Käpfnach mine
| Käpfnach mine | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
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| Mining technology | Longwall mining | ||
| Funding / total | 300,000 t of lignite | ||
| Information about the mining company | |||
| Operating company | City and canton of Zurich, Gottshalden M. Zschokke & Compagnie mine, Horgen lignite cooperative | ||
| Employees | 260 | ||
| Start of operation | 1784, 1917, 1941 | ||
| End of operation | 1910, 1921, 1947 | ||
| Successor use | Visitor mine | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Lignite / marl | ||
| Brown coal | |||
| Mightiness | 20-30 cm | ||
| overall length | 80 km | ||
| Degradation of | marl | ||
| Mightiness | 3 m | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 688932 / 234261 | ||
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| Location | Käpfnach | ||
| local community | Horgen | ||
| Canton | Canton Zurich | ||
| Country | Switzerland | ||
The mine Käpfnach is a former lignite - and marl - mine in Horgen in the canton of Zurich in Switzerland . With a total tunnel length of 80 km, it is the largest of its kind in Switzerland. The mine in Käpfnach and the somewhat smaller Riedhof mine are the only two coal deposits in the canton of Zurich that have ever achieved economic importance.
geology
The Swiss plateau between the rising Alps in the south and the Jura in the north was filled with the sediments of the Upper Freshwater Molasse. The majority of Zurich's molasses is formed by a slightly deformed, mostly horizontal plateau molasse. A slight bulge ( anticline ) extends in a west-south-west-east-north-east direction from Kappel am Albis over the Au peninsula to Männedorf .
The Käpfnach coal seam was formed in the upper freshwater molasse in 16 million years with an area of several square kilometers. The former moor was lifted by the formation of the Alps and today forms a vault running from east to west with a slight slope of 5.2 per thousand. The course could be determined as far as the Sihl valley near Sihlbrugg , but no traces were found on the other side of Lake Zurich . The seam reaches a thickness of up to 60 cm, on average it is only 20-25 cm thick. It is stratigraphically 350 meters below that of Riedhof and is therefore a bit older, but similarly designed.
The clay marl, which forms a layer up to 7 m thick above the coal seam and was used as raw material in the Käpfnach cement works, for processing into Portland cement, is to be mentioned as secondary rock . Ferrous marl clay, marl limestone and clayey sandstone lie beneath the seam. Some of these layers were used as raw materials for brick and cement or as fertilizer.
In the rock layers, fossils of ferns , oaks, cypresses, mastodons , crocodiles and some other genera have been preserved.
The layers were unevenly deposited, and the quality of the lignite is correspondingly poor and inconsistent. According to E. Letsch, Käpfnach coal is a low-quality molasse lignite with high sulfur content. It was in former times already Pechkohle , lustrous carbon even or J. Stumpf coal called. It consists of 45–69% carbon and has an oxygen content of 19 to 30%. The proportions correspond roughly to the brown coal. The calorific value is around 40% of that of heating oil.
Mining history
Since the seam in the area of the Aabach and the Aabachtobel comes to light in several places , the existence of coal has been known for a very long time.
Beginnings
The first written evidence of a coal deposit in Käpfnach can be found around 1548 in the chronicle of Johannes Stumpf . Around 1663 reports of the dismantling of the brick maker from Käpfnach, who used the coal to produce his bricks. It was not until 1708 that regular coal mining was recorded for a period of 20 years. Another mining attempt in 1763, this time with the participation of foreign experts, failed, so that the tunnel entrances fell apart as early as 1776.
State dismantling
In 1784 the Zurich government set up mining in Käpfnach through Johann Sebastian Clais . Experts should organize the infrastructure and the tunnel systems according to proven templates. In 1874 the cement stone factory was built as a coal buyer in front of the exit of the Rotweg tunnel. The state-owned company was dissolved in 1911, the cement stone factory was sold and continued to be run independently by the Ritter company until 1934.
First World War / 1917 to 1921
Driven by the coal demand from industry and the lack of availability of imported coal, the coal deposits in Käpfnach became interesting again. Mining engineer Max Zschokke founded the limited partnership "Bergwerk Gottshalden M. Zschokke & Compagnie" for mixed-economy mining together with the municipality of Horgen. During this time, up to 80 miners worked underground . After the war, mining proved unprofitable and liquidation took place in 1921.
Second World War / 1941 to 1947
The last time the Käpfnach coal was mined was in the Second World War , by the "Horgen lignite cooperative" founded by Max Zschokke. During this period, up to 260 employees mined around 55,500 tons of coal, which corresponded to around 4% of the total Swiss production.
Before the mine was closed and the operating company was liquidated, a large part of the tunnels were filled with backfill material and all installations were removed and sold.
Ancillary businesses
The most important subsidiary of the mine was a cement works from 1874 to 1934 .
Today's visitor mine
The mine fell into oblivion after 1947 until it was made the subject of the Horgen municipality's annual journal in 1982. The Käpfnach mining association, founded on December 2, 1982, set itself the goal of setting up a museum and making the tunnels accessible to the public as far as possible. Due to the legal regulations, he had to acquire the mining rights to the remaining coal, around 300,000 tons.
Today the mine and a small part of the tunnel system are open to visitors and are used by the 1.4 km long tunnel railway. The mine museum is housed in the former coal store. By 2018, over 250,000 visitors had gained an insight into the Horgner Underground on more than 15,000 guided tours.
On December 11, 2015, a fire broke out over the museum, causing extensive property damage. The visitor operation could be maintained at any time. The mining museum opened on April 7, 2018 with a newly designed exhibition.
literature
- Paul Kläui : History of the community of Horgen. Horgen 1952.
- Municipality of Horgen (ed.): Horgner year booklet 1982: The Käpfnacher Bergwerk. Horgen 1982.
- Mining Association Käpfnach Horgen (Ed.): 25 Mining Association Käpfnach. Horgen 2007.
- Bergwerkverein Käpfnach Horgen (Hrsg.): The mine. Official bulletin of the mining association Käpfnach. Published three times a year since 1984.
- Peter Laager, Hermann Sarbach: The Käpfnach-Gottshalden mine yesterday and today . In: Minaria Helvetica , No. 25b-2005, Egg 2005, ISSN 1018-7421 .
- Wolfgang Taubert: 125 years of Zementi z'Käpfnach. Horgen 2000.
- Emil Letsch: The Swiss Molasse Coal east of the Reuss. Bern 1899.
- Emil Letsch, Ernst Ritter: The Swiss Molasse Coal III. Swiss Natural Research Society (Ed.). Kümmerly & Frey, Bern 1925.
- Swiss Geotechnical Commission (Ed.): The mineral raw materials of Switzerland. Zurich 1997.
- Armin von Moos: The Zurich molasse coals and their exploitation 1941–1946 (= quarterly journal of the Natural Research Society in Zurich . Volume 92, issue 1). March 31, 1947, p. 3-6 .
Web links
- Paul Bächtiger: Käpfnach. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Käpfnach mine
- Natural Research Society in Zurich NGZH 3/2016: The Käpfnach-Gottshalden mine
- NGZH New Year Gazette 1851
Individual evidence
- ^ Geotope inventory Zurich. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Canton of Zurich, ARV, Department of Local and Regional Planning, 2017, formerly in the original ; accessed on June 13, 2017 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Nazorio Pavoni: The decline in terraces on Lake Zurich and its relations with the geology of the molasses. (PDF) In: geogr-helv.net. Retrieved April 9, 2014 .
- ↑ Bergwerkverein Käpfnach Horgen: The mine. Issue No. 72. Horgen 2008, p. 14.
- ↑ T. Gubler: On the geology of the Upper Freshwater Molasse between Zurich and Zug. Unpublished thesis. ETH Zurich, 1987.
- ^ Municipality of Horgen (ed.): Horgner year booklet 1982: The Käpfnacher mine. Horgen 1982, pp. 46-48.
- ^ Municipality of Horgen (ed.): Horgner year booklet 1982: The Käpfnacher mine. Horgen 1982, pp. 42-44.
- ^ Armin von Moos: The Zurich molasse coal and its exploitation 1941-1946. (PDF) In: ngzh.ch. Naturforschende Gesellschaft in Zürich, March 31, 1947, p. 20 , accessed April 9, 2014 .
- ↑ Peter Laager, Hermann Sarbach: The Käpfnach-Gottshalden mine yesterday and today. In: Minaria Helvetica , No. 25b-2005, p. 16.
- ↑ Horgen or Horga. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 13, Leipzig 1735, column 848.
- ^ Emil Letsch: Map of Käpfnach and the surrounding area . Ed .: Switzerland. Geol. Commission. 1899, doi : 10.3931 / e-rara-20722 .
- ↑ Peter Laager, Hermann Sarbach: The Käpfnach-Gottshalden mine yesterday and today. in: Minaria Helvetica, No. 25b-2005, pp. 21-25.
- ^ Municipality of Horgen (ed.): Horgner year booklet 1982: The Käpfnacher mine. Horgen 1982, p. 1.
- ↑ In the tunnel, it's time to pull your head and get lucky , Tagesanzeiger, August 10, 2020, page 19
- ↑ Major property damage in Horgen. Retrieved December 12, 2015 .
