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angle iron. Working at 45rpm, the fan moved 70,000 cubic feet of air per minute. Within a few years, the aerodynamics of the impeller had developed so that their operating speed and efficiency had increased substantially. An 1896 fan at
Chanters Colliery, Tyldesley, Lancashire, was of the same overall dimensions and speed, but moved 150,000 cu ft / minute. The improvements of these later fans were the use of an outwardly flanged, curved évasée rim that gave smoother airflow at the rim and also straighter internal blades, for the higher speed fans.
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alongside it. The fan was mounted high in the gap between the buildings, with a connection into the pithead through a circular window in the building and into the eye of the fan. The pithead was made airtight against its reduced internal pressure by shuttered windows and close-fitting doors. If the same building was also used for
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Later fans, after World War I, began to be driven by electric motors instead. These ran at higher speeds and so the large diameter fan was unsuitable, as its high linear air velocity at the rim led to turbulence and mechanical vibration. These fans began to be used as pairs of smaller fans (typically
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The first fans were of simple design. An 1890 fan at Morton
Colliery, Derbyshire, had a shallow conical impeller of 40 ft diameter and 1 ft 6in width at the rim. The internal blades were of extremely curved form. Its construction is simple, of flat wrought iron plates, joined by rivets and
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on the ground floor below the fan. They always had one single impeller and so to achieve the large air volumes required, they were of large diameter. Although made in a range of sizes, a common large-size fan was 40 ft in diameter. Using a single impeller was common for large ventilation fans,
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The fans were most common in their local area of South Wales, but they were also widely used in other mining areas in
England. Waddle Engineering were in business from 1830 to 1970. Their distinctive fan always worked at relatively slow speed and so was most suitable for steam engine drive. As high
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in 1862, mine owners were compelled to improve mine ventilation. Ventilation was now required to include separate shafts for down-cast and up-cast airflow, and for ventilation to be provided by fans rather than the older furnace system. This encouraged sales of ventilation fans, particularly the
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Air entered the fan through the central eye and exited through the rim. These fans were thus all suction devices, extracting air from a mine and releasing it to the atmosphere. A typical installation comprised a pit head building, usually built of stone at this period, with a fan engine house
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The Waddle design's distinctive feature was its self-shrouded or 'caseless' design, where the rotating fan formed its own enclosure. Although small fans of this form are common today, Waddle were the only company to make them of this size, or for mine ventilation.
102:– the lowering and raising of men and equipment – the winding gear could be mounted in the clear space above the shaft, without interfering with the fan arrangements. Mine cages and trams passed through the usual self-closing air doors.
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although some makers used a double sided impeller to give twice the airflow for a similar rotating mass. Waddle though always used a single-sided impeller with an
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They were noteworthy for their extremely large size and distinguished by an integral shroud for the fan, which makes it possible to mount them in the open air.
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Waddle. As the fan impeller formed its own shroud, it required little additional installation and so was relatively easy to retro-fit to an existing pithead.
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at the rear face of the fan. This avoided having the bearings placed in the often damp airstream, simplifying maintenance.
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17 ft) instead, although the Waddle design was basically unsuitable here, leading to its eventual demise.
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speed fans driven by electric motors became more common, Waddle failed to make this transition.
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These distinctive circular windows may still be recognised in surviving old pithead buildings.
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70:. Their archives are now held by Carmarthenshire Archives and the Richard Burton Archives at
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Waddell Fan
Engines - The Steam Engine In Industry: Mining and the Metal trades
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Hughes, Stephen; Malaws, Brian; Parry, Medwyn; Wakelin, Peter (1994).
267:. Looking at Welsh Industry through Archives project. 20 October 2011.
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They were built by the Waddle
Engineering and Fan Company Limited, in
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These fans moved at relatively low speeds, usually being driven by
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Royal
Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales
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In 1861 a Waddle fan was used to power the miniature
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Large centrifugal fans, used to ventilate coal mines
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324:"Touring exhibition shows Wales' industrial past"
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250:. Carmarthenshire Archive Service. GB 0211 DB102.
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155:underground railway between London post offices
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145:The fan disc of the Battersea railway in 1861
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371:"The Beginnings of The Pneumatic Railway"
153:built at Battersea as a prootype for the
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309:. Taylor & Francis. pp. 33–35.
223:. Moorland Publishing. pp. 65–66.
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58:Waddle Engineering and Fan Company
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248:"Waddle Engineering Ltd records"
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23:Removed fan, on display at the
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356:The Illustrated London News
92:Nixon's Navigation Colliery
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353:"The Pneumatic Despatch".
265:"Wales Powering the World"
279:"Richard Burton Archives"
111:Hartley Colliery Disaster
25:Ebbw Vale Garden Festival
306:The Ventilation of Mines
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123:horizontal steam engine
303:Briggs, Henry (1929).
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330:. 16 September 2012.
29:Note the évasée rim.
400:. pp. 97–101.
394:Collieries of Wales
151:atmospheric railway
283:Swansea University
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72:Swansea University
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375:The Postal Museum
359:. 24 August 1861.
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430:Ventilation fans
425:Mine ventilation
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119:rope drives
90:40' fan at
34:Waddle fans
419:Categories
194:References
109:After the
49:coal mines
44:, used to
219:(1994) .
82:Operation
46:ventilate
64:Llanelli
186:system.
121:from a
100:winding
38:Waddell
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161:Notes
402:ISBN
225:ISBN
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