The Mechanical Engineering Of Collieries Volume 1

This book provides an in-depth study of the engineering technology used in the mining industry in the early 20th century. The author explores the mechanical structures of collieries, different machines used in mining, and the process of extracting coal from the mines. This book is an excellent resource for anyone interested in the history of mining technology. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

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Excerpt from The Mechanical Engineering of Collieries, Vol. 1: 1. Boring; 2. Shaft Sinking; 3. Surface Arrangements; 4. Shafts and Headgears Not only have improvements been effected in the arrangements for dealing with the coal, but more care and attention have been given to the selection and class of the machinery employed. The old egg-end boiler is now principally seen doing duty as a water tank, the high-pressure Lancashire, or water-tube boiler taking its place for generating steam. Shafts appear to be still increasing in diameter, and are being sunk with power-driven machine drills, winding engines fitted with expensive valve gears to economise steam, and capable of dealing rapidly with heavy loads, large cages, banking-out arrangements to save time due to changing decks of cages, automatic tipplers, creepers, shaking and revolving screens and travelling belts for cleaning the coal are now a sine qud non. Various arrangements have been brought out for the prevention of overwinding, but do not seem to have met with much favour. Electric lighting is now usual, and electricityas a means of transmitting power is becoming extensively adopted, and vieing in this respect with compressed air. Mechanical coal-cutting is also now beyond the experimental stage, and growing in importance. Considerable improvements have also been made in coking and washing plant, the old beehive oven is disappearing, and a vast amount of capital is being laid out in erecting new batteries of coke ovens, which not only yield valuable by-products but better coke, and the waste gases generate sufficient steam to supply the whole of the power required at the colliery, and one enterprising firm propose further to utilise the waste heat to transmit electric power to neighbouring towns. There are no doubt many instances where this would be done with profit to both the owner of the coke ovens and the consumer of the energy. The mechanical engineering of collieries, then, is of growing importance, and much still remains to be done. The question of winding from great depths remains to be satisfactorily solved; and the utilisation of slack and waste from collieries might receive with advantage more attention, and in this respect the question of generating electricity at coalpit centres is important. No quite satisfactory appliances have ever yet been invented to prevent the cage falling in the case of a broken rope, and the sad accidents due to this cause are to be regretted; though when we consider the vast number of men who descend and ascend daily into and out of mines, it speaks volumes for the careful and efficient supervision and atten tion to winding ropes and arrangements, especially in our own country, where safety appliances are practically unheard of. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.