It’s about 20 odd years since the last ponies came out of the pits in England, Ellington had the last ones, and I think a pit in Wales brought theirs out just before. I used to work with them quite often, we had over 100, that varied in size from 8.5 hands to 14 hands, I believe at 14.5 hands, a pony becomes a horse. At Ashington Colliery where I did my training, I was told they had over 600, but they had 4.500 men underground too.

The saddest story I ever heard about them was detailed in a book, by a chap called Thompson, an ex colliery manager, who taught at the local Mining School, it was called ‘How Long Did The Ponies Live’. It tells of the time when at a mine just north of Newcastle, a shaft collapsed, and the men underground were very lucky to get out. They left all the ‘Choppy’ out for the ponies to eat, and as much water as they could find, and had to leave them and run. They were never able to get back.

The horseshoes were special ones made of beryllium, a copper alloy that doesn’t create sparks. If a pony was required to work in an area where gas may be a problem, the farrier used to fit these beryllium shoes, which were very expensive, then put steel ones back on when the job was done. The small ones, (and they are very small!) came from Scotland, and the larger ones came from, I was told, the deepest pit in Lancashire, which was, I believe, Parsonage Colliery.

Beryllium was also used in place of steel for tools that had to be used in return airways, hammers, chisels, spanners and all bricklayers tools. They had to be handed back after each job.

In the gallery below you’ll see pit ponies, from my early days. I knew the horse keeper with the soft cap on, holding a small piebald pony in the last image.

– Information provided by Bosuns Mate.

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Who remembers the first phone below, the Davis of Derby speech powered handset, carried tucked in your shirt on the early power loading faces, you were always talking when you should be listening. They plugged into a socket on the lock-out boxes.
The GEC phone, next to the speech powered handset, was unbelievably still in use when I started at the mine, all of the pit on one party line.

The third phone below, came from Ireland Colliery in Derbyshire I was informed by the seller, it didn’t look like that when I got it!
The fourth phone is a surface phone, but it was intrinsically safe, and was connected to the underground system. The label reads MH direct, which would have been Managers House direct.

The last one below came from Bedlington in Northumberland. The seller said it belonged to an uncle, who was an electrician at Ashington Colliery during WW2. It’s a field telephone, used to tap into the lines when fault finding.

– Information provided by Bosuns Mate.

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As far as I know, there were 9 different colour bezels for the lamps and a variety of coloured helmets. Some collieries I believe, tried to introduce a colour code, made up of a combination of the colours of lamps and helmets to identify the workforce, with regard to who and what they were. I never heard of one that was successful.

– Information provided by Bosuns Mate.

The post Electric Cap Lamps appeared first on Old Flames.

The brass Teale is a radiator/sump heater, and. I suspect the steel lamp with the circular lock was used as one too. The steel lamp had had the locking ring and the lug for the lead slug ground off, very rough job, and the fuel cell was badly marked too. Also, the porcelain burner was missing. As I said before, it’s amazing what you can do with basic tools, but there is a limit. A good and very talented friend of mine made a new locking ring for me, and I was able to make a template from another lamp to drill the holes in it. I also had to make a new locking lug, and solder it on. So far so good, then I saw this wreck of the brass one, which had a porcelain burner. I bought it, and the end result was one nicely restored Teale.

It was then that I decided to conduct an exercise in futility. The brass Teale had been exposed to so much long term intense heat, the brass around the inlet air holes was disintegrating, and was only just attached. I removed it, drilled out the old rivets, made some small brass right-angled brackets, and used small brass nuts and bolts to attach them back to the bonnet lid, filed the slots off the screw heads, then soldered the top back on. I had to make a new burner, just plain brass, but it doesn’t look too bad!

See also a good example of Teales trademark ‘ Star of David ‘, often these have been polished off.

– Information provided by Bosuns Mate.

The post When is a Miners Lamp not a Miners Lamp, Part 2 appeared first on Old Flames.

Included are pictures of lamps hardly distinguishable from miners’ lamps, in most cases made by mining lamp manufacturers. The image below shows three Radiator lamps all with different burners.

The one with the three wicks I found in an antique shop in Tavistock, Devon, many years ago, when I first got into collecting. I was sceptical about it, three wicks and no lock, and the gauze burnt out? but I bought it for £30. Not a bad price you may say, but this was 1988! I do have some genuine underground bi-folds, and a couple of times I’ve had to make the wick adjusters for them. First time I made one, I couldn’t for the life of me, match the threads 1/4” 20 tpi, but I found eventually, that the thread on the screw has a different angle, it was an Admiralty spec. and I had to buy a special tap to finish it.

The below picture is of a Premier, a Teale, and a Primo. All nice looking lamps, and should find a space in anybody’s collection. The Teale is a separate story on it’s own so, more to come!

– Information provided by Bosuns Mate.

The post When is a Miners Lamp not a Miners Lamp, Part 1 appeared first on Old Flames.

To soften the blow of parting with the lamps, I sent her a small imitation brass Protector, as in the picture, and, I’m pleased to say, she sounded overjoyed to receive it!

– Information provided by Bosuns Mate.

The post Hailwood & Ackroyd Coloured Glass Lamps appeared first on Old Flames.

Through time this crack grew slowly, till it was nearly the full circumference. By this time, I had decided to try and get a relighter type from India, as I believe they are probably the last company to make approved miners lamps. Albeit approved by the Indian Government, I don’t know to what extent this approval would be recognised worldwide. I immediately met a problem, yes I could purchase a lamp and replacement glass, but I couldn’t pay by credit card or PayPal. It had to be a bank transfer to the required amount in Indian Rupees. I contacted an Indian Bank that had offices in Sydney and was told no, I couldn’t open an account, and no, they didn’t deal in cash. That left me scratching my head, wondering why it was called a bank? Back to JK Dey, could I leave it till I visited the UK? Doing it from Australia meant the money was going through a bank in Syria of all places. Yes, that was OK, so I eventually managed a transaction through Barclays. It didn’t go smoothly though, the bank did the transfer leaving JK Dey to pay the transfer costs. By this time I was back in Australia, so I offered to send them some cash to the value of £20 in Sterling or US$. Fortunately, they took pity on me and waived the deficit.

So that left me with a cracked glass, which I thought I might be able to repair with a windscreen repair kit. See the pictures for the result – not bad I thought! As another acquaintance once told me, a cracked glass is better than no glass at all!

– Information provided by Bosuns Mate.

The post Glass Repairs 101 appeared first on Old Flames.

For anybody who has never seen a gasometer, every geriatric cricket fan will remember the famous one in Surrey, at Kennington Oval. In those days, the BBC only had one camera at a test match, and it was facing the gasometer, which would rise and fall at mealtimes, according to how hungry the customers were.
I don’t remember seeing Bradman bat in front of it, as we didn’t have TV then, but I remember watching Lindsey Hasset bat in front of it, and, few will believe this, bowl too.

– Information provided by Bosuns Mate.

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In this post, Bosuns Mate explains with photos how he went about rebuilding a Protector GR6S lamp.

Searching through a box of bits and pieces, I found that I had nearly enough parts to build a Protector GR6S, probably the most common of lamps to be found. However, some of the parts had come from a Type 6 that had been butchered to make it into an electric table lamp. The steel pillars from the Type 6 were too short for a GR6S, and the sliding pillar was also missing, so I decided to make some brass pillars, without the benefit of using a lathe. The steel pillars had been removed once before and were easily punched out. Had they not been, they would have to be carefully cut with a hacksaw.
Please note, if you’re going to attempt restoring a lamp, it’s much easier if you have at least a basic knowledge of metalwork, and a few basic tools.
To start with, all British lamps have Imperial threads, usually British Association (BA), or British Standard Whitworth (BSW). European lamps have Metric threads. Most of us know someone who can assist or offer advice.
Being without a lathe does not necessarily mean you’re stuck, as quite a bit can be achieved with an old electric hand drill and a couple of files.
The pillars are usually 3/16” in diameter. To start with, a Stock & Die size 2BA thread must be cut into the bottom ends of the pillars, while the other ends have to be reduced in diameter to fit into the relevant pillar holes to make up the lamp’s cage.
The pillars’ threaded bottom ends are screwed into the lamp’s cage construction, while the top ends slot into the provided holes. The thread size is 2BA, as shown in the picture of a stock and die.
By measuring the pillar to the exact size and placing some sort of ‘stop’ on it, you can freely apply a flat file to the rotating end in question, to create the shoulder intended to fit into the cage holes. For this purpose, it is better if the file has one smooth edge, like a 10” Flat File.
Depending on whether you can reverse the drill, you might find it quicker to hold the file level, and back to front. The sliding pillar must be done at both ends.
I found that a perfect answer to getting the exact length is to use the internal brass piece from an electrical connector, the Blue Point (BP) connector, which is a perfect size. Any electrician should have something similar in a scrap box.
When you get this all together, as shown in the pictures, apply a dab of solder to the ends of each pillar. This will hold them solid.
Factory-made ones have the ends belled over in a machine. This is difficult to achieve without specialist tools, and not necessary, as the use of the lamp is for your pleasure and amusement, and a Mines inspector isn’t going to check on your work.

The bottom plate, with the striker assembly on it, is easy to do if the Flint isn’t stuck. Stuck flints are quite common in lamps that have not been used for a long time. To fix this you need an old broad blade screwdriver with a sharpened blade end, and a slot filed into the screwdriver blade edge (pls refer to the images below). This will enable you to remove the double slotted dome nut that secures the striker shaft and Flint wheel, while at the same time gently holding the small gear wheel at the bottom of the shaft with a pair of standard pliers. You should then be able to push the old Flint out and then reassemble the striker.
All you need now, is a bonnet, fuel cell, glass, two gauzes, and two gaskets, and you have yourself a rebuilt Protector GR6S lamp.

More about Bosuns Mate (BM):
In the merchant navy, the Bosons Mate (BM) was known as the ‘Lampy‘. His duty was to maintain the lamps, and trim the wicks before electricity made it into the mainstream. Later the Bosons Mate would become the 2IC of the deck crew, and a Petty Officer, known as the Lamp Trimmer. Nowadays it is a rank and job that has now been consigned to the dustbin of history, but back then it wasn’t when BM was sailing the Deep Seas.

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