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'Cornish
Mining' technology overseas [location
map]
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Across the globe the Cornish introduced an efficient,
highly structured and capital-intensive method of mining on a scale
not seen before. Industrial landscapes reminiscent of Cornwall
emerged, complete with engine houses and chapels.
Trevithick’s transatlantic venture (1814-18) saw high
pressure Cornish steam engines and boilers fabricated in numerous
sections, transported by sail across the Atlantic and then conveyed on
mules over 15,000 feet (4,500m) up into the Andes to be re-assembled
at the flooded Pasco silver mines. This remarkable example of British
technological dynamism laid the foundation for Cornwall’s world-class
export market in mining equipment, particularly the Cornish engine
which, accommodated in its characteristic masonry house, came to mark
diverse landscapes ranging from England, Wales, Scotland, the Isle of
Man and Ireland to Spain, Cuba, Virgin Gorda, Central America, South
Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
As early as 1824 an order manufactured by the Perran
Foundry weighing 1,500 tons was shipped from Falmouth for the Mexican
Real del Monte Mining Company, including nine Cornish beam engines and
Cornish boilers. From 1848-88, 33 Cornish engine houses were erected
in South Australia. The Cornish also led the way in waterwheel
technology, introducing it to Mexican mines and employing it on a
large-scale and a systematic basis for the first time in
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Beam Engines |
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The D F Wouda Steam Pumping Station, Lemmer, Holland
(inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1998). Three Cornish engines
were ordered by the Dutch Government in the mid-1840s for the purpose
of draining the Haarlem Mere. Two were supplied by Harvey & Co., Hayle,
and the other by Perran Foundry, Perran-ar-worthal. The cylinder cover of the Cruquius engine is pictured
(right): with an outer cylinder diameter of 144 inches (3.66m), it is
the largest steam engine ever built.
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Fresnillo Mine, Zacatecas, Mexico. Harvey’s of Hayle
exported beam engines to this rich silver mine in the 1830s, 40s and
50s. Two such engines, used to power crushing machinery, are preserved
in their roofed houses not far from the Zacatecas World Heritage Site.
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O’okiep Mine, South Africa. The beam pumping engine,
manufactured by Harvey’s of Hayle, is the only such engine to survive
in situ in the southern hemisphere.
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Cornish
engine houses |
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In the United Kingdom (outside of Cornwall and West
Devon), extant mine engine houses are to be found in Wales (at least
six, including the house for a Boulton & Watt engine at Llansamlet),
at least three in Derbyshire and three in Shropshire. There are eight
Cornish engine houses in Ireland. |
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Mountain Mine, Allihies, Eire (right). The Cornish Man-Engine
House (1862). |
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Burra Burra Mine, South Australia (right). Morphett’s pumping
engine house (erected in 1858, and reconstructed in 1986) with the
whim engine house (1861) behind. Burra was once the largest metal mine in Australia and
the majority of its miners came from Cornwall; the surface and
underground methods were all Cornish. Apart from the engine houses and
cottages that form part of the Burra Mine Open Air Museum there is a
Methodist chapel that is preserved in the nearby village of Redruth.
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Mina San Pedro la Ravia, Pachuca, Mexico. This pumping
engine house is one of eight Cornish engine houses to survive in the
Pachuca-Real del Monte silver mining district, in the Sierra Madre
north-east of Mexico City. The engine houses, in particular, are now
under the care of The Historic Archive and Museum of Mining in Pachuca. |
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Moonta Mine, South Australia. Hughes engine house
(erected 1864) housed one of a number of Cornish engines that were
sent to Australian mines around the mid-nineteenth century. There are
seven Cornish engine houses surviving in South Australia.
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Virgin Gorda Copper Mine, British Virgin Islands. In
1835 a party of 31 men and five women migrated from St Austell
(mid-Cornwall) to work the mine and were joined by 140 islanders. A
Cornish engine house, the remains of the crusher house (for Cornish
Rolls), part of a Cornish boiler and the flue and chimney survive. On
the beach below there are two halves of a cast iron engine beam
(together with other engine parts) in shallow water. One half still
bears the name of Perran Foundry and the date 1836. |
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Linares, southern Spain. Mining plant in this rich
lead mining district was entirely imported, principally from Cornwall.
Harvey’s of Hayle shipped one of the first engines to Linares in 1844.
However a new trade of engine-dealing for export emerged in west
Cornwall in the 1860s when many copper mines closed following the
great copper crash. Spain was one of the principal destinations of
these Cornish engines until the mid-1870s. The surviving landscape of
Cornish engine houses in this region is exceptional. |
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