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vox

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When I first saw these I thought they were old street lights but if you look at the second picture it is apparent that one is much smaller than the other two.

The small one is probably just a streetlight but the other is much taller and of larger diameter.

There's another (on it's own) a bit further up the road.

Are they just sewer gas lamps? If they are, they're quite close together and very close to an ordinary lamp.

Big one and little one here

Large one on its own

A small one and large one quite close together.

Google streetviews

(All that sounds far too complicated. I'm sure I should be able to explain myself more clearly)

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When I first saw these I thought they were old street lights but if you look at the second picture it is apparent that one is much smaller than the other two.

The small one is probably just a streetlight but the other is much taller and of larger diameter.

There's another (on it's own) a bit further up the road.

Are they just sewer gas lamps? If they are, they're quite close together and very close to an ordinary lamp.

Big one and little one here

Large one on its own

A small one and large one quite close together.

Google streetviews

(All that sounds far too complicated. I'm sure I should be able to explain myself more clearly)

Some years ago (70's - 80's) I recall seeing similar posts by the side of the A57,

they were located somewhere between East Markham and Lincoln (Dunham Bridge/Saxilby

area, I think)

I always thought that iron posts were some sort of distance markers,

but someone once told me that they were for releasing buildups of trapped underground gas ?

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Makes sense Steve - mining areas.

This may or may not be related ..

But I had some friends who moved from the Park Hill flats into new housing on the Halfway/Waterthorpe estate, this was in the years the new estates were expanding.

I can remember them telling me about something related to the findings of toxic gas in houses on their road,

sorry but I can not remember the full details, or what the outcome was.

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Makes sense Steve - mining areas.

I suppose they just vented the gas out into the open air to get rid of it in their day.

However as the gas in mines is methane (marsh gas or marsh damp) and as methane is a much more powerfull greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, being much more effective at trapping the suns heat into the atmosphere and so causing global warming I think these days they would rather light the gas at the top of the vent and burn it off. OK, so this turns it into carbon dioxide, another greenhouse gas, - but one which is not as potent.

I have seen several iron stumps which are hollow vents around Derbyshire, and I have also come across a couple where the gas is being burnt off.

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I suppose they just vented the gas out into the open air to get rid of it in their day.

However as the gas in mines is methane (marsh gas or marsh damp) and as methane is a much more powerfull greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, being much more effective at trapping the suns heat into the atmosphere and so causing global warming I think these days they would rather light the gas at the top of the vent and burn it off. OK, so this turns it into carbon dioxide, another greenhouse gas, - but one which is not as potent.

I have seen several iron stumps which are hollow vents around Derbyshire, and I have also come across a couple where the gas is being burnt off.

When they built the Mossborough township i bought one of the houses out there and i recall seeing them with flames coming out of them at times

so wether it was coal mine gas or some other form of gas i dont know ??

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When they built the Mossborough township i bought one of the houses out there and i recall seeing them with flames coming out of them at times

so wether it was coal mine gas or some other form of gas i dont know ??

Yes, igniting the gas from time to time was fairly common with gas from mines so that would fit and could be the purpose of some of these "vents".

The same practice is sometimes used on old landfill sites (ie those that are full of rubbish and then buried under a top layer) to vent off gas produced (again mainly methane) as the buried rubbish decays.

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Yes, igniting the gas from time to time was fairly common with gas from mines so that would fit and could be the purpose of some of these "vents".

The same practice is sometimes used on old landfill sites (ie those that are full of rubbish and then buried under a top layer) to vent off gas produced (again mainly methane) as the buried rubbish decays.

As I remember from conversations with a workmate that lived there, the vents were put in to release a dangerous buil-up of methane gas that was occurring under the site.

I think the problem came to light when gas engineers found evidence of methane (also the main constituent of natural gas) in wall cavities of buildings. The box device on the top of the columns is a flame trap to stop the gas igniting back down the column if it should set light. There doesn't seem to be evidence of a burner on the top 'so I guess the gas is released to atmosphere.

As DaveH mentions the gas is released from landfill and I visited a site near Lancaster where the rubbish is dumped into clay lined lagoons, covered with a layer of clay and left to cook for a time. Steel pipes are then driven down through the clay on a grid pattern and interconnected with light gauge plastic pipes. These are manifolded together and taken to a couple of trailer mounted modified diesel-generators and several Megawatts of power fed into the local grid system.

I have also visited a sewage works in central Manchester where sewage sludge is "cooked" in large digesters to produce methane and this too is used to generate power.

This system has been running for many years and from memory supplies about 10 MW for 24/7.

A case of getting our own back. Wait for the micro-system to be fitted to the rear-end of cows and vegetable curry affectionados !

HD

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A case of getting our own back. Wait for the micro-system to be fitted to the rear-end of cows and vegetable curry affectionados !

HD

It may be a case of the planet and nature getting its own back on us in the long run.

As I said earlier both methane and carbon dioxide, which is formed when methane burns are greenhouse gases and could cause catastrophic global warming and climate change if they get into the atmosphere in any sort of quantity.

Further to this we may be sitting on a time bomb, - I seem to remember watching a documentary recently which showed that vast amounts of methane were locked in the Siberian permafrost. So much that if it could be released in a controlled way it would provide masses of power and so much natural gas that Russia would be able to sell it and power almost all of Europe (they are almost in this position now as gas is one of their main exports). However, even with a fairly small amount of global warming, like we are already getting the Siberian permafrost could start to thaw, just like the Arctic Ocean doesn't full freeze anymore already. This thaw would cause the methane to enter the atmosphere and, being a greenhouse gas it would accelerate the thaw, accelerating the release of gas in a vicious circle causing a "runaway greenhouse effect", the consequences of which would be much worse than those predicted for carbon dioxide global warming, some thinking that it could even have an effect on the Earth similar to what has happened on Venus.

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If you look carefully they carry a sign saying they are the responsibility of the Coal Authority.. As a local I was informed they were to vent any build up of gas from the long closed Holbrook Colliery upon whose site hundreds of new homes have been built over last 20 or so years.. Incidentally, parts of the area were also "blessed", for a time, with a build up of radon gas.

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These vents were installed in the mid 1980's when gas started seeping out from the old colliery workings under the new housing estate. We had to isolate the electricity supply in some lamp posts as the gas was coming up through them, as if they switched on.......!

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Those pipes are methane releases, underneath there’s a bore hole that goes down and releases mine gas. A friend and I were speaking about it the other day. 

The holbrook Colliery hasn’t been built on it’s still just a mass of spoil and woodland, for whatever reason it can’t be built on.

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Mine shafts and other obstructions possibly. Could be the expense of remedying these"defects" mitigate against development....especially as other parts of the Halfway area, recently built on, involved, in parts, some substantial piling as well as earth removal and compacting.

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