Innovation in Coal-mining Machinery: the Case of the Anderton Shearer Loader

Abstract

This chapter describes and analyses the introduction of the most important innovation since 1945 in the British coalmining industry — the Anderton Shearer Loader (ASL). The first section describes briefly the background to mechanisation in coal-mining; the second analyses the impact of the diffusion of the ASL on increased labour productivity in the 1950s and 1960s. The analyses are followed by assessments of the contributions of both the National Coal Board (NCB) and the machinery suppliers to the development and improvement of the ASL. The chapter ends with some policy conclusions about the coal industry’s productivity, the machinery suppliers in international markets, and — more generally — the mechanical engineering industry.

Much of this chapter is based on data from Townsend (1976).