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#61
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Not sure about this one. Old photo of a cutter on the face viewed from the controls end but with the jib on the top:
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#62
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you'll like this one. 1858 coal cutter: Can you figure out how it works?
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#63
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Been having a look through my stuff for AB Cutter adverts, think my books pre-date the AB 15 above, but did find this one: AB Shortwall Coalutter fitted with gummer'
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#64
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Coal Cutters
Switching the cutter on was an art in itself, a bit like opening a safe! The '15' related to its height off the ground (15 inches) obviously designed for use in low seams.
I don't recognise the picks in this one either but the cutting jib looks standard. The top jib model may well have had a bottom jib too, these were employed at Whittle for short time (on the top side, Y23) to try to control the roof. With a top cut a 'steel strap' (or wooden plank and prop) was immediately slid into the cut and a dowty (hydraulic jack type of roof support pumped up by hand and a lever which was known as a dowty key) put in against the coal and then another dowty on the back end next to the face conveyor belt to try to stabilise the roof before the coal was taken out. This effectively doubled the number of roof supports on a face as control measure. With a double cut (over and under) there was less requirement for shot firing (blasting) which also disturbed the strata, the distinctive smell of shot firing will never leave me! The 1858 version looks easier to maintain but I can't fathom the mechanics. Looks like you have to pull the handles to spin the cutting disc, hard work in a 30 inch seam or any seam for that matter! |
#65
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What was a gummer again? There was some detachable device that controlled the duff out of the cut - was that the 'gummer'? (memory failed again)
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#66
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#67
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The gummer was what was used to clean the scufflngs from the cut into the track behind the machine. These were coal scufflings at Shilbottle and were filled away by the fillers prior to shotfiring. At Hauxley in the Brockwell there was a band of stone below the coal so the scufflings were stone, this had to be filled into the goaf by duffers who followed the cutting shift by a couple of hours. It was a job no one wanted because of the shift times and the fact it was heavy work, it usually fell to the lads newly from the training face until they cold get onto other facework.
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#68
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It was what I thought it was then. The gummer had an impeller inside of it I think. Must have had a drive shaft on the cutter that fitted into it. Anyway, I recall it being one heavy lump of metal if it was in your way!
where exactly did it fit on the cutters we are familiar with? like the one above (repeated below) (I should say the museum has a mock coal seam which the jib disappears into, which is the black area on the right of the photo) |
#69
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Once the cutter had jibbed in the gummer was fitted on the cutting end and as the chain threw out the scufflings it directed them into the cutting track behind the machine.
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#70
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Thanks. I only have a vague recollection of seeing a gummer being used. I think the cutting shift at Whittle was the 3.45am shift which I avoided like the plague. My great uncle Alf Sergeant (Amble, now deceased) was a cutter man on that shift only ever saw him in passing at the shift change!
I can remember the cutters being used in the headings, no gummer just someone alongside with a shovel feverishly shovelling the duff away. Another question, in the headings I seem to recall the cutter having a 9' jib and on the face a 6' - am I correct? |
#71
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Never thought of the jib size in the headings but it would make sense to have a 9' as it would put an arc on the full width of the place, on the face they were 6' as that was the daily advance. Hauxley for some reason, was 5'. I remember Alfie Sargeant from Hauxley He was "marras" with Jackie White for years, they were the cuttermen on the group training face when the trainees came down from Shilbottle and Whittle to do their face training along with the Hauxley lads.
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#72
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I remember seeing the cutter on Y23 face as a multi jib , three or four cutter bars on top of each other
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#73
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The were no gummers in the headings as the duff was thrown out into the road way and shovelled away, the jib size for headings was dependent on the size of road way required, a 9' jib could give up to 18' or it was possible to pull the cutter back from the caunch and 'jib in' from an angle for a shorter cut (as in mothergates and tailgates with a 6' jib). I remember Alfie on the 03.45 shift he used to live next to my grandparents on Henderson St.
There were several variations of the Y23 cutter, myself Geordie Coward, Bob Straker, Brian Watson and many others were often on the face doing repairs! The water dust suppression rarely worked and visibility due to the dust (coal and stone) was virtually zero when it was running. |
#74
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#75
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Gillott & Copley coal cutter
Here's some weird and wonderful cutters
Gillott & Copley coal cutter This thing worked off compressed air, two cylinders which can be seen in the picture. Machine frame was 5.5 ft by 2.5 ft.with a 3 or 4 ft diameter disc, the thing only did 5 or 6 rpm. This was quite a successful machine in use for many years, pre 1920. |
#76
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Clark and Steavenson Coal Cutter
This one is the Clark and Steavenson Coal Cutter, similar design to the above but produced in a compressed air or 3 phase electric motor versions. There was a version of this machine produced to cut thin seams down to 20 inches in height (!) machine height 1ft 5 inches compared to the normal 2ft 2 inches.
Electric type: |
#77
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Diamond Coal Cutter
This is the 'Diamond Machine' type coal cutter, used where a deep undercut was required, cutting up to 6.5 feet. Very popular in the Midlands apparently.
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#78
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Anderson-Boyes Chain Coal Cutter
Here's a more familiar chain machine, Anderson-Boyes. These first UK types made an appearance just pre-1920, I guess this design never looked back. Earlier chain designs were in use in American mines from about 1894
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#79
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The Hopkinson Chain Coal Cutting Machine
Another chain machine, 'The Hopkinson Chain Coal Cutting Machine'
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#80
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Pick Quick Coal Cutter.
This one is the Pick Quick Coal Cutter. This was in the group of machines known as 'Bar Cutters' or 'Bar Machines'. In soft seams these had the edge over the disc cutters, as the sprags or wedges for the undercut could be put in quite close and quickly to the cutting zone.
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