Carreau Wendel Museum
The Carreau Wendel Museum
History
The Wendel 1 pit was closed in 1989, Wendel 2 in 1992 and Wendel 3 in 2001. The first piece of coal was mined in Petite-Rosselle in June 1856, at the Saint-Charles pit. These pits are in France but surrounded on three sides by the national border with Germany. Several pits were dug between 1862 and 1889: Wendel 1, Wendel 2, Vuillemin 1 and Vuillemin 2. Emile Vuillemin was the consulting engineer for Charles de Wendel and Georges Hainguerlot's company- Compagnie Anonyme des Mines de Stiring. The coal produced was primarily used to fire the Wendel steelworks. The company became - Les Petits-fils de François de Wendel et Cie in 1889.
After the Second World War, the government required the industry to triple the Lorraine coal production within ten years. In the 1946
Museum
The museum is presented in several section. The simple tour shows the life of the miner and the hazardous working conditions. There is then an opportunity to take a guide tour down the workings seeing the machinery current when the last deep mine in France closed in 2004. There is an AM 100 heading machine, G210 electro-hydraulic loader, Electra 2000 shearer and ANF winning machine, roof supports etc. [1][3]
References
- Notes
- ^ Carreau translates to pithead or pitbank in English
- Footnotes
- ^ a b c "ERIH: The Carreau Wendel Museum". European Route of Industrial Heritage. 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
- ^ Wendel accessed 24-January 2015.
- ^ La Mine Wendel accessed 24-January 2015.