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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]
The Nightcaps Coal Mine
The Nightcaps Coal Mine (Nightcaps Coal Company, Limited, Proprietors); head office, Invercargill. This mine was opened up for the delivery of coal on the 3rd of March, 1883. Coal had been discovered in the district as far back as 1870, by Captain Thomson, formerly pilot at the Bluff, but the discovery was not followed up till April, 1880, when the present company commenced operations. It took nearly three years to develop the mine, by driving levels into the hillside. The total length of the adit is thirty-two chains, and after the first eighteen chains, the drive takes a dip of forty-five feet in each four chains. The hauling is effected by an eight horse-power winding machine, which draws the trucks up an incline of eighteen chains in length, with an average fall of one-in-eight. There is also a twenty-two horse-power engine outside the mine. A powerful Tangye pump, capable of discharging 7,500 gallons of water per hour, keeps the mine free of water by one hour's work per day. The aeration of the mine is accomplished, by a Hays ventilator fan of nine feet diameter, which makes about 100 revolutions per minute. A boiler, measuring six by fourteen feet, stands on the surface, and produces steam for the fan, winding-engins and pump below. The Nightcaps Coal Company owns a line of railway from the mine to Wairio station, a distance of two miles and a-half, and this line is worked by the Government, by special arrangement with the company. Ninety-eight men are employed in the mine, and the output of coal for the year 1903 was 40,000 tons.