Pit of Abels

Pit of Abels
General information about the mine
Mining technology	Underground mining
Funding / year	Max. 6300 t
Information about the mining company
Operating company	Albert Abels
Employees	Max. 38 (1859)
Start of operation	Mid-1820s
End of operation	> 1860
Funded raw materials
Degradation of	Brown coal
Mightiness	approx. 4 m
Greatest depth	approx. 30 m
Geographical location
Coordinates	50 ° 38 '24.2 "  N , 6 ° 40' 23.2"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 38 '24.2 "  N , 6 ° 40' 23.2"  E
Abelsgrube location
Location	Virnich
local community	Zülpich
District ( NUTS3 )	Euskirchen
country	State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Country	Germany
District	Rhenish lignite district (southwest)

The Abel pit was a downhole brown coal - mine east of today Zülpich related hamlet Virnich in the circle Euskirchen on the southwestern edge of the Rhenish mining area . Here, in the northern foreland of the Eifel , coal was mined in the 19th century.

history

Since the lignite seams of the Lower Rhine Basin in the region Zülpich / Euskirchen nowhere to the surface streak , the presence there until the 19th century unknown (unlike in were Ville , where the coal in the 17th century mined was). In 1820 the entrepreneur Johann Albert Abel (1788-1869), who was in Commern ran a lead ore mine and was there from 1815 to 1837 and mayor in search of mineable mineral resources in the surrounding Mutungsbohrungen down bring. Among other things, drilling was carried out on the Virnicher Höhe , near the road from Kommern to Euskirchen, presumably to Eisenstein . Instead of iron, however, they surprisingly came across lignite. The seam was about 4 m thick and lay under a little more than 30 m overburden of gravel , sand and clay .

After his discovery of Abel requested the mining authorities a concession for mining, and in 1822 was him willingly give a field east of Virnich awarded . The pit was excavated in the mid-1820s. For this had to because of the depth of the deposit - unlike in Florida, where the near-surface coal at this time usually in Schrägstollen- , Tummel- or Kuhlenbau was in won - a shaft sunk to. This was operated by means of steam art (an art driven by a steam engine ) with an output of 3½ hp .

Soon after the opening, however, the production of the mine fell short of expectations; more than 20 Häuer won less than 4,000 tons of coal a year. In addition, as it soon turned out, the coal was of poor quality because it contained a lot of lignite .

In a list of heights from 1850, 6 shafts are listed for the Abelsgrube next to a steam engine house, the hanging benches of which were at a height of 672 to 697 Paris feet above sea level. The deepest shaft sump was 575 feet, so the shafts had a depth of a little more than 100 feet, corresponding to around 30 meters.

Because of the unsatisfactory yield from the Virnich mine, Abels had further boreholes sunk in search of more productive deposits in the area. Since he found it several times, he was also awarded the Astraea field near Juntersdorf in 1832 and the Abelsgrube field was considerably enlarged in 1834 and again in 1852.

Abel's finds also called on other interested parties who also applied for concessions in the area in competition with Abel. The entrepreneur Hermann Josef Hall from Zülpich, partner of the Günnersdorf lead works in Kommern, received the Proserpina field near Füssenich in 1832 . In the same year, Count Eduard Berghe von Trips zu Hemmersbach, owner of Juntersdorf Castle , received the Elisabeth field . These fields were consolidated to Proserpina-Elisabeth in 1860 . In 1852 a group around the entrepreneur Clemens suspected. A. Schmitz the Clemafin field south of Euskirchen. In Stockheim F. DOINET received the field Eustachia . At times the communities of Euenheim and Euskirchen also wanted to set up their own mines, but ultimately refrained from doing so.

The operation of the Abelsgrube was continued despite the moderate yields and increasing competition at least until 1860 - possibly ^{[sources are missing]} until Abel's death in 1869 - but it was not extended to the newly licensed areas of the field.

All daytime facilities in the mine were demolished after the closure; the former location is now arable land.

literature

• Hans-Gerd Dick: From the "Abelsgrube" to the "morning sun" - Weilerswist and lignite mining . In: History and local history association of the community of Weilerswist (Hrsg.): Weilerswister Heimatblätter . No. 30 , 2003.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Fritz Wündisch: Lignite mining near Euskirchen. From the “Abelsgrube” and from the “Clemafin” pit . In: Home calendar of the Euskirchen district . Schiffer, Rheinberg 1966, DNB  015111199 ( full text on wisoveg.de).
2. ↑ ^{a b} Royal Upper Mining Authority for the Lower Rhine Provinces: Authorization certificate for the Astaea lignite mine . In: Official Gazette of the Government of Aachen . 1833, p. 46–48 ( full text in Google Book Search).
3. ^ JWC Ludwig: The Lechenich district around 1826: Prussian inventory of the country and its population . Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar 2008 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
4. ^ Bernhard Peter Schreiber: The brown coal between the Rhine and Rur . In: Home calendar of the Euskirchen district . Schiffer, Rheinberg 1968, DNB  015111199 ( full text on wisoveg.de).
5. ↑ ^{a b} Conrad Heusler: Description of the Brühl-Unkel mining area and the lignite basin on the Lower Rhine . Verlag Adolph Marcus, Bonn 1897, p. 50–51 ( full text in the library of the seminar for economic and social history at the University of Cologne (Digitalis project) ).
6. ↑ Carl Friedrich Zincken: The brown coal and its use, Volume 1 . Carl Rümpler, Hanover 1867 ( full text in the Google book search).
7. ^ The mining operation in the Prussian state in 1856: II. On brown coal . In: R. von Carnall, Prussian Ministry for Trade and Industry (Hrsg.): Journal for the mining, metallurgy and saltworks in the Prussian state . tape 5 . Wilhelm Hertz , Berlin 1858, p. 71 ff . ( Full text in Google Book Search).
8. ^ The Prussian mine steam engines in 1852: I. Steam arts . In: R. von Carnall, Prussian Ministry for Trade and Industry (Hrsg.): Journal for the mining, metallurgy and saltworks in the Prussian state . tape 2 . Wilhelm Hertz, Berlin 1855, p. 147–148 ( full text in Google Book Search).
9. ^ Heinrich von Dechen : Collection of the height measurements in the Rhine province . Henry et Cohen, Bonn 1852 ( full text in the Google book search).