{"id":1747,"date":"2010-04-26T13:34:03","date_gmt":"2010-04-26T12:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www2.imperial.ac.uk\/videoarchive\/?p=1747"},"modified":"2023-09-20T11:47:35","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T10:47:35","slug":"tywarnhale-mine-cornwall-april-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/videoarchive\/tywarnhale-mine-cornwall-april-1980\/","title":{"rendered":"Tywarnhale Mine, Cornwall, April 1980"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"RSM
RSM sign at the Tywarnhale mine site<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s funny how things happen by chance. This months entry is a bit like that. I thought it was about time I made use of some of the footage that we have of the college’s Tywarnhale<\/a> mine in Cornwall, when I looked at the label on the tapes I noticed that it was 30 years ago this month, April 1980 that I went down to Cormwall. The mine and surrounding land (purchased in 1909\/11 with extra land purchased in 1912) was sold<\/a> by Imperial in about 2005. Here’s a BBC Cornwall web page<\/a> about the sale dated 15th October 2005. As we couldn’t find any real photos of it in the college’s archives, the picture of the RSM sign is from one of the videotapes I shot. Here’s a brief history of the mine from the “Cornwall Calling<\/a>” website. Please click on MORE to continue..<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Camerawork
Colin on camera at the college’s mine at Tywarnhale, Cornwall in April 1980<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The videos you’ll see were all shot about 9 months after we received our new colour portable recording equipment. This all sounds amazing, but the early equipment was not a camcorder like the ones used now. It was a camera connected to a stand-alone videorecorder, and that was a heavy piece of kit and so was the camera. The entire unit ran from what are called sealed lead acid batteries and were the main cause of it all being so heavy (a bit like a car battery but smaller). To make matters worse, these batteries were in both the camera and recorder. If you look at the photo you’ll see a small black box at the back of the camera containing one of these batteries.<\/p>\n

\"Colin
Colin with a car full of recording equipment. Note the camera connected to the recorder by a long extension cable.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shooting video underground was a new experience for me and former colleague Stephen Bell<\/a> who come back to help me out for the few days we were down in Cornwall. We needed to hire battery lighting and create a way to protect the equipment (which of course was brand new) from the various elements we faced: water dripping down, heat and of main concern, humidity. A way was found to wrap equipment in polythene, but allow a way to operate it without unwrapping it! We found dry areas to park the recorder and run out an extension camera cable to where I was located. In most cases the cable ran in deep water from point a to point b and this photo gives an idea of what we took with us and how it connected together.<\/p>\n

\"Steve
Steve Bell takes turn to operate camera high up on the misty mine\u00a0 hillside<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When speaking with Steve about this blog he mentioned that this was the first time he’d ever seen the ‘humidity’ light illuminate on a videorecorder. Indeed this happened several times when underground and, because of moisture, we had to remove videotape that was stuck to the video head drum. Needless to say, these tapes were then useless, so we lost a good few recordings. It’s also rather difficult trying to take the lid off of a video recorder when you’re underground and trying to see what you’re doing with a miner’s lamp on your helmet being the only source of light! Jumping forward to this year, 2010, it’s been a struggle with some of the U-matic tapes making them playback correctly. Time has not been too kind to them and all the problems underground didn’t help (moisture). But, they’re all now backed-up onto DVD from where these clips have now come.<\/p>\n