Thread: Coal Pits
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Old 23-04-2016, 11:00 AM
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Coquet Coquet is offline
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I assume it's just another name for a horse gin type device?
Last autumn I was at Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Once you have had enough of that horror the next thing nearby on the agenda is the Wieliczka salt mine, fascinating place that is. Many of the roadways near the shafts are 1600s.
Down there they have reconstructed the man and horse powered equipment from the 17th -19th centuries.
I doubt the technology was confined to Poland so this 'gear' would be used in British mines?

Below: Human powered underground winch, lifting material from a lower level up a vertical shaft, being operated by some of our group.


Below: 4HP! underground horse gin



Below: Man powered water pump



Below: Roadway near the shafts. Probably 17c! Not too dissimilar to 19c 20c roadways around Nothumberland collieries, apart from the excessive and massive timbers. Not sure if the timber below had ever been replaced; our guide said the salt penetrates into the wood and preserves it over time.



Below: Roadway a bit further 'inbye'. Still very old workings, ancient wood constructed channel for water, preserved by salt, still doing its job. Change that channel to a pipe and this could be old workings 'backbye' in a Nothumberland colliery.

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