ADVANCE

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 12th Year

Issue

Issue No.

1

Date Released

Sep 1958

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1CHOPWELL BEAUTY
2. 2WORKING WEEK-END
3. 3COALS FOR CHINA
4. 4ADVANCE

Story

Story No. within this Issue

4 / 4

Summary

BFI synopsis: new developments in self-advancing roof supports including the Dawtry Roofmaster.
NCB Commentary - Five years ago only a few million tons of coal a year were produced by machines which both cut the coal and loaded it - mostly by the Meco-Moore, no stranger to "Mining Review".
Today about a third of out total output is won by power loaders, the Anderton Shearer Loader, Flight Loaders, Ploughs and others.
Almost all these newer machines need a support system on which there are no props hard up against the coal face. Instead the bars are cantilevered out over the conveyor leaving a free run for the power loader.
These cantilever systems need props which can be set rapidly and removed rapidly - generally our own hydraulic props or yielding props of the German pattern.
We’ve seen the Seaman support system on the surface and underground. One man can control the rise and fall and the forward movement of these supports by the simple adjustment of a control valve.
Another modern power support system is the Roofmaster, so far only demonstrated in "Mining Review" on the surface.
Here is the Roofmaster system in action underground at New Stubbin Colliery, near Rotherham.
This Trepanner face is now being supported and kept safe by a hydraulic control system which is easy on man-power as it keeps up with the advance.
Development of these supports proceeds apace.
More massive, more efficient, and speedier in operation, these power support systems are fresh milestones on the road to coal winning of the future which may be controlled from outside the actual coal-face.

Researcher Comments

Commentary recorded on 25th July 1958.

Keywords

Mining; Engineering; Inventions and discoveries

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for synopsis
Film User   Vol.13 No.147 January 1959, p27.
The National Archives COAL 32   /12 Scripts for Mining Review, 1956-1960

Credits:

Production Co.

Documentary Technicians Alliance

Sponsor

National Coal Board