Man engine
Encyclopedia
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
to assist the miners’ journeys to and from the working levels. It was invented in Germany in the 19th century and was a prominent feature of tin and copper mines in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
until the beginning of the twentieth.
Operation
In the Cornish examples the motive power was provided by waterwheels, or one of the mine's beam engineBeam engine
A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used by Thomas Newcomen around 1705 to remove water from mines in Cornwall...
s. Originally operating without a flywheel, this offered a reciprocating motion of, typically, twelve to fifteen feet (three to five metres). The engine would be linked to a series of beams – known as "rods" – fastened together and reaching to the bottom of the mineshaft. Small platforms would be attached to the rods at the same distance apart as the engine stroke. Fixed platforms were built onto the shaft walls, spaced to coincide with the top and bottom positions of each of the moving platforms. In a common variation a pair of rods was used, with one on its upstroke as the other descended. The miner hopped from one to the other, rather than waiting at a fixed rest, as they changed direction. Counterweights – large boxes filled with stones attached through "see-sawing"
Seesaw
A seesaw is a long, narrow board pivoted in the middle so that, as one end goes up, the other goes down.-Mechanics:Mechanically a seesaw is a lever and fulcrum....
horizontal beams – were installed in order to avoid the full weight of the shaft and men bearing on the engine beam. In the deepest mines, which could sink to more than 350 fathoms (640 metres), extra counterweights were provided in side-shafts at regular intervals.
To go up or down, the miner would step onto the travelling platform and allow himself to be carried to the next fixed platform, where he would step off and wait. At the end of the next stroke the next moving platform would line up and he could step onto it and repeat the process. Although the footholds were often small, grab handles were fitted above each one. Miners may ascend and descend at the same time: the pause at the changeover point is made long enough for two men to change places.
Safety
Levant mine accident
In the afternoon of 20 October 1919 an accident occurred on the man engine at the Levant MineLevant Mine & Beam Engine
Levant Mine and Beam Engine is a National Trust property at Trewellard, Pendeen, near St Just, Cornwall, England, UK. Its main attraction is that it has the world's only Cornish beam engine still operated by steam on its original site...
, St Just
St Just in Penwith
St Just is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The parish encompasses the town of St Just and the nearby settlements of Trewellard, Pendeen and Kelynack: it is bounded by the parishes of Morvah to the north-east, Sancreed and Madron to the east, St Buryan and Sennen to...
, Cornwall. More than 100 miners were on the engine being drawn to the surface when a metal bracket at the top of the rod broke. The heavy timbers crashed down the shaft, carrying the side platforms with them, and thirty-one men lost their lives. The man engine was not replaced and the lowest levels of the mine were abandoned.
History
The earliest known examples of this device were from the first half of the nineteenth century in the silver mining area of the Harz mountainsHarz
The Harz is the highest mountain range in northern Germany and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The name Harz derives from the Middle High German word Hardt or Hart , latinized as Hercynia. The legendary Brocken is the highest summit in the Harz...
, Germany, where they were driven by cranks connected to water wheels, although bucket hoists using the same method of operation had been used in Swedish iron mines since the 17th century. They appear to have evolved from an informal modification to the beam pumps
Pumpjack
A pumpjack is the overground drive for a reciprocating piston pump in an oil well....
, where the miners used spikes stuck into the wooden pump rods to get themselves carried up the shaft. As beam pumps were universal in deep mines, it was a then simple development to make proper platforms to carry the miners. The first formal engine was installed in 1833 at a mine at Clausthal
Clausthal-Zellerfeld
Clausthal-Zellerfeld is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located in the southwestern part of the Harz mountains. Its population is approximately 15,000, Clausthal-Zellerfeld is also the seat of the Samtgemeinde Oberharz....
, Lower Saxony, where inspector Wilhelm Albert
Wilhelm Albert
Wilhelm August Julius Albert was a German mining administrator, best remembered as the first person to record observations of metal fatigue....
and manager Georg Dörell (1793–1854) fastened foot platforms and hand-holds to adjacent, reciprocating pump rods, using a waterwheel-driven pump put out of use when a new drainage adit
Adit
An adit is an entrance to an underground mine which is horizontal or nearly horizontal, by which the mine can be entered, drained of water, and ventilated.-Construction:...
was made at a lower level. The 1837 man engine at the Samson Pit
Samson Pit
The Samson Pit or Samson Mine is an historic silver mine in Sankt Andreasberg in the Upper Harz region of central Germany.The pit has one of the oldest man engines in the world still working and it can be seen in operation during guided tours. The man engine, installed in the Samson Pit in 1837,...
in Sankt Andreasberg
Sankt Andreasberg
Sankt Andreasberg is a town and a former municipality in the district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 November 2011, it is part of the town Braunlage. It is situated in the Harz, approximately 7 km west of Braunlage proper, and 20 km east of Osterode am Harz.- History :Sankt...
in the same region is still in use, although converted from water to electric power in 1922.
The device was introduced to Cornwall in 1842, following the award of a premium for the best design, by the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society
Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society
The Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society is an educational, cultural and scientific charity, based in Falmouth, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The Society exists to promote innovation in the arts and sciences...
. The winner, Michael Loam
Michael Loam
Michael Loam was a Cornish engineer who introduced the first man engine into the UK....
, built one for the proprietors of the Tresavean Mine, in Lanner
Lanner, Cornwall
Lanner is a village and civil parish in west Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated about southeast of Redruth.Lanner is in the St Day, Carharrack and Lanner ward which had a collective population of 5,438 in 2001. The population of Lanner civil parish was 2,493 in the 2001 census...
near Redruth
Redruth
Redruth is a town and civil parish traditionally in the Penwith Hundred in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It has a population of 12,352. Redruth lies approximately at the junction of the A393 and A3047 roads, on the route of the old London to Land's End trunk road , and is approximately west of...
. He used a double-rod design, driven by a waterwheel. The miners' journey time (in either direction) was reduced from about an hour to twenty-four minutes and output per shift increased by one fifth. More than a dozen examples were installed in Cornish mines by the end of the century, but these were usually of the single-rod type, which was perceived as safer in use.
When cable operated winding gear became available the man engines continued in use, particularly in cases where the mineshaft was not truly vertical and winding engines drawing suspended cages could not be used: with the provision of a few well-place rollers, and “fend offs” mounted on trunnion
Trunnion
A trunnion is a cylindrical protrusion used as a mounting and/or pivoting point. In a cannon, the trunnions are two projections cast just forward of the centre of mass of the cannon and fixed to a two-wheeled movable gun carriage...
s, the rods could reach the bottom of a shaft even at a substantial deviation from the vertical. Economics also played a part: the rods needed for pumping could be used for this extra function at little increased cost. Even when skips
Skip (container)
A rubbish skip is usually called merely a skip or waste bin. A skip is a large open-topped container designed for loading onto a special type of lorry. Differing from dumpster, instead of being emptied into a waste vehicle onsite, a skip is replaced by an empty skip and then tipped at a landfill...
or “kibbles” were used in such shafts, (running on “skipways”) the tipping motion would make them impractical for carrying men.