Wheal Busy
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Wheal Busy is close to the mining hamlet of Chacewater. It is
remarkable for its range of structures, its technological
association with Newcomen engines and the first Cornish Watt
engine, and the character of its surviving mining landscape. The
impressive engine house (1858), with its rare intact adjoining
boiler house (for three Lancashire boilers), dominates the site.
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Otherwise known as Chacewater Mine or
Great Busy, the first mention of Wheal Busy is in 1666. From the
early 18th century, this area at the eastern end of the central
Cornish mining region, rich in both copper and tin, became the
focus for intense activity and was the site at which James Watt
introduced some of his most important improvements in steam engine
design. The profit on the first working is said to have been
£200,000. In 1822 the mine was 128 fathoms deep and by 1838
employed 112 people.
By 1842 the mine had been abandoned at 220 fathoms deep, was
flooded and working only above adit level (46 fathoms), but by
1856 it had once again started operations and drianed to 150
fathoms below adit. Equipment on the mine included an 85'' pumping
engine, 31'' and 20 '' stamping and crushing engines, and two 22''
winding engines. The mine was suspended in 1873.
In 1893 a proposal by R.H. Williams and others to form a company
to work the mine with Hallenbeagle, North Downs, Great Briggan and
Wheal Rose came to nothing and that of the Killifreth Company to
work it for arsenic in 1920 failed due to a sudden fall in the
price. The dumps have since been worked over for arsenic and
wolfram.
From 1815 to 1870 it produced large quantities of copper, and
after that date was wrought largely for arsenic. The bulk of the
copper output was raised before 1856 when the mine was 100 fathoms
below Deep Adit level, below this level both tin and copper were
worked. Between 1817 and 1924, 753 tons of arsenic were produced.
In addition the mine produced some lead ore, silver and pyrite.
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