Blind shaft

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A blind shaft internally connects one or more floors of a mine . It does not reach the surface of the day. Shafts reaching the surface of the earth are called day shafts.

Origin of the term

Blind shafts are called “blind” in the miner's language because they do not “come to light” and so no light from the surface reaches them.

Demarcation

However, in contrast to downwardly executed dies or upwardly directed overhangs, blind shafts connect at least two floors of a mine building . The demarcation to cross-bed mining or other higher cavities in a mine can be difficult in individual cases; in this case it comes primarily to use, i. H. the infrastructural function. Likewise, despite the ore transport function , roller holes are usually not referred to as blind shafts. Regardless of this, within the framework of bench construction, shafts of the offset excavation cavity that are kept open by shoring are definitely referred to as blind shafts.

purpose

Blind shafts are used to improve the weather management within a mine, to shorten the transport of ore and mountains in tunnels or floors that are better suited for removal , to facilitate the internal transport of people and materials and to provide a device for mining the ore sections in the roof structure .

history

Blind shafts were already used in the Middle Ages, as the ropes available at the time could not technically exceed a certain length. So if the depths carried out in pure shaft mining exceeded a certain level, a new blind shaft offset to the side was sunk in the context of a reel chamber, a shoulder or the like, in order to set up another cable transport point with a transfer option. In the context of the transition to tunnel construction , especially when using hereditary tunnels , and then to the roof construction , blind shafts were increasingly used. The further use of blind shafts to improve the weather flow, drainage and the transport of people and materials marks the transition to modern (civil) mining .

literature

  • Hans Grothe (Ed.): Rororo-Techniklexikon Bergbau. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1972, ISBN 3-499-19044-3 .