Pneumatic pick

About the sound

The pneumatic pick (manufacturer unknown) is an air tool which was presumably used for breaking up coal in the Ruhr-area mining industry in the 1950s. It is currently located at the visitors‘coal mine exhibit of the LWL-Industrial Museum Nightingale colliery and is used for demonstrations.
The pneumatic pick consists of a cylinder with a piston, the control mechanism, the handle with an on-off switch and a freely moving pointed iron chisel located at the end of the cylinder.
High air pressure dashes the piston downward, making a strong impact against the pointed iron chisel. The piston rebounds and returns to its original position, where its motion is braked by the compression of air, and the process repeats. The blow against the chisel transfers most of the piston’s force, which drives the chisel into the coal.
The supply of air pressure, the interaction between the piston and the chisel, and the chisel hammering into the rock create the characteristic sounds of the pneumatic pick.

Sound recordist: Konrad Gutkowski / Jonathan Nicolai / Anna Pietzuch
Video recordist: Konrad Gutkowski / Jonathan Nicolai / Anna Pietzuch
Photographer: Konrad Gutkowski / Jonathan Nicolai / Anna Pietzuch