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February, 1943

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Modern winding consists of elaborate installations of steam or electrical plant, drums of large diameter designed in such a manner as to obtain a balanced load, various devices such as overwinders, automatic braking, slow bankers, depth indicators, visible and audible signals, all of which are provided to increase winding efficiency with safety and to ensure the system being foolproof against mistakes caused by the personal element; ropes are constructed of materials which have undergone rigid tests, and when installed are subject to daily inspection. As a result of these improvements winding speeds and loads of increasing magnitude have been attained and safety has increased accordingly. These facts are apt to be very much taken for granted, and it is the purpose of this series of articles to draw attention to the process of gradual development which has led to the excellence of present-day winding practice.

The history and development of winding practice is shown graphically in Figs. 1 and 2, which should be viewed in conjunction with each other. Before the industrial revolution in this country, the output of coal was low, and with the crude tools, apparatus and equipment available it was only possible for shallow deposits to be worked. A consideration of the two diagrams shows that whilst hand, horse and water gins were the only sources of power available the coal load per wind was limited, and remained almost stationary until the introduction of steam as a source of power in the middle of the 18th century. The introduction of steam power, the changeover from basket-corves to tubs and cages, and eventually the innovation of wire ropes instead of those constructed of hemp, with the use of cage guides, enabled the rope speed to be increased concurrently with larger loads per wind, which in turn permitted increased outputs to be won from deposits at greater depths. With the further development in the design of winders, changing from the vertical beam engines to horizontal steam engines until the present-day electric or steam winder is reached with its elaborate control and safety gear, winding speeds and loads rapidly increased, enabling outputs of considerable magnitude to be obtained from deep deposits, thereby providing the necessary fuel and ballast required for the industrial supremacy of this nation in the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries.

Hand winding

During the early days of coal mining, when the seams were in close proximity to the surface, it was customary to arrange for a series of steps to be cut out of the stratum intervening between the seam and surface, or if the shaft was shallow, ladders were installed for the same purpose, which was the carrying of baskets of coal on the backs of women. This system is depicted in Fig. 3.

With increased depths, the baskets or corves were made larger, which after being filled with coal were attached to a hemp rope and wound to the surface by means of a manual winch or by animal power; in the event of persons being wound to the surface the basket was detached from the hooks in order to lighten the load. In Fig. 4, a woman is seen riding on the clatch iron, the winch being worked by a second woman at the surface. As the rider arrived at the mouth of the shaft, the winch handle was made fast by a bolt drawn from the right-hand post; the winder then grasped the rider's hand and by main force brought him or her to terra firma. Men and boys being wound in a basket or skip are shown in Fig. 5, the men riding in the skip, whilst the boys clung to the winding rope or chain in the manner illustrated. There is no need to stress the many accidents and casualties arising from such systems of winding. It is also obvious that such winding systems imposed limitations on the output of coal and on the rate of winding. The limitations of the hand system of winding are shown in Fig. 6, which, assuming such conditions as size of bucket, foot lb. of work capable of being performed by a man, illustrates the variation in cost per ton and output with the depth of the wind.

These systems of winding were prevalent before 1788, when John Curr of Sheffield introduced wooden tubs, cages and shaft guides, which innovations proved an important step forward in obtaining increased winding speeds with greater safety. Another factor assisting these aims was the of the shaft by means of a vertical partition with a view to assisting ventilation and preventing collision of the cages in the shaft. It was not how ever, until 1834, that T. Hall at Ryton-on-Tyne proved the efficiency of these innovations by constructing a rectangular cage of wrought iron bar with a wooden floor, having rails for the tubs ; the flat hempen winding rope was attached to the cage by four chains and a spring hook, whilst the cage guides were flat iron bars spiked to the face of continuous timbers. Above the pit bank the guides were of lighter section and at right angles to the position of the guides in the shaft; the shoes on the cage were of channel section. Keps were also introduced, these being simply hinged frames swinging inward under the cage, actuated by a lever. Since 1834, the tubs, which were invariably made of wood and held a few hundredweights of coal, have increased in capacity until at the present time they hold as much as 30 cwt. of coal in certain districts, and instead of being constructed of timber are of fabricated steel. At some mines, to facilitate handling and to wind large loads, skip winding has been introduced, but although this system may be looked upon as a sign of modern progress, actually it was introduced into this country in 1853.

Winding by means of animal and water power

It was early discovered that manual power was insufficient to cope with the coal outputs required, and consequently animal power was utilised to overcome this difficulty. There are many types of horse gin, but those indicated in Figs. 7 and 8 are illustrative of the principles involved.

The type shown in Fig. 8 had an axle 23 ft. in length and had the rope drums placed on its upper end; the horse, or horses, were harnessed to a turning bar attached to the lower end of a diagonal bar. The lower drum was rigidly fixed to the axle, while the upper drum was connected to the lower one by a wooden pin, which when withdrawn enabled the lengths of the ropes to be adjusted, so that when one bucket or basket was at the pit bottom, the other was at the surface. To make the adjustment, the upper drum was fixed by the brake, and the lower one turned round to the required amount. The upper drum ran on friction rollers on the upper surface of the lower one, and the brake worked on the lower projecting rim of the upper drum. The footstep bearing of the axle rested upon a pair of adjusting wedges on a short pillar of masonry; the top was attached to a horizontal beam carried by two diagonal struts, which also supported a conical roof covering the drums. To take the load from the horses when the gin was at rest, two poles with spiked ends were dragged round with the horse pole.

The drums were commonly 12 ft. in diameter and 4 ft. 6 in. in depth, the circular path described by the animals being in the region of 36 ft. in diameter. The load was raised at a speed of 75 to 100 ft. per mm. in baskets or buckets holding slightly over 2 cwt. of coal. With depths exceeding 200 ft., two horses were necessary.

The horse gin shown in Fig. 7 was probably the more common type, and consisted of two radial arms built into an upright axle, on which was a drum 12 ft. in diameter and 4½ ft. deep, formed of boards nailed to three wooden rings secured to the upper portion of the axle. The upper bearing of the axle was carried by a timber frame, to which the frame for the rope or chain pulley was attached. This type of winding installation has been in use until recent times; as an example, at Lindon Moor Mines, Lancashire, a gin was in use until after 1900, when 15 tons of material were wound in 8 hours from a shaft 60 ft. in depth.

Where water supplies were available, the water whim was often used for winding purposes, both on the surface and below ground. A typical water whim is shown in Fig. 9, consisting of an overshot wheel, approximately 30 ft. in diameter, 5½ ft. wide, and having two sets of buckets opening in opposite directions, each supplied from a separate sluice (not shown), so that the wheel could be rotated in either direction. This winding arrangement was described by Agricola as being used in Germany in 1554, but was only introduced into the North of England in 1778. The illustration indicates the timbered double wheel. The two winding drums, each 8½ feet in diameter, were on the same shaft as the water wheel, the one nearer to the wheel being constructed of wood and fixed to the shaft, whereas the other was loose and carried by six cast-iron arms on either side, turning on a pair of cast-iron rings keyed on the shaft; each of these four rings had four square holes in it to receive the locking hooks, which by an external lever were utilised to lock the drum to the shaft in any position. This arrangement allowed winding to take place from different depths by adjusting the lengths of the two ropes. Brakes were provided for the loose drum-a wooden brake wheel, 12 ft. in diameter, was fixed to the main shaft, which was 23 in. square and had two journals 6 in. in diameter. The average load in each bucket was 3½ to 4 cwt.

Man engine

The birth of the steam engine gave a decided impetus to the introduction of new systems of lowering and raising men, and one of the earliest was the man engine, introduced primarily to replace the system of ladder ingress and egress to and from mines, which was actuated either by the steam engine or if ample supplies of water were available by means of the water wheel.

The man engine was introduced in 1833, and was after this date considerably used on the continent and in this country, especially in Cornwall.

The first double-rod man engine was erected in Cornwall in 1843 and reached a depth of 1,740 ft.; it was worked by a steam engine of 36 in. cylinder diameter, with a 6 ft. stroke, making 15 r.p.m. and driving the rods by a crank making 3½ r.p.m. with a stroke of 10 ft. The men were lifted at 73 ft. per mm. and 24 minutes were required for the entire journey.

The first single-rod man engine was erected in 1851, a similar type being in use only as far back as 1919. The rod extended vertically from the surface to a depth of 1,680 ft., and was driven by an overshot wheel, 30 ft. diameter and 6 ft. wide, making 30 r.p.m. The crank on the axle of the wheel was directly connected by a bob by which the rod was given a stroke of 12 ft. The rod was 8 in. square, built of timbers 36 ft. in length, and Connected by fishplates each 12 ft. long. The rod platforms

Drawings and Photographs accompanying the article