Just watching Dibnah build his mineshaft in the back garden for the
umpteenth time and it jars on me, so I thought I would come here and
see if anybody has the definitive word.

Dibnah is bricking his shaft from the bottom. This basically means he
must remove the earth from under the bricks in order to lay the
courses, rather like building a high wall from the bottom. This seems
a very dangerous procedure and certain death when a certain weight of
brickwork is met.

The technique I was given years ago is that the bricks are laid from
the top and all the man down the shaft has to do is clear the soil
away from under the construction ring and remove the infill so the
weight of the bricks moves down the hole and maximum safety is
maintained. The rate of descent is completely under the control of the
shaft man.

Anybody got the correct technique?

EricP wrote:
Just watching Dibnah build his mineshaft in the back garden for the
umpteenth time and it jars on me, so I thought I would come here and
see if anybody has the definitive word.

Dibnah is bricking his shaft from the bottom. This basically means he
must remove the earth from under the bricks in order to lay the
courses, rather like building a high wall from the bottom. This seems
a very dangerous procedure and certain death when a certain weight of
brickwork is met.

The technique I was given years ago is that the bricks are laid from
the top and all the man down the shaft has to do is clear the soil
away from under the construction ring and remove the infill so the
weight of the bricks moves down the hole and maximum safety is
maintained. The rate of descent is completely under the control of the
shaft man.

Anybody got the correct technique?

Googling this group on "digging a well" will find previous discussions
and a reference to http://www.kurg.org.uk/sites/wells.htm which
indicates that both methods you describe were used, and yes, it was
risky.

I'd guess the sinking a tube method would fail in certain soils. There
is a TV programme where Brunel or one of his contemporaries is trying
to use a giant vertical concrete tube to get down to depth for a tunnel
under the Thames, and it gets stuck until they apply huge weights.

Chris

EricP wrote:
Just watching Dibnah build his mineshaft in the back garden for the
umpteenth time and it jars on me, so I thought I would come here and
see if anybody has the definitive word.

Dibnah is bricking his shaft from the bottom. This basically means he
must remove the earth from under the bricks in order to lay the
courses, rather like building a high wall from the bottom. This seems
a very dangerous procedure and certain death when a certain weight of
brickwork is met.

You may have missed the 'hammer out radial spikes a fair distance into
the surrounding soil' step that was in there somewhere.

In article .com,
writes

EricP wrote:
Just watching Dibnah build his mineshaft in the back garden for the
umpteenth time and it jars on me, so I thought I would come here and
see if anybody has the definitive word.

Dibnah is bricking his shaft from the bottom. This basically means he
must remove the earth from under the bricks in order to lay the
courses, rather like building a high wall from the bottom. This seems
a very dangerous procedure and certain death when a certain weight of
brickwork is met.

The technique I was given years ago is that the bricks are laid from
the top and all the man down the shaft has to do is clear the soil
away from under the construction ring and remove the infill so the
weight of the bricks moves down the hole and maximum safety is
maintained. The rate of descent is completely under the control of the
shaft man.

Anybody got the correct technique?

Googling this group on "digging a well" will find previous discussions
and a reference to http://www.kurg.org.uk/sites/wells.htm which
indicates that both methods you describe were used, and yes, it was
risky.

I'd guess the sinking a tube method would fail in certain soils. There
is a TV programme where Brunel or one of his contemporaries is trying
to use a giant vertical concrete tube to get down to depth for a tunnel
under the Thames, and it gets stuck until they apply huge weights.

Rotherhite around 1825 IIRC.....

--
Tony Sayer

On 01 May 2006 20:14:52 GMT, Ian Stirling
wrote:

EricP wrote:
Just watching Dibnah build his mineshaft in the back garden for the
umpteenth time and it jars on me, so I thought I would come here and
see if anybody has the definitive word.

Dibnah is bricking his shaft from the bottom. This basically means he
must remove the earth from under the bricks in order to lay the
courses, rather like building a high wall from the bottom. This seems
a very dangerous procedure and certain death when a certain weight of
brickwork is met.

You may have missed the 'hammer out radial spikes a fair distance into
the surrounding soil' step that was in there somewhere.

I did. Thanks )

On 1 May 2006 12:17:09 -0700, wrote:


EricP wrote:
Just watching Dibnah build his mineshaft in the back garden for the
umpteenth time and it jars on me, so I thought I would come here and
see if anybody has the definitive word.

Dibnah is bricking his shaft from the bottom. This basically means he
must remove the earth from under the bricks in order to lay the
courses, rather like building a high wall from the bottom. This seems
a very dangerous procedure and certain death when a certain weight of
brickwork is met.

The technique I was given years ago is that the bricks are laid from
the top and all the man down the shaft has to do is clear the soil
away from under the construction ring and remove the infill so the
weight of the bricks moves down the hole and maximum safety is
maintained. The rate of descent is completely under the control of the
shaft man.

Anybody got the correct technique?

Googling this group on "digging a well" will find previous discussions
and a reference to http://www.kurg.org.uk/sites/wells.htm which
indicates that both methods you describe were used, and yes, it was
risky.

I'd guess the sinking a tube method would fail in certain soils. There
is a TV programme where Brunel or one of his contemporaries is trying
to use a giant vertical concrete tube to get down to depth for a tunnel
under the Thames, and it gets stuck until they apply huge weights.

Chris

I will follow that. Thanks

In article ,
EricP wrote:
Just watching Dibnah build his mineshaft in the back garden for the
umpteenth time and it jars on me, so I thought I would come here and
see if anybody has the definitive word.

Dibnah is bricking his shaft from the bottom. This basically means he
must remove the earth from under the bricks in order to lay the
courses, rather like building a high wall from the bottom. This seems
a very dangerous procedure and certain death when a certain weight of
brickwork is met.

Did you miss the bit about hammering in substantial steels radially into
the surrounding earth every few courses?

The technique I was given years ago is that the bricks are laid from
the top and all the man down the shaft has to do is clear the soil
away from under the construction ring and remove the infill so the
weight of the bricks moves down the hole and maximum safety is
maintained. The rate of descent is completely under the control of the
shaft man.

Anybody got the correct technique?

It's certainly a fascinating subject.

--
*Re-elect nobody

Dave Plowman London SW
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