Geology in a tin - Campbeltown Sandstone

BGS Image ID: P527640

This specimen is probably from the Campbeltown Sandstone, of Carboniferous Limestone Coal Group age. It was worked by the Campbeltown Coal Company Limited at the Argyll Colliery, Machrihanish, as a sandstone that was ground for furnace hearth sands. British Geological Survey Petrology Collection sample number MC 7420. 

The sandstone was worked by stoop and room and in places large galleries were opened up to work the full c. 63 feet thick sandstone. The rock was first holed and then the blasting charges were inserted some way up the working face. The rock was crushed at the pit but not washed. The Campbeltown sand was used as a substitute for Belgian sand for lining the Siemens-Martin steel furnaces; also for steel and iron castings and for glass making. In 1918 it was reported to be transported by light railway to Campbeltown, shipped to Glasgow, places on the Ayrshire seaboard, Workington, Cumberland and a certain amount exported to Calcutta.

Posted by Bob McIntosh

Sir Roderick Impey Murchison at the Museum of Practical Geology

 BGS Image ID: P640912

Written on the back of the photograph is ' Sir Roderick Murchison (restoration)'.

It would be interesting to find out the story behind the mannequin - who was the wag who perpetrated this?

Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, London. c1855 -1900 GSM/MG/E/5.

Posted by Bob McIntosh