Pit of Eustachia

Pit of Eustachia
General information about the mine
Mining technology	Civil engineering
Information about the mining company
Start of operation	1854
End of operation	1870 (approx.)
Funded raw materials
Degradation of	Lignite ("peat")
Geographical location
Coordinates	50 ° 45 '27.6 "  N , 6 ° 31' 18"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 45 '27.6 "  N , 6 ° 31' 18"  E
Location Eustachia Pit
Location	Stockheim
local community	Kreuzau
District ( NUTS3 )	Düren
country	State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Country	Germany
District	Rhenish lignite district

In the Eustachia mine near Stockheim , Düren district , lignite (then called “peat”) was mined underground between 1854 and around 1870 . The operating company - later a union - was founded by the justice of the peace Doinet, the doctor Dr. Heinrich Vonderbank and the landowner Cornelius Menzen, all three from Zülpich .

location

The facility was located on the Stockheimer Heide on Niederauer Weg, at that time about 300 m northwest of the last houses in Stockheim. The winding tower rose near the path , behind it the coal was stored and again 300 m further to the north-west were the buildings of other industrial companies. The area covered about ten acres. The total licensed mining area was 21 square kilometers.

Today the street names Am Bergwerk and Am Torfberg are reminiscent of the earlier "peat" mining at this point.

Brown coal

Lignite mining began in 1854. The 34 foot (approximately 11 m) high winding tower was made of timber framework that was lined with brick. Inside were two drums for the wire ropes, on each of which a lignite-filled hunt was pulled up and an empty hunt was lowered into the double shaft.

In 1857 the license to operate a steam engine was granted. A machine from J. Piedbœuf from Aachen with 8 HP and an overpressure of 3.5 atmospheres was set up. It should drive the hoisting machine as well as the drainage and a planned briquette press. Lignite was used for the fire, and the smoke was drawn off through a 60 foot high freestanding chimney.

The lignite was mined in tunnels by up to 30 miners in winter and transported to the storage area, where a 5-6 m high pile of coal rose in spring. For further processing, the numerous pieces of wood that could not be used for the manufacture of the block had to be sieved out. But they were burned under the steam boiler and later in the kiln of the stoneware factory. The coal was then crushed with a roller, processed into a thick pulp in a vat and scooped into small buckets. These were overthrown on the ground. This gave the coal the shape of round blocks that could be dried and piled up until it was sold before the heating season in autumn.

In order to minimize the disadvantageous properties of lignite, in a first step from 1859 the lignite pulp was no longer formed by hand, as usual, but by means of a self-constructed kneading machine. This increased the strength of the clumps by reducing the water content , which not only improved their burnability but also their transportability. However, this route did not prove to be economical.

In a second step, which was implemented in the mid-1860s, briquettes ( "lignite pressed stones " ) were produced using the dry process. Their water content was only approx. 15%, the calorific value was approx. 4,500–5,000 calories . These were the first modern briquettes produced in the Rhineland. For this reason, the briquettes from the Eustachia mine were awarded the silver medal at the international agricultural exhibition in Cologne in 1865.

Tar distillation and charcoal

Probably due to their high wood content, the operators also tried otherwise use lignite 1861 was distillation of tar added. For this purpose, four cast-iron retorts were put into operation in a half-timbered building . Instead of the retorts, a furnace for the production of charcoal in a brick building is later mentioned . In 1865 at the latest, however, this furnace was broken off again. Tar distillation had not been mentioned before.

Stoneware

Now, the requested pit Steiger the Eustachia , Heinrich Schneider, and the foreman Heinrich Oberheitmann from Düren the license for the production of porcelain stoneware . However, initially only one of the two approved ovens was built (6 m long, 2.5 m wide and 4 m high in the light). Its vault ended with the floor level. However, instead of crucibles, retorts and drain pipes, only refractory bricks could be burned in it. At the end of the year, the indebted Oberheitmann had also gone abroad. Finally, the war of 1866 caused sales to drop. It was not until 1867 that the second furnace was connected to the 12 m high chimney of the first. It was significantly smaller (2 m wide and deep in the light). A shed also belonged to the complex, in which a horse drove a stone mill . This was used to grind the material for the refractory bricks. The stoneware production and the colliery, whose underground mining could no longer be competitive with the emerging opencast mining, were probably no longer in operation around 1870.

Conflicts

The facility was set up on their property with the consent of the Stockheim community, but without compensation. It was only during the negotiations for the approval of the stoneware stoves that the community representatives were able to enforce an annual fee. The tar distillation even took place against the will of the local council, which felt that it had been betrayed by a local resident who had been pushed forward by the Eustachia union when it bought a piece of land. Several district authorities were concerned with the air pollution caused by the plant, albeit with partly conflicting positions. The district doctor stated that "lignite oil, petrol, naphthalene, etc." spread a "penetrating smell that was uncomfortably touching and annoying to the olfactory and respiratory organs". His proposal to return the exhaust gases to the incinerator was finally implemented against opposition from the operators.

literature

• Heinen, Reinhold: When Stockheim was to become an industrial city ... In: Heimatblätter. Supplement to Dürener Zeitung 14 (1937), No. 2 (Jan. 21, 1937), pp. 9-12

Individual evidence

1. ^ Official Journal of the Government of Aachen, 1855, No. 589.
2. ↑ Ibid.
3. ↑ Journal for the mining, metallurgy and saltworks in the Prussian state, 8th volume, page 73, Verlag der Königliche Wissense Ober-Hofbuchdruckerei (R. Decker), Berlin, 1860.
4. ↑ Walter Ramm (Ed.): The history of settlements from earlier to today in the area of ​​the Kreuzau community, Appendix 2: The Stockheim site, pages 10–11, Kreuzau, 2010.
5. ↑ Der Berggeist, newspaper for mining, metallurgy and industry, Nro. 12, XI. Volume, February 9, 1866, page 51.