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Wath upon Dearne is a town south of the River Dearne in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, 5 miles (8 km) north of Rotherham and almost midway between Barnsley and Doncaster. It had a population of 11,816 at the 2011 census. It is twinned with Saint-Jean-de-Bournay in France.
Wath can be traced to Norman times. It appears in the 1086 Domesday Book as Wad and Waith. It remained for some centuries a rural settlement astride the junction of the old Doncaster–Barnsley and Rotherham–Pontefract roads, the latter a branch of Ryknield Street. North of the town was a ford across the River Dearne. The name has been linked to the Latin vadum and the Old Norse vath (ford or wading place). The town received a Royal Charter in 1312–1313 entitling it to a weekly Tuesday market and an annual two-day fair, but these were soon discontinued. The market was revived in 1814.
Until local government reorganization in 1974, Wath was in the historic county of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Until the mid-19th century, the town had a racecourse of regional importance, linked to the estate at nearby Wentworth. This fell into disuse, but traces of it can be seen between Wath and Swinton and it is remembered in street names. There was a pottery at Newhill, close to deposits of clay, but it was overshadowed by the nearby Rockingham Pottery in Swinton. About the turn of the 19th century, the poet and newspaper editor James Montgomery, resident at the time, called it "the Queen of Villages". This rural character changed rapidly in the 19th and 20th centuries, as coal mining developed.
The town lies over the South Yorkshire coalfield, where high-quality bituminous coal was dug from outcrops and near-surface seams in primitive bell pits for several centuries. Several high-grade seams are close to the surface, including the prolific Barnsley and Parkgate. The rising demand for coal arose from rapid local industrialization in the 19th and early 20th century. The population swelled, and local infrastructure developed round the coalmining, but this reliance on one industry led to future problems.
The Dearne and Dove Canal opened in stages from 1798 to 1804 to access the collieries on the south side of the Dearne Valley. It passed through the town on an embankment just north of the High Street and then turned north into the valley. This wide section was known locally as the "Bay of Biscay". The canal closed in 1961 after many years of disuse and poor repair. Much of the canal line has since been used for roads, one of them called Biscay Way.
By the 20th century, heavy industry was evident, with many large collieries – Wath Main and Manvers Main were the two usually mentioned. After the Second World War, the collieries clustered around Manvers developed into a complex, also covering coal preparation, coal products and a coking plant, which was not only visible, but polluted the air for miles around.
Rail took over coal transportation from the canal. Wath upon Dearne became a rail-freight centre of national importance. Wath marshalling yard, built north of the town in 1907, was one of the biggest and for its time one of the most modern railway marshalling yards in the country, as one of the eastern ends of the trans-Pennine Manchester–Sheffield–Wath electrified railway (also known as the Woodhead Line), a project that spanned the Second World War and partly responded to the need to move large amounts of Wath coal to customers in North-West England.
Wath once had three railway stations: Wath Central in Moor Road, Wath (Hull and Barnsley) and Wath North both in Station Road. Wath North, the most distant, was the last to close in 1968, under the Beeching Axe. There has been talk of opening a station on the Sheffield–Wakefield–Leeds line at Manvers, roughly a mile from the town centre.
The local coal industry succumbed to a dramatic decline in the British coal-mining industry precipitated by a change in government economic policy in the early 1980s. This had knock-on effects on many subsidiary local industries and caused local hardship.
The 1985 miners' strike was sparked by the impending closure of Cortonwood Colliery in Brampton Bierlow, a neighbouring village often seen as part of Wath. Along with the whole of the Dearne Valley, Wath was classified as an impoverished area and received public money, including European funds. These were put to regenerating the area from the mid-1990s onwards, causing a degree of economic revival. It made the area more rural, as much land to the north of the town once used by collieries and marshalling yards was returned to scrubland and countryside, dotted with light industrial and commercial office parks. This regeneration of what was still classified as brownfield land has involved building it over with industrial and commercial parks. Large housing developments have also been started.
Wath upon Dearne centres on Montgomery Square, with the town's main shops, the library and the bus station. To its west is the substantial Norman All Saints Church, on a small leafy green, with Wath Hall, the Montgomery Hall and a campus of the Dearne Valley College. The several town-centre pubs include a branch of Wetherspoons and Wath Tap, Rotherham's first micro-pub specialising in locally brewed real ale. From 1892 to 1974 Wath Hall served as the local seat of government for Wath upon Dearne.
Today Wath is still emerging from the coal-industry collapse, although jobs and some low-level affluences have returned. After a hiatus between the clearing of former colliery land and recent redevelopment, when the area felt rather rural, the construction of large distribution centres to the north of the town is restoring an industrial feel, but without the pollution issues of coal. Several distribution warehouses for the clothing chain Next have opened. Much new housing is being built on reclaimed land.
Wath Festival, held round the Early May Bank Holiday, is a folk and acoustic music and arts festival founded by members of the Wath Morris Dancing Team in 1972. It has grown to host known names on the folk, acoustic and world music scene. While festival events occur across the town, most larger concerts are held at the Montgomery Hall Theatre and Community Venue. Those appearing have included Dougie MacLean, Fairport Convention, Martin Simpson, John Tams, Frances Black, John McCusker, Stacey Earle and Eddi Reader.
The festival marked its 40th anniversary in 2012. Wath won Village Festival of the Year in the 2013 FATEA Awards.[11] The festival has been a supporter of young artists such as Lucy Ward, and Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar. It has also hosted the Wath Festival Young Performers' Award, founded by the Sheffield-based musician Charlie Barker in 2011, who handed it over to a festival committee in 2014. Winners have included Luke Hirst & Sarah Smout, Sunjay, Rose Redd and Hannah Cumming.
The event includes dancing by local morris and sword-dancing groups, street performances, workshops, children's events and a Saturday morning parade from Montgomery Hall through Montgomery Square and back to St James's Church, for a traditional throwing of bread buns from the parish church tower. Local schools, organisations and local Labour MP John Healey have joined in festival activities.
The RSPB's Old Moor nature reserve lies a mile to the north-west of the town. It occupies a "flash", where mining-induced subsidence of land close to a river has created wetlands.
Wath Athletic F.C. served the community from the 1880s to the Second World War, playing in the Midland League and reaching the 1st Round of the FA Cup in 1926. No senior team has represented the settlement since the 1950s, and Wath remains one of the largest places in Yorkshire without one. However, it has a Rugby Union team that plays in the Yorkshire Division 2.
On Wednesday, Sept. 5 and Thursday, Sept. 6 WSDOT contractor crews from Granite Construction added a final sealant layer to this stretch of highway to SR 542/Mount Baker Highway between Silver Fir Campground and the Artist Point Gate. Crews had already done pavement repair, crack sealing and applied a preservation surface of oil and gravel to this area. Next up - striping!
Another view of bituminous asbestos coating material on interior surface of metal door-frame. Although a durable material, can still be damaged if subjected to excessive physical forces.
This coating appears similar to other spray-applied asbestos coatings found on some metal sink basins and certain vintage basketball backboards.
12,000 tons of Appalachian bituminous coal winds through Southwest Pennsylvania, on the way to a distant power plant. Consol Energy’s huge Bailey Mine loads a 120-car unit coal train every four hours. Each car, carrying 100 tons of coal, can supply a 500 megawatt coal-fired power plant for about 20 minutes. A modern power plant requires a trainload of coal every day to ensure uninterrupted operation and output.
Coal was not hard to discover in the area that is now Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. Seams of coal show up as black stripes in the badlands of the Red Deer River Valley.
The Blackfoot and Cree knew about the black rock that burned, but they didn't like to use it. Later, three white explorers reported coal in the area: Peter Fidler in 1792, Dr. James Hector of the Palliser Expedition in 1857, and Joseph Tyrrell in 1884.
In the years that followed, a handful of ranchers and homesteaders dug coal out of river banks and coulees to heat their homes. However, the first commercial coal mine did not open until Sam Drumheller started the coal rush in the area that now bears his name.
The rush started when Sam bought land off a local rancher named Thomas Greentree. Sam turned around and sold this land to Canadian National Railway, to develop a townsite. Sam also registered a coal mine. Before his mine opened, however, Jesse Gouge and Garnet Coyle beat him to it, and opened the Newcastle Mine. CN laid tracks into town, and the first load of coal was shipped out of Drumheller in 1911.
Once the railway was built, people poured in. Hundreds, then thousands, of people came to dig coal. The greatest numbers came from Eastern Europe, Britain, and Nova Scotia. More mines opened. By the end of 1912, there were 9 working coal mines, each with its own camp of workers: Newcastle, Drumheller, Midland, Rosedale, and Wayne. In the years that followed, more mines and camps sprang up: Nacmine, Cambria, Willow Creek, Lehigh, and East Coulee.
Coal mining was hard, dirty, dangerous work. Mining in the Drumheller Valley, however, was less hard, dirty, and dangerous than it was in many other coal mining regions in Canada. This was due to both lucky geology and lucky timing.
The geology of the Drumheller coal field results in flat lying seams, which are much safer to mine than the steeply pitching seams of the mountain mines. In addition, the coal produced in Drumheller is sub-bituminous. This grade of coal is "immature" which means it hasn't had time to build up a strong concentration of gas. Methane gas is the biggest killer in coal mines around the world.
The timing of the Drumheller mine industry was lucky, too. By the time the Newcastle opened in 1911, the right to better working conditions had been fought for and won by miners' unions in North America. As a result, miners were provided with wash houses, better underground ventilation, and higher safety standards. When the Newcastle opened, there were laws in place to prohibit child labour, so boys under 14 were no longer allowed underground. The worst of the worst coal mining days were over, at least in North America.
Nevertheless, early mine camps around Drumheller were called "hell's hole" because miners lived in tents, or shacks, with little sanitation and little comfort. It was a man's world, with drinking, gambling, and watching fistfights common forms of recreation. As shacks gave way to little houses, and women joined the men and started families, life improved. Hockey, baseball, music, theatre, and visiting friends enriched peoples' lives. Going downtown Saturday night was a huge event, with every language in Europe spoken by the crowds spilling off the sidewalks. No longer "hell's hole," Drumheller became "the wonder town of the west!" and "the fastest growing town in Canada, if not in North America!"
Sub bituminous coal is ideal for heating homes and cooking food. People all over western Canada heated their homes, schools, and offices with Drumheller coal. Long, cold winters were good for Drumheller, because everyone needed lots of coal. In these years, miners had of money in their pockets. Short, mild winters were difficult. A miner might only work one day a week, and get laid off in early spring. He got through the summer by growing a big garden, catching fish, and working for farmers.
Between 1911 and 1979, 139 mines were registered in the Drumheller valley. Some mines didn't last long, but 34 were productive for many years. Between 1912 and 1966, Drumheller produced 56,864,808 tons of coal, making it one of the major coal producing regions in Canada.
The beginning of the end for Drumheller's mining industry was the Leduc Oil Strike of 1948. After this, natural gas became the fuel of choice for home heating in western Canada. To the mine operators, it seemed that people switched from messy coal stoves to clean gas furnaces as fast as they could. As the demand for coal dropped, mines closed. As mines closed, people moved away and communities suffered. Some communities, like Willow Creek, completely vanished. Others, like East Coulee, went from a boomtown of 3800 to a ghost town of 180. When the Atlas #4 Mine shipped its last load of coal in 1979, the coal years of Drumheller were over.
The Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site preserves the last of the Drumheller mines. The Atlas recalls the time when Coal was King, and "mining the black" brought thousands of people to this lonely valley. The nearby East Coulee School Museum interprets the life of children and families in a bustling mine town.
Here you can see the tipple and other mine buildings. The actual mine itself is about 2/3 of the way up the hill.
Location: Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site, East Coulee, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada
Copper was discovered at Kuridala in 1884 and the Hampden Mine commenced during the 1890s. A Melbourne syndicate took over operations in 1897 and with increasing development of the mine in 1905 - 1906 the Hampden Cloncurry Limited company was formed. The township was surveyed as Hampden in 1910 (later called Friezland, and finally Kuridala in 1916). The Hampden Smelter operated from 1911 to 1920 with World War I being a particularly prosperous time for the company. After the war, the operations and the township declined and the Hampden Cloncurry Limited company ceased to exist in 1928. Tribute mining and further exploration and testing of the ore body has continued from 1932 through to the present day.
The Kuridala Township and Hampden Smelter are located approximately 65km south of Cloncurry and 345m above sea level, on an open plain against a background of rugged but picturesque hills.
The Cloncurry copper fields were discovered by Ernest Henry in 1867 but lack of capital and transport combined with low base metal prices precluded any major development. However, rising prices, new discoveries in the region and the promise of a railway combined with an inflow of British capital stimulated development. Additionally, Melbourne based promoters eager to develop another base metal bonanza like Broken Hill led to a resurgence of interest, especially in the Hampden mines.
The copper deposits at Kuridala (initially named Hampden) were discovered by William McPhail and Robert Johnson on their pastoral lease, Eureka, in January 1884. The Hampden mine was held by Fred Gibson in the 1890s and acquired in 1897 by a Melbourne syndicate comprising the 'Broken Hillionaires' - William Orr, William Knox, and Herman Schlapp. They floated the Hampden Copper Mines N. L. with a capital of £100,000 in £100 shares of which 200 were fully paid up. With this capital, they commenced a prospecting and stockpiling program sending specimens to Dapto and Wallaroo for testing. Government Geologist, W.E. Cameron's report on the district in 1900 discouraged investors as he reported that few of the lodes, other than the Hampden Company's main lode at Kuridala, were worth working.
A world price rise in copper in 1905, combined with a government decision in 1906 to extend the Townsville railway from Richmond to Cloncurry, stimulated further development. The Hampden Cloncurry Copper Mines Limited was registered in Victoria in March 1906 to acquire the old company's mines. However, the company only had a working capital of £35,000 after distributing vendor's shares and buying the Duchess mines. During this period there were over 20 companies investing similarly on the Cloncurry field.
The township was surveyed by the Mines Department around 1910 and was first known as Hampden after the mines discovered in the 1880s. By 1912 it was called Friezland, however was officially renamed Kuridala in October 1916 to minimise confusion with another settlement in Queensland. The reason for this change was considered to be linked to German names being unpopular at the outbreak of World War I.
Hampden Cloncurry Copper Mines Limited and its competitor, Mount Elliott, formed a special company in 1908 to finance and construct the railway extension from Cloncurry through Malbon, to Kuridala, and Mount Elliott. The company reconstructed in July 1909 by increasing its capitalisation, and concluding arrangements for a debenture issue to be secured against its proposed smelters. Its smelters were not fired until March 1911 and over the next three years 85,266 tons of ore were treated with an initial dividend of £140,000 being declared in 1913. In one month in 1915 the Hampden Smelter produced 813 tons of copper, an Australian record at that time.
Concern over the dwindling reserves of high grade ore led to William Corbould, the general manager of Mount Elliott mines, negotiating an amalgamation with Hampden Cloncurry to halt the fierce rivalry. But the latter was uninterested having consolidated its prospects in 1911 by acquiring many promising mines in the region, and enlarging its smelters and erecting new converters. In 1913, following a fire in the Hampden Consol's mine, Corbould convinced his London directors to reopen negotiations for a joint venture in the northern section of the field which still awaited a railway. Although Corbould and Huntley, the Hampden Cloncurry general manager, inspected many properties, the proposal lapsed.
The railway reached the township by 1910. A sanitary system was installed in 1911, after a four month typhoid epidemic, and a hospital erected by 1913, run by Dr. Old. It was described as the best and most modern hospital in the northwest. At its height, the town supported six hotels, five stores, four billiard saloons, three dance halls, and a cinema, two ice works, and one aerated waters factory, and Chinese gardens along the creek. There were also drapers, fruiterer, butcher, baker, timber merchant, garage, four churches, police station, court house, post office, banks, and a school with up to 280 pupils. A cyclone in December 1918 damaged the town and wrecked part of the powerhouse and smelter.
A comprehensive description of the plant and operations of the Kuridala Hampden mines and smelters was given by the Cloncurry mining warden in the Queensland Government Mining Journal of the 14th of September 1912. Ore from other company-owned mines (Duchess, Happy Salmon, MacGregor, and Trekelano) was railed in via a 1.2km branch line to the reduction plant bins, while the heavy pyrites ore from the Hampden mines was separated at the main shaft into coarse and fine products and conveyed to separate 1,500 ton capacity bins over a standard gauge railway to the plant.
A central power plant was installed with three separate Dowson pressure gas plants powered by three tandem type Kynoch gas engines of 320hp and two duplex type Hornsby gas engines of 200hp. Two Swedish General Electric Company generators of 1,250kw and 56kw running at 460 volts, supplied electricity to the machines in the works, fitting shops and mine pumps. Electric light for the mine and works was supplied by a British Thompson-Houston generator of 42kw, running at 420 volts. The fuel used in the gas producers was bituminous coal, coke or charcoal, made locally in the retorts.
The reduction plant consisted of two water-jacket furnaces, 2.1m by 1m and 4.2m by 1m, with dust chambers and a 52m high steel stack. There were two electrically driven converter vessels, each 3.2m by 2.3m. The molten product ran into a 3.7m diameter forehearth, while the slag was drawn off into double ton slag pots, run to the dump over 3 foot gauge, 42lb steel rail tracks. The copper was delivered from the forehearth to the converters. A 1.06m gauge track ran under the converters and carried the copper mould cars to the cleaning and shipping shed, at the end of which was the siding for railing out the cakes of blister copper.
The war conferred four years of prosperity on the Cloncurry district despite marketing, transport, and labour difficulties. The Hampden Cloncurry Company declared liberal dividends during 1915 - 1918: £40,000, £140,000, £52,500 and £35,000 making a total disbursement since commencing operations of £437,500. Its smelters treated over a quarter of a million tons of ore in this period, averaging over 70,000 tons annually. The company built light railways to its mines (e.g. Wee MacGregor and Trekelano) to ensure regular ore supplies and to reduce transport costs. In order to improve its ore treatment, Hampden Cloncurry installed a concentration plant in 1917. In 1918 an Edwards furnace was erected to pre-roast fine sulphide concentrates from the mill before smelting.
The dropping of the copper price control by the British government in 1918 forced the company into difficulties. Smelting was postponed until September 1919 and the company lost heavily during the next season and had to rely on ores from the Trekelano mine. Its smelter treated 69,598 tons of ore in 1920, but the company was forced to halt all operations after the Commonwealth Bank withdrew funds on copper awaiting export.
Companies and mines turned to the Theodore Labor Government for assistance but they were unsympathetic to the companies, even though they alone had the capacity to revive the Cloncurry field. More negotiations for amalgamation occurred in 1925 but failed, and in 1926 Hampden Cloncurry offered its assets for sale by tender and Mount Elliott acquired them all except for the Trekelano mine. The company was de-listed in 1928.
The rise and decline of the township reflected the company's fortunes. In 1913 there were 1,500 people increasing to 2,000 by 1920, but by 1924 this had declined to 800. With the rise of Mount Isa, Kaiser's bakehouse, the hospital, courthouse, one ice works, and a picture theatre, moved there in 1923 followed by Boyds' Hampden Hotel (renamed the Argent) in 1924. Other buildings including the police residence and Clerk of Petty Sessions house were moved to Cloncurry.
In its nine years of smelting Hampden Cloncurry had been one of Australia's largest mining companies producing 50,800 tons of copper (compared with Mount Elliott's 27,000), 21,000 ounces of gold and 381,000 ounces of silver. A more permanent achievement was its part in creating the metal fabricating company, Metal Manufacturers Limited, of which it was one of the four founders in 1916. Much of the money which built their Port Kembla works into one of the country's largest manufacturers came from the now derelict smelters in north-west Queensland.
In 1942 Mount Isa Mines bought the Kuridala Smelters for £800 and used parts to construct a copper furnace which commenced operating in April 1943 in response to wartime demands. The Tunny family continued to live at Kuridala as tributers on the Hampden and Consol mines from 1932 until 1969 and worked the mines down to 15.25m. A post office operated until 1975 and the last inhabitant, Lizzy Belch, moved into Cloncurry about 1982.
Further exploration and testing of the Kuridala ore body has occurred from 1948 up until the present with activities being undertaking by Mount Isa Mines, Broken Hill South, Enterprise Exploration, Marshall and James Boyd, Australian Selection, Kennecott Exploration, Carpentaria Exploration, Metana Minerals, A.M. Metcalfe, Dampier Mining Co Ltd, Newmont Pty Ltd, Australian Anglo American, Era South Pacific Pty Ltd, CRA Exploration Pty Ltd, BHP Minerals Ltd, Metana Minerals and Matrix Metals Ltd.
Source: Queensland Heritage Register.
1923 ca Walter Okes at Okes Find Negri-Ord Junction - Crop
1923 ca "5-1/4 x 3-1/8 - Okes Find Negri Junction with Ord River Walter Okes sitting on Right"
[KHS - This should be standing not sitting]
A returned WWI soldier, stockman named Walter Okes, discovered a "bituminous substance" in the bed of the Ord River close to the Ord and Negri junction. Okes had taken up Ningbing Station in ca 1909 and had sold to Billy Weaber and Julius Prior circa 1910. It is reputed that "Okes Find" had been located by him before WWI, but it was not until after the war that Okes made his find public.
Elizabeth Durack personal photographic collection courtesy of the Clancy and Durack families.
KHS Archive Number: KHS-2011-11-PD-23
Digitised and documented by KHS Volunteers and with a grant from the Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley in 2011.
For further information about Elizabeth Durack's life and her art see www.elizabethdurack.com/
Wath upon Dearne is a town south of the River Dearne in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, 5 miles (8 km) north of Rotherham and almost midway between Barnsley and Doncaster. It had a population of 11,816 at the 2011 census. It is twinned with Saint-Jean-de-Bournay in France.
Wath can be traced to Norman times. It appears in the 1086 Domesday Book as Wad and Waith. It remained for some centuries a rural settlement astride the junction of the old Doncaster–Barnsley and Rotherham–Pontefract roads, the latter a branch of Ryknield Street. North of the town was a ford across the River Dearne. The name has been linked to the Latin vadum and the Old Norse vath (ford or wading place). The town received a Royal Charter in 1312–1313 entitling it to a weekly Tuesday market and an annual two-day fair, but these were soon discontinued. The market was revived in 1814.
Until local government reorganization in 1974, Wath was in the historic county of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Until the mid-19th century, the town had a racecourse of regional importance, linked to the estate at nearby Wentworth. This fell into disuse, but traces of it can be seen between Wath and Swinton and it is remembered in street names. There was a pottery at Newhill, close to deposits of clay, but it was overshadowed by the nearby Rockingham Pottery in Swinton. About the turn of the 19th century, the poet and newspaper editor James Montgomery, resident at the time, called it "the Queen of Villages". This rural character changed rapidly in the 19th and 20th centuries, as coal mining developed.
The town lies over the South Yorkshire coalfield, where high-quality bituminous coal was dug from outcrops and near-surface seams in primitive bell pits for several centuries. Several high-grade seams are close to the surface, including the prolific Barnsley and Parkgate. The rising demand for coal arose from rapid local industrialization in the 19th and early 20th century. The population swelled, and local infrastructure developed round the coalmining, but this reliance on one industry led to future problems.
The Dearne and Dove Canal opened in stages from 1798 to 1804 to access the collieries on the south side of the Dearne Valley. It passed through the town on an embankment just north of the High Street and then turned north into the valley. This wide section was known locally as the "Bay of Biscay". The canal closed in 1961 after many years of disuse and poor repair. Much of the canal line has since been used for roads, one of them called Biscay Way.
By the 20th century, heavy industry was evident, with many large collieries – Wath Main and Manvers Main were the two usually mentioned. After the Second World War, the collieries clustered around Manvers developed into a complex, also covering coal preparation, coal products and a coking plant, which was not only visible, but polluted the air for miles around.
Rail took over coal transportation from the canal. Wath upon Dearne became a rail-freight centre of national importance. Wath marshalling yard, built north of the town in 1907, was one of the biggest and for its time one of the most modern railway marshalling yards in the country, as one of the eastern ends of the trans-Pennine Manchester–Sheffield–Wath electrified railway (also known as the Woodhead Line), a project that spanned the Second World War and partly responded to the need to move large amounts of Wath coal to customers in North-West England.
Wath once had three railway stations: Wath Central in Moor Road, Wath (Hull and Barnsley) and Wath North both in Station Road. Wath North, the most distant, was the last to close in 1968, under the Beeching Axe. There has been talk of opening a station on the Sheffield–Wakefield–Leeds line at Manvers, roughly a mile from the town centre.
The local coal industry succumbed to a dramatic decline in the British coal-mining industry precipitated by a change in government economic policy in the early 1980s. This had knock-on effects on many subsidiary local industries and caused local hardship.
The 1985 miners' strike was sparked by the impending closure of Cortonwood Colliery in Brampton Bierlow, a neighbouring village often seen as part of Wath. Along with the whole of the Dearne Valley, Wath was classified as an impoverished area and received public money, including European funds. These were put to regenerating the area from the mid-1990s onwards, causing a degree of economic revival. It made the area more rural, as much land to the north of the town once used by collieries and marshalling yards was returned to scrubland and countryside, dotted with light industrial and commercial office parks. This regeneration of what was still classified as brownfield land has involved building it over with industrial and commercial parks. Large housing developments have also been started.
Wath upon Dearne centres on Montgomery Square, with the town's main shops, the library and the bus station. To its west is the substantial Norman All Saints Church, on a small leafy green, with Wath Hall, the Montgomery Hall and a campus of the Dearne Valley College. The several town-centre pubs include a branch of Wetherspoons and Wath Tap, Rotherham's first micro-pub specialising in locally brewed real ale. From 1892 to 1974 Wath Hall served as the local seat of government for Wath upon Dearne.
Today Wath is still emerging from the coal-industry collapse, although jobs and some low-level affluences have returned. After a hiatus between the clearing of former colliery land and recent redevelopment, when the area felt rather rural, the construction of large distribution centres to the north of the town is restoring an industrial feel, but without the pollution issues of coal. Several distribution warehouses for the clothing chain Next have opened. Much new housing is being built on reclaimed land.
Wath Festival, held round the Early May Bank Holiday, is a folk and acoustic music and arts festival founded by members of the Wath Morris Dancing Team in 1972. It has grown to host known names on the folk, acoustic and world music scene. While festival events occur across the town, most larger concerts are held at the Montgomery Hall Theatre and Community Venue. Those appearing have included Dougie MacLean, Fairport Convention, Martin Simpson, John Tams, Frances Black, John McCusker, Stacey Earle and Eddi Reader.
The festival marked its 40th anniversary in 2012. Wath won Village Festival of the Year in the 2013 FATEA Awards.[11] The festival has been a supporter of young artists such as Lucy Ward, and Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar. It has also hosted the Wath Festival Young Performers' Award, founded by the Sheffield-based musician Charlie Barker in 2011, who handed it over to a festival committee in 2014. Winners have included Luke Hirst & Sarah Smout, Sunjay, Rose Redd and Hannah Cumming.
The event includes dancing by local morris and sword-dancing groups, street performances, workshops, children's events and a Saturday morning parade from Montgomery Hall through Montgomery Square and back to St James's Church, for a traditional throwing of bread buns from the parish church tower. Local schools, organisations and local Labour MP John Healey have joined in festival activities.
The RSPB's Old Moor nature reserve lies a mile to the north-west of the town. It occupies a "flash", where mining-induced subsidence of land close to a river has created wetlands.
Wath Athletic F.C. served the community from the 1880s to the Second World War, playing in the Midland League and reaching the 1st Round of the FA Cup in 1926. No senior team has represented the settlement since the 1950s, and Wath remains one of the largest places in Yorkshire without one. However, it has a Rugby Union team that plays in the Yorkshire Division 2.
Copper was discovered at Kuridala in 1884 and the Hampden Mine commenced during the 1890s. A Melbourne syndicate took over operations in 1897 and with increasing development of the mine in 1905 - 1906 the Hampden Cloncurry Limited company was formed. The township was surveyed as Hampden in 1910 (later called Friezland, and finally Kuridala in 1916). The Hampden Smelter operated from 1911 to 1920 with World War I being a particularly prosperous time for the company. After the war, the operations and the township declined and the Hampden Cloncurry Limited company ceased to exist in 1928. Tribute mining and further exploration and testing of the ore body has continued from 1932 through to the present day.
The Kuridala Township and Hampden Smelter are located approximately 65km south of Cloncurry and 345m above sea level, on an open plain against a background of rugged but picturesque hills.
The Cloncurry copper fields were discovered by Ernest Henry in 1867 but lack of capital and transport combined with low base metal prices precluded any major development. However, rising prices, new discoveries in the region and the promise of a railway combined with an inflow of British capital stimulated development. Additionally, Melbourne based promoters eager to develop another base metal bonanza like Broken Hill led to a resurgence of interest, especially in the Hampden mines.
The copper deposits at Kuridala (initially named Hampden) were discovered by William McPhail and Robert Johnson on their pastoral lease, Eureka, in January 1884. The Hampden mine was held by Fred Gibson in the 1890s and acquired in 1897 by a Melbourne syndicate comprising the 'Broken Hillionaires' - William Orr, William Knox, and Herman Schlapp. They floated the Hampden Copper Mines N. L. with a capital of £100,000 in £100 shares of which 200 were fully paid up. With this capital, they commenced a prospecting and stockpiling program sending specimens to Dapto and Wallaroo for testing. Government Geologist, W.E. Cameron's report on the district in 1900 discouraged investors as he reported that few of the lodes, other than the Hampden Company's main lode at Kuridala, were worth working.
A world price rise in copper in 1905, combined with a government decision in 1906 to extend the Townsville railway from Richmond to Cloncurry, stimulated further development. The Hampden Cloncurry Copper Mines Limited was registered in Victoria in March 1906 to acquire the old company's mines. However, the company only had a working capital of £35,000 after distributing vendor's shares and buying the Duchess mines. During this period there were over 20 companies investing similarly on the Cloncurry field.
The township was surveyed by the Mines Department around 1910 and was first known as Hampden after the mines discovered in the 1880s. By 1912 it was called Friezland, however was officially renamed Kuridala in October 1916 to minimise confusion with another settlement in Queensland. The reason for this change was considered to be linked to German names being unpopular at the outbreak of World War I.
Hampden Cloncurry Copper Mines Limited and its competitor, Mount Elliott, formed a special company in 1908 to finance and construct the railway extension from Cloncurry through Malbon, to Kuridala, and Mount Elliott. The company reconstructed in July 1909 by increasing its capitalisation, and concluding arrangements for a debenture issue to be secured against its proposed smelters. Its smelters were not fired until March 1911 and over the next three years 85,266 tons of ore were treated with an initial dividend of £140,000 being declared in 1913. In one month in 1915 the Hampden Smelter produced 813 tons of copper, an Australian record at that time.
Concern over the dwindling reserves of high grade ore led to William Corbould, the general manager of Mount Elliott mines, negotiating an amalgamation with Hampden Cloncurry to halt the fierce rivalry. But the latter was uninterested having consolidated its prospects in 1911 by acquiring many promising mines in the region, and enlarging its smelters and erecting new converters. In 1913, following a fire in the Hampden Consol's mine, Corbould convinced his London directors to reopen negotiations for a joint venture in the northern section of the field which still awaited a railway. Although Corbould and Huntley, the Hampden Cloncurry general manager, inspected many properties, the proposal lapsed.
The railway reached the township by 1910. A sanitary system was installed in 1911, after a four month typhoid epidemic, and a hospital erected by 1913, run by Dr. Old. It was described as the best and most modern hospital in the northwest. At its height, the town supported six hotels, five stores, four billiard saloons, three dance halls, and a cinema, two ice works, and one aerated waters factory, and Chinese gardens along the creek. There were also drapers, fruiterer, butcher, baker, timber merchant, garage, four churches, police station, court house, post office, banks, and a school with up to 280 pupils. A cyclone in December 1918 damaged the town and wrecked part of the powerhouse and smelter.
A comprehensive description of the plant and operations of the Kuridala Hampden mines and smelters was given by the Cloncurry mining warden in the Queensland Government Mining Journal of the 14th of September 1912. Ore from other company-owned mines (Duchess, Happy Salmon, MacGregor, and Trekelano) was railed in via a 1.2km branch line to the reduction plant bins, while the heavy pyrites ore from the Hampden mines was separated at the main shaft into coarse and fine products and conveyed to separate 1,500 ton capacity bins over a standard gauge railway to the plant.
A central power plant was installed with three separate Dowson pressure gas plants powered by three tandem type Kynoch gas engines of 320hp and two duplex type Hornsby gas engines of 200hp. Two Swedish General Electric Company generators of 1,250kw and 56kw running at 460 volts, supplied electricity to the machines in the works, fitting shops and mine pumps. Electric light for the mine and works was supplied by a British Thompson-Houston generator of 42kw, running at 420 volts. The fuel used in the gas producers was bituminous coal, coke or charcoal, made locally in the retorts.
The reduction plant consisted of two water-jacket furnaces, 2.1m by 1m and 4.2m by 1m, with dust chambers and a 52m high steel stack. There were two electrically driven converter vessels, each 3.2m by 2.3m. The molten product ran into a 3.7m diameter forehearth, while the slag was drawn off into double ton slag pots, run to the dump over 3 foot gauge, 42lb steel rail tracks. The copper was delivered from the forehearth to the converters. A 1.06m gauge track ran under the converters and carried the copper mould cars to the cleaning and shipping shed, at the end of which was the siding for railing out the cakes of blister copper.
The war conferred four years of prosperity on the Cloncurry district despite marketing, transport, and labour difficulties. The Hampden Cloncurry Company declared liberal dividends during 1915 - 1918: £40,000, £140,000, £52,500 and £35,000 making a total disbursement since commencing operations of £437,500. Its smelters treated over a quarter of a million tons of ore in this period, averaging over 70,000 tons annually. The company built light railways to its mines (e.g. Wee MacGregor and Trekelano) to ensure regular ore supplies and to reduce transport costs. In order to improve its ore treatment, Hampden Cloncurry installed a concentration plant in 1917. In 1918 an Edwards furnace was erected to pre-roast fine sulphide concentrates from the mill before smelting.
The dropping of the copper price control by the British government in 1918 forced the company into difficulties. Smelting was postponed until September 1919 and the company lost heavily during the next season and had to rely on ores from the Trekelano mine. Its smelter treated 69,598 tons of ore in 1920, but the company was forced to halt all operations after the Commonwealth Bank withdrew funds on copper awaiting export.
Companies and mines turned to the Theodore Labor Government for assistance but they were unsympathetic to the companies, even though they alone had the capacity to revive the Cloncurry field. More negotiations for amalgamation occurred in 1925 but failed, and in 1926 Hampden Cloncurry offered its assets for sale by tender and Mount Elliott acquired them all except for the Trekelano mine. The company was de-listed in 1928.
The rise and decline of the township reflected the company's fortunes. In 1913 there were 1,500 people increasing to 2,000 by 1920, but by 1924 this had declined to 800. With the rise of Mount Isa, Kaiser's bakehouse, the hospital, courthouse, one ice works, and a picture theatre, moved there in 1923 followed by Boyds' Hampden Hotel (renamed the Argent) in 1924. Other buildings including the police residence and Clerk of Petty Sessions house were moved to Cloncurry.
In its nine years of smelting Hampden Cloncurry had been one of Australia's largest mining companies producing 50,800 tons of copper (compared with Mount Elliott's 27,000), 21,000 ounces of gold and 381,000 ounces of silver. A more permanent achievement was its part in creating the metal fabricating company, Metal Manufacturers Limited, of which it was one of the four founders in 1916. Much of the money which built their Port Kembla works into one of the country's largest manufacturers came from the now derelict smelters in north-west Queensland.
In 1942 Mount Isa Mines bought the Kuridala Smelters for £800 and used parts to construct a copper furnace which commenced operating in April 1943 in response to wartime demands. The Tunny family continued to live at Kuridala as tributers on the Hampden and Consol mines from 1932 until 1969 and worked the mines down to 15.25m. A post office operated until 1975 and the last inhabitant, Lizzy Belch, moved into Cloncurry about 1982.
Further exploration and testing of the Kuridala ore body has occurred from 1948 up until the present with activities being undertaking by Mount Isa Mines, Broken Hill South, Enterprise Exploration, Marshall and James Boyd, Australian Selection, Kennecott Exploration, Carpentaria Exploration, Metana Minerals, A.M. Metcalfe, Dampier Mining Co Ltd, Newmont Pty Ltd, Australian Anglo American, Era South Pacific Pty Ltd, CRA Exploration Pty Ltd, BHP Minerals Ltd, Metana Minerals and Matrix Metals Ltd.
Source: Queensland Heritage Register.
Interior portion of a metal door-frame showing a thin spray-applied asbestos coating, which has partially delaminated revealing shiny steel surface even after 40+ years installation.
Product Feature
*ADVANTAGES OVER MANUAL SYSTEM*
Decrease in manpower:
By keeping only three labours, you can do weighing, bagging/batching and stitching with accuracy level of plus or minus 0.05%, bagging/batching rate of up to 500-600 bags/batches per hour. (Bagging/Batching rate depends upon the efficiency of the labour)
Fully automated line:
By installing this bin system in your concern, you can convert your weighing, bagging/batching, stitching and conveying up to your godowns or storage places all in one line.
Reduced in wastages:
By doing your bagging/batching in automatic manner, you can reduce the spillage wastages as well as leakage wastages because of using hooks and you keep your bagging/batching house/station neat and clean.
Computer & Printer Connectivity:
Computer & Printer Connectivity for Reporting & feedback function.
Product Specification/Models
This System is capable of Weighing/Batching/Bagging of any Bulk, Powder & Liquid Materials from 10kg to 1000kg.
There are different models depending upon particular application e.g. one of model is suitable for weighing from 10 to 100kg. Other model is suitable for more 100kg weighing i.e. Jumbo Weiging/Bagging.
There can following types:
1) Net type
2) Gross type
3) Batch type
4) Continuous type
Application
This system is applicable to All the industrial sectors where Weighing/Bagging/Batching of materials is carried out.
Other Information
*Materials Handled*
Depending upon Bulk material characteristics
Size
Very fine – 100 mesh & under
Fine 3mm & under
Granular – 12 mm & under
Lumpy containing lumps over 12 mm
Irregular – being fibrous, stringy or the like
Flowability
Very free flowing
Free flowing
Sluggish
Abrasiveness
Non-abrasive
Mildly abrasive
Very abrasive
Other Characteristics
Contaminable, affecting use or saleability
Hygroscopic
Highly corrosive
Mildly corrosive
Gives off dust or fumes harmful to life
Contains explosive dust
Degradiable, affecting use of saleability
Very light & fluffy
Interlocks or mats to resist digging
Aerates & fluidized
Packs under pressure
Liquids – Viscous, Non-viscous
*Here is list of some of the Bulk materials which we can handled & stored by using our 'Bulk Handling & Storage System' are as per given below:*
SN BULK MATERIAL
1 Sugar
43 Lime, agricultural, 3mm & under
2 De-oiled rice bran
44 Lime pebble
3 Ammonium chloride, crystalline
45 Limestone, crushed
4 Ammonium nitrate
46 Limestone dust
5 Ammonium sulphate 47 Phosphate, rock
6 Ashes, coal, dry, 12mm & under
48 Phosphate sand
7 Ashes, coal, dry, 75mm & under
49 Phosphate, rock, pulverized
8 Ashes, coal, wet, 12mm & under
50 Potassium chloride, pellets
9 Ashes, coal, wet, 75mm & under
51 Potassium carbonate
10 Asphalt, crushed, 12mm & under
52 Potassium nitrate
11 Bauxite, Benzine hexachloride
53 Potassium sulphate
12 Bicarbonate of soda
54 Pyrites, pellets
13 Bagasse
55 Salt, common, dry course
14 Calcium carbide
56 Salt cake, dry, coarse
15 Carbon black, pelletized
57 Salt, common, dry fine
16 Carbon black powder
58 Salt cake, dry, pulverized
17 Cinders, coal
59 Sand, bank, dry
18 Cinders, blast furnace
60 Sand, bank, dump
19 Coal, anthracite
61 Sand, silica, dry
20 Coal, pulverized
62 Silica gel,
21 Coal powdered
63 Soda ash, heavy
22 Coal, bituminous, mined, slack 12mm & under
64 Soda ash, light
23 Coal, bituminous, mined, run of mine
65 Sodium nitrate granular, Sodium Silicate
24 Coal, bituminous, mined, sized
66 Sulphur crushed, 12mm & under
25 Coal, bituminous, stripping, not cleaned
67 Sulphur, 76mm & under
26 Coal char
68 Sulphur, powdered
27 Coke loose
69 Trisodium phosphate
28 Coke breeze
70 Triple superphosphate
29 Cement
71 Fertilizer, Urea, prills
30 Cement clinker
72 Ammonium nitrate, prills
31 Copper sulphate, ground
73 Calcium, ammonium nitrate
32 Dicalcium phosphate
74 Diammonium phosphate
33 Disodium phosphate
75 Nitrophosphate (suphala)
34 Ferrous sulphate
76 Double salt (ammonium sulphate nitrate)
35 Flue dust, boiler house, dry
77 Single superphosphate (S.S.P.), granulated
36 Fly ash, pulverized
78 Barley
37 Gypsum, calcined, 12mm & under
79 Wheat
38 Gypsum, calcined, powdered
80 Rice
39 Gypsum, raw, 25mm & under
81 Paddy
40 Lime, ground, 3mm & under
82 Maize
41 Lime, hydrated, 3mm & under
83 Corn
42 Lime, hydrated, pulverized
84 Wheat flour
& many more...
Coal was not hard to discover in the area that is now Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. Seams of coal show up as black stripes in the badlands of the Red Deer River Valley.
The Blackfoot and Cree knew about the black rock that burned, but they didn't like to use it. Later, three white explorers reported coal in the area: Peter Fidler in 1792, Dr. James Hector of the Palliser Expedition in 1857, and Joseph Tyrrell in 1884.
In the years that followed, a handful of ranchers and homesteaders dug coal out of river banks and coulees to heat their homes. However, the first commercial coal mine did not open until Sam Drumheller started the coal rush in the area that now bears his name.
The rush started when Sam bought land off a local rancher named Thomas Greentree. Sam turned around and sold this land to Canadian National Railway, to develop a townsite. Sam also registered a coal mine. Before his mine opened, however, Jesse Gouge and Garnet Coyle beat him to it, and opened the Newcastle Mine. CN laid tracks into town, and the first load of coal was shipped out of Drumheller in 1911.
Once the railway was built, people poured in. Hundreds, then thousands, of people came to dig coal. The greatest numbers came from Eastern Europe, Britain, and Nova Scotia. More mines opened. By the end of 1912, there were 9 working coal mines, each with its own camp of workers: Newcastle, Drumheller, Midland, Rosedale, and Wayne. In the years that followed, more mines and camps sprang up: Nacmine, Cambria, Willow Creek, Lehigh, and East Coulee.
Coal mining was hard, dirty, dangerous work. Mining in the Drumheller Valley, however, was less hard, dirty, and dangerous than it was in many other coal mining regions in Canada. This was due to both lucky geology and lucky timing.
The geology of the Drumheller coal field results in flat lying seams, which are much safer to mine than the steeply pitching seams of the mountain mines. In addition, the coal produced in Drumheller is sub-bituminous. This grade of coal is "immature" which means it hasn't had time to build up a strong concentration of gas. Methane gas is the biggest killer in coal mines around the world.
The timing of the Drumheller mine industry was lucky, too. By the time the Newcastle opened in 1911, the right to better working conditions had been fought for and won by miners' unions in North America. As a result, miners were provided with wash houses, better underground ventilation, and higher safety standards. When the Newcastle opened, there were laws in place to prohibit child labour, so boys under 14 were no longer allowed underground. The worst of the worst coal mining days were over, at least in North America.
Nevertheless, early mine camps around Drumheller were called "hell's hole" because miners lived in tents, or shacks, with little sanitation and little comfort. It was a man's world, with drinking, gambling, and watching fistfights common forms of recreation. As shacks gave way to little houses, and women joined the men and started families, life improved. Hockey, baseball, music, theatre, and visiting friends enriched peoples' lives. Going downtown Saturday night was a huge event, with every language in Europe spoken by the crowds spilling off the sidewalks. No longer "hell's hole," Drumheller became "the wonder town of the west!" and "the fastest growing town in Canada, if not in North America!"
Sub bituminous coal is ideal for heating homes and cooking food. People all over western Canada heated their homes, schools, and offices with Drumheller coal. Long, cold winters were good for Drumheller, because everyone needed lots of coal. In these years, miners had of money in their pockets. Short, mild winters were difficult. A miner might only work one day a week, and get laid off in early spring. He got through the summer by growing a big garden, catching fish, and working for farmers.
Between 1911 and 1979, 139 mines were registered in the Drumheller valley. Some mines didn't last long, but 34 were productive for many years. Between 1912 and 1966, Drumheller produced 56,864,808 tons of coal, making it one of the major coal producing regions in Canada.
The beginning of the end for Drumheller's mining industry was the Leduc Oil Strike of 1948. After this, natural gas became the fuel of choice for home heating in western Canada. To the mine operators, it seemed that people switched from messy coal stoves to clean gas furnaces as fast as they could. As the demand for coal dropped, mines closed. As mines closed, people moved away and communities suffered. Some communities, like Willow Creek, completely vanished. Others, like East Coulee, went from a boomtown of 3800 to a ghost town of 180. When the Atlas #4 Mine shipped its last load of coal in 1979, the coal years of Drumheller were over.
The Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site preserves the last of the Drumheller mines. The Atlas recalls the time when Coal was King, and "mining the black" brought thousands of people to this lonely valley. The nearby East Coulee School Museum interprets the life of children and families in a bustling mine town.
This panorama was stitched from four RAW images with PTGUI Pro and touched up in Aperture.
Original size: 9442 × 5668 (53.5 MP; 71 MB).
Location: Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site, East Coulee, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada
Crews worked on SR 530 for three days - Thursday, July 26, Friday, July 27 and Monday, July 30 2018 applying a oil and gravel surface - bituminous surface treatment - to a 10 mile stretch between the Stillaguamish River Bridge and milepost 32.57 near Oso. Following application of the gravel, equipment rolled the area with large rubber tires and sweeping happened overnight to pick up loose material.
Wow - Railroad Roman ID on this was very surprising! MILW, CNW and SP were among the roads with equipment wearing classy serifed reporting marks.
America's huge coal reserves are principally used to generate electricity at coal-burning power plants. The example seen here is the Wyodak Power Plant in Wyoming. A large coal mine is adjacent to the power plant. At the mine, a very thick coal horizon called the Wyodak Coal is extracted. Coal gets sent straight this power plant and is also shipped to other power plants via train.
The Wyodak Coal is a sub-bituminous coal interval in the Fort Union Formation (Upper Paleocene).
Locality: Wyodak Power Plant, southern side of Interstate 90, east of Gillette, Powder River Basin, northeastern Wyoming, USA
(public display, Geology Department, Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio, USA)
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Peat is a biogenic sedimentary deposit consisting of slightly compacted terrestrial plant debris. Peat is the precursor to coal. Compaction, heating, and diagenetic alteration of peat leads to the formation of lignite coal. Further compaction and heating results in sub-bituminous coal, bituminous coal, semi-anthracite coal, and anthracite coal. Peat deposits are geologically quite young and have not undergone any significant burial or diagenesis. Peats form in stagnant, swampy environments. Plant fragments in peats are easily visible to the naked eye.
Peats are brown to dark brown in color, easily broken, and extremely lightweight, especially when dried out. They have relatively low carbon contents compared with coals, but they will burn in a fire. Peat is used as a source of fuel in some parts of the world, but burning peat releases a fair amount of particulate pollutants (it’s a dirty fuel).
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From exhibit signage:
Origin of Coal
Coal is formed from accumulated vegetation that grew in peat-forming swamps on broad lowlands that were near sea level. Cyclothems indicate that the land must have been at a "critical level" since the change from marine to non-marine sediments shows that the seas periodically encroached upon the land.
Formation of Coal
The change from plant debris to coal involves biochemical action producing partial decay, preserval of this material from further decay, and later dynamochemical processes. The biochemical changes involve attack by bacteria which liberate volatile constituents, and the preserval of the residual waxes and resins in the bottom of the swamps where the water is too toxic for the decay-promoting bacteria to live. The accumulated material forms "peat bogs". The dynamochemical process involves further chemical reactions produced by the increased pressure and temperature brought about by the weight of sediment that is deposited on top of it. These reactions are also ones in which the volatile constituents are driven off.
Rank of Coal
The different types of coal are commonly referred to in terms of rank. From lowest upward, they are peat (actually not a coal), lignite, bituminous, and anthracite. The rank of the coal is the result of the different amounts of pressure and time involved in producing the coal.
Peat
Peat is not coal even though it is used for fuel, especially in foreign countries where coal is scarce and expensive. Its major use in this country is for mulching etc. in nurseries.
It is an accumulation of partly decomposed vegetable matter that represents the first stage of coal formation.
and
Peat is found in peat bogs in the lake country of the northern United States and Canada.
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Coke is the residue from bituminous coal that has been baked in airless ovens. Coke is used as a fuel in the smelting of iron ore in blast furnaces. Cokedale, eight miles west of Trinidad on the Highway of Legends, was a thriving coal mining town until the 1940s. The Cokedale Historic District is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
On Monday, Aug. 13, 2018 WSDOT contractor crews from Granite Construction added a preservation surface of hot oil and gravel to SR 542/Mount Baker Highway near Artist Point gate and Mount Baker Ski Area. Crews are putting this preservation surface over the road following pavement repair earlier this year. Crews will come back in a couple of weeks to add a sealant coat to this new surface. People riding bicycles should consider alternate rides through Sunday, Aug. 19 due to loose gravel through this area.
IMHO even more impressive than the info that follows is the fact I got a shot of it with no humans in front of it. Read on.
The 999 Steam Locomotive was a new concept in speed locomotives. Engine 999 was assigned to hail the New York Central Railroad's brilliant new passenger train, the Empire State Express. On May 10, 1893, the 999 became the fastest land vehicle when it reached a record speed of 112.5 mph. The 999 maintained the record for a decade.
Designed by William Buchanan and manufactured by the New York Central Railroad in West Albany, New York in 1893, the 999 was commissioned to haul the Empire State Express, which ran from Syracuse to Buffalo. This relatively smooth run and the 999's cutting-edge design gave the new locomotive an opportunity to make history.
Following its record-setting run, "The World's Fastest Locomotive" toured the country and was displayed at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. After the Exposition, the 999 continued to provide passenger and freight service for many years. The famous locomotive returned to Chicago in 1933 for the A Century of Progress World's Fair and again from 1948-49 for the Chicago Railroad Fair.
Eventually, technological innovation in the railroad industry limited the 999's use. In May of 1952, following a reenactment of its record-breaking run, the 999 was retired from service.
In 1962, the Museum of Science and Industry acquired the 999 and displayed it outside. Following a complete restoration from June to October 1993, the 999 was brought inside to its present location in November 1993.
Technical Facts
Fuel: Bituminous Coal
Cylinders: 2 horizontal
Bore: 19"
Stroke: 24"
Steam Pressure: 160 lbs per square inch
Tractive Effort: 16,270 lbs
Drive Wheels: 7'2" diameter
Maximum Speed: 112.5 mph
Total Weight: 124,000 lbs
Original Cost: $13,000
Texas & Pacific Coal Company, +Later Known as+ Texas Pacific Oil & Coal Company Smokestack, located in Thurber Texas. No longer in use.
Thurber Texas is located about 75 miles west of Fort Worth Texas. The population today is approximately 25, altho one website states the population to be 5 persons..
*The Following info is from Wikipedia & Handbook of Texas Online....
*Coal-mining operations began in Thurber in 1886 and reached a peak around 1920, when the town had a population of approximately 8,000 to 10,000, from more than a dozen nationalities, though Italians, Poles, and Mexicans predominated. At the peak, Thurber was one of the largest bituminous coal-mining towns in Texas. Established as a company town, the mining operations in Thurber were unionized in 1903 and Thurber became the first totally closed shop town in the country. The company that owned the town, the Texas and Pacific Coal Company, also produced vitrified paving bricks that were used throughout Texas and the southern half of the United States. By 1920, conversion of locomotives from coal to oil reduced demand and lowered prices and miners left the area through the 1920s. By 1935, in the midst of the Great Depression, Thurber was essentially a ghost town.*
The Smokestack Restaurant is Open! Visit them on their website at:. www.smokestack.net/ ..
The Town was named for H.K. Thurber, a Friend of T&P Coal Company founders. The 128 foot tall Smokestack was built in/around 1908 as noted at the top of the stack.. (This can be seen in this photo as a "close-up")..
Photo Taken: March 18 2011
Photo Taken By: Randy A. Carlisle
ALL Photos (Unless otherwise stated) Copyright RAC Photography
"Preserving AMERICAs History Thru Photography"
***NO Photos are to be posted on ANY other website, or any kind of publication Without MY Permission. No Exceptions! They are not to be "Lifted", Borrowed, reprinted, or by any other means other than viewing here on Flickr. If you want to use a photo of mine for anything, please email First. I'll assist you any way I can. Thank You for your understanding. ALL Photos are For Sale.***
Transactions of the Geological Society of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia :James Kay, Jun. & Brother ;1834-1835.
Coal is a carbon-rich, biogenic sedimentary rock. Many coal ranks exist, such as lignite coal, sub-bituminous coal, and bituminous coal. Other varieties include cannel coal, canneloid coal, bone coal, and stone coal. Seen here is anthracite coal, which is a metamorphic variety, the result of very low grade metamorphism ("anchimetamorphism") of ordinary coal. The iridescent coating makes the coal quite colorful, resulting in the term "peacock coal". I have yet to see specific, convincing information about the identity of iridescent coatings on peacock coal, but I strongly suspect it's turgite (= hydrous iron oxide).
Provenance: unrecorded/undisclosed (purchased from a gift shop at the Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine in Ashland, Pennsylvania, USA)
Transactions of the Geological Society of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia :James Kay, Jun. & Brother ;1834-1835.
Woodlawn Cemetery Company 335 Maple Ave Fairmont, WV 26554
Woodlawn Cemetery, located in Fairmont, West Virginia is an example of the rural cemetery. It was laid out by Tell W. Nicolet of the firm of Morris and Knowles of Pittsburgh, PA. It is a National Historic District. Today, the cemetery covers 42 acres (170,000 m2) and has over 15,000 burials.
The cemetery was established in the early Spring of 1875. Joseph R. Hamilton was climbing the fence between his father's farm and that of Norval Barns. The loaded rifle he was carrying accidentally discharged, killing him. His father's decision to "bury him where he lay" led to the families establishing a small burying ground. They opened the fence line between their properties and enclosed about a quarter of an acre to use for family burials.
Ten years later, in December 1885, the Woodlawn Cemetery Company was incorporated and plots were offered for sale to the larger community. 5 acres (20,000 m2) were purchased from each of the land owners, Elmus Hamilton and Norval Barns. Many of the early leaders of the Fairmont community were laid to rest here. Among them is Francis Harrison Pierpont, the Governor of the Restored State of Virginia from 1861-1868, his wife Julia and three of their four children.
Boaz Fleming, the founder of Fairmont, is here with his wife, Elizabeth. Other members of his family are here as well, including Clarissa Fleming Hamilton, his grandson Elmus Hamilton,owner of the Hamilton farm, and great-grandson, Joseph R. Hamilton. Another descendant is Aretas B. Fleming, eighth governor of West Virginia. A lawyer, Mr. Fleming was among the men who created the Fairmont Development Company and worked to develop Fairmont, West Virginia.
James Otis Watson is considered the father of the bituminous coal industry in north central West Virginia. He and Pierpont owned the first coal mine to be commercially viable following the completion of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad linking Fairmont with the eastern seaboard markets. One of his daughters married Aretas B. Fleming. His sons, James Edwin Watson, Sylvanus Lamb Watson and Clarence Wayland Watson are also buried here.
Historical figures buried at Woodlawn
Times West Virginian
The following is a list of the historical figures buried at Woodlawn Cemetery and their contribution to the history of Fairmont, Marion County and West Virginia.
This list was compiled from the application made to the U.S. Department of the Interior in order for the cemetery to be considered for the National Register of Historic Places and does not reflect a complete list of all persons of note buried at the cemetery.
Francis H. Pierpont (1814-1899) — The “Father of West Virginia.” Pierpont was chosen as Provisional Governor of Restored Virginia in 1861 during a Union convention. He was later elected to that position from 1863-68 and was instrumental in the creation of the state of West Virginia in 1863.
Julia Augusta Robertson Pierpont (1828-1886) — The wife of Gov. Pierpont. She is credited by many historians as the founder of Decoration Day (Memorial Day) in 1866.
Boaz Fleming (1758-1830) — The founding father of Fairmont. He cleared a section of land he own and sold individual lots to create Fairmont, the county seat of Marion, which was created from pieces of Monongalia and Harrison counties.
James Otis Watson (1815-1902) — Father of the Coal Industry West of the Alleghenies. He opened his first mine in 1852 with his friend, Francis Pierpont. Later the Watson Coal Co. and Hutchinson Coal Co. combined to form the Consolidated Coal Co.
Clyde E. Hutchinson (1861-1926) — Founder of Hutchinson Coal Co., one of the predecessors of Consolidated Coal Co.
A. Brooks Fleming (1839-1923) — Governor of West Virginia from 1890-1893. He also served as county prosecuting attorney, the West Virginia House of Delegates and judge of the 2nd District Judicial Circuit.
Matthew Mansfield Neely (1874-1958) — Governor of West Virginia from 1940-44. Also served as mayor of Fairmont, delegate, congressman and U.S. senator.
The Rev. William Ryland White (1820-93) — The first state superintendent of West Virginia public schools from 1863-69, resigning to become president of the new Fairmont State Normal School (Fairmont State University).
Bernard Butcher (1853-1918) — Elected as state superintendent of schools in 1880 and was instrumental in legislation for the education of black teachers and the creation of Arbor Day. He also organized the Marion County Historical Society in 1908.
Thomas C. Miller (1844-1926) — Educator who also served as state superintendent of schools (1900-09), principal of West Virginia University (1893) and Shepherd Normal School.
Victims of Newburg Mine explosion — While they are not marked individually, six victims of the 1886 Preston County explosion are buried there under a single monument, including a father, son, three stepsons and another relative.
George Albert Dunnington (1858-1928) — Editor of the Fairmont Index.
Judge Harry Evans Watkins (1898-1963) — U.S. Federal District Judge Frank C. Haymond (1887-1972) — Longtime justice of the Supreme Court of West Virginia.
Out today (4/17) looked at some blacktop and found (more typical looking, infertile) P. caesia, so obviously its common on that substrate around here - another example of seeing something once its "on the radar". Initial remarks below example of my mental process.
on pavement (blacktop)
Seattle
substrates include "asphalt pavements" - Smith, C.W., Aptroot, A., Coppins, B.J., Fletcher, A., Gilbert, O.L., James, P.W. and Wolseley, P.A. (2009) The Lichens of Great Britain and Ireland
"Many records of Physcia phaea have turned out to be either the saxicolous P. alnophila or fertile P. caesia..." -
Soili Stenroos et al. (editors) 2016 Lichens of Finland
initial remarks:
looks like Physcia phaea - seems like an odd place to find it
or maculate P. tenella without cilia possibly?
or P. caesia - laminal soralia? - will post another photo
pro - on rock (although bituminous), upper cortex strongly maculate, lack of cilia, lack of soralia (although see note on image) numerous apothecia some crenulate
con - unusual in city, unusually ? pale, usually tighter and more symmetric
my lichen photos by genus - www.flickr.com/photos/29750062@N06/collections/7215762439...
my photos arranged by subject, e.g. mountains - www.flickr.com/photos/29750062@N06/collections
Cannel coal from the Pennsylvanian of Ohio, USA. (bedding plane view; 8.5 cm across at its widest)
Cannel coals are odd varieties of coal. They don’t have the look & feel of ordinary coals such as lignite, bituminous coal, and anthracite. Cannel coals are lightweight, as all coals are, but are surprisingly tight and solid - they hold up to natural weathering pretty well, considering they’re coals. They are not sooty to the touch, and have conchoidal fracture (smooth & curved fracture surfaces). Cannel coals lack the well-developed horizontal bedding & laminations seen in lignites and bituminous coals.
Not surprisingly, the differences in physical characterstics between cannel coal and other ranks of coal are due to the organic matter content. Cannel coals are composed principally of fossil spores (sporinite phytoclasts). Garden-variety coals are composed principally of a mix of altered fragmented plant debris that was originally woody tissue, leaves, bark, fungi, and spores. Cannel coals are generally interpreted to have formed in pond, lagoon, or channel facies within a larger coal swamp setting.
Stratigraphy: possibly the Bedford Coal (just below the Upper Mercer Limestone), Pottsville Group, lower Middle Pennsylvanian
Locality: attributed (probably) to Tunnel Hill, western Coshocton County, eastern Ohio, USA
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Stratigraphic & locality IDs from James Bradley.
Wath upon Dearne is a town south of the River Dearne in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, 5 miles (8 km) north of Rotherham and almost midway between Barnsley and Doncaster. It had a population of 11,816 at the 2011 census. It is twinned with Saint-Jean-de-Bournay in France.
Wath can be traced to Norman times. It appears in the 1086 Domesday Book as Wad and Waith. It remained for some centuries a rural settlement astride the junction of the old Doncaster–Barnsley and Rotherham–Pontefract roads, the latter a branch of Ryknield Street. North of the town was a ford across the River Dearne. The name has been linked to the Latin vadum and the Old Norse vath (ford or wading place). The town received a Royal Charter in 1312–1313 entitling it to a weekly Tuesday market and an annual two-day fair, but these were soon discontinued. The market was revived in 1814.
Until local government reorganization in 1974, Wath was in the historic county of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Until the mid-19th century, the town had a racecourse of regional importance, linked to the estate at nearby Wentworth. This fell into disuse, but traces of it can be seen between Wath and Swinton and it is remembered in street names. There was a pottery at Newhill, close to deposits of clay, but it was overshadowed by the nearby Rockingham Pottery in Swinton. About the turn of the 19th century, the poet and newspaper editor James Montgomery, resident at the time, called it "the Queen of Villages". This rural character changed rapidly in the 19th and 20th centuries, as coal mining developed.
The town lies over the South Yorkshire coalfield, where high-quality bituminous coal was dug from outcrops and near-surface seams in primitive bell pits for several centuries. Several high-grade seams are close to the surface, including the prolific Barnsley and Parkgate. The rising demand for coal arose from rapid local industrialization in the 19th and early 20th century. The population swelled, and local infrastructure developed round the coalmining, but this reliance on one industry led to future problems.
The Dearne and Dove Canal opened in stages from 1798 to 1804 to access the collieries on the south side of the Dearne Valley. It passed through the town on an embankment just north of the High Street and then turned north into the valley. This wide section was known locally as the "Bay of Biscay". The canal closed in 1961 after many years of disuse and poor repair. Much of the canal line has since been used for roads, one of them called Biscay Way.
By the 20th century, heavy industry was evident, with many large collieries – Wath Main and Manvers Main were the two usually mentioned. After the Second World War, the collieries clustered around Manvers developed into a complex, also covering coal preparation, coal products and a coking plant, which was not only visible, but polluted the air for miles around.
Rail took over coal transportation from the canal. Wath upon Dearne became a rail-freight centre of national importance. Wath marshalling yard, built north of the town in 1907, was one of the biggest and for its time one of the most modern railway marshalling yards in the country, as one of the eastern ends of the trans-Pennine Manchester–Sheffield–Wath electrified railway (also known as the Woodhead Line), a project that spanned the Second World War and partly responded to the need to move large amounts of Wath coal to customers in North-West England.
Wath once had three railway stations: Wath Central in Moor Road, Wath (Hull and Barnsley) and Wath North both in Station Road. Wath North, the most distant, was the last to close in 1968, under the Beeching Axe. There has been talk of opening a station on the Sheffield–Wakefield–Leeds line at Manvers, roughly a mile from the town centre.
The local coal industry succumbed to a dramatic decline in the British coal-mining industry precipitated by a change in government economic policy in the early 1980s. This had knock-on effects on many subsidiary local industries and caused local hardship.
The 1985 miners' strike was sparked by the impending closure of Cortonwood Colliery in Brampton Bierlow, a neighbouring village often seen as part of Wath. Along with the whole of the Dearne Valley, Wath was classified as an impoverished area and received public money, including European funds. These were put to regenerating the area from the mid-1990s onwards, causing a degree of economic revival. It made the area more rural, as much land to the north of the town once used by collieries and marshalling yards was returned to scrubland and countryside, dotted with light industrial and commercial office parks. This regeneration of what was still classified as brownfield land has involved building it over with industrial and commercial parks. Large housing developments have also been started.
Wath upon Dearne centres on Montgomery Square, with the town's main shops, the library and the bus station. To its west is the substantial Norman All Saints Church, on a small leafy green, with Wath Hall, the Montgomery Hall and a campus of the Dearne Valley College. The several town-centre pubs include a branch of Wetherspoons and Wath Tap, Rotherham's first micro-pub specialising in locally brewed real ale. From 1892 to 1974 Wath Hall served as the local seat of government for Wath upon Dearne.
Today Wath is still emerging from the coal-industry collapse, although jobs and some low-level affluences have returned. After a hiatus between the clearing of former colliery land and recent redevelopment, when the area felt rather rural, the construction of large distribution centres to the north of the town is restoring an industrial feel, but without the pollution issues of coal. Several distribution warehouses for the clothing chain Next have opened. Much new housing is being built on reclaimed land.
Wath Festival, held round the Early May Bank Holiday, is a folk and acoustic music and arts festival founded by members of the Wath Morris Dancing Team in 1972. It has grown to host known names on the folk, acoustic and world music scene. While festival events occur across the town, most larger concerts are held at the Montgomery Hall Theatre and Community Venue. Those appearing have included Dougie MacLean, Fairport Convention, Martin Simpson, John Tams, Frances Black, John McCusker, Stacey Earle and Eddi Reader.
The festival marked its 40th anniversary in 2012. Wath won Village Festival of the Year in the 2013 FATEA Awards.[11] The festival has been a supporter of young artists such as Lucy Ward, and Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar. It has also hosted the Wath Festival Young Performers' Award, founded by the Sheffield-based musician Charlie Barker in 2011, who handed it over to a festival committee in 2014. Winners have included Luke Hirst & Sarah Smout, Sunjay, Rose Redd and Hannah Cumming.
The event includes dancing by local morris and sword-dancing groups, street performances, workshops, children's events and a Saturday morning parade from Montgomery Hall through Montgomery Square and back to St James's Church, for a traditional throwing of bread buns from the parish church tower. Local schools, organisations and local Labour MP John Healey have joined in festival activities.
The RSPB's Old Moor nature reserve lies a mile to the north-west of the town. It occupies a "flash", where mining-induced subsidence of land close to a river has created wetlands.
Wath Athletic F.C. served the community from the 1880s to the Second World War, playing in the Midland League and reaching the 1st Round of the FA Cup in 1926. No senior team has represented the settlement since the 1950s, and Wath remains one of the largest places in Yorkshire without one. However, it has a Rugby Union team that plays in the Yorkshire Division 2.
Transactions of the Geological Society of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia :James Kay, Jun. & Brother ;1834-1835.
Crews worked on SR 9 for three days from July 23 through July 25, 2018 applying a oil and gravel surface - bituminous surface treatment - to a 10 mile stretch between the south end of Big Lake and Sedro-Woolley. Following application of the gravel, equipment rolled the area with large rubber tires and sweeping happened overnight to pick up loose material.
(public display, Geology Department, Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio, USA)
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Cannel coals are odd varieties of coal. They don’t have the look & feel of ordinary coals such as lignite, bituminous coal, and anthracite. Cannel coals are lightweight, as all coals are, but are surprisingly tight and solid - they hold up to natural weathering pretty well, considering they’re coals. They are not sooty to the touch, and have conchoidal fracture (smooth & curved fracture surfaces). Cannel coals lack the well-developed horizontal bedding & laminations seen in lignites and bituminous coals
Not surprisingly, the differences in physical characterstics between cannel coal and other ranks of coal are due to the organic matter content. Cannel coals are composed principally of fossil spores (sporinite phytoclasts). Garden-variety coals are composed principally of a mix of altered fragmented plant debris that was originally woody tissue, leaves, bark, fungi, and spores. Cannel coals are generally interpreted to have formed in pond, lagoon, or channel facies within a larger coal swamp setting.
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From exhibit signage:
Origin of Coal
Coal is formed from accumulated vegetation that grew in peat-forming swamps on broad lowlands that were near sea level. Cyclothems indicate that the land must have been at a "critical level" since the change from marine to non-marine sediments shows that the seas periodically encroached upon the land.
Formation of Coal
The change from plant debris to coal involves biochemical action producing partial decay, preserval of this material from further decay, and later dynamochemical processes. The biochemical changes involve attack by bacteria which liberate volatile constituents, and the preserval of the residual waxes and resins in the bottom of the swamps where the water is too toxic for the decay-promoting bacteria to live. The accumulated material forms "peat bogs". The dynamochemical process involves further chemical reactions produced by the increased pressure and temperature brought about by the weight of sediment that is deposited on top of it. These reactions are also ones in which the volatile constituents are driven off.
Rank of Coal
The different types of coal are commonly referred to in terms of rank. From lowest upward, they are peat (actually not a coal), lignite, bituminous, and anthracite. The rank of the coal is the result of the different amounts of pressure and time involved in producing the coal.
Cannel
Cannel coal is a special variety of bituminous coal that breaks with a splintery or conchoidal fracture, is not banded, does not soil the fingers and is lusterless. It is made up of windblown spores and pollen. It is clean and burns with a long flame and is desired as a fireplace coal.
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NS geeps return along the old CB&Q line after dropping off tankers at a bituminous plant. Des Moines, Iowa.
On Monday, Aug. 13, 2018 WSDOT contractor crews from Granite Construction added a preservation surface of hot oil and gravel to SR 542/Mount Baker Highway near Artist Point gate and Mount Baker Ski Area. Crews are putting this preservation surface over the road following pavement repair earlier this year. Crews will come back in a couple of weeks to add a sealant coat to this new surface. People riding bicycles should consider alternate rides through Sunday, Aug. 19 due to loose gravel through this area.
Newport News is an independent city located in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 180,719. in 2013, the population was estimated to be 183,412, making it the fifth-most populous city in Virginia.
Newport News is included in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. It is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the northern shore of the James River extending southeast from Skiffe's Creek along many miles of waterfront to the river's mouth at Newport News Point on the harbor of Hampton Roads.
The area now known as Newport News was once a part of Warwick County. Warwick County was one of the eight original shires of Virginia, formed by the House of Burgesses in the British Colony of Virginia by order of King Charles I, in 1634. The county was largely composed of farms and undeveloped land until almost 250 years later. In 1881, 15 years of explosive development began under the leadership of Collis P. Huntington, whose new Peninsula Extension of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway from Richmond opened up transportation along the Peninsula and provided a new pathway for the railroad to bring West Virginia bituminous coal to port for coastal shipping and worldwide export. With the new railroad came a terminal and coal piers where the colliers were loaded. Within a few years, Huntington and his associates also built a large shipyard. In 1896, the new incorporated town of Newport News, which had briefly replaced Denbigh as the county seat of Warwick County, had a population of 9,000. In 1958, by mutual consent by referendum, Newport News was consolidated with the former Warwick County (itself a separate city from 1952 to 1958), rejoining the two localities to approximately their pre-1896 geographic size. The more widely known name of Newport News was selected as they formed what was then Virginia's third largest independent city in population.
With many residents employed at the expansive Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding, the joint U.S. Air Force-U.S. Army installation at Joint Base Langley–Eustis, and other military bases and suppliers, the city's economy is very connected to the military. The location on the harbor and along the James River facilitates a large boating industry which can take advantage of its many miles of waterfront. Newport News also serves as a junction between the rails and the sea with the Newport News Marine Terminals located at the East End of the city. Served by major east-west Interstate Highway 64, it is linked to others of the cities of Hampton Roads by the circumferential Hampton Roads Beltway, which crosses the harbor on two bridge-tunnels. Part of the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport is in the city limits.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newport_News,_Virginia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...
Fossil charcoal in coal from the Pennsylvanian of Ohio, USA.
This rock is from the Pottsville Group, a Pennsylvanian-aged cyclothemic succession containing nonmarine shales, marine shales, siltstones, sandstones, coals, marine limestones, and chert ("flint"). The lower Pottsville dates to the late Early Pennsylvanian. The upper part dates to the early Middle Pennsylvanian. The Lower-Middle Pennsylvanian boundary is apparently somewhere near the Boggs Member (?).
Shown above is a sample derived from the Bedford Coal, a horizon that occurs just below the Upper Mercer Limestone (or Upper Mercer Flint). Lithologically, the Bedford ranges from carbonaceous shale to argillaceous coal to bituminous coal to cannel coal. The cannel coal in the Bedford was targeted for mining in the 1800s as a source of fuel. It was particularly useful in the manufacture of kerosene, an illuminating fuel. After the petroleum industry started in the 1860s, production of kerosene from cannel coal essentially ceased.
At this locality, the Bedford Coal consists of cannel coal and bituminous coal. This sample is weathered coal with pieces of compressed fossil charcoal (= lustrous, blackish-colored chunks). The Pennsylvanian was a time of relatively high atmospheric oxygen (O2) levels, and forest fires were relatively common events. Charcoalized fossil wood can be found in some abundance in Pennsylvanian sedimentary successions. The original wood microstructure is usually well preserved, but the charcoal fragments themselves are quite delicate. A gentle rub with a finger turns these fragments into black powder. Sometimes, the fossil charcoal is partially pyritized.
The rainbow-colored areas are thin weathering films of turgite, which is essentially hydrous hematite (2Fe2O3·H2O - hydrous iron oxide). Some geologists do not consider turgite to be a mineral - rather, it's interpreted as a mixture of hematite and goethite resulting from goethite alteration. Turgite often occurs as rainbow-colored iridescent coatings on iron oxide-rich rocks or rocks having surficial iron oxide staining. It can also occur as irregularly botryoidal masses. (see also: www.jsjgeology.net/Turgite.htm and www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/albums/72157661979539290)
Stratigraphy: Bedford Coal, upper Pottsville Group, Atokan Stage, lower Middle Pennsylvanian
Locality: Tunnel Hill North Portal Outcrop (= Noland Tunnel's northern portal), ~1.75 air miles north-northeast of the town of Tunnel Hill, western Coshocton County, eastern Ohio, USA (~40° 16’ 33.27” North latitude, ~82° 01’ 53.04” West longitude)
"International Stop the Tar Sands Day 2011" protest at the Canadian High Commission, London.
A small group of environmental activists staged a vociferous protest this weekend outside the Canadian High Commission in Grosvenor Square against the huge and devastating ecological damage being wrought on the pristine Boreal forests of Alberta in Canada by international oil companies extracting so-called Tar Sands in order to extract bitumen which is then refined - at a huge energy cost - into crude oil.
This protest was a part of "International "Stop the Tar Sands" day, which saw co-ordinated protests happening in 30 countries worldwide. The London action included the laying down of bunches and wreaths of dead flowers to represent the devastated Albertan boreal forest and ancient wilderness. A spirited choir of women entertained us with their rendition of "Sludge, Sludge, Glorious Sludge", and a symbolic environmental activist was tarred and feathered by Big Oil, representing the huge number of migratory and indigenous wildfowl which have been poisoned by the toxic waste in the water ‘tailings’ left behind by the extraction process. It is reported that some local species of wildlife in Alberta are in danger of becoming extinct in the region.
The Canadian Tar Sands ‘Mega-Project’ is slated to be the greatest environmental calamity in the World, eclipsing the destruction of rainforest habitats.
Deep under the boreal forests of Alberta lie 140,000 square kilometres of bituminous sand. Exploration continues all over Canada to find more, but already it is estimated that Canada has enough proven oil reserves to put it in second place behind Saudi Arabia in the oil producer's league table, and already the USA is Canada’s best customer. However... to get at the tar sands Canada is ripping up vast areas of this pristine forest, laying it to waste and leaving behind an immense toxic wasteland. Furthermore the extraction process is much, much more energy intensive to extract and requires very intensive refining, all of which produces, it is estimated, 3 to 5 times the usual amount of greenhouse gasses, consuming as it does a vast amount of natural gas and locally-sourced fresh water.
The right-wing Canadian government led by the pugnacious Stephen Harper has thrown open the doors to the massive - and destructive - exploitation of huge expanses of Canadian wilderness in the rush to put Canada into the global league tables of oil exporting countries, but environmentalists, ecologists and indigenous First Nation peoples are warning that the price of this extraction is having a terrible effect on local wildlife and on human health. Though not scientifically proven beyond any doubt, it has been reported that there has been an alarming increase in unusual cancers and birth-defects amongst local populations affected by the huge volumes of pollution released into the environment by the extraction and refining processes that, apart from requiring up to 200 gallons of fresh water to produce a single 40 gallon drum of bitumen extracted from the sand, leaves behind waste water is so toxic that it cannot be allowed back into the local eco-system, so it is stored in many huge 'tailing ponds' carved out of the local landscape.
Apart from the enormous volume of migratory birds and local wildlife which have already been fatally poisoned on these tailing ponds - and will continue to die in huge numbers for as long as tar extraction continues in Canada - it was always inevitable that the toxic tailings would seep into the local water table and eco-system. Overflows and breaches are happening with alarming regularity, seeing rivers, streams and the water table - on which everyone in those regions depends on - poisoned with sulphur compounds and heavy metals.
There has been, as previously mentioned, an increase in non-typical cancers and birth deformities which local populations blame on this highly polluting heavy industry. This is aside from the many very serious explosions and tragic industrial accidents at refining and extraction sites. This oil comes at a heavy price, so it seems.
It may come as no surprise that oil company internal investigations regularly give the oil companies a clean bill of health, and the Canadian government isn't about to look this gift horse in the mouth, so rigorous independent government environmental impact assessment just isn't happening. The suffering local populations await costly independently commissioned scientific studies, which will be fought against tooth and nail by the legions of very expensive corporate attorneys employed by the oil companies who are allegedly accused of bullying, bribery and corruption and even physical intimidation in the region.
In an area with historically low employment, taking the Oil Companies' 30 pieces of silver is understandable but the problems don't just end there, as the multinationals have drafted in migrant and foreign labour to undercut wage bills, creating friction. The locals were promised jobs when the government and oil companies were flooding the region with propaganda and inducements, but now they have what they wanted they're not willing to pay good wages to the locals who now understandably feel betrayed. These armies of imported workers live weeks at a time in work camps in the remote wilderness, coming into the local towns during rest periods to let off steam. Alcohol and drug-related problems have followed the labour camps, causing havoc in local towns when the blue-collar workers come into town on furlough, and understandably many towns feel completely overwhelmed.
Conflict with the local First Nations is rampant; the oil companies are expanding the scale and pace of Tar Sands development way beyond what was originally promised. The bitumen extraction is under the jurisdiction of treaties that are supposed to ensure the First Nation lands are not taken from them by massive uncontrolled development, but that is exactly what is happening. The oil companies are wielding extraordinary power in the region and nobody from the Canadian government is paying any attention to the destruction of the First Nation peoples’ culture and way of life. Several First Nations are in direct conflict with federal and provincial governments over the cynical traducing of Aboriginal and Treaty rights and legal land title.
Meanwhile, the Canadian government has been engaged in an all-out propaganda and lobbying assault on the European Union, trying to make the EU Commissioners accept imported Canadian bitumen extracted from the tar sands as a part of the impending 'Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement' (CETA), which if completed as planned threatens to completely undermine hard fought-for strong climate policies right across Europe, but dedicated campaigners and activists are fighting hard to prevent this and are engaged in a David and Goliath battle to have Canadian bitumen included in the 'Fuel Quality Directive' (FQD) which would effectively see the bitumen banned from Europe on the basis of the ecological damage the extraction is causing and the Carbon Intensity Caps invoked by the extremely high amounts of carbon content released by end product oil made from the Tar Sands.
However, perpetual aggressive lobbying and coercion by the Canadians is weakening the current initial draft of the FQD. The Canadians do not want any reference to be made to tar sands in the FQD – they want it treated the same way as conventional oil, despite its huge carbon intensity. To add further pressure in a diplomatic pincer movement, the Canadian government is hinting that it might pull out of CETA if the EU dares set a separate and higher value for tar sands oil in terms of carbon footprint in the FQD.
There are several informed and concerned European members of Parliament who agree with the environmentalists, and they have recently been responsible for passing a resolution in the European Parliament that the EU should not bow to Canadian and Oil Company pressure, and to reiterate their concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and environmental destruction caused by the Tar Sands extraction, but this may only be a temporary bump in the road for the oil companies and the Canadians, who, having to watch their southern neighbours in the USA straddling the globe and flexing their military muscles in the interests of American business, desperately want the power and influence that always goes hand in glove with oil revenues, licensing fees and the albeit insultingly low rates of corporate taxation they will be levying on the oil companies.
CETA would give the major European multinationals Shell, Total and BP (who had promised ten years ago when they were desperately trying to re-brand themselves as being somehow "Green" that they wouldn't be joining in the rush to Canada), dramatic new powers by legislation which would give them a free hand to trample over the rights of indigenous peoples and undermine crucial social and environmental legislation in Europe and in Canada.
Under the proposed terms of CETA Investment Protections would be enshrined in law which could allow Canadian and European oil companies to force governments before completely unaccountable closed-door Trade Tribunals to settle disputes, including any attempt by the Canadian government to prevent the out-of-control rapacious expansion of the Canadian wilderness. In other words the oil giants would be free to ruin the entire eco-system for their personal profit, and then just walk away from the carnage once the very last drop of economically viable bitumen has been sucked out of the ground. It is this horrific scenario which motivates the campaigners.
UK Protests and direct actions simultaneously took place in London, Plymouth, Birmingham, Oxford, York, Bangor, Brighton, Norwich, Manchester and Bridport in Dorset.
For further reading on the Tar Sands campaigns, visit www.no-tar-sand.org, oilsandstruth.org or stoptarsands.eu
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.
Cannel coal (cross-section view) from the Pennsylvanian of Ohio, USA. (geology hammer for scale)
Cannel coals are odd varieties of coal. They don’t have the look & feel of ordinary coals such as lignite, bituminous coal, and anthracite. Cannel coals are lightweight, as all coals are, but are surprisingly tight and solid - they hold up to natural weathering pretty well, considering they’re coals. They are not sooty to the touch, and have conchoidal fracture (smooth & curved fracture surfaces). Cannel coals lack the well-developed horizontal bedding & laminations seen in lignites and bituminous coals. Some workers refer to cannel coal as a variety of oil shale, but it is not. Shale is siliciclastic in origin and is fissile. Cannel coal is biogenic in origin - it is not siliciclastic - and is not fissile.
Not surprisingly, the differences in physical characterstics between cannel coal and other ranks of coal are due to the organic matter content. Cannel coals are composed principally of fossil spores (sporinite phytoclasts). Garden-variety coals are composed principally of a mix of altered fragmented plant debris that was originally woody tissue, leaves, bark, fungi, and spores. Cannel coals are generally interpreted to have formed in pond, lagoon, or channel facies within a larger coal swamp setting.
The cannel coal sample seen here is from the Flint Ridge Coal, a little known horizon in the Pottsville Group of eastern Ohio. The Pottsville Group is a Pennsylvanian-aged cyclothemic succession containing nonmarine shales, marine shales, siltstones, sandstones, coals, marine limestones, and chert ("flint"). The lower Pottsville dates to the late Early Pennsylvanian. The upper part dates to the early Middle Pennsylvanian. The Lower-Middle Pennsylvanian boundary is apparently somewhere near the Boggs Limestone horizon (?).
This specimen is left over from a very old (1800s) cannel coal mining operation on the northern flanks of western Flint Ridge in Licking County, Ohio. The adit is covered, but float specimens of Flint Ridge cannel coal are still present in the proximal portions of the surrounding landscape. All Flint Ridge cannel coal specimens at this locality are weathered, but the interiors are moderately unweathered. Crack surfaces have velvety/satiny luster and conchoidal fracture. Partings are moderately common. Fossil plant fragments are also present, as is charcoal (= fragments of burned wood from ancient forest fires) and pyritized charcoal. Fossil bivalves (clams) were observed on some cannel coal parting planes. Weathered fracture surfaces in the cannel coal have limonite, turgite, and apparent native sulfur. Occasional patches of pyrite are present in the massive portions of the cannel coal.
Cannel coal from the Flint Ridge Coal horizon was mined and processed into kerosene, which was used as illuminating fuel in the 1800s.
Stratigraphy: Flint Ridge Coal (below the Lower Mercer Limestone & below the Middle Mercer Coal), Pottsville Group, lower Middle Pennsylvanian
Locality: old cannel coal mine in the woods on the western side of Cooks Hill Road, just south of house at 7018 Cooks Hill Road, northern flanks of western Flint Ridge, southeastern Licking County, east-central Ohio, USA (vicinity of 39° 59’ 20.34” North latitude, 82° 17’ 08.30” West longitude)
On Wednesday, Sept. 5 and Thursday, Sept. 6 WSDOT contractor crews from Granite Construction added a final sealant layer to this stretch of highway to SR 542/Mount Baker Highway between Silver Fir Campground and the Artist Point Gate. Crews had already done pavement repair, crack sealing and applied a preservation surface of oil and gravel to this area. Next up - striping!
On our trip down south, February 24, 2018. We stopped at Shag Point/Matakaea as I had never been there before. Matakaea is the name of the pa (fortified village). We have left Dunedin and going to stay in Timaru for a night before heading back to Christchurch.
Shag Point/Matakaea has a rich history, from early Ngai Tahu settlement to historic coalmining. The area has diverse marine life. It has interesting flora, is great for wildlife viewing, and is geologically fascinating.
Flat rock platforms provide an easy haul-out site for New Zealand fur seals, and cliff-top viewing areas allow you to observe seal behaviour without disturbing their rest.
Whalers discovered the first bituminous coal in New Zealand here in the 1830s. By 1862 the exposed coal seams were found to be commercially viable and were successfully mined until 1972, when flooding eventually closed shafts that extended under the coast. Evidence of coal mining is still obvious throughout the reserve.
Matakaea is jointly managed by DOC and Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu. Matakaea has Topuni status. The mana (authority) and rangatiratanga (chieftainship) of Ngai Tahu over the area is recognised publicly by this status. Ngai Tahu takes an active role in managing the natural and cultural values of the area.
For More Info: www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/p...
Here is a shot upstream of town looking at the south bank of the Athabasca River and the bitumen naturally seeping into it over top of the devonian limestones.
In 1787 Sir Alexander MacKenzie wrote the following while standing on the bank of the Clearwater River which feeds into the Athabasca in Fort McMurray "About 24 miles from the fork are some bituminous fountains, into which a pole of twenty feet long may be insterted without the least resistance. The bitumen is in a fluid state, and when mixed with gum or the resinous substance collected from the spruce fir it serves to gum the canoes..." Of course there are hydrocarbons in the water, there is miles and miles of natural oil seeps into the Athabasca River, I have stood there personally and photographed them, you can see the oil slicks coming off the natural seeps into the river on hot days tens of miles from any operations, this has been the case for thousands of years....
Coal from the Cretaceous of Colorado, USA. (public display, Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum, Durango, Colorado, USA)
Coal is a carbonaceous, biogenic sedimentary rock composed of the altered remains of plant material in ancient swamp environments. The precursor to coal is peat - a very loosely consolidated, highly porous, lightweight mass of plant fragments. With burial and diagenesis, the peat is altered to various ranks of coal - lignite coal, sub-bituminous coal, and bituminous coal. With very low grade metamorphism, bituminous coal becomes semi-anthracite coal and then anthracite coal. Each successive coal rank is harder, heavier, more carbon-rich, and hotter-burning.
The coal shown above appears to be a bituminous coal. It comes from a coal mine in Hay Gulch in southwestern Colorado. Coal from this locality is used to power steam locomotives of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, which operates tourist trains between those two towns in Colorado's San Juan Mountains.
Stratigraphy: Menefee Formation, Campanian Stage, upper Upper Cretaceous
Locality: National King Coal Mine, Hay Gulch, western La Plata County, southwestern Colorado, USA
Never seen cowls like these before. Closer inspection revealed they were a hard bitumen type material not disimilar to Shires Lynx cisterns. I thought I bet these contain asbestos and hey presto here's a broken one with visible chrysotile asbestos fibres. The flue below is the same material.
Luckily on top there is a patent number and I unearthed the following patent info
1,129,953. Ventilating-shaft tops. VAL DE TRAVERS ASPHALTE Ltd. 24 April, 1967 [17 Feb., 1966], No. 6973/66. Heading F4J. [Also in Division E1] A ventilator permitting the escape of water vapour from beneath an impermeable asphalt roof membrane 10 comprises a bituminous circular base 2, having grooves 3, a bituminous trunk 5 fused with the asphalt membrane, and a bituminous cowl 7 stuck on top of the trunk 5. The bitumen used for the ventilator may include china clay, whiting or asbestos or glass fibres as fillers. The trunk 5 and base 2 are integrally moulded, whilst the upper part of trunk 5 may be moulded separately from the lower part. A venturi-passage 6 of the trunk 5 includes a one-way valve formed by a ball 11 seated by gravity upon a restriction 9. In another embodiment (Fig. 2, not shown), the interior of the trunk is of comparatively large diameter, and has no restriction.
From earliest times one name associated with Ystrad has been that of Bodringallt, variously translated as, the dwelling between two slopes, the home of the foxes, and the abode of the summoner. Local legends abound about Bodringallt House, some saying it was the abode of ‘Cadwgan of the battle Axe', and also that it was connected to the monastery at Penrhys via an underground tunnel. Subsequently the name Bodringallt has been given to a school, colliery, chapel and farm in the area. As with all areas within the Rhondda the rural nature of Ystrad, which had changed little for the previous two hundred years, was to change drastically in the mid nineteenth century with the exploitation of the areas rich mineral reserves. Evidence shows indication of small-scale mining of coal seams at Bodringallt pre 1840's, with the Bodringallt level being mined by a local concern, never consisting of more than six men. Similarly when mining expanded in the later half of the nineteenth century miners digging the coal seams were apt to break through to long disused workings.
It was in the 1850's that large-scale mining at Ystrad really started with a number of small collieries and seams being opened to the bituminous coal levels. The Gelligaled level by David Jones, Gelligaled Colliery by VL Lewis, and the Bodringallt Level by David Jones and David James (owner of Porth and Llwyncelyn Collieries).
On Monday, Aug. 13, 2018 WSDOT contractor crews from Granite Construction added a preservation surface of hot oil and gravel to SR 542/Mount Baker Highway near Artist Point gate and Mount Baker Ski Area. Crews are putting this preservation surface over the road following pavement repair earlier this year. Crews will come back in a couple of weeks to add a sealant coat to this new surface. People riding bicycles should consider alternate rides through Sunday, Aug. 19 due to loose gravel through this area.
On Wednesday, Sept. 5 and Thursday, Sept. 6 WSDOT contractor crews from Granite Construction added a final sealant layer to this stretch of highway to SR 542/Mount Baker Highway between Silver Fir Campground and the Artist Point Gate. Crews had already done pavement repair, crack sealing and applied a preservation surface of oil and gravel to this area. Next up - striping!
Crews worked on SR 530 for three days - Thursday, July 26, Friday, July 27 and Monday, July 30 2018 applying a oil and gravel surface - bituminous surface treatment - to a 10 mile stretch between the Stillaguamish River Bridge and milepost 32.57 near Oso. Following application of the gravel, equipment rolled the area with large rubber tires and sweeping happened overnight to pick up loose material.
1923 ca "5-1/4 x 3-1/8 - Okes Find Negri Junction with Ord River Walter Okes sitting on Right"
[KHS - This should be standing not sitting]
A returned WWI soldier, stockman named Walter Okes, discovered a "bituminous substance" in the bed of the Ord River close to the Ord and Negri junction. Okes had taken up Ningbing Station in ca 1909 and had sold to Billy Weaber and Julius Prior circa 1910. It is reputed that "Okes Find" had been located by him before WWI, but it was not until after the war that Okes made his find public.
A company was formed called the Okes-Durack Oil Company and drilling began at Ord River Station during 1923.
Elizabeth Durack personal photographic collection courtesy of the Clancy and Durack families.
KHS Archive Number: KHS-2011-11-PD-23
Digitised and documented by KHS Volunteers and with a grant from the Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley in 2011.
For further information about Elizabeth Durack's life and her art see www.elizabethdurack.com/