Ridley and Rothery

Presumably the business of Robert Ridley and Joseph Rothery

1861 Invented the first practical coal cutting machinery; introduced at the West Ardsley Coliery:-

The first coal-cutting machine which proved of any real and practical utility was that invented by Messrs. Ridley and Rothery, and introduced in 1861, at the West Ardsley Colliery, by Messrs. Firth, Donisthorpe, and Bower. As might have been expected the first machine practically tried was found to be capable of considerable improvement, the greatest difficulty which had to be encountered arising from the necessity of sufficient strength and stability to do the work, combined with an extreme amount of compactness, which should enable it to be moved with facility round sharp angles in galleries of less than half the area of an ordinary doorway.
But the mode of cutting straight on with economy and despatch being once ascertained, the means of rendering the machine more compact soon presented itself, Messrs. Ridley and Jones having devised, probably, the most simple and efficient, the adoption of the trunk engine enabling them to reduce the length of the machine without lessening its stability, while the attempt to substitute the oscillating cylinder was found to cause so much oscillation in the machine itself that the alteration was of no practical utility. The invention of Messrs. Ridley and Jones, to which we have alluded above, was patented on June 8th, 1863, and an illustrated description of it was published in this journal of October 3rd last ; a brief abstract of the several other patents, taken since the success of machine-cutting has been proved, is subjoined :-The object of the invention of Mr. V. D. Delahaye, of Rouen, is to secure the more regular, rapid and economical execution or the cutting required to be made for the separation of the mass of coal, rock, or earth intended to be excavated, and for boring holes therein. The apparatus consists of a frame or frames, adjustable as to height or length, with the two ends capable of being caused, by the pressure of a screw, to hold firmly against the top and bottom of the partition walls of a mine or other cavity required to be excavated. The frames form guides for slides, worked by means of a lever and ratchet and a pulley, with a cord round it; such slides having connected to them, by means of suitable cross framing, the carriage for the travelling tool, which carriage has holes in it, for the insertion of a forged bar or bars, by means or which the carriage may be worked, as required, along the cross framing, friction rollers being applied to the carriage, in order to facilitate its motion thereon. The operation of the workman is described as simple; it consists, in the case of boring, of imparting to a carrier an alternate motion parallel to the guide; in the case of making notches or cutting, tbe workman has, in addition, to cbange the position of the guide as the work proceeds.
The invention of Messrs. W. & S. Firth of Burley ....'.

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