Nowadays that's probably because half of each shift will have been bussed in from the local Jobcentre, for their 2 weeks work experience.
The women will have been sent to Poundland, the blokes to the local mine.
michael adams
...
A lot came on the market from the old stock of Protector Lamp and Lighting. Real but brand new lamps are available at about £75 made from ex British Coal supplies and manufacturers spares.
However, there is also a large industry in India dedicated to producing fakes. No only of lamps but compasses, sextants, telescopes, binoculars, theodolites etc. Brass seems to be a favourite material and the relatively rough manufacturing techniques convince many they are originals. I first encountered this in Oman a decade or so ago where there were stalls in the souk selling nothing but theodolites. Two stalls down would be the compass stall, and next door the sextant stall. There was no way 100 original theodolites were going to end up on one stall in one market.
Almost every miner took a lamp or three when they left. They are not rare by any means.
In the closing years of UK collieries lamp-room officials would take orders for private purchase of authentic lamps (new ones), usually by miners to use as souvenirs. ISTR that around 1980 they could be purchased for around 20 to 30 quid. I don't know what the "official" (BC) line was on this.
I have one that was bought from an antiques shop around 1970. It looks as if it has been polished a few thousand times, has a colliery name and serial number, clear thick glass (slightly cracked) and the metal gauze in the chimney. The base is brass, the chimney iron.
The locking mechanism is a robust spring-loaded ratchet which can only be released with a powerful magnet from below the base. There is a glass feedthrough for a spark igniter.
John
And which caste will the miner(s) be from?
That's the most likely source, or an online supplier of replicas.
All real mine safety lamps that I've seen have a lock, and so can only be lit by an authorised person, who will be aware of the total ban on naked flames inside coal mines. If the lock isn't there, it's either a fake (Highly likely in this case), or it's been modified.
Seems like a lot of work to put all those labels on if it was just a repro job though. Maybe it was an export model.. grin.
Brian
A bit of DIY coal mining is not a new idea
ITYF that nowadays most domestic "deeds" specifically exclude mineral rights. :-(
Certainly mine do, but since there was a colliery centred about 1/4 mile from here, it's a bit unlikely that there's much black stuff under me...
Coal, gold and silver under your property belongs to the Crown (according to my Dad) but it's a while since he retired (but his job was related to the subject).
Coal is an exception I think.
Nicked from
" Silver, gold, oil and other petrochemicals are also minerals of course, but are owned by the Crown. Pity. Coal is the other obvious exception; although ownership was nationalised in the early twentieth century, the coal industry was subsequently re- privatised in the 1990s, with the majority of viable mines being sold to private companies. This means that current ownership of coal deposits is complicated and needs to be researched carefully."
I don't think I'll bother digging for coal. It takes me all my time to dig weeds out of the garden.
And just think of all that CO2 and pollution and all our environmental targets going up in smoke.
All the more reason to dig for coal then...
"environmental targets" - pah!
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