|
For over one hundred years, the Mont Cenis mine shaped the destiny of the
Sodingen district in Herne and the fate of its population. Here are just
some of the highlights of an eventful history. It is claimed that Franz
August Vivier from Lyon got to know the Ruhr mining region as a
prisoner-of-war in 1870. Whatever the facts are, one year later, with Josef
Monin, a mining engineer from Marseilles, he bought five pits in Sodingen
at a price of 450,000 Mark and founded the "Mont Cenis in Westphalia
Mining Company". The first twenty years were difficult for Mont Cenis.
The miners encountered gas coal, which was very difficult to extract.
Skilled personnel left to work in other mines with better conditions. And
there were not enough houses for the workers.
It was not until the Rheno-Westphalian Coal Syndicate guaranteed sales
and prices that the mine flourished: in 1895 a second shaft was sunk. At
the turn of the century, 4,037 men extracted over 700,000 tonnes of hard
coal. In the first twenty years of this century, the Mont Cenis mining
company boomed. Among others, it acquired a mine in Witten, invested in
an ammoniac extraction plant, a coking plant, a central power station, built
over one thousand houses and invested in all types of technical innovations
- from mine gas ventilators through to a compressed air compressor.
In 1921, the biggest accident in the mine's history took place. A shot-firer
caused a firedamp explosion through a prohibited explosion with
dynamite. This accident cost the lives of a total of 85 people. During the
post-war period of inflation in 1923 miners were paid their wages in
credits of "millions".
Shortly before the global economic recession, around 3,400 tonnes of coal
were extracted from the Mont Cenis mine every working day.
The development and structure of the earth's crust around the Mont Cenis
mine, which runs from West to East, have had a great influence in shaping
the destiny of the Mont Cenis mine. Under a layer of about 10 m of sand
and coarse clay from the Ice Age is the cap rock of the deposit: deposits of
marl about 200 metres thick. This cap rock was easily overcome during
advance work for the shafts. Below the marl are the coal deposits for the
Mont Cenis mine which contain great amounts of coal in the individual
seams. Shaft 1 encountered the first hard coal at 190 metres. This is gas
coal, which is very difficult to extract. It was not until 1907, when the 4th
floor was exposed, that bituminous coal, which is easier to extract and is
more valuable, could be extracted. The partition rock was clay slate, which
was fired in three brickworks.
In World War II, output remained to a great extent constant. About 800
POWs and foreigners were employed as forced labourers underground.
The mine's output did not begin to fall rapidly until towards the end of the
war. After Word War II, work in Mont Cenis was characterized by
advances in safety engineering and technical modernization. Steel and
light metal props were used, coal extraction was mechanized with ploughs.
In 1959, the cap lamp replaced the traditional miner's lamp. In 1969, pit 1
set a record: the deepest floor in the Ruhr region was opened at 1,300
metres. The whole mine was converted from tub to belt transport. A
"health centre" was built for the employees. Efficient pit ventilators and
extractors were aimed at reducing the danger of firedamp explosions, but
were unable to prevent an explosion of this nature killing nine people as
late as 1965. As early as 1957, difficulties in selling the coal were
encountered as a result of oil imports. Two years later, the five-day week
was introduced. Following a pit fire in 1960, work in the double pit 2/4
was discontinued. Pit 1/3 was in use until 1973. For five years, coal was
transported over a 1.2 km long underground belt to the "Friedrich der
Grosse" mine. The final closure took place on.
|
|
|
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)