Archivo Historico Minero / Historical Mining Archive
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Compressors are the heart of every underground coalmine.
During a mine closure, this vital part comes to a halt and the underground mining operation dies, due to a lack of oxygen and compressed air....
The so called "Ward-Leonard" arrangement is located in the engine room next to the gigantic elevator machine.
The electric motors and their arrangement is very rare and was used to keep the speed and rpm of the main machine next to the elevator constant.
We leave the above grounding mining site and see once more the immense coal washing plant where 66.593.000 tons of coal are processed from 1912 until 1987, the year in which the mine was closed. The Beringen mine was closed because coal mining had become far too expensive at great depths in a more than 100 km long tunnel systems.
The steel industry in Liége was declining and because the blast furnaces were large consumers of coal, the need for this type of fuel became fewer and fewer.
What remains are the mining buildings covered by thick layers of rock and coal dust.
The miners have payed of their underground labor with their health, because their lungs were affected by the inhalation of rock and coal dust.
Their lung capacity was reduced to the absolute minimum and they died the terrible death of suffocation. Even to this day, ex miners are dying at this terrible death from this disease.
The shafts are the lifelines of a mine because they only can be reached trought perpendicular entrances. This allows materials and miners to be brought down an the mined materials to be brought up.
The transport in the shafts is done with giant elevator machines.
What we see is the giant elevator machine of the coalmine of Winterslag (Belgium), equipped with 2 Direct Current motors of 10.000 Volt each and it raised or lowered the lift cages at a speed from 72 km per hour until a depth of 750 meters.
This crafty lady has been in operation from 1916 to 1988 and has raised a total of 66.593.000 tons of coal from below the mine.
The big wheel in the middle is the so called "Koepe disc" around which an arm thick steel cable, weighing 100 tons, was wound half a turn. The lift cages were attached at both ends of this cable.
The machine operator had a very responsible task and no computers were available: it was purely manual and was done with hands, eyes and ears.
The dashboard stands in front of the machine and consists of bells with which signals were passed from below, volt and ammeters and a level gauge which shows the movement of the lift cages and its speed in the shaft.
"Coal handling building" of an abandoned coal mine (1916-1969) - Belgium
The mine could extract 145000 tons every year. The buildings have the same architecture (brickstone and reinforced concrete) and have been built in 1934. In the 60s, the capacity of the coal mine has been reduced, in 1963, it could only extracts 83000 tons per year. It has been definitively closed on March 31, 1969.
Performing at Pizza Express, Holborn, London
"From time to time, I stumble on a band that totally blows me away..."
Craig Charles - BBC Radio 2 Funk and Soul Show
Left to right:
Arthur Lea, Ben Sommers, Sumudu and Pat Levett
Das Bild von der Hübschen TEM2 von CTL habe ich am 22.07.2022 gemacht.
Jęzor, Sosnowiec | 22.07.2022
One of the last coal mines in Belgium which stopped the production in 1987.
The production of this coal mine lasted from 1907 to 1987 and amounted 79.332.200 tons
Architektura przemysłowa w kopalni węgla kamiennego w Katowicach. Charakterystyczne instalacje wyciągów kopalnianych. (teren Muzeum Śląskiego) /
Industrial Architecture at a coal mine in Katowice. Characteristic steel towers of coalmine lifts . (The area of the Silesian Museum)
The Coal mine du Gouffre is the main and last colliery company of Charbonnages du Gouffre, the "Charbonnage n°10 du Gouffre". It operated from 1916 to 1969. After closure, a part of the site was converted into a zoo for some years between 1979 and 1982 before becoming abandoned.
Not sure if this is still part of Coalmine Canyon in AZ. So much to see here, not enough time to explore.
The crane formed a key part of Longyearbyen’s coal-loading system, used to transfer coal from the mining infrastructure to ships in Adventfjorden. It was connected to the extensive aerial cableway network that transported coal from the mines down to the harbour. As such, the Titan Crane stands as an important reminder of the town’s industrial past, when coal mining dominated both the economy and daily life in Svalbard.
After the miners putting on their work uniforms, the miners headed trough shadowy desolate corridors to the shaft, that brought them to the coal front to a depth of 750 meters.
These corridors were covered with a dirty layer of coal dust, so all the dust was pulled up and down trough the shaft mouths which were in open communication with the aboveground buildings. The miners saw the last daylight in these corridors The buildings and spaces around the shafts were filthy and dusty and could not compared to the impeccability of, for example, the compressor room.
But before we go down, we take a look from the outside of the arrangement of the buidlings of the above-ground mining company, so this will be all clear.
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