On the Trail of Black Gold

Day 13: Edmundbyers to Lincoln

by Jennifer Holzhauser

We met at 8:00 am to eat breakfast and discuss the Shell Oil Pamphlet.

During out discussion we concluded that a technological society relies on turning a wheel!  This motion is used to principally generate energy. To aid in our mobility we use the combustion engine to turn the wheels on our vehicles.  The only types of energy generating technology that do not rely on wheels are photovoltaics and fuel cells. 

In comparison with the United States, vehicles in both Iceland and the UK are considerably smaller, and more fuel efficient. This is driven by the cost of transportation fuels. Petrol in the UK is approximately four-times the price of gasoline in the US, and diesel retails for the same price as petrol in the UK.

Vehicles are more efficient in two ways. First, engine displacements of  European cars are generally smaller than their US counterparts, therefore the IC engines return higher fuel efficiency. In addition, a significant proportion of small sedans in the UK are diesel. Diesel engines of comparable displacement use about half as much fuel (by volume) as their gasoline counterparts -as highlighted in the following discussion.  

Oil: 

• We decided that there is no easy substitute for oil because of its energy density. 

• Petroleum means “rock oil”

• Oil is found in layers of rock where it has been trapped.  Characteristics of permeability and porosity create a cap or dome that contains the oil between the layers of rock.  This sequence of rock layering prevents the oil from escaping. 

• The general term “crude oil” has over 1 million different chemical compositions.  Its components have boiling point ranges from room temperature to 1000 degrees F.  Scientists use the boiling point information to separate the components of the crude oil.  The United States has a high demand for gasoline for its transportation sector, so the industry must chemically alter the oil to produce gasoline.  In Europe, mass transportation is more common.  This has created a higher demand for diesel fuels. 

Differences between Gasoline and Diesel:

• 3 different octane levels for gas.  A pressure difference in the engine’s cylinders is created.  Compression ratios differ between cars.  Honda 8:1, BMW 12:1.  This proves using a high-octane level for a Honda will not improve its performance, but a BMW will benefit from a higher octane level. 

• Diesel is double the compression level of gasoline.  20:1.  This means it gets more miles per unit volume. 

• The octane number is a measure of tendency for it to ignite upon lighting.  12:1- 93 octane number. 

• Isoheptane, a branching hydrocarbon will resist ignition.  This results in a higher octane number.  The standard is 2,2,4trimethylpentane –its octane number is 100.  To get an octane number you compare the combustion to the 100% hydrocarbon and heptane. 

Cetane number:

It is the tendency to ignite by compression.  Hexadecane (cetane) The 0 octane number is methyl nepthaline.  Trucks desire a 50 cetane number, and passenger vehicles desire 60-65.  Jet fuel is closer to diesel than to gasoline.  It is very expensive because of all the additives that are used to increase the fuels performance. 

Diesel problem?:

Diesel is overall less energy intensive to be manufacture at the refinery.  Why don’t we use it?  In 1973 and 1979 the United States was introduced to bad diesel car models.  They are actually but better for energy conservation, but the consumer market rejects this idea.  There are problems with SOx and NOx in diesel.  In order to remove the sulfur you need hydrogen.  Sulfur aerosols contribute to the mass of soot and acid deposition. 

Energy Consumption: 

We currently consume 18 million barrels of the world’s oil, which is 1/4 of all consumption. 

Future:

• Over the next 30 years the U.K. will become a net importer of oil. 

• Refineries are continually staying inflexible to receive varied compositions of oil. 

• There will be increase in bottlenecks due the inability to expand oil refineries in the U.S.

We left at 9:45 for Wakefield.  This is the location of a coal mining museum (about a 3 hr. drive). 

Coal Mine Tour Notes at the National Coal Mining Museum:

Coal was the fuel that spurred and nurtured the Industrial Revolution in the UK. Domestic coal was an important component of energy supply in the UK through the early 1980s, with an annual production of about 250M tons in the early 20th Century produced from a workforce of 1.25M distributed around 2,500 pits. Current annual production is greatly reduced, at 34M tons produced by 11,000 miners.

The tour illustrated how coal mining was carried out in Yorkshire from the early part of the 19^th century to today.  Before entering the mine, we each received a helmet and lamp.

As we left the room where we checked our belongings we saw the house of Emma Lister Kaye built in 1876.  The old steam winder, by Davy Brothers of Sheffield was in regular use at the pit until 1980.  A new boiler will enable us to run it again.  The new winder is a 120 horsepower electro-hydraulic engine built by Needham Brothers and Brown of Barnsley.  It is similar to those used in the Selby coalfield, although much smaller.

This is where Dana was called upon to abandon her notebook and help run the machine.

We then entered an elevator “cage” the banksman gave each of us a “check” (a small piece of metal).  This helps them record how many people are underground at any one time.  We then descended 140 meters to the pit bottom.  On the way down we saw small coal seams and heard water running down the sides of the pit. 

There were about 20 points of interest on the tour.

1. The air doors which lead into the roadways force fresh air to circulate through all parts of the mine. 
2. The boxhole (a small office) was used to fill out reports.  Market men, people with no regular job, were given work here.  Close by was the morphine station.  It was set into the wall for security.  This was used for first aid when an accident occurred.  Today they use pethidine for emergencies. 
3. We then walked down the Sam Walker Drift, a 100m downward slope.  It leads down to the old roadways in the Wheatley Lime seam which are now blocked off.  A mono pump is used to pump water out of the drift. 
4. The model shows a woman pulling a tub full of coal, a scene that would have been common in the late 1830’s.  Before the legislation of 1842 entire families would have worked in the mine together.  The act prevented women and children under the age of 10 to work in the mine. 
5. Small children around age 6 and 7 were used as trappers.  They would open and close the air doors to allow air to circulate along the roadways.  Candles were too expensive at this time, so the little kids would sit in the dark for their entire shift. 
6. We then looked up at how the roof of the mine was being supported.  Cocking or herringbone roof support was used in the mine.  It was used all the way up to the 1900’s.  It is a strong method of supporting restricted pit bottoms and major roadways. 
7. The next figure we saw was a man holding a pick to get the coal from the seam.  He did this by the light of only one candle.  Many mines used the pillar and stall system.  Each man would work in his own stall which was like a small room with the roof supported by pillars of unworked coal. 
8. Most pits had underground stables.  The ponies were used to haul the large tubs of coal along the roadways.  Only Ellington Colliery in Northumberland still uses ponies today.  Most modern mines use conveyor belts, rope hauls, and other diesel vehicles to transport the coal.  The Coal Mine Acts of 1911 and 1956 limited the working hours and the stable conditions for the ponies. 
9. The miner here is shoveling coal into the tub; the thickness of the seam determines the miners working position.  In a seam of the thickness we saw, men had to work kneeling down, but in a thin seam, (41-46 cm thick) the miner would work lying on his side. 
10. The use of an undercutting was common from the 1920’s to the 1950’s.  Kelsey held a AB Fifteen model.  The “jib” was 2 m long and .3 m wide with cutter picks on a cutter chain.  It was used to bore holes into the seam and then explosives were shoved into the holes.  When they were fired the coal would be brought down for filling. 
11. The advancing of the roadways usually involved cutting, boring, and ripping.  The night crew generally did this, and the day crew then filled the tubs and put the coal onto the conveyor belts.  Using this method of rotation, a mine could advance its walls by 2m every 24 hours. 
12. The presence of methane gas was detected by using a flame test.  An explosive mixture is between 5-15%, but workers will be brought out of the mine at levels of 2%. 
13. Boring machines are used to drill the holes to place explosives, different machines being used for stone or coal.  These can be electric, hydraulic, or compressed air and are very heavy. 
14. The haulage engine was built in the 1940’s, and powered by an electric motor built by Brook Motors, Huddersfield, and restored by Needham Brothers and Brown and Barnsley.  The rope can be followed to the weight hole, which by keeping the small return wheel under tension keeps the rope tight around the surface wheel. 
15. The power loader face shows methods of cutting and loading the coal by machine from the early trepanner to the modern ranging arm shearer.  With these machines the coal is loaded onto an armored conveyor (panzer) and then to conveyor belts. 
16. There are different methods of roof supporting.  There are prop and bar systems and powered supports that minimize exposed roof. 
17. The Eimco 623 electrically powered, tracked, side load bucket is used for moving debris after the coal face or stone has been bored and fired using explosives. 
18. The Dosco Dintheader is used for cutting roadways with a rectangular cross-section.  The cutting jib has four cutter chains with around 360 cutter picks and will cut around 100 to 200 m a week. 
19. The Dosco Roadheader machine is used to cut roadways in an arched cross-section.  This only goes about 30 to 50 m per week, but the arch is a much more stable structure for main roadways. 
20. Pit bottom snap (meals) cabin, the eating-place for men working in the pit bottom.  Most miners eat at their work place when their work allowed them to take a break. 

This information was taken from the notes provided on the tour at the museum’s gift shop. 

The Museum: 

• RJB Deep Mines Ltd. sponsors the museum. 

• All bituminous coal.

• Coal shows lines of cleat, which are the lines that enabled a miner to know where to start work. 

• Most coal we have today was deposited during the Carboniferous period. 

• In 1904 the owners of the Hensworth-Fitzwill Colliery in West Yorkshire cut their workers pay by half.  The workers would not return to the mines after this pay cut.  In August of 1905 the owner of the mine began to evict the mine families from their homes. 

• Free soup kitchens were established during this time of need. 

• Many diseases including white fingers (caused by vibration of drills), Nystagmus (eye disease caused by low light), beat knee (crawling) Pneumoconiosis (dust lung disease), and roof falls killed many of the mine workers at an early age. 

• Coal contributes to making products such as explosives, clothes dyes, plastics, fertilizers, detergents, paints, perfumes, and weed killers. 

• Coalite is a chemically treated form of coal that was used because it was smokeless.

• “I was now a man, for a man is not really a man in Durham until he goes down the pit” –T. Lamb 1993

• After 1920 the levy on coal provided a little more money for the coalmine workers. 

• WWI posed a problem for coal production because many of the men who worked in the mines went to war. 

• Those laborers who were left were relied upon to defeat their enemies by providing energy for their nation. 

• The Pals Battalion was formed by a large group of miners.  The battalion suffered many casualties at the battle of Somme. 

• During WWII an Essential Work Order was placed to ensure men were kept from leaving the mine.  The Bevin Boys were a group who worked the mines during this time.  They felt their efforts and sacrifices to produce more coal were forgotten after the veterans came home from war. 

• In 1984-1985 mine families rallied for the pits not to close. 

• 34 million tons of coal are extracted from England each year.  There are currently 11,000 workers. 

• In the early 20^th century there were 1.25 million employees, and they produced 250 million tones per year.  There were over 2,500 pits at that time. 

Jennifer Holzhauser is a Junior in Geosciences.

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Last updated: Wednesday December 03, 2003