Early Equipment Memories

[gus horsley]

I always wanted to be a bricklayer but I never managed to develop the necessary cleavage.

I had a carbide lamp explode on my head when the seal went. It blew the bracket off and destroyed my headgear but, fortunately for me, I was wearing one of those compressed cardboard helmets with the rivets in it, so I wasn't covered in molten plastic. I still have a symmetrical ring of metal fragments embedded in my skull though. I think it might have been in Lancaster Hole but I can't remember much about it.

 

[Peter Burgess]

I think it might have been in Lancaster Hole but I can't remember much about it.

Brain damage, clearly. Do you set off metal detectors in airports?

 

[susie]

Indeed there are a large number but that wasn't the question I asked.

I'm not sure that one could identify the original version now. It certainly preceded Hoffnung.

 

[emgee]

Indeed there are a large number but that wasn't the question I asked.

I'm not sure that one could identify the original version now. It certainly preceded Hoffnung.

It certainly did.

http://www.snopes.com/humor/letters/bricks.asp

Puts the earliest known version at 1918.

Hoffnung does tell it rather well though.

 

[Dep]

>>To get full marks you need to post a URL to the original of this story

This came round a long time ago to me as an emailed 'Irish Builder' joke, I suspect it is a really really old stage/comedy routine. I changed a few words to make it cave related and added to our club website funnies page.

 

[Dep]

Ah, just followed the links posted by Brains and emgee - could well be right.

As I said I just picked this up a long time ago as a general email funny that does the rounds like so many do.
But with all of these there has to be an original author - well that's one tracked down!

And of course 1918 is only an earliest date for publication - it could have been a verbal story/joke going back perhaps a century more...

They say you learn something new every day...

 

[Roger W]

Back to Gus' original query...

I have memories of being taken through Masson (Matlock Bath) in the days when everyone in the party was provided with a candle, and being very proud of managing to keep my candle alight when most other people's had blown out, only to have mine extinguished by a drop of water falling from the cave roof...

Which raises an interesting question - how on earth did t'owd man manage to work underground without his candle getting blown out or dripped on? Are tallow candles better at burning in draughts than paraffin wax? Does anybody have any ideas?

 

[gus horsley]

Which raises an interesting question - how on earth did t'owd man manage to work underground without his candle getting blown out or dripped on? Are tallow candles better at burning in draughts than paraffin wax? Does anybody have any ideas?

Interesting question, which I do know the answer to.

Miners used to work in small groups (a couple to drill shot holes and several to sharpen drills, tamp gunpowder, etc), so if a candle went out it could be reignited by somebody else. Also, the miner would detach the candle from his cap at his workplace and stick it onto the wall with a lump of clay, presumably out of the way of draughts and drips.

But there are several accounts of miners suffering communal "blow-out", the most famous being the Wheal Owles disaster of 1896 when miners accidently holed through into flooded workings. The resulting rush of water and associated gale-force wind extinguished all the candles, resulting in a greater loss of life (30) than should have happened. Incidentally, a miner had a premonition of the disaster and for several weeks before would wake up in the middle of the night screaming "water, water!" before being told to shut up by his missus.

Talking of being in the dark has reminded me of another incident. About 35 years ago I camped up at Gaping Gill during the winch meet and made the mistake of going to the pub first, then wandering up to the fell on a particularly dark night, found where everyone was camping. In order to avoid falling over guyropes I pitched my tent on a sloping bit of ground away from the main camp. I didn't have a light apart from my caving lamp, which I didn't want to use. When I looked out of the tent in the morning I found to my horror that I'd pitched it right on the edge of the funnel dropping into the Main Shaft. If I'd slipped in my drunken state...

 

[emgee]

Which raises an interesting question - how on earth did t'owd man manage to work underground without his candle getting blown out or dripped on? Are tallow candles better at burning in draughts than paraffin wax? Does anybody have any ideas?

Interesting question, which I do know the answer to.

Miners used to work in small groups (a couple to drill shot holes and several to sharpen drills, tamp gunpowder, etc), so if a candle went out it could be reignited by somebody else. Also, the miner would detach the candle from his cap at his workplace and stick it onto the wall with a lump of clay, presumably out of the way of draughts and drips.

But there are several accounts of miners suffering communal "blow-out", the most famous being the Wheal Owles disaster of 1896 when miners accidently holed through into flooded workings. The resulting rush of water and associated gale-force wind extinguished all the candles, resulting in a greater loss of life (30) than should have happened. Incidentally, a miner had a premonition of the disaster and for several weeks before would wake up in the middle of the night screaming "water, water!" before being told to shut up by his missus.

Talking of being in the dark has reminded me of another incident. About 35 years ago I camped up at Gaping Gill during the winch meet and made the mistake of going to the pub first, then wandering up to the fell on a particularly dark night, found where everyone was camping. In order to avoid falling over guyropes I pitched my tent on a sloping bit of ground away from the main camp. I didn't have a light apart from my caving lamp, which I didn't want to use. When I looked out of the tent in the morning I found to my horror that I'd pitched it right on the edge of the funnel dropping into the Main Shaft. If I'd slipped in my drunken state...

You'd have been famous as the guy who was so pissed he tried to pitch his tent on top of main shaft. But instead you missed your chance of fame and immortallity and went comfortably to bed.