Located in a village called Alderley Edge, near Manchester, the mine is a source of cobalt, an element obtained for saturated bright blue pigment in pottery and glass.
Cobalt mining was considered a profitable business for England in the nineteenth century. But imports from other countries became cheaper than British cobalt, so this particular mine, owned by Sir John Thomas Stanley in the early 19th century, was abandoned in 1810.
Members of the Derbyshire Caving Club have been exploring the Alderley Edge mine since the 1970s and have leased access from the National Trust, a UK-based conservation charity. The Caves group recently found some objects left in an unexplored part of the mine. Discovery is the opening of a time capsule.
“It is rare to find a mine in pristine condition with such personal items and engravings. The miners have stopped operations, ”Ed Coughlan, a member of the Derbyshire Caving Club, told the National Trust.
In addition to shoes and pipes, the cave dwellers finding a pot embedded in the wall may be a sign that the miners were superstitious and thanked the mine for its beautiful minerals. One of the notable finds was a tool called a crane used to lift and move heavy materials.
A particularly mysterious find is the inscription of the initials “WS”, dated “August 20, 1810”.
The cave owners found other words and numbers engraved on the walls of the mine.
“We found initials and other key numbers in places we thought of as‘ beds ’or rest areas, as if someone was studying and practicing their writing,” Coghlan said. Sabi.
The Derbyshire Caving Club and National Trust have partnered with Christian Survey and Inspection Solutions, which uses technology to create virtual 3D models of buildings and underground areas to make historic discoveries available to the public.
At mine, the team used scanners that took lasers around the atmosphere. These laser beams are returned to the scanner, which calculates the distance traveled by each laser beam. Doing this hundreds of times in one place produces a virtual 3D image. The team also used remote-controlled vehicles for the underwater parts of the mine, among other 3D imaging techniques.
Archaeologist Jamie Lund said in a statement, “The objects found in the mine were photographed, cataloged, and left where they are so that they can remain in the underground conditions that protect them. They leave mine as a time capsule, a place that was once a hotbed of activity for future generations to explore and enjoy.
Source: Life Science
Source: Arabic RT
