Cornish copper mine. Men and women working at the copper mine at Dolcoath,near Camborne,Cornwall,England,in 1831. This mine was one of the largest and deepest in Cornwall,producing first copper and then,from 1844,large amounts of tin. As one of the deepest mines in the country,it was used in 1826 and 1828 by the English mathematician and astronomer George Biddell Airy (1801-1892) to carry out pendulum experiments to determine the density of the Earth. The attempts here failed due to accidents and flooding,but Airy succeeded with later experiments elsewhere |