The Underground World: A mirror of life below the surface — John Shaqi
The Underground World: A mirror of life below the surfaceKnox, Thomas Wallace
History
The Underground World: A mirror of life below the surface
Knox, Thomas Wallace
Caves; Mines and mineral resources; Social history -- 19th century; Tunnels
Something more was wanted. Cars were propelled by means of horse
or man power. It was necessary to apply the steam engine to the
work of transportation. Trefethick, a Cornish miner, constructed a
locomotive with a simple boiler, like that of a stationary engine; but
the heating surface and the motive power were too small. It was not
then supposed that the wheels would turn upon a smooth rail and move
forward, and so the driving wheel was toothed and worked in a rack.
The speed was less than that of a carriage drawn by horses. George
Stephenson, an old coal miner, completed the locomotive.
Seguin, in France, about the same time, invented the tubes which run
through the locomotive boiler, and afford a passage to the flames.
They greatly increased the evaporating surface, and consequently the
production of steam. Stephenson discharged into the chimney the steam
which had acted upon the piston, and thus gave a great draft to the
furnaces. The locomotive was then complete, and since that day it has
only been improved in its details.
We have wandered a little from the search for coal to speak of the
steam engine, the locomotive, and the railway.
[Sidenote: BORING FOR COAL.]
Many coal mines have been discovered by borings in search of artesian
springs. About thirty years ago, in one of the French provinces,
a well was being bored, and, quite unexpectedly, the boring tools
revealed the presence of coal. As soon as this became known, everybody
went to work searching, not for water, but for coal. In a region sixty
miles long by twelve or fifteen wide, the ground was perforated
like a sieve, by a series of borings which were laid down on a plan
that seemed to resemble a constellation of stars on a celestial map.
Everywhere coal was found, and altogether one hundred thousand acres
of coal fields were added to the wealth of France. Nearly thirty
companies were organized to work the new mines. Since the discovery
about fifty pits have been sunk, some of them to a depth of five
hundred yards. In 1851 the mines produced five thousand tons of coal.
At the present day their product is not far from twenty millions of
tons. All this originated in a search for water.
The process of boring for coal is very much like, in fact almost
identical with, boring for petroleum. The boring rods are of wood, or
iron, and are screwed together as the work proceeds. The primitive
instrument is a steel chisel, or bit, which strikes the rock and wears
it away, precisely as an ordinary drill makes a hole in a stone ledge.
Boring machinery may be operated by steam power or by hand. In the
primitive way, a triangle, or pair of shears, supports the rods, and
has an ordinary windlass, by which they may be raised or lowered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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