DOUBLE BORE

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 16th Year

Issue

Issue No.

9

Date Released

May 1963

Length of issue (in feet)

925

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1THE ALCHEMISTS
2. 2DOUBLE BORE
3. 3A WALK IN THE NEWS

Story

Story No. within this Issue

2 / 3

Summary

BFI synopsis: the Wilcox Miner has two enormous auger bits which bore into the coal, seen at work underground at Coppice Colliery, East Midlands.
NCB Commentary - If someone asked you what this was, and you said "two of the largest carpenter’s auger-bits I’ve ever seen", you wouldn’t be far wrong ...
... for that’s basically the Wilcox Miner - an 80 horse-power motor driving twin augers, which bore into the coal and feed it back through their revolving scrolls on to a conveyor.
By moving the two augers up and down, and heaving itself bodily from side-to-side, this promising machine drives a 16 foot wide heading in fairly thin seams - a job which, up till now, it has not been easy to do mechanically.
And only four men are needed to work with it.
The secret of the Wilcox is its continuous performance, even with full supporting programme.

Researcher Comments

Numbered 390 by the NCB.

Keywords

Mining; Engineering; Fuels

Locations

England; Staffordshire

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for synopsis
The British National Film Catalogue   Vol.1 1963, p.56
The National Archives COAL 32   /13 Scripts for Mining Review, 1960-1963

Credits:

Sponsor

National Coal Board

Production Co.

National Coal Board Film Unit