Wire Rope Sockets Used since the Meiji Era (1868-1912)
February 1965
Meiji yori Kosu
[Wire Rope Sockets Used since the Meiji Era (1868-1912)]
38.1 x 54.4 cm Painting in Watercolors and Ink
Text at the Right End
Wire ropes, no thicker than 32 mm in diameter, consisted of a total of 42 steel wires twisted together (i.e. 6 thin ropes with 7 wires each). The thinnest steel wire rope was 20 mm in diameter. Wire ropes thinner than 20 mm were made of zinc wires. Wire ropes thicker than 32 mm consisted of seventy-two steel wires twisted together, and it was rather easy to use them despite their thickness. The above-mentioned 32-mm ropes consisted of wires so thick and hard that it was difficult to use them. Wire ropes about 26 mm in diameter were used in middle-scale coal pits. In most small-scale coal pits, ropes of 20 or 23 mm were used.
Text in the Inset at the Top
The end of the wire rope was untwisted and divided into forty-two wires before it was inserted in the wire rope socket used in the main slope. These wires were first washed with hydrochloric acid and then with limewater. After that, they were warmed before being soaked in and coated with heated Babbitt metal. The coated wires were pulled into the wire rope socket. The socket and the wire rope were both warmed, and melted Babbitt metal was poured into the socket to fasten them together. The connection of the socket and the wire rope fixed with Babbitt metal was so sturdy and perfect that the rope never came out of the socket. But when wire ropes became very old, they sometimes broke at points 3 to 5 meters apart from the sockets.
Texts inside and outside the Inset at the Bottom
Inside Text
Fukuro Kosu: Bag-type Wire Rope Socket
It was prohibited to use fire for changing wire rope sockets in the main slope. So, after bending its wires, miners drew the wire rope into the wire rope socket without coating the wires with Babbitt metal. A tapered steel nail was hammered into the core of a hemp rope bound around the neck of the wire rope. The 42 wires had to be cut in tiers but miners could not cut them with nippers. So, miners cut them bit by bit with a hammer in one hand and a chisel in the other.
Outside Text
It took some people 1 and a half to 2 hours to change a wire rope socket used underground. I endeavored to change it in 30 minutes. Wire ropes no thicker than 32 mm in diameter were used until 1940. (sumibako: mine car)
Figure at the Top Middle
Wari Kosu: Split Wire Rope Socket
Wire ropes were heated and smoothed when their sockets were changed. Even an expert took 30 minutes to one hour to change a socket.
This wari kosu has been used since the Meiji era (1868-1912), and it is still used at some small-scale coal pits. The wire rope was bent, pinched in the socket, and fastened with four rivets, which were caulked.
Figure in the Center
This is a wire rope socket used during the Taisho era (1912-1926). This socket was so heavy that the saodoris (transport men) in charge of mine car allotment did not like using it. They always had a lot of trouble slipping it from and joining it to a mine car. It soon disappeared from coal pits.
Figure at the Bottom Middle
This is a wire rope socket called a fukuro kosu which has been used at coal pits since 1912. Some people called this a tokkuri (sake bottle) kosu which was described above. The hole in which the rope was inserted was about 7 inches (18 cm: sic) to 10 inches (25 cm or more: sic) in diameter. The socket and the wire rope were not fastened with melted Babbitt metal in order to make them detachable.
Figure at the Top Left
This is a wire rope socket used in shafts. It was filled with Babbitt metal.
Figure at the Bottom Left
Wari Kosu: Split Wire Rope Socket
This type was used at (the shaft of) Nittetsu Central Coal Pit. The four collars are fitted by a thermal insertion technique.
(60 senchi: 60 centimeters)
Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro
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