Room III

Technical progress in the coal basin

1868-1896: Steam-powered pumps, conveyors, and ventilation equipment appear. Coal production using vertical shafts comes to the fore. Shaft transportation is rapidly mechanized, and steam locomotives are used for surface transportation.

1896-1910: In mining, electric energy gradually takes over the role of steam energy. An electric power plant was established next to every larger plant, and the energy produced was used for lighting and later also for driving underground and surface machinery. The electric power plant established by SKB Rt. in Zagyvaróna in 1910 became the company's central power generation plant. The first electric locomotive of the Monarchy was put into operation in 1892 at the Csibaj-János mine of ÉKI Rt. They switched to electric locomotives for surface transport.

1910-1924: From 1910, the classic homeland of endless chain and rope transport became Salgótarján. The new mines were all equipped with inclined shafts. The endless rope transport also mechanized underground level transport, thus displacing horses from the ground. Almost all innovations in mining engineering appeared in the mines of Nógrád. They also tried out slitting machines and combined slitting and loading machines.

1924-1945: Due to the demand for quality coal, the coal processing plants were improved. The Kazár, Mizserfa, Gyularakodó and Kisterenye classifiers were built. In 1930, a briquette factory was established next to the Kisterenye classifier for the sale of fine coal.

For geological reasons, the newer mines had frequently faulted coal fields and had to excavate thinner brown coal seams, which did not allow for extensive workplace concentration. At that time, the level of mechanization of the workplaces lagged behind that of other mines in the country.

1946-1965: In 1950, a mining machinery factory was established in Zagyvapálfalva from the former SKB Rt. Central Repair Workshop. The loaders that appeared in the 1950s - combined with continuous transport equipment - brought the use of group chamber excavations to the fore. The mechanization of the excavation was done individually (jackhammer, hand drill, blasting, etc.). Slitting machines and coal harvesters appeared, which enabled the continuous transportation of the excavated coal. The group chamber excavations were worked with the Hungarian-developed Kóta loader, and from 1960 with the Hidasi loader. In the 1950s, steel and pipe column supports began to be used to secure excavations.

The typical mode of transport of the era was the suspended cable car system.

1965-1992: The spread of steel-backed insurance made it possible to switch to paste and then mechanized front mining. The latter was made possible by the use of modern front mining machines (planers, then milling rollers). Fully mechanized front mining was first started in Kányás in 1968. The introduction of the complex mechanized front mining technology already fell on the period of cessation of production of the Nógrád coal basin (1974-1985). The fully mechanized mining system was implemented in Nógrád by 1976.


Use of coal

The extracted coal was also used for residential, transportation (locomotives, steamships) and energy-industrial (e.g.: SKB Rt.'s electric power plant, as well as the development of generator gas at the Bottle Factory, which has been operating as a subsidiary of the company since 1925, and metallurgy). From the 1950s, the main consumers of coal were electric power plants.