Clips Used at Each Pit in the Chikuho Region in the Middle and Latter Half of the Meiji Era (1868-1912)
February 1965

Meiji Chu-koki Chikuho no Kaku Yama no Kurippu
[Clips Used at Each Pit in the Chikuho Region in the Middle and Latter Half of the Meiji Era (1868-1912)]
38.2 x 54.3 cm Painting in Watercolors and Ink

All these clips were attached to wire ropes with square threads, except certain ones used for winching up mine cars in main slopes or guiding them at Tadakuma Coal Pit, Nakayama Coal Pit, etc.
The stand-up-type clip rope catchers used in pits run by Nittetsu [Yahata Ironworks at that time] were about 8 cm wide and these clips were about 65 cm in height. The flat irons on them were 16 to 19 mm thick.

Figure at the Top Right
These clips were used underground in pits run by Nittetsu. They could bear a steel mine car with the load of 1 ton.

Figure at the Bottom Right
This clip was used on the surface of pits run by Nittetsu and it was also used underground. It tightly caught the rope without damaging it, but was so difficult to produce that small-scale coal pits could not use such clips. It was 10 centimeters or more in width.

Figure in the Top Center
I saw these clips installed in trucks near the refuse heap in Iizuka Coal Pit in the beginning of the Showa era (1926-1989).

Figures in the Bottom Center
(Right One) This clip was used in each coal pit run by Mr. Aso. The (connecting) pin often bent, but I do not know their present conditions. (The distance between the arm and the rope was more than 26 cm.)
(Left One) Though this type was also used in the past, this clip is still used at a pit run by Ito Sangyo in Tagawa City. The connecting arm moves up and down. Another variant of this type has alligator teeth.

Figure at the Top Left
This clip was used for towing mine cars one by one on the endless track of the main slope in Tadakuma Coal Pit in the latter half of the Meiji era.
Sometimes several dozens of or up to even one hundred mine cars were towed with these clips from the bottom of the pit to the mouth at one time. If a mine car accidentally reversed, it would soon involve other mine cars one after another, causing a severe stasis.

Figure in the Center Left
This is a guide clip with a fixing handle.

Figure at the Bottom Left
This type of clip was used for mine cars on the endless track on the surface of Mitsubishi Nakayama Coal Pit in Kurate County in the beginning of the Showa era. A clip of this kind could hold 4 or 5 connected mine cars, but it was reportedly not good at going around a curve. It was fitted on the top of the front or rear panel of a mine car. Including the above, 4 or 5 mine cars connected together were moved with a new rope adhering to the device because of the friction caused by the weight and the roughness of the new rope.


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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