They certainly did. My first mining job in 1971 involved going up to the Ryder Point plant to watch the incoming ore from Deepwood Mining Company being sampled by the Guiulini people as Deepwood didn't trust the analysis and thought they were being diddled. All the lab staff were Italian.

Sadly some of his 'models' are no longer with us.

That type of lamp was not around in the Nystagmus days. That is a comparatively modern lamp. No idea about the glass but I will try my lamp with UV, just for fun!

That will be a problem for the outdoor centres. It is a favourite venue for many of them and was/is inspected every year for the purpose.

Correct. I don't know why I said Acme. I have a Hardy pick in my shed with the name cast into it...

The blade size will vary as they were resharpened. The whole idea is that a collier could knock back the wedge and remove the blade. He then took the blade up with him at the end of the shift so it could be sharpened for the next day. They were sharpened by the blacksmith, heated and hammered...

I rather think that Miles' site got overtaken by him starting his Go Below business and finding no spare time to do anything else!

Aditnow was very good because many of the photos were uploaded during discussions and so had context and folk could add extra snippets of information to enhance the value of the photos. A bland database is OK but it really needs a forum bolted on for discussion.

The chap with the red ammo tin is on a short belay to the main rope shackle. Having said that, the short belay looks like it is bailer twine and that's old bailer twine, not modern polyprop stuff! I never liked the idea of lowering on a brake band as done in the film. PDMHS always lowered by...

Pete, That’s a lovely photo of the forepoling in the main adit. Terry and I did that in the early 90’s when we were contracted to the IOM government to re-open the adit. Les

Sorry for the late reply, I am abroad on hols at present and missed things. However, I have still been exploring. Did anyone see the Aditnow Facebook post about the iron mine in France near Nancy? We went last week, interesting place. Bad air in mines is a fascinating subject. Over the years...

I would agree, looking at the shape of the bottom end , it looks like it was curving round like the other end. Possibly some sort of cable support bracket? No idea about the age of the lamp. However, it is a very old design. In 1981 my wife found a pottery lamp of the same design in a Roman...

We had to install a lot of tell tales at Dragonby. They consisted of long wires up to 8metres into boreholes fixed to traffic light coloured tubes. If the strata sagged, the wire pulled tighter and the tube showed a visible warning. They are easy to see as you travel past and if there is change...

Not a big surprise really. There is not a great future for mining engineers in the UK now. If you wanted to be an ME in coal mining, I can't really imagine where you could get your underground training done?

As one who did enter the industry as a trainee, it was well paid and with good training. I qualified as a Chartered mining engineer / colliery manager and spent 50 years in mining.

It has taken Miles some time to overcome the obstacles in the way to get this up and running, some natural, some official. It does look as posh as the photos! However, spare a thought for the poor instructor who shares the night with the customers - he has to empty the bog in the morning and...

Having done this sort of work before, it would be a very expensive job to support the Sir Francis wheels. It would also be difficult to do without being very visible afterwards. Some years ago we were asked to install something to prevent the Laxey man engine from disappearing downwards. That...

That purple stuff is very weird. It completely ignores the beds above and below, even though they look like the same stuff!

The texture, size and shape of them does look like some kind of firebrick. If they have just been used as rubble infill, it is a good bet that they have come from some demolition site somewhere close by.

As I have said before on AN, I have worked with some of the folk on this project. They some of the last of a nearly extinct breed. I hope they really do get a permanent green light to do what they were trained to do and can do well.