Taken from The History, Topography, and Directory of the County Palatine of Durham by Francis Whellan. Second edition published in 1894.

A few steps only, and of a simple kind, appear to intervene between the modes of slowly winding up small quantities of coal in the pits three centuries ago and the vehement, yet well-disciplined extraction of the present day. But although the improvements have not been marked by any startling inventions, they have only been rendered possible by the simultaneous advancement of the other mechanical arts. And even now it is solely under favourable conditions that the greatest eminence is attained ; and we need but to travel a few miles into the hills from some of the noble collieries of Durham or of Lancashire to see near the outcrops of the seams little works carried on for local or land sale, where the apparatus, if not the ways and language of the people, will recall the days of a pristine simplicity.

The conditions under which the roadways of a mine are placed, their frequent sinuosity and unevenness, the confined space, and the tendency to disturbance both in floor and roof; render it impossible to compete in economy with railways laid upon the surface. Moreover, certain requirements, in connection with the raising of the mineral in the shafts, have to be kept in view, and necessitate the use of particular kinds of waggon.

Until within a few years past, the method was to fill the coals at or near the face, into a large basket (corve) of wicker, having an iron bow, and to drag it on a small carriage or tram, generally by a pony, to the crane place on the main road, where it was lifted and placed with several others on a rolley or larger waggon, on which they were then drawn by a horse to the pit bottom, whence they were raised to the surface, whilst the rolley returned with a load of empty corves.

In some districts the principle remains much the same. Instead of the corve a skip having a strong bow of wrought iron for raising it, is placed on a trolley and loaded with coal by having several broad rings placed loosely over it, within which the lumps are stacked up. It is then wheeled away to the shaft, where it is hooked on to the rope or chain by the bow. Various plans have been adopted for the conveyance of the mineral in different coalfields within the last quarter of a century, which have totally revolutionised the methods of all our larger collieries. When the cast metal tram-plates came into vogue, the old broad wheels of the waggons, or rolleys, were superseded by cast wheels, fined off very sharply at the periphery, in order to diminish the friction; and these are still retained at many works of importance, partly from want of appreciation of the newer methods, and partly from the desire to fully utilise the materials of an old-established plant. As the scale of operations increased, the use of corves was found to be so expensive as to lead to the resumption of small wooden waggons or tubs, with wheels of 8 to 15 inches in diameter, which are run from the face of the coal to the pit bottom, without the delay and cost of unloading and loading from a smaller to a larger carriage, to which some of the methods are open. This plan, although entailing the raising of the additional weight of the rolling apparatus in the shaft, enables the same waggons to be run throughout, and has been established as a successful innovation in many of the larger works in the northern coal districts.

In small workings, where manual labour is employed in raising, it may be, a few tons per day, the windlass and a round hempen rope are the means used; with a depth of 30 or 40 yards, a more economical power has to be brought into play.

For horse work the invariable arrangement is to erect the "wheel and axle" kind of machine called a horse-gin or whim, and consisting of a rope-drum built round a vertical axis, the foot of which turns on a stone or iron casting, and the head pivot of which is supported by a long "span-beam" resting at the extremities upon inclined legs. The horses are attached to one or both ends of a strong horizontal beam, generally about 12 yards long, which embraces the vertical axis close beneath the drum, which is from 12 to 16 feet diameter. The ropes passing off from opposite sides of the drum are conducted over little guide pulleys -jackanapes - to the sheaves set in the shaft-frame overhanging the pit. In the last century, before the introduction of Boulton-and-Watt engines, these machines were in constant use, but are now only employed in the sinking of pits, or at shallow works doing a small trade.

Water-power, especially in the hilly districts, was used to a considerable extent, the arrangement by which the drum could be built on the prolonged axis of a waterwheel being the most commonly adopted.

The chief forward step was made when Watt’s double-acting engine, having the steam applied alternately on both sides of the piston, rendered it feasible to apply a rapid rotary motion. The ropes or chains, wound in opposite directions on the drum, are carried over pulleys, either down a single or to two different pits, and thus, with their respective cages or skips, exercise a counterbalancing effect upon each other.

In larger collieries where rapidity is essential, two different forms of engine have for some years been in use. First a large vertical cylinder, from which the piston rod acts direct upon the drum shaft, and the drum being often 18 or even 20 feet in diameter, communicates to a load a velocity of from 10 to 30 feet in a second. The second is the engine of two cylinders placed horizontally - it may be directly - on the drum, and from their reciprocating action motion on on the crank introducing great regularity As examples of some of the more powerful engines employed for these purposes may be mentioned Monkwearmouth - vertical cylinder, 65¼ inches diameter, feet stroke; depth, 286 fathoms, or 1716 feet wire flat rope; useful load, 4 tubs, with weight of cage 24 cwt.; 9 cwt. of coal each ; time of raising, 1¼ minutes. Seaton Delaval - two horizontal cylinders of 36 inches diameter; 6 feet stroke ; high pressure; depth, 112 fathoms, or 672 feet; flat 5-inch wire-rope; load, 4 tubs, 11 to 12 cwt, each; weight of iron cage with chains, 3 tons; time, 30 seconds.

The high velocities which are thus attained in shaft-work, by means of which from 500 to 1000 tons of coal are drawn from a single pit in a day, have been rendered possible only by the use of guides or conductors, which ensure smoothness of movement to the cages and prevent collisions, Cages of combined strength and lightness have lately been made of steel.

The carefully drepared statistics of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Coal-Mines group the accidents under different heads, and among other valuable results show that the casualties in shafts have in the last thirty years been greatly reduced. Whilst in the years 1851 to 1855 one death per annum occurred by shaft accident out of 1000 persons, the ratio has of late years been reduced to one death out of 5017 persons employed. Greater caution has come to be exercised by all parties, superior tackling is used, and close attention is given to its examination; but, as a rule, the ingenious contrivances for arresting the cage when the rope breaks have not met with extended favour. The comparatively very small number of accidents from "over-winding" redounds to the credit of the engine-men and the condition of their appliances.

Still the melancholy fact that from 900 to 1200 persons are every year killed in our British coal-mines forcibly attracts attention to the inquiry, What proportion of these numerous accidents are due to preventible causes, and how far a part of them are inseparable from the dangerous nature of the colliers’ occupation ? The majority of accidents are little noticed except in the immediate vicinity, and they take place at points so remote and so widely distributed as to show that the main difficulty in dealing with them rests in the necessity of keeping up an unceasing watchfulness among many thousands of men, workmen as well as managers.