The cut away at the front of this hydraulic pit prop was used to demonstrate to miners how it worked. It was produced by Dowty Mining Equipment Ltd. to provide educational support to the introduction of the first hydraulic pit props to mines in the 1950's.
Miners were at first wary of the new hydraulic pit prop and wanted extra money to use what they considered to be dangerous experimental equipment. However, it did not take long for them to realise that George Dowty's invention would revolutionise their work at the coalface. The hydraulic pit prop was stronger than the wood and steel props that they had traditionally used and it was possible to recover and reuse it.
By the end of the 1950's Dowty Mining Equipment Ltd. had manufactured and supplied over a million hydraulic pit props and developed a world wide market for their product.
