page_title: Eylesbarrow mine
section_title: The flatrod system
hierarchical_section_title: Eylesbarrow mine / Field remains / The flatrod system
caption_attribution_description: Second major wheelpit close to the Two Brothers adit at Eylesbarrow mine on Dartmoor in South Devon, UK.
context_page_description: Eylesbarrow mine was a tin mine on Dartmoor, Devon, England that was active during the first half of the 19th century. In its early years it was one of the largest and most prosperous of the Dartmoor tin mines, along with Whiteworks and the Birch Tor and Vitifer mines. Its name has several variant spellings, such as Eylesburrow, Ailsborough, Ellisborough, Hillsborough etc. It was also known as Wheal Ruth for a short period around 1850. The extensive remains lie to the north of the River Plym, less than 1 mile north-east of Drizzlecombe, on the southern shoulder of the hill called Eylesbarrow on top of which are two prominent Bronze Age barrows.
context_section_description: As a matter of principle a power source (such as a waterwheel) is installed as close as possible to the equipment that it drives (such as a water pump), to minimise the inevitable loss of power incurred in its transmission. When the distance between source and target is significant an efficient means of transferring the power is necessary, and in the 19th century the best method available was the flatrod system. This was used at a number of mines and consisted of a series of linked iron or wooden rods connected to a crank on a waterwheel (or steam engine). The crank converted the circular motion of the wheel into an oscillatory back-and-forth motion of the rods which, suitably supported, could be extended for some distance along the ground. A heavy weight, known as the balance bob, pivoted on one or both ends of the run of the rods kept them under tension and allowed the conversion of the horizontal motion to vertical motion down the shaft.
  At Eylesbarrow the engine shafts in which the water pumps were situated were located high on the brow of the hill where there was no adequate water supply for a waterwheel to be located nearby. Consequently, the power from the waterwheel was carried by a flatrod system up the hillside to the shafts. The rods were made of iron and were supported by pulleys with flanged rims that ran on short axles supported by pairs of granite pillars around 0.4 m apart. These pillars had distinctive notches cut into their tops to support the axles. Parts of four runs of these paired posts can be seen today. They vary in height from just above ground level to around a metre, and some run through shallow cuttings, representing the varying contour of the ground.
  From the wheelpit of the first waterwheel, two series of double pillars head eastwards up the hill, just to the north of the main track. The northern series heads towards Old Engine Shaft, a distance of 663 metres (2,175 ft). This shaft was in use from 1814 onwards. The southern, less well preserved series, probably led to Pryce Deacon's Shaft, 777 metres (2,549 ft) away, and may have been in use in the 1840s.
  In the second, later, wheelpit, pictured here, the wheel itself was on the south side of the pit (on the right in this photograph). The short length of wall on the right is the end wall of the wheelpit. The mechanism operating the flatrod system was on the north side, aligned with the short section of wall visible further away on the left: this probably formed part of the first support for the flatrods, which are believed to have travelled underground until they reached a V-shaped gulley, just visible towards the top of the photograph.
  This flatrods from this wheel led towards Pryce Deacon's Shaft, 961 metres (3,153 ft) away and also to Henry's Engine Shaft, 854 metres (2,802 ft) away. A spur leads off at an angle to another unnamed shaft to the north, 1,192 m (3,911 ft) distant. The chronology of the use of these systems is not certain, though the extension to the northern shaft probably represents the very last phase of underground mining at the site.
caption: The remains of the wheelpit for the 50 ft wheel
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