Institution of Mining Engineers – Visit to Cadeby Main Colliery.

September 1899

Sheffield Daily Telegraph – Friday 22 September 1899

Institution of Mining Engineers.
Visit to Cadeby Main Colliery.

The proceedings in connection with the tenth annual meeting the members of the Institution of Mining Engineers, in Sheffield, came to a conclusion yesterday, when visits were paid to the Main Colliery of the Denaby and Cadeby Main Colliery Company,

The party, numbering about 100, left Sheffield in the morning, travelling to Conisborough Station, from which they walked to Cadeby Colliery, one of the most modern in the country in regard to its equipment, and one of the largest, and, without exception, the deepest, of the Yorkshire collieries.

It was opened only some seven years ago, and is not any means fully developed at the present time, yet the number of workmen employed is 3,500 of whom 2,600 are engaged underground. If 500 more colliers were available to-morrow work could easily be found for them, as there is a mile coal face opened upon which getting has yet been done.

The Barnsley bed, 10ft. thick, is worked at depth of 770 yards, and the present output is some 1,600 tons a day. It is estimated that when the mine is fully developed 5,000 tons a day will be raised, and the vast extent of the coalfield is shown the fact that the company have a royalty to work over area seven miles in length—from near Swinton Station into Doncaster—and four miles wide, while the seam has been proved to extend into Lincolnshire.

The party did not descend the pit, but were conducted over the surface by W. H. Chambers (director, and president of the Midland Institute of, Mining, Civil, and Mechanical Engineers). Mr. Witty (manager), and Mr. Williamson (engineer).

On the pit hill they saw’ the self-acting tipplers. Chambers’ patent screen—a single screen which will effectually separate 1,000 tons of coal per day—the hydraulic cage-loading and unloading apparatus, and the picking bands. In the lamp house they saw the lamps, which burn spirit, lit by electricity after being locked. The Humboldt coal washer, in use this colliery, has a capacity of 1,500 tons a day and the Schile ventilating fan, 21ft. in diameter, designed to produce 500,000 cubic feet of air per minute with a 5in. water gauge, although at present it is working with a 2in. gauge, and producing 150,000 cubic feet. The pair of winding engines have 45in. cylinders, with 7 ft stroke, and spiral drums 18ft. to 35ft. diameter, and a dead load of 16 tons (four tons being coal), from the depth 770 yards in one minute. The party also inspected the electric light installation, hydraulic pumps and accumulators, the coke ovens and by-product recovery plant, and various workshops.