Machine that revolutionised mining

Museum Morsels

Contributor: TOM REARDON

IT WAS in 1948 that an American company tested a new machine that would revolutionise the coal industry and it was suggested that it could solve Australia’s coal problems as it could double the country’s production.

A prominent article in Perth’s Sunday Times, in August 1948, was headlined “Robot of the coal mines would make miners mere button-pushers”.

The article pointed out that the machine had the capacity to double output and reduce mining costs by cutting the coal and sending it to the surface in one continuous operation.

Hence the machine’s title, the “Joy Continuous Miner” or to be more precise the “Joy Sullivan Continuous Miner”.

However, it was not all plain sailing in Australia as many coal mines were not suitable for its use.

Five such machines were purchased for use in Australian mines at the cost of £50,000 each.

The Joint Coal Board of New South Wales purchased two for its new operations while the third was bought by the Australian Iron and Steel Company, a subsidiary of Broken Hill Pty Ltd. to be used in the company’s Nebo mine, near Wollongong.

The fourth continuous miner made its way to the Cornwell Coal Company, in Tasmania, while the final one was purchased by Amalgamated Collieries of W.A. Ltd and of course found its way to Collie.

There was not much publicity on the arrival of the machines when three of them contained in large wooden boxes were unloaded at the Sydney wharf.

What was so special about the Joy Con- tinuous Miner? This machine was less than two metres high, about 7.5 metres long and weighed about 18 tonnes and moved on caterpillar treads.

It had powerful cutting arms, which dug into the face of the coal seam at floor level before the arms cut their way to the roof.

As the coal was cut and broken, a con- which to extract coal. In addition to its ability to increase production, the continuous miner had other advantages.

Dust produced by shot-firing was eliminated and the machine itself was fitted with 19 water sprays to lay any dust produced while it was doing its job.

Another advantage was that men working the machine were stationed well veyor system carried it back over the machine and directly into cars which were then hauled to the surface. In late June of 1950 the Joy Sullivan Continuous Miner and two cars arrived on the “Pioneer Star” ship at the Fremantle for Amalgamated Collieries.

The continuous miner was designed to reduce four of the normal coal mining operations - drilling, shot firing, cutting and loading - into one single operation.

The front end of the machine consisted of a ripper head which comprised six chains studded with bits, or teeth, which tore the coal from the face and dumped it in centrally located hoppers. From here it was picked up by the machine’s main conveyor belt and fed into stationary shuttle cars.

In order to be totally efficient, the continuous miner had to be supported by an efficient haulage system which normally consisted of mobile shuttle cars to transfer the coal to a conveyor belt or large mine cars to be moved on.

One advantage of the continuous miner was that the ripper head could be moved from the right to the left, presenting the operator with a greater coal face from back from the coal face and under a timbered roof which added considerably to their safety.

Of course, there were concerns with the introduction of these new machines.

In 1950 the Central Council of the Miners Federation met with the Joint Coad Board to discuss the impact continuous miners would have on employment.

However, industry leaders insisted the use of these machines would have no noticeable effect on employment because there was a shortage of labour in the industry.

They admitted the number of miners at the coal face would be cut but the men would be deployed to work in other needed areas.

When discussing the production possibilities of the machines, it was pointed out that no business would invest that amount of money in machines without being convinced of their value to the operation.

At the time, the country was plagued by gas and electricity shortages due mainly to the lack of fuel and power and it was well argued that these machines would help turn the situation around.