Coal from European and American collieries was the universal fuel during the Industrial Revolution. Nonetheless technical inventions in mining played a relatively insignificant role. The main cause was the ongoing abundance of workers. Colliery owners were able to attain higher outputs simply by ... more
Coal from European and American collieries was the universal fuel during the Industrial Revolution. Nonetheless technical inventions in mining played a relatively insignificant role. The main cause was the ongoing abundance of workers. Colliery owners were able to attain higher outputs simply by employing more workers. For the same reason they were able to postpone any improvements to the catastrophic working conditions for a long time.
Thus, for centuries technical developments failed to move on from the Middle Ages, when mining in central Europe had been dominated by silver and gold. Hydraulic power was the main source of energy. In order to remove unwanted water from the pits, large water-wheels were installed both above and below the surface, linked by a clever system of rods with extraction pumps. In order for collieries to remain independent of fluctuations in natural water supplies. coal was also brought to the surface with the help of hydraulic power. The Oker pond in the German Harz region, constructed in 1720, is generally regarded as the first reservoir in Europe.
By this time surface supplies had been exhausted in many places; but digging to greater depths involved the use of ever larger water wheels to drive the pumps. The water column machine, first presented in France in 1731, offered a more efficient solution. Water falling from a great height drove a piston downwards, which was then emptied and rose back up again. However, the decisive innovation was the invention of the steam engine in 1712 by Thomas Newcomen. This was first used to raise pit water in a colliery near Wolverhampton. Other British collieries soon followed. True, Newcomen’s invention needed huge amounts of fuel, but this was practically irrelevant because they were erected directly over the coal supplies. Only a few steam engines went into operation on the continent; in the Belgian mining areas around Liège and Mons. Improvements to Newcomen’s model, and new machines developed by James Watt, made steam technology truly viable around 1800.
By that time coal was the leading mining branch. By 1709 the English had already succeeded in making coke from coal. Around the end of the century the new fuel was in wide use in ironworks. This development rapidly increased the demand for coal on the British Isles. But further improvements in mining were necessary. The use of steam engines make the process more efficient. In addition the old winding cables made of hemp were replaced by wire rope, developed in metal-ore collieries in the Harz mountains in 1834. Lifts were then built into the shafts in British collieries, and wooden pithead scaffolding erected to hold the cable wheel.
New technical developments in ventilation were not put into operation for purely economic reasons. Fresh air was not only needed by the miners underground, it was also necessary to reduce the levels of explosive pit gas. For this reason experiments began with air pumps in British collieries: but colliery owners regarded the investment costs as too high. Many colliers continued to lose their lives as a result of explosions underground, and the risks were made greater by the use of open lighting; candles and oil lamps. In 1815 a scientist by the name of Humphry Davy came up with the first effective safety lamp, whose flame was screened off from the pit gas by an extremely thin wire trellis.
Work underground remained highly dangerous and extremely dangerous to health because of the risk of explosions, roofs collapsing and the bone-breaking labour beneath the surface. Hewers equipped with pick, chisel and hammer were sent along appallingly insecure, badly ventilated galleries which were sometimes so low that they were forced to lie down whilst working. The coal was then loaded into baskets or low wagons, to be drawn by horses over wooden or iron rails – when the galleries were high enough to allow this. If not, people had to push and pull the wagons. In British collieries this work was often done by women and children crawling on all fours. The loads of coal they had to push, weighed up to 250 kg.
Starting in the 19th century a huge number of mining engines were patented: the Englishman Richard Trevithick invented a rotating steam-driven drill; this was then followed by a piston drill that worked along the same principle as a steam engine. These inventions would have made work underground much easier, were it not for the fact that they were considered too expensive by the colliery owners. Real progress was only made after 1853 with the introduction of compressed-air drives.
Starting in the 1840s massive pithead towers made of quarrystone or redbrick, began to be introduced, mainly on the continent. They were able to bear the loads imposed on the cables, which were being let down to ever greater depths, better than the old wooden constructions. After only a few decades these so-called "Malakoff towers" (named after the fortress in the Crimea), often had to be made higher by the addition of a steel frame. Around the turn of the 20th century Malakoff towers were replaced completely by even higher steel frames.
About the same time the use of disc-cutting machines – a British innovation – was gradually spreading in the USA and Great Britain. These were equipped with chisels on moving discs, rods or chains to cut a horizontal rift beneath the level of the coal and thereby facilitate hewing. Although this invention lightened miners’ physical labour, it introduced a new stress: noise. Furthermore, the noise of the machines often made it impossible for miners to detect the cracking sound in gallery roofs, that preceded collapses. At first the disc cutters were driven by compressed air, but this was replaced by electricity after people found a way of preventing sparks from intruding into the galleries, and dirt getting into the machines.
Where there were suppliers of soft coal, it proved more advantageous to use a mechanical pick. This was introduced into Belgian coalmines and, after the First World War, into the pits along the Ruhr. Hand labour underground, which had continued almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, was gradually coming to an end.
The coal was increasingly transported from the surface via chutes hanging on chains and shaken with the aid of compressed air. In the 1920s companies began to equip their collieries with electrically-driven conveyor belts. Pit railways with electric locomotives were used along longer stretches. In 1934 a cutter loader was introduced in Great Britain for the first time. This not only cut coal but loaded it in a single working process. In areas where the coal was softer a coal plane was used as an alternative. The first experiments were made in France and the USA and improved to mass production standards by engineers in Westphalia (Germany). The plane was drawn along the surface of the coal, which simultaneously fell on to a moving belt. Finally, fully mechanised coal mining began in the 1940s.
Erzberg Adventure
Erzberg 1
8790
Eisenerz, Austria
Beringen Mine Museum
Mijnmuseum Beringen
Koolmijnlaan 201
3582
Beringen, Belgium
Blegny Mine World Heritage Site
Domaine Touristique de Blegny-Mine
Rue Lambert Marlet, 23
4670
Blegny, Belgium
Grand Hornu World Heritage Site
Rue Sainte-Louise 82
7301
Hornu, Belgium
Le Bois du Cazier World Heritage Site
Rue de Cazier 80
6001
Marcinelle, Belgium
Dolní Vítkovice
Dolní oblast VÍTKOVICE, z.s.
Vítkovice 3004
703 00
Ostrava, Czech Republic
Michal Mine
Důl Michal
Československè armády 95/413
715 00
Ostrava, Czech Republic
The Zollern Colliery
Grubenweg 5
44388
Dortmund, Germany
Zollverein Mine and Coking Plant World Heritage Site
Besucherzentrum Zollverein
Zeche Zollverein Schacht XII
Gebäude A 14 / Kohlenwäsche
Gelsenkirchener Str. 181
45309
Essen, Germany
World Heritage Site Rammelsberg - Museum and Visitors Mine
Bergtal 19
38640
Goslar, Germany
Ferropolis - Town of Iron
Ferropolisstraße 1
06773
Gräfenhainichen, Germany
Knappenrode Energy Factory
Werminghoffstraße 20
02977
Hoyerswerda, Germany
F60 Overburden Conveyer Bridge
Bergheider Straße 4
03238
Lichterfeld, Germany
Fortuna Visitor Mine
Grube Fortuna 1
35606
Solms, Germany
Italian Centre for Coal Mining Culture at Geological Mining Park of Sardinia
Centro Italiano della Cultura del Carbone
Grande Miniera di Serbariu
09013
Carbonia, Italy
The Mines of Montevecchio at Geological Mining Park of Sardinia
Miniera di Montevecchio
Piazza Rotundi
09030
Guspini, Italy
National Museum of Iron Ore Mines
Musée National des Mines de Fer Luxembourgeoises
Rue de la Bruyère
3714
Rumelange, Luxembourg
Historic Silver Mine World Heritage Site
Zabytkowa Kopalnia Srebra
ul. Szczęść Boże 81
42-600
Tarnowskie Góry, Poland
Old Mine Science and Art Centre
Stara Kopalnia Centrum Nauki i Sztuki
ul. Wysockiego 29
58-305
Wałbrzych, Poland
"Guido" Coal Mine
Kopalnia "Guido"
3 Maja 93
41-800
Zabrze, Poland
“Queen Louise” Adit
Sztolnia “Królowa Luiza”
Wolnosci 410
41-800
Zabrze, Poland
Almadén Mining Park World Heritage Site
Parque Minero de Almadén
Cerco San Teodoro
13400
Almadén, Spain
Riotinto Mining Park
Parque Minero de Riotinto
Plaza del Museo s/n
21660
Minas de Riotinto, Spain
Museum of the Iron and Steel Industry and Mining of Castilla and León
Museo de la Siderurgia y la Mineria de Castilla y Leon (MSM)
Plaza de San Blas 1
24810
Sabero, Spain
Soton Mine
Pozo Soton
Linares, AS-17
33950
San Martín del Rey Aurelio, Spain
Falun Mine, World Heritage
Falu Gruva
Gruvgatan 44
791 61
Falun, Sweden
Big Pit: National Coal Museum World Heritage Site
NP4 9XP
Blaenavon, United Kingdom
National Slate Museum World Heritage Site
Padarn Country Park
LL55 4TY
Llanberis, United Kingdom
National Waterfront Museum
Oystermouth Road
SA1 3RD
Swansea, United Kingdom
National Coal Mining Museum for England
Caphouse Colliery
New Road
Overton
WF4 4RH
Wakefield, United Kingdom
Museum in the Old Town Hall
Bergmannplatz 1
8790
Eisenerz, Austria
Copper Visitor Mine
Radmer 36
8795
Radmer, Austria