Mexborough & Swinton Times, February 03
Another Denaby Invention
Denaby has made more than an average contribution to mining development and has been particularly well found in inventive and resourceful mining engineers. Nor are skill and resource confined to the “officer Class,” but they peep out here and there in the rank and file.
Recently we had the pleasure of reporting a very sound invention by a Denaby man of an improved safety lamp, which is likely to come into common use. This week we give particulars of a device, very much needed in coal mining, for preventing haulage smashes, a very common nuisance and peril in our coal pits.
Many lives have been taken by runaway tubs, and it is clear that present safeguards and regulations do not eliminate to the extent desirable the danger arising from this source.
This invention, the device of Mr. I. Rodgers, of Denaby, is not preventative, but curative. It pre-supposes that tubs will continue, in their perversity, to break loose from their moorings, or to overpower their engines, or in some way to deviate from correct behaviour, and Mr. Rodgers has patented an apparatus which will automatically check a “tub” or train of “tubs” travelling at a speed in excess of that necessary for safe and normal working.
His device, on which we congratulate him, has impressed the experts who have seen it demonstrated, and we trust that it will bring him a suitable reward, and, more important still, will eliminate at least one peril of the mine .