Stories
Pit ponies: a bridle, two names and non-sparking shoes
A bridle from a pub near Barnsley, beryllium-copper shoes, and memories of working with the ponies.
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Stories
Mining telephones
Something different in this post: mining telephones. 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…
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Stories
Electric cap lamps
It’s been a lot of years since everybody at the mine carried an oil lamp, but in later years everybody carried one of these. The first ones I remember having had a…
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Collections
When is a miner’s lamp not a miner’s lamp? Part 2: the Teale
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…
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Collections
When is a miner’s lamp not a miner’s lamp? Part 1: radiator lamps
So, when is a miner’s lamp not a miner’s lamp? When it’s a radiator/sump heater! Included are pictures of lamps hardly distinguishable from miners’ lamps, in most cases made by mining lamp…
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History
Hailwood & Ackroyd coloured-glass lamps
The featured image shows four Hailwood and Ackroyd lamps, or, pre-1926, Ackroyd and Best lamps. The company apparently hired out hundreds, if not thousands, of workmen’s lamps, prior to 1936. This was…
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Stories
Glass Repairs 101: an Indian J.K. Dey lamp
Pictured are two Indian lamps, JK Dey, 13, Old China Bazaar Street, Calcutta (now Kolkata). The one on the left is a non-relighter, the one on the right is a battery ignition,…
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Collections
Modified Abbot & Birks Wolf lamps for the gas industry
These lamps were made by Wolf in England, modified by Abbot and Birks in London, and used by the British Gas Board. They used to install them in a fixed gas line,…
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Stories
Total restoration of a Protector GR6S
The following writing was submitted by Bosuns Mate (a pseudonym) in NSW Australia. Bosuns Mate is an avid collector and restorer of miner’s lamps in NSW Australia. In this post, Bosuns Mate…
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