Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> Men working only by the light afforded by tallow candles would be drilling the shot holes in the hard limestone prior to blast- ing. Each hole was hand bored and took anything up to 12 to 2 hours to complete. It was then charged with black gunpowder the primitive fuse a length of straw with a little powder in it was ignited and the rock blasted down ready to be filled and carried away. A typical level driving under these conditions generally ad- vanced at a rate of about four to five feet per week. In some of the workings men would actually be mining the lead ore. Working in sometimes narrow but relatively high openings they laboriously wedged and picked out and some- times blasted out the precious ore. The measuring and bargain days were certainly ‘red letter days’ at the mines. In some areas they were known as ‘taking days. A substan- tial amount of ale would be sent to the mine on these occasions so that the somewhat laborious task of measuring the ore prior to sale was a well lubricated one. (LL)