Moses Kellow was the engineer & manager of Parc & Croesor Quarries from 1893 to 1930, pioneering many improvements primarily related to introducing electricity into the underground quarry. Other work led the design of the most powerful rock drill ever made and an electrical insulator made from slate.
Kellow was born at the heart of Cornish slate quarrying at Delabole in 1862, but at the age of 3 his parents moved to Caernarfon. His father (William Kellow) bought the Parc Quarries near Croesor village around 1890 and in May 1893 Moses became Managing Director.
Kellow took over the management of the then unworked Croesor quarry following the death of the incumbent manager, his father-in-law in 1895. The quarry had closed down in 1878 after a succession of unsuccessful ventures. He quickly reopened the quarry and had the chambers below the adit level pumped out. He arranged terms for the purchase of the entire Croesor Estate and then took over the management of both the Croesor and Parc estates, including the non-statutory tramway.
He was clearly a well-respected pillar of the local community. As well as being Manager & Engineer to the two quarries (Parc & Croesor), he was organist to the local choir, was a Merioneth County Councillor and undertook much engineering consultancy work, his main private customer being Lady Owen of Croesor Hall. Kellow was the last occupant of Brynhyfryd, the Croesor Quarry Manager's House, located alongside the upper tramway to the east of Croesor village, the house was probably the finest all-electric house in North Wales before the First World War.
In 1901 he proposed an electricity supply for the quarry by damming the Cwm Voel valley and constructing a hydroelectric power station in the Croesor valley, 860 feet below. Rather than use the more normal 550v direct current supply, Kellow pursued the alternative of three-phase alternating current but had to look overseas for suppliers, eventually finding the two firms of Ganz and Kollen in Hungary. Kollen & Co. of Prague supplied a 250vka alternator to Kellow's own design, driven by a 375hp turbine; distribution to the quarry was at around 3,000V.
Within the main adit at Croesor quarry, overhead wires were installed and a 30hp electric locomotive was used, Kellow believed that this was the first underground electric locomotive, but Greenside Mine in the Lake District had been using an electric locomotive since 1891. Electricity was also used for powering the mill and lighting the inclines, adit and chambers. The lighting of the chambers shows how advanced Kellow's thinking was when battery lights on helmets did not become commonplace until after 1945 and general lighting of chambers is still the exception rather than the rule.
In 1906 Kellow was instrumental in the supply of three-phase haulage motors to the Oakeley Quarry at Blaenau Ffestiniog by Bruce Peebles & Co. of Edinburgh. It is interesting to surmise whether Kellow had any input into the Portmadoc, Beddelert & South Snowdon Railway's plans to use three-phase electric locomotives supplied by Bruce Peebles, based on an existing design by Ganz of Budapest.
Kellow's greatest contribution was the Kellow Rock Drill, which unusually was powered by high-pressure water rather than compressed air. The drill was powered by a pelton wheel (later a reaction turbine) and drove the shaft via epicyclic gears, all contained within a lightweight aluminium alloy case. The complete drill weighed little more than one hundredweight (112lb/50.9kg) and developed 55 hp. The drill was capable of drilling a 2.5" (63mm) hole at a rate of 60 inches (1.5m) per minute in hard slate. In comparison, a modern rock drill is able to drill 40 inches per minute at 1.75 inches (44mm) diameter. Kellow diverted some of the waste water out through the drill it to remove debris from the hole, helping to minimise the health risks of dust in the underground workings.
Croesor and Parc quarries closed in December 1930, Kellow died in 1943 aged 82, never having fully recovered from the death of his wife and son at the end of the First World War. His autobiography was serialised in 'The Quarry Managers' Journal' during the 1940s.
Autobiography of the late Ex-Alderman Moses Kellow; serialised in The Quarry Managers' Journal, January 1944 - December 1945.
The Mine Explorer, journal of the Cumbria Amenity Trust Mining History Society, volume 4.
FR Heritage Group Newsletter no 7, Summer 1986.
FR Heritage Group Journal, no 26, Summer 1991 & no 44, Winter 1995/6.
Greenside - a tale of Lakeland Miners, Ian Tyler, 1992.