Główna Kluczowa Sztolnia Dziedziczna w planach i rysunkach Wyższego Urzędu Górniczego we Wrocławiu

Abstract

In 1799 earl Friedrich Wilhelm von Reden commissioned the design of the “Main Hereditary Key Adit”, which was supposed to drain the mine “Królowa Luiza” (in English: “The Queen Louise”) in the first place, and to enable the water transport directly from the excavations to the surface. The building of the stretch of the adit in Zabrze was completed in 1810. To the present day the original plans and technical drawings of the building of the adit are preserved. They concern also its functioning in the period when it was used not only to drain the mine, but also to transport coal by water. These invaluable documents constitute a part of the collection of plans and technical drawings, kept in the Archive of the Department of Mining History and Mining Technique in the Coal Mining Museum in Zabrze. Till 1945 they were kept in the State Mining Authority in Wrocław. The collection of technical drawings and plans which is related to the stretch built in Zabrze amounts to 34 archive entries dating from the two first decades of the XIX c. They contain information about methods of work used in that time, types of lining, machines and devices used for the transport of coal. They are of the utmost importance, because many of these constructions or methods of work were used in Upper Silesia for the very first time. What’s more, they show that by the building and the functioning of the adit people made an exchange not only between different types of mining but also between different countries. We can admire the precision, accuracy and beauty of particular plans and technical drawings, which resemble pieces of art. Each of them was produced by an artist having a value of uniqueness. They are a great witness of the beginnings of the modern hard coal mining in the Upper Silesia.