 part of a colliery, laid off with four pannel*, according 

 to the improved method ; and in order to render it as 

 di-tinct as possible, the line of the board* is at right 

 angle* with the dip-head level, or level course of the 

 cosJ. A, is the engine pit, divided into three pits, viz. 

 an engine pit and two caul pits ; one of the coal pits 

 is the downcast, by which the atmospheric air descends 

 to ventilate the works, and the other coal pit is the up- 

 cut shaft, at {he bottom of which the furnace for rari- 



Mines of 

 Coal. 



fying the air is placed. BC is the dip-head level, AE 

 the rise or crop mine. K the pannel walls, FG are two 

 pannel- completed as to the first work ; D is a punnel, 

 with the room a a in regular progress to the rise ; H is 

 a pannel fully wrought out, where all the coal is nearly ** 

 got, the loss being in general not more than a tenth in 

 place of a third, or a half under the old system. By 

 this improved plan, the pillars of a pannel may be 

 wrought at any time, as may best suit the economy of 

 the work. In this system, the pillars are made very 

 large, and the rooms or boards narrow the pillars be- 

 ing in general 1'J yards broad, and \ yards long; 

 the boards four yards wide, and the walls or thirlings 

 cut through the pillars from one board to another, only 

 five feet wide for' the ventilation. In the figure, the 

 rooms are carried from the dip to the crop, and the pan- 

 nel walls act as barriers thrown round the area of the 

 pannel, which prevents the crush of the superincum- 

 bent strata from overrunning the adjoining pannels. 

 U In n the pillars of a pannel are to be wrought, a range Working 

 of pillars, as at I, is first begun upon ; and as the 

 workmen cut away the farthest pillars, prop-wood is 

 tet up betwixt the pavement and the roof, in a per- 

 pendicular direction, within a few feet from one ano- 

 ther, as represented by the dots, until an area of above 

 1000 square yards is cleared of pillars, having a thick- 

 ness of strata, perhaps more than 130 fathoms, hanging 

 clear and unsupported, excepting at the line of the sur- 

 rounding pillars : this is termed working the goaff. It 

 must however be remarked, regarding the prop-wood 

 which is here used, and in many other places of the 

 pit-workings, that it can have no effect in supporting 

 the weight of the whole superincumbent strata, which 

 i* uncommonly great. The only use of prop-wood is 

 to prevent the bed or stratum which forms the roof im- 

 mediately over the workmen's heads, from falling down 

 and killing them ; experience having shewn, that be- 

 fore proceeding to take away another set of pillars, it 

 i* necessary to allow the last made goaff to fall. The 

 workmen then proceed to draw the props, which i* * 

 most hazardous employment ; they begin at the far- 

 thest props, and knock them down one after another, 

 retreating always amongst the remaining prop*. Dur- 

 ing this operation, the roof-stratum begins to break by 

 the sides of the pillars, and falls down in immense 

 piece*. Thi* doe* not intimidate the workmen, for 

 they persevere drawing and retreating, until every prop 

 is taken down ; and if any prop* are so firmly fixed by 

 the pressure of the roof that they will not drive down 

 with the force of heavy mauls, they are cut through 

 with axes, the workmen deeming it cowardly to leave 

 single prop in the goaff. When every prop is drawn, 

 the workmen retreat betwixt the pillars for safety ; the 

 roof then falls in large tabular masses, and each supe- 

 rior stratum, in succession, bends down towards the 

 middle of the goaff, and then breaks. The workmen 

 then proceed to cut away the pillar* next the side* of 

 the goaff, setting prop-wood, drawing it, and retiring 

 in the manner before described, until every pillar of 

 the pannel i* removed, excepting small parts of pillar* 

 which require to be left under dnn^i roiis stones, to se- 

 cure the retreat of the workmen. While this operation 

 is going forward, and the goaff extending, the superin- 

 ctimhent strata having an enlarged area without (up- 

 port, break progressively farther up; and when strong 

 beds of sandstone are breaking, the noise of the rend- 

 ing of the mass of rock i* very loud, and the sound 

 very different from any thing the ear has been accus- 

 tomed to ; at time* it is loud and sharp, at other times 



