Scientific Department

Papers of the Scientific Department of the National Coal Board, comprising seam and borehole reports for Welsh and English Collieries, a safety equipment testing report and seam plans produced by the Scientific Department, Coal Survey for the purpose of presenting a general picture of the variation in structure and properties of all important seams in the South Wales Coalfield.

Scientific services in the National Coal Board, South Wales Area were centralised at Maritime Laboratory, Pontypridd, with a sub-laboratory at Cwmdu, Swansea, providing a day-to-day service to units in the extreme west of the coalfield.

The prime object was to give a scientific service to line management at all other Departments in the Area. The Scientific Department had special responsibility to advise on coal quality and quality control both in production and marketing, and to provide scientific information to assist in safe mining conditions. Most of the effort was operationally orientated; a proportion was devoted to short-term research and investigations initiated locally or as national projects.

The routine work at Maritime Laboratory was divided among three branches - Health and Safety, Coal and General Services. Additionally there were Specialist Services and Investigational Work, co-ordinated nationally. [Information taken from DNCB/5/4/2/1, 1975]

Original order reconstructed.

This subfonds is made up of material deposited by the British Coal Corporation. This material has been brought together from the following accessions: DNCB/61 (acc. no: 1997/47) DNCB/67 (no accession number identified) The previous reference number for each item is listed in its individual catalogue entry.