"The Monday" (28 pound sledge used in British Mine
Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 8:24 pm
Shovelglove was (loosely) inspired by history, so I was very excited to get the following email last week:
Reinhard
My correspondent did some further research:The reason I’m writing, is a story my father told me about a sledgehammer the young blacksmiths used at the coal mine where he worked as a coal miner in South Wales, Britain.
On a Monday after their weekend they’d use a sledgehammer called “The Mondayâ€. This was used to loosen up and to carry out a specific maintenance job that was only performed on a Monday.
The “Monday†was a 28 pound sledge and the trainee blacksmiths used this sledge hammer between them for most of the afternoon.
Being brought up in a mining village I never really knew how fit and strong some of the local men actually were. The coal mines have now closed in South Wales for twenty years and most of these men are now in their sixties, but in their day they must have been very fit men.
Not only did these miners use monster 28 pound sledgehammers, but they also put in considerably more time than 14 minutes a day:I saw my father last night with more info. on the “Mondayâ€.
As I previously said, the Monday was a 28 pound sledge hammer. The “Monday†was used on a Monday to get most of the heavy work performed by the beginning of the week and to repair anything left over from the weekend. It would be used the rest of the week, depending on the work schedule but mostly on a Monday.
The “Monday†was used by a man called a striker. He worked with the smith (blacksmith). It was used for swaging the ends of 12 inch diameter pipes so that they could be joined to other pipes. These pipes were used to convey compressed air around the mine which was used to power tools such as pneumatic drills. Electricity or petrol/diesel engines were not allowed down mines as there was a chance of causing explosions, because of the presence of methane gas. The heavy duty tools were powered by air. My father seems to think that American mines had a different grade of coal with larger coal seams but not as much methane, so were able to use electricity. I don’t know whether this is correct.
The strikers worked in pairs with a pair of smiths. The smiths and strikers would manually load the pipe into the forge where the end of the pipe was heated. It was then removed from the fire when hot and the two strikers would swage the end of the pipe striking alternatively with the smiths manipulating the pipe and making the shaping blows with hammers. When the pipe cooled it was put back into the fire and the process repeated.
The coal mine my father and grandfather worked in was called Markham
colliery in South Wales. My other grandfather worked in Bargoed colliery
also in South Wales.
Both my grandfathers were colliers. These are men who shoveled coal
twelve hours a day, filling coal trucks, so you can imagine they were
very fit men even when sixty years of age.
Reinhard