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The Anderton Shearer Loader is a coal cutting machine which was used in the UK coal industry after 1953. The Anderton Power Loader with its cutting drum up to five feet in diameter was patented in 1953. It was successfully used throughout the British coalfields and by 1966 cut half the coal produced and by 1977 it produced 80% of the coal mined in Britain.
The Shearer Loader was mainly developed by James Anderton OBE, who was the National Coal Board ( St Helens Area) production manager and later chairman of the NCB's North-Western Division. The first Anderton shearer loader was commissioned in 1954. It was utilised by Anderton's employers at Groves
The Anderton Shearer Loader is a coal cutting machine which was used in the UK coal industry after 1953. The Anderton Power Loader with its cutting drum up to five feet in diameter was patented in 1953. It was successfully used throughout the British coalfields and by 1966 cut half the coal produced and by 1977 it produced 80% of the coal mined in Britain.
The Shearer Loader was mainly developed by James Anderton OBE, who was the National Coal Board ( St Helens Area) production manager and later chairman of the NCB's North-Western Division. The first Anderton shearer loader was commissioned in 1954. It was utilised by Anderton's employers at Groves Ravenhead
Ravenhead is an area of St Helens in the North West of England. It is bordered by Thatto Heath, Sutton and the Town Centre. The area is thought to take its name from a farm once located nearby (Ravenhead Farm), while the 'head' portion of the n ...
Colliery in St Helens.
The machine works by "shearing" coal from a longwall
Longwall mining is a form of underground coal mining where a long wall of coal is mined in a single slice (typically thick). The longwall panel (the block of coal that is being mined) is typically long (but can be upto long) and wide.
Histor ...
coal face as it moved along the face. The shear drum is around 0.5 metres in diameter and the machine travels on an armoured conveyor with a prop-free front. The machine shears going one way and the coal at the front is deflected by a plough onto the conveyor. On the machine's return it knocks the rest of the coal onto the conveyor. The Shearer was usually used on seams thicker than a metreCoal Mining in The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright, 2004, Columbia University Press and produced small coal suitable for power stations.
See also
*Meco-Moore Cutter Loader The Meco-Moore cutter loader was an early twentieth-century British mining machine. It was invented by Mr M. Moore, and developed by the Mining Engineering Company (MECO) of Worcester. It was a heavy machine (120 hp / 89.5 kW) and was firs ...
*Huwood power loader The Huwood Power Loader was mechanical device of roughly 6 ft by 2 ft by 1 ft dimensions and powered by a 10 hp engine, used to move cut coal from the coal face on to the conveyor. The machine was equipped with winches which us ...
References
Notes Bibliography * {{Mining techniques Mining equipment fr:Haveuse