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Post by sandromondo on Sept 28, 2007 8:53:50 GMT -5
I am writing to you from sunny Miami Beach Florida with respect to an ancestor of mine who worked in the pits in and around Ashington Northumberland. Incidentally I am not some lovelorn American looking up his ancestry in fact I was born at home in Sweethope Avenue, Ashington in 1962 as was my Mother. Now to my questions. It has been mentioned to me that either my Great, Great, Great Grandfather or greater invented Hambones the device used to attach and pull tubs as your glossary of miners terminology defines it. www.pitwork.net/defs.htm Of which he was paid the princely sum of 500 pounds. However I understand that this contraption was used thoughout collieries in the UK and even further afield. And he was never credited with the copyright and or patent (which I assume was because of his mediocre education and his loyalty to the pit owners). His Surname was either Gardner or Main as neither of my living Uncles and Aunts seem to know what side of the family he was on. Perhaps you could forward this to your counterparts in your network links to ascertain the truth to this family legend or at least to shed some light upon it. Similarly if you would happen on a photograph of one that indeed would suffice. Thanking you in advance. |
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Post by Ragger on Sept 28, 2007 14:56:24 GMT -5
I am writing to you from sunny Miami Beach Florida with respect to an ancestor of mine who worked in the pits in and around Ashington Northumberland. Incidentally I am not some lovelorn American looking up his ancestry in fact I was born at home in Sweethope Avenue, Ashington in 1962 as was my Mother. Now to my questions. It has been mentioned to me that either my Great, Great, Great Grandfather or greater invented Hambones the device used to attach and pull tubs as your glossary of miners terminology defines it. www.pitwork.net/defs.htm Of which he was paid the princely sum of 500 pounds. However I understand that this contraption was used thoughout collieries in the UK and even further afield. And he was never credited with the copyright and or patent (which I assume was because of his mediocre education and his loyalty to the pit owners). His Surname was either Gardner or Main as neither of my living Uncles and Aunts seem to know what side of the family he was on. Perhaps you could forward this to your counterparts in your network links to ascertain the truth to this family legend or at least to shed some light upon it. Similarly if you would happen on a photograph of one that indeed would suffice. Thanking you in advance. Hambones were used in the North East of England when I did my Basic underground training at Bedlington Station pit. We had to learn putting them on a moving endless rope and also knocking them off at the other end before the rope went round the return wheel. I have to say one or two mistakes were made before I got the hang of it. Similar devices were used in other area's, but, I think, only on ropes that were at floor level. (the hambones I used at Bedlington were higher up over the tub). |
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Post by pitsparky on Mar 21, 2011 13:14:54 GMT -5
Hi Sandramondo, I first heard the term Hambones in relation to mining from my dad who used them at the Avenue pit at Seaton Delaval.
I joined the NCB as an apprentice Electrician in 1962 and did my face training at Ashington, Either the Carl, Duke or the Bothal pit, and we were trained to attach tubs to the rope haulage system using Hambones. I was trained by a guy from Bedlington called Jimmy Smout, ( I am amazed that I can recall that after 49 years)
They were a bit intimidating as you had to time it just right to Knock them off the rope with a wooden club a bit like a baseball bat.
They have some examples of them at the mining museum at Woodhorn Colliery. next time i am there I will taka a photograph and post it for you.
Malcolm
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ken
Trainee
Posts: 46
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Post by ken on Mar 26, 2011 13:27:08 GMT -5
I saw a lot of hambones in use at Easington. I don't think they could be used on bottom rope haulages as they would damage the sleepers too much. I only ever saw steel bashers used to get the hambones off the rope. Perhaps this was because the haulage was rising on a slight incline so there was a fair bit of tension on the hambone chain.
There was a backup device in the form of a stopper around the rope which allowed the rope to slide through the hambone. This gave the operator time to stop the endless. If he did not get the rope stopped the next set behind would run into the back of it. This would be disasterous as the hambone cam would be tightened and the grip tightened onto the rope.
300 HP geared down to walking pace can cause an awfull lot of
damage. The only indication the engine man would get is a bit of flickering on the ampmeter
Ken
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Post by pitsparky on Jul 23, 2011 11:58:11 GMT -5
Hi Sandramondo.
I have been to the Woodhorn mining museum today and was hoping to get a photograph of a " Hambone" for you.
Unfortunately the Heapstead area of the museum is closed for repairs/renovation at the moment so I was unable to get a photograph for you, I have emailed the curator to ask if they have a photograph of one or to tell me when the exhibit is due to re open.
I will not forget you
regards Malcolm.
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Post by John on Jul 23, 2011 12:28:56 GMT -5
I thought a photo of a hambone had been posted here, seems my memory isn't that good. I'm sure Bill sent me a photo of one in use, I'll have to have a look through my files.
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Post by Wheldale on Jul 24, 2011 11:59:28 GMT -5
what is a hambone?
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Post by John on Jul 24, 2011 13:01:56 GMT -5
It's a friction device used to couple tubs to an overhead haulage rope.
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Post by pitsparky on Aug 1, 2011 13:18:13 GMT -5
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Post by pitsparky on Aug 1, 2011 13:29:53 GMT -5
Hi sandramondo, sorry I can not get the photos to attach and the how too is as clear as mud,
malcolm.
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Post by John on Aug 1, 2011 13:33:48 GMT -5
Hi sandramondo, sorry I can not get the photos to attach and the how too is as clear as mud, malcolm. It's easy Malcolm, all you do is enter the URL like this... The tags will appear as such [*url] enter the url here [*/url] minus the stars, I added those to confuse Proboards!! |
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Post by pitsparky on Aug 1, 2011 14:04:05 GMT -5
Hi, well what do you know!
the Flikr links wouldn't work with google chrome but it works in Internet Explorer.
malcolm.
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Post by John on Aug 1, 2011 14:11:12 GMT -5
Hi, well what do you know! the Flikr links wouldn't work with google chrome but it works in Internet Explorer. malcolm. I corrected the "tag error" Malcolm, you had the URL following the tags instead of between them. I used to use a piece of commercial software when I first started building webpages some 14 years back. It drove me mad at times as I had no understanding at that time about HTML language, the computer language used in building web pages, and it had so many errors in it. I soon learned how to "debug" the pages by learning HTML. Just remember to enter everything between the "tags" ie say you want bold text you click on "B" and enter the text between "[*b] HERE [*/b] or addresses ie URL's [*url] HERE [*/url] and you won't go wrong... |
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Post by erichall on Aug 2, 2011 4:26:34 GMT -5
Rope attaching devices varied from area to area, depended on whether the colliery favoured overhead or floor ropes, and what the usual practice was.
In my time in the pits (late 50's to mid 80's) I saw numerous designs and ways. In the old South Barnsley Area in the late 50's early 60's the preference was for overhead ropes, and surprisingly the accepted method was to use coupling chains - simply a chain of around 6-8 feet, with an eye shackle for attaching to the tub hook, leading out to a hooked end. Several turns would be thrown loosely around the constantly moving rope against the direction of travel and then the chain dropped over the hook. Movement of the rope tightened the chain and off the run would go. The run would be unaccompanied and would travel often over half a mile to the pit bottom, where the rope would run through an inverted v plate which would cause a momentary loosening of the chain, at which the Pit Bottom haulage crew would quickly remove the chain from around the hook, leaving the rope running freely through the chain which could then be detached 'at leisure'. Sounds horribly complicated and not a little dangerous today, but the lads, and they often were lads this being their first underground job, supervised by one experienced haulage man to each gang, very quickly became most proficient at this movement.
On moving to the North Derbyshire Area in the latter part of the 60's, I found their preference was for floor ropes, and the runs being attached by rope clips. Two types seemed to hold sway. For larger loads and longer distances the Star clip was used. The front chain would be attached to the star clip, which was then placed over the rope, and tightened by hitting the points of the star to achieve tightness. For smaller loads the prefered type was the 'Smallman' Clip which seems to be a development of the 'Hambone' principle, in which a downward pressure on the extended handle would lock it onto the rope.
With regard to the point about patents, the Coal Board required all its employees to allot the patent to the Board, since it had 'been developed in Board Time'. They did, however, usually offer a sum of money to the designer for his ideas. This , I presume, was the continuation of the policy of the Private Owners. Harsh, but true.
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Post by John on Aug 2, 2011 10:04:37 GMT -5
There's a good article on haulages in an old mining book I found when I was searching for information on my old pit, Clifton Colliery in Nottingham.
It dates to the 1880's and was a write up on the Manager who had successfully designed a working rope haulage system and had it installed at Clifton to haul coal tubs from the workings to pit bottom, and return empties.
By all accounts, it was the first operational main and tail rope haulage as many collieries used chain haulages. He'd overcome many problems, like roads not being level using rollers to guide the ropes around bends, etc..
Everything mentioned we took for granted during modern times. The system used early Smallman clips, slightly different looking to modern Smallman clips.
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Post by anthonygos on Apr 18, 2012 17:59:10 GMT -5
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Post by John on Apr 18, 2012 19:05:06 GMT -5
I still have to laugh over Smallman Clips. An incident that happened over 45 years ago at my first pit. Supplies were sent down on day shift and afternoon shift ready for the nightshift supply men to get them from pit bottom and down the Stone Head Drift.
That drift had large clips, as the rope was pretty thick, but many a time "Cowboy" and his crew used whatever came to hand..... ;D
Of course there was about three sets of Warrick stop blocks down the drift, just in case....
This particular night, they had rings, stone dust, parts of shearers, lagging boards etc, all laid out at the top of the drift, all in legal sets etc right down to the correct Smallman Clips...
Time to descend the drift, they rang the signals to go inbye, last set crossed over the top of the drift and the whole train was going down nicely.
The back set slipped the clips, which ended up in the domino effect. Several tons of supplies were now hurtling down the drift gaining speed, ripping the warricks out.....Some poor fitter walking down the drift jumped into a manhole as the whole train went hurtling passed him at warp 15 ;D, eventually the whole lot derailed slicing through the two HT cables feeding the pit, and devouring a few hundred yards of Cable Belt structure.
It was one hell of a mess, rings ripped out, roof falls, Cable Belt destroyed and no power inbye due to both feeders being torn up.
Of course the Manager wanted a full report, "Cowboy" and his crew had to report to the boss as soon as they had showered....
Ironically, they had done nothing wrong, just one of those accidents that happen now and again, nobody's fault.
The pit was stood for two days, I think the Manager had to buy himself a hairpiece.. ;D ;D
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