002.170.Idrija

Idrija Mercury Heritage Management Centre, Bazoviška 2, SI-5280 Idrija

Public

Republic of Slovenia

/

Mine

The light drilling hammer is powered by compressed air. It is composed of the housing with a handle, the opening for the entry of compressed air – there is a disc valve inside, two valves for redirection of air and a piston. The front part has an adjustable drill hole, the back part has a larger horizontal wooden handle. The back part also has a bracket for the pipe through which the compressed air enters into the machine.

Length 64 cm, diameter 16 cm.

Iron, wood, artificial mass.

1960s

Manufacturer information is not known.

Machine drilling was introduced in the Idrija Mine in 1874. The drilling hammer was used for drilling wells in harder rocks for ore excavation in the Idrija Mercury Mine. In a drilling hammer, a piston was hitting, in regular intervals, the drill with a blade, just like the hammer on the chisel. While returning, the piston rotated in a specific angle and the drill also rotated. This rotation allowed the blade to gradually hit the entire surface of the well. At the excavating area, a digger and auxiliary digger drilled holes in the rock. Openings were are then filled with gunpowder, later on with dynamite, and were filled with clay rolls. Drilling caused a lot of fine dust, which settled in the lungs of the miners and caused an illness called silicosis. In the 1960s, they started using the so-called wet drilling procedure. Using water in the drilling process decreased the amount of dust. In the 1960s, 75 drilling machines were operating at once on a big shift in a pit, or 65 on the small shift, and 15 defeat drilling machines. Between 1967 and 1980, they produced an average of 9,000 m of wells and 8,000 m of tunnels annually.

The drilling hammer is being preserved, secured and presented as important mining heritage of Idrija with exceptional universal values. It is a part of the CUDHg mine collection. Visitors can view it within the permanent museum display Anthony's Main Road. The pneumatic hammer is a part of the presentation that represents the entire story of mining in the Mercury Mine Idrija and with the related work process.

The Pit of the Idrija Mercury Mine.

Anthony’s Main Road, Kosovelova 3, SI-5280 Idrija

The drilling hammer is appropriately preserved (slightly rusted). It has been already cleaned for the purpose of the museum display. Security of the premises is taken care of.

good

Regular seasonal maintenance.

- CUDHg Inventory Book.

Mestni muzej Idrija

Miha Kosmač

5. 3. 2018

Never