NRl.F 
 
 B M Ebb 
 
 
^ n n r r 
 
 REESE LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 Deceived ^ 14 1893 . ,8 9 . I 
 
 CA/ss No. 
 
 us No: 
 
 "u u u- 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
A 
 GLOSSARY OF TERMS 
 
 USED IN THE 
 
 COAL TRADE. 
 

 T! 
 
 *? 
 
GLOSSARY OF TERMS 
 
 USED IN THE 
 
 COAL TKADE 
 
 OF 
 
 NORTHUMBERLAND AND DURHAM. 
 
 BY 
 
 G. C. GREENWELL, F.G.S., M. INST. C.E., 
 
 COLLIERY VIEWER, 
 
 Past President of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical 
 
 Engineers ; Past President of the Manchester Geological Society ; 
 
 Author of "A Practical Treatise on Mine Engineering," 
 
 THIRD EDITION 
 
 BEMKOSE & SONS, 28, OLD BAILEY; AND DERBY. 
 
 
 1888. 
 
, 
 
 THIS WORK is COPYRIGHT.] 
 
TO THE 
 
 COLLIERY VIEWERS 
 
 OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND, 
 
 WHO, WITH THE AUTHOR, HAVE ACHIEVED 
 
 A JUBILEE IN THEIR PROFESSION, 
 
 THIS BOOK 
 IS INSCRIBED. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE first edition of the " GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED IN 
 THE COAL TRADE OF NORTHUMBERLAND AND DURHAM," 
 was published anonymously in 1849. The number of copies 
 printed was limited, and was soon disposed of. A second 
 edition, which was merely a reprint of the first, followed 
 shortly afterwards ; and it also soon became out of print. 
 
 The Authorship of the "GLOSSARY" was acknowledged 
 by the writer in his preface to the first edition of "A 
 PRACTICAL TREATISE ON MINE ENGINEERING," which was 
 published in 1855. 
 
 It had for some time been in the mind of the Author to 
 publish a third edition of the " GLOSSARY." The appearance 
 recently of a book having exactly the same title, has 
 hastened the re-publication, particularly as it has, without 
 any acknowledgment, and very largely indeed, drawn 
 verbatim from the pages of the original. 
 
 The present edition has been entirely re-written. The 
 information contained in the first has been extended and 
 added to ; the same style has been observed, as it has been 
 the wish of the Author to include in his book the records 
 of how things were 50 years ago, and much more. 
 
 Du field, near Derby, 
 
 iSth August, 1888. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 ADDLE, ADLE. To earn. 
 ADDLINGS, ADLINGS. Earnings. 
 
 ADIT. A drift commonly waterlevel, driven into a mine 
 from a hillside, a grove. 
 
 A-FORCE. To hole a board into an adjoining board un- 
 intentionally. (See Pillar). 
 
 AFTER-DAMP. (See Choke-damp). 
 AGREEMENT. (See Bond). 
 
 AIR. The current of air circulating through and venti- 
 lating a mine. 
 
 AIR-BOX. A square wooden tube used to convey air into 
 the face of a single drift, or shaft in sinking. It ought not 
 to be less, if required of considerable length, than one foot 
 square inside, and may be made larger with advantage. 
 
 AIRWAY. A passage along which the current of air 
 travels. 
 
 AMAIN. " Waggons or tubs are said to run amain, if they 
 get by accident over an incline bank head, without the rope 
 being attached : or through the rope becoming detached or 
 broken." (W. E. Nicholson, Glossary, <&c.) 
 
 APPARATUS. Machinery at the surface for separating the 
 
2 
 
 small coals, skreened out from the round, into nuts and duft'. 
 The small coals which have passed through the skreen, are 
 drawn by the winding engine (whilst winding in the shaft) 
 either vertically or up an inclined framing, in a tub called 
 an apparatus tub, which teems itself at the top of the 
 frame ; they are then passed over a second skreen, the nuts 
 to the waggons for sale, and the dead small, or duff which 
 falls through the skreen, if of no value, to the waste heap. 
 
 ARLES, EARLES. Earnest money formerly given to men 
 and boys, when hired at the bindings. 
 
 " Previous to 1804, a custom of giving two or three 
 guineas per hewer, as binding or bounty money, had crept 
 into the trade : but in 1804, so great were the fears of 
 procuring the necessary supply of men, that from twelve to 
 fourteen guineas per man were given upon the Tyne, and 
 eighteen guineas upon the Wear ; and progressive exorbitant 
 bounties were paid to putters, drivers, and irregular work- 
 men. Drink was lavished in the utmost profusion, and 
 every sort of extravagance perpetrated. 
 
 " The evil effects of the system of binding-money produced 
 a re-action, so that it was very soon after discontinued ; and 
 for many years the only expense has been two shillings to 
 men, and one shilling to boys." (Dunn, View of the Coal 
 Trade, 1844.) 
 
 Since the pitmen's strike in 1844, the " Aries " have been 
 altogether discontinued. 
 
 AVERAGE WEIGHT. The mean weight of a tub of coals, 
 at a colliery for any fortnight, upon which the hewers' and 
 putters' wages are calculated : a fixed price being paid for a 
 standard weight, anything above which is called overweight 
 or overplus. 
 
 The average weight is usually obtained by weighing two 
 tubs in each score : the average tubs being fixed upon by 
 the weighers, whilst they are being drawn in the shaft to 
 the surface. There are generally two weighers, one 
 appointed and paid by the collier} 7 , and the other by the 
 
3 
 
 workmen (1849). At the present time each tub is usually 
 weighed, the average weight of a number of empty tubs, 
 being taken from time to time as the tare ; each tub is 
 identified by having a token, or tally, which is a piece of 
 stamped tin or leather, attached to it. 
 
 BACK. A diagonal parting in coal ; a description of hitch 
 where the strata are not dislocated. At a back there is 
 frequently a glossy parting, and sometimes a little sooty, 
 dirty coal. When, on approaching a back, it is observed to 
 form an acute angle with the thill of the seam, it is called 
 an East back ; when it forms an obtuse angle, it is called a 
 West back. Thus the same back will be an East or West 
 back, according to the direction from which it is mined 
 through. As there is rarely anything to indicate a back, 
 and as there is little or no cohesion between its faces, the 
 coal often and unexpectedly falls away and causes acci- 
 dent. 
 
 BACK-END. In working a four or five yard board, an 
 excavation or kirving is made in the bottom part of the 
 coal, half of the width of the board, and as far as the hewer 
 is able to make it with his pick. This is followed by a 
 vertical cutting, equally far in, next to the side of the place. 
 A hole is then drilled near the roof, and fast side of the coal 
 undermined, and in it gunpowder is placed, and the coal 
 blown down. This is called the sump. The remaining 
 half of the place is called the back-end, and is similarly 
 undermined and shot down. 
 
 BACK- HE AD WAYS. (See Headways.} 
 
 BACKING-DEALS. Deals placed behind cribs, for the 
 support of the walls of a pit, where the stone is bad. 
 They are generally, when only temporarily required, made 
 of H inch Scotch deals, and are used in sinking, being 
 replaced by walling, after a foundation has been obtained. 
 
 BACK-OVERMAN. A man who has the immediate inspec- 
 tion of the workings and workmen during the back-shift. 
 His wages are about 21s. per week. (1849.) 
 
BACK-SHAFT. (See Engine Pit). 
 
 BACK-SHIFT. The second shift of hewers in each day. 
 It commences four hours after the pit begins to draw coals. 
 
 BACK-SKIN. A large leather covering for the back and 
 shoulders ; it is fastened in front with crossed straps ; it is 
 used in sinking and shaft work, as a protection from the 
 falling water. Old, but sound, gig aprons make good back- 
 skins. 
 
 BADGER. (See Brat). 
 
 BAFF-END. A piece of wood, 15 or 18 inches long, 5 or 6 
 inches broad, and from 1 to 2 inches thick, used for driving 
 behind cribs or tubbing to bring them to their proper posi- 
 tion in a pit. A quantity of these are used in sinking, 
 where much tubbing is required to be put in. 
 
 BAFF-WEEK. Every alternate week. The week succeed- 
 ing the pay week. 
 
 BAG OF GAS. " A cavity found occasionally in fiery seams 
 of coal, containing highly condensed gas ; whether in 
 a gaseous or fluid (or solidified) form has not yet been 
 ascertained. On the coal being worked away until it is no 
 longer equal to resist the elastic force of the compressed 
 gas, the gas escapes with a sort of explosion, displacing the 
 coal, filling the adjoining workings, and firing at the first 
 unprotected lights it meets with, after being brought down 
 to the firing point by a due admixture of atmospheric air." 
 (Buddie, Account of Explosion at Jarrow Colliery.) 
 
 BAIT. Provision taken by a pitman to his work. 
 BAIT- POKE. The bag in which the bait is carried. 
 BALANCE- WEIGHT. (See Staple). 
 
 BALK. A species of hitch. The roof of the seam coming 
 down into the coal without any corresponding depression of 
 the thill, thus causing a nip. Balks are most frequent when 
 the roof of the coal is a stratum of sandstone or post. 
 Also a piece of strong timber, usually used in rolley-ways 
 or permanent passages to support the roof, each of its ends 
 
being supported by a prop, or by being notched into the 
 wall side. 
 
 BALN-STONE. Roof stone. 
 
 BAND. An interstratification of stone or shale with coal. 
 
 BANK. Above ground. 
 
 BANK-OUT. To teem the coals into a heap as they are 
 drawn, instead of into the waggons. 
 
 BANKSMAN. A man who draws the full tubs from the 
 cages at the surface, when wound up by the winding 
 engine, and replaces them with empty ones ; he also puts 
 the full tubs to the weighing machine, and thence to the 
 skreens, upon which he teems the coals. It is also his duty 
 to keep an account of the quantity of coals and stones 
 drawn each day. The banksman's wages are about 4s. per 
 day of 12 hours (1849). He is usually paid by the quantity 
 drawn. 
 
 BARGAIN- WORK. Work such as stone or coal drifting, 
 rolley-way making, &c., let by proposal, amongst the work- 
 men at a colliery, to the lowest offer. 
 
 BARRIER. A breadth of coal left against an adjoining 
 royalty for security against casualty arising from water or 
 foul air. Barriers are left of various thicknesses, frequently 
 20 yards, but varying according to supposed necessity from 
 10 to 60, or even 100 yards. 
 
 BARROWMAN. A Putter. One who puts the tubs of coals 
 from the working places to the cranes, flats, or stations, 
 whence they are taken by horses or machinery along the 
 main or rolley-ways to the shaft. Before the applica- 
 tion of tramways underground, coals used to be conveyed 
 underground on sledges, and afterwards on barrows, whence 
 the name. 
 
 The average day's work of a barrowman, who when 
 putting alone, is a young man from 17 to 20 or 21 years of 
 age, is equal, on level road laid with bridge rails, and with 
 
6 
 
 tubs having fiauched wheels 10 inches in diameter in the 
 trod, to 
 
 1 empty tub = 3 cwt. pushed 8,280 Ibs. 
 
 yards or 7057 tons pushed 1 
 mile, or 8,346,240 pushed 1 foot. 
 
 1 full tub = 10 cwt. pushed 8,280 
 yards, or 2 3523 tons pushed ] 
 mile, or 27,820,800 pushed 1 foot, 
 
 Total days work 3*0580 tons 
 
 pushed a distance of 1 mile, or 36,167,040 pushed 1 foot. 
 
 And taking the friction at l-65th part on account of the 
 imperfect nature of the way, and the small diameter of the 
 tub wheels, and being also the mean of six experiments, 
 the mean permanent force exercised by the barrowman for 
 12 hours is equal to 556,416 Ibs. raised 1 foot in 12 hours, 
 or 6*44 Ibs. raised 2 feet per second, which is equivalent to 
 7728 Ibs. raised 2 feet per second for 10 hours, or about 
 one-fourth part of the mean relative, or permanent force of 
 a man, as estimated by Mr. Tredgold. 
 
 Barrowmen are usually paid from lid. to 15d. per score 
 of 6 tons, put an average distance of 80 yards with Id. 
 extra per score for every additional 20 yards (1849). 
 Small ponies were first used for putting about the year 
 1842, and have since been, and now are, where convenient, 
 largely substituted for putters. 
 
 BARROW- WAY. The way along which the barrowmen 
 put the corves or tubs of coals. It is either laid with tram 
 plates or bridge plates ; but the latter are preferable. 
 Twenty-four inches between the rails is a good gauge, 
 being suitable for both barrow-way and horse-road. 
 
 BASTARD WHIN. Very hard post or sandstone, but not 
 so flinty as to be called whin. 
 
 BATEWORK. (See Short Work) 
 
 BEANS. A description of small coals, so called from their 
 size, produced by further skreening the duff. 
 
LEAKING, or BEARING-IN DOOR. (See Door.) 
 
 BEATER. An iron rod, used for stemming or tamping a 
 hole, preparatory to blasting (1849), but must not be used 
 upon the first tamping (Mines' Act, 1872). Iron and Steel 
 prohibited (Mines' Act, 1887). 
 
 BEAT-HAND. (Built ?) A hand which, from being vesi- 
 cated or blistered with hard work, has festered. 
 
 BECHE (called by the workman Bitch). (See Bore.) 
 
 , BEETLE. " A small locomotive engine driven by com- 
 pressed air, the invention of Messrs. Lishman and Young, 
 and employed on the rolley-ways at Newbottle Collieries." 
 (Nicholson.) 
 
 BELL CRANK. A double crank placed between the ends 
 of a shaft. 
 
 BELL PIT. This is a pit sunk where the mine lies very 
 near the surface : it is commenced of small size, and when 
 the coal or mine ground has been bottomed, it is worked 
 away in every direction round the bottom as far as the 
 workman can cast the mineral with his shovel. The general 
 form arrived at is that of a bell, inverted, whence the 
 name. 
 
 BEND. Yorkshire, or engine bend, is a leather used in 
 grathing buckets and clacks with side leathers, or leather 
 jackets ; this leather is moderately stout, and is studded 
 with brass or wood muds. 
 
 BEND-AWAY. The order given by the person in charge 
 for the cage to be drawn to bank. 
 
 BEND-UP, or BEND-UP A BIT. An order given by the 
 person in charge to raise the cage slowly, so that it may be 
 instantl\ T stopped on the order " Hold ! " being given. 
 
 BIND. To hire. 
 
 BINDING. Up to 1810, the binding took place on the 
 Saturday nearest to fourteen days previous to October 10th, 
 but after this year until 1844, on the Saturday nearest to 
 fourteen days previous to the 5th April ; the engagement 
 
8 
 
 being from October 10th and April 5th respectively for 
 twelve months. Since 1844, the usual agreement has been 
 to hire for one month ; either party being at liberty to 
 terminate the engagement at the expiration of a month's 
 notice (1849) ; the notice at present is usually 14 days. 
 
 BLACK-DAMP. (See Stythe). 
 
 BLAST. An explosion of fire-damp extending over a great 
 part of the workings of a colliery ; also to blow down stone 
 or coal with gunpowder or other explosive. 
 
 BLEED. Coal is said to bleed when water oozes in drops 
 from its pores. 
 
 BLOW-DOWN. To bring down coal or stone with gun- 
 powder. 
 
 BLOWER. A sudden and violent discharge of gas from 
 the roof, seam of coal, or floor. (See Bag of Gas). 
 
 BLOWN-OUT SHOT. (See Standing Bobby). 
 
 BLUE-METAL. Indurated argillaceous shale, of a blueish 
 purple colour, resembling that of blue slates. 
 
 BOARD (WIDE). An excavation, a pillar in length, and 
 four or five yards in width, usually driven at right angles to 
 the cleavage of the coal ; sometimes, however, when the 
 coal is very flaky and works tender, it is advantageous, the 
 coals being produced in better condition, to drive the boards 
 in the direction of the cleat, when they are called headways 
 boards. 
 
 BOARD (NARROW). An excavation of the same length as 
 a wide board, but driven two yards wide. 
 
 BOARDWAY'S COURSE. The direction at right angles to 
 the line of cleavage or cleat of the coal. 
 
 BOLL. A coal measure. The coal boll contains 9676*8 
 cubic inches, or 34'899 imperial gallons. (H. Taylor, Esq., 
 Evid. before Select Committee of House of Lords, 1829). 
 
 BOND. The agreement to hire between coal owners and 
 workmen. Now an obsolete word : the term agreement 
 being substituted. 
 
BOKE. To ascertain the nature of strata, by means of 
 bore-rods and apparatus connected therewith, which consist 
 of 
 
 1st. Common Rods. They are made of the best iron, 
 or 1 inch square, in lengths of 3 or 6 feet, with a male screw 
 at one end, and a female screw at the other end of each 
 length, for the purpose of joining them together as required. 
 There are also short pieces of the length of 6, 12, and 18 inches 
 for the purpose of adjustment. The bottom rod of all has a 
 female screw at each end, the chisel being screwed into it. 
 It is called a box-rod. The common rods weigh about 
 22 Ibs. per fathom. 
 
 2nd. Chisels are made 18 inches in length, and 2J inches 
 broad at the cutting edge, and tapering upwards to the 
 screw joint, which is a male screw. The chisel weighs 4J 
 Ibs. 
 
 3rd. Wimbles. In boring through shales, the borings 
 adhere sufficiently to the chisel to allow them to be drawn 
 out of the hole ; that is to say, when the hole is damp 
 enough to work the borings in shale into clay. In a dry 
 hole, or in boring through posts or sandstones the case is 
 different, and another implement is required to be intro- 
 duced on withdrawing the chisel. It consists of a cylinder, 
 24 inches long, open at the bottom and also at the top, 
 about 12 inches below the joint ; it has also a partial 
 covering at the bottom, like an auger, for the purpose of 
 retaining the core with which it fills when worked round 
 the hole. Wimbles are also used in boring near the surface 
 through clay. Their external diameter must be such as to 
 admit of their following the chisel. A wimble weighs 
 about 12 Ibs. 
 
 4th. Sludgers differ from wimbles in having a clack near 
 the bottom of the cylinder, and are used when a borehole 
 is so wet that the borings would, unless retained by a clack 
 or some such contrivance, be washed out of the cylinder in 
 being drawn to the surface. The sludger is also useful in 
 
10 
 
 boring through a seam of coal, in bringing up samples of 
 coal when cut by the chisel. 
 
 5th. Beche. An instrument having some resemblance to 
 the extinguisher of a candle ; it is 25 inches long, and 
 weighs 6 Ibs. The hollow part extends 16 inches up into 
 the tool, and is 1J inch diameter at the lower end, and 
 tapers to f inch at the upper. It is used for the purpose of 
 extracting the bottom portion of a broken set of rods from 
 the hole. 
 
 6th. Rounder, resembles a beche externally. It is, how- 
 ever, solid and well steeled at the bottom, and is used for 
 breaking or cutting off any projection which may have 
 occurred in the hole. 
 
 7th. Bracehead. A piece of tough ash or oak, 36 inches 
 long, passed through an eye in a short piece of iron, at the 
 other end of which is a male screw to connect with the 
 rods. There are both single and double braceheads ; in this 
 case there are two eyes ; with the former, two men, and 
 with the latter, four men may be applied ; and without 
 other assistance a borehole may be put down 20 fathoms. 
 For a greater depth 
 
 8th. A Brake becomes necessary. It consists of a lever 
 from 8 to 12 feet long ; the axis or fulcrum being placed 18 
 inches or 2 feet from the end above the borehole. To this end 
 a hook is fixed upon which the rods are suspended by a chain 
 attached to a piece of doubled rope which is passed under 
 a bracehead screwed into the top of the rods. When all is 
 ready the lever is weighed down by one or more men, 
 according to the depth of the hole and weight of the rods, 
 which occasions the rods to be raised ; they are then 
 allowed to drop freely back into the hole, the chisel cutting 
 the stratum as it descends. The master of the shift of 
 borers is stationed at the bracehead, by means of which he 
 moves the rods a little in a forward direction at each stroke, 
 so as to keep the hole perfectly circular. He can also 
 distinguish by the touch the nature of the stratum through 
 
11 
 
 which the chisel is passing. The rods should be drawn, and 
 the hole cleaned every 6 inches. There are besides other 
 tools such as keys, &c., which are constantly required for 
 unscrewing the rods, when drawing or lowering, and small 
 braceheads called topits to which to attach the rope by a 
 runner, for drawing the rods by means of a jack roll. 
 They are drawn by a rope and block, or set of blocks sus- 
 pended from a triangle or set of shear legs, placed over the 
 hole. The triangle should not for a deep hole be less than 
 35 or 40 feet high. In a deep hole it is desirable that the 
 rods should be changed in long lengths ; and it is therefore 
 very advantageous to have the top of the borehole lowered 
 a few fathoms by means of a staple. The cost of boring 
 increases with great depth at a very rapid rate, and, as an 
 experienced borer once reminded me, "a few fathoms at the 
 top means a few fathoms at the bottom.'* 
 
 Boreholes are necessary in the faces of drifts in coal or 
 stone for the purpose of exploration in approaching old 
 workings ; those straightforward are called front, and those 
 at an angle, flank-holes. 
 
 BOTTOM-BOARD. The bottom of a waggon or truck, which 
 is unfastened when the waggon is required to be discharged 
 into a vessel, or deposit underneath by knocking off a catch. 
 
 BOTTOM-ROD. An iron rod attached at one end to the 
 bottom of the pumping spears, and at the other by an off- 
 take joint to the bucket sword. 
 
 BOWK. A report made by the cracking of the strata 
 owing to the extraction of the coal beneath. (See Thud.} 
 Also the noise made by the escape of gas under pressure. 
 
 BOX-ROD. (See Bore.) 
 BRACE-HEAD. (See Bore.) 
 
 BRAKE. (See Bore.} Also a band of iron, sometimes 
 faced with wood or flat hernp rope, caused by a lever to 
 press upon a sheave or wheel to check its motion ; also a 
 wooden breast applied to the wheel of a waggon or truck, 
 by means of a lever. 
 
12 
 
 BRAKESMAN. The engineman who attends to the winding 
 engine. 
 
 BRANCHES. The sidings required at a colliery for the 
 convenient separation and loading into waggons of the 
 various descriptions of coal produced ; also for the mar- 
 shalling of trains of waggons, and for other purposes. 
 
 BRASSES. Iron pyrites (sulphide of iron) found in coal ; 
 they require careful extraction ; they often explode in the 
 fire with a loud report ; they can be utilized for the manu- 
 facture of copperas. Copper pyrites (sulphide of copper) 
 is occasionally, but rarely, found in coal ; it is yellower in 
 colour, and can be scratched with a knife. 
 
 BRAT. A thin stratum of a coarse mixture of coal and 
 carbonate of lime or pyrites, frequently found lying at the 
 roof of a seam of coal. 
 
 BRATTICE. " A partition, generally of deal, placed in a pit, 
 or in a drift, or other working of a colliery for the purpose 
 of ventilation. The former is called a shaft brattice ; the 
 latter, the drift, headways, board, &c., brattice, according to 
 the situation in which it is placed. Its use is, to divide the 
 place in which it is fixed into two avenues, the current of 
 air entering by the one, and returning by the other." 
 (Buddie: First Report of the Society for preventing 
 accidents in Coal Mines). 
 
 Shaft or main brattice is usually made of 11 in. by 3 in. 
 Memel plank ; the joints being so dressed that the planks 
 placed edgeways upon each other, may be perfectly close 
 together, and as nearly as possible air tight. There should 
 also be a dowell, or iron bolt, 6 inches long, and f inch 
 diameter, for every five feet in length of the brattice planks, 
 passing 3 inches into the adjoining planks for the purpose 
 of stiffening the whole. 
 
 Common brattice is made of 9 J inch American deal, cut up 
 into sheets, or leaves, of a size convenient for the height of 
 the seam for which it is required, battened at the back. It 
 is nailed to props set for the purpose (called brattice props), 
 
13 
 
 when the roof does not require propping ; but if it does, the 
 ordinary timber will do. 
 
 Brattice cloth is now, and has for some years, been most 
 generally used for underground work instead of brattice 
 deals. It consists of strong canvas coated with or steeped 
 in tar or other substance to keep it air-tight. (See 
 Stopping). 
 
 BREAKER. In working against a goaf there is usually at 
 the distance of a few feet from it, a crack and slight 
 settlement of the roof which has received the above name. 
 
 BRIDGE RAILS. Malleable iron rails, the upper part of 
 which is hollow, with flanches on each side at the bottom, 
 and weighing about 5J Ibs. per foot. They are now much 
 used in barrow-ways instead of tram-plates ; the tubs being 
 fitted with flanched wheels (1849). Steel is now very 
 generally used for this purpose. 
 
 BROKEN. Pillar working. The partial working of 
 pillars in fiery collieries was commenced in the Tyne 
 collieries below Bridge, in 1795, the first experiment being- 
 made by Mr. Thomas Barnes, in the High Main Seam, in 
 1795. Before this plan was adopted, only 40 per cent, of 
 the coal could be obtained under a depth of 100 fathoms, 
 60 per cent, being lost in pillars. After its adoption, 55 
 per cent, was obtained and 45 per cent, was lost. (Buddie, 
 Evidence before Select Committee of House of Lords, 1829). 
 
 The process was called "robbing the pillars." Further 
 improvements were made by Mr. Buddie, at Percy Main 
 colliery in 1810, by which from 80 to 90 per cent, were 
 obtained, but an increased quantity of small coals made. 
 (Buddie). During the present time, very little coal need, 
 by proper management, be lost in pillar working. No rule 
 can be laid down as to how pillars should be taken off; so 
 much depending upon situation and the nature of the roof, 
 and thill, and coal. The principal thing to be attended to 
 is getting the pillars as quickly off as possible, and to be 
 very careful in getting all the coal practicable, together with 
 
14 
 
 all timber, so as by enabling the roof to fall freely, to 
 remove pressure from adjoining pillars, and avoid creep. 
 
 BROW. " The face or escarpment of a trouble or dyke in 
 a coal mine." (Brockett, Glossary of North Country 
 Words, 1846.) The front of the depressed roof at a dip 
 hitch. 
 
 BUCKET. " The part of a pump supplied with a fall or 
 lid ; as the bucket descends the water rushes through the 
 fall (the column being supported by the clack below), and 
 on the bucket being raised, the fall drops and retains the 
 water which is brought up and " (eventually) " delivered 
 into the Ian dry box." (Nicholson.) 
 
 BUCKET DOOR PIECE. The portion of a set of pumps 
 immediately above the working barrel, having a removable 
 door through which the bucket is changed ; the bucket door 
 is secured to the bucket door piece by bolts. 
 
 BUCKET SWORD. An iron rod secured to the bucket by 
 being passed through it and cottered ; its upper end being 
 connected with the bottom rod of the spears by an off-take 
 joint. 
 
 BULL. To bull a drill hole, consists in filling the hole 
 when in wet stone with strong clay, and then driving a 
 round iron rod with an eye at one end for the purpose of 
 extraction (called a bull), and nearly the size of the hole, to 
 its far end, previous to putting in the powder ; the object 
 being to keep back the water from oozing out of the sides 
 of the hole, which by wetting the powder, would prevent it 
 from exploding. Also a carriage attached to the front of a 
 set of tubs descending an underground inclined plane, 
 which supports a movable fork so balanced as to strike 
 into the roof in case of the breaking of the rope. 
 
 BUNTONS. Transverse pieces of wood placed in shafts to 
 which the guides for the cages are attached. (See Standing 
 Set) 
 
 CABIN. An underground office, usually near the shaft 
 bottom, where the overman gives directions as to the 
 
"ORN!A. 
 15 
 
 apportionment and conduct of the day's work ; candles given 
 to the drivers ; reports received as to the state of the 
 colliery. (See Lamp-Cabin.) 
 
 CAGE. A frame of iron which works between slides in a 
 shaft, and in which since the substitution of tubs for corves, 
 the tubs of coals are drawn to bank, and all passage in the 
 shaft carried on ; it is attached to the chain at the bottom 
 of the winding rope by four or sometimes six chains, 8 or 
 10 feet long. 
 
 CALLING COURSE. The time at which the caller calls from 
 house to house to awake the fore shift men, and after- 
 wards the lads and others ; in former times he used to 
 knock at each door and tell the inmate to " waken up and 
 go to work, in the name of God ! " 
 
 CANCH. Stone necessary to be taken up or down on 
 account of a rise or dip hitch, or to make necessary tub 
 or horse height. 
 
 CALDRON-BOTTOM. The fossil root of a tree or fern lying 
 on the roof of a seam of coal. It has little adhesion to the 
 overlying stratum, which, where these are present, is usually 
 shale ; its presence is difficult to detect, and it drops, often 
 without giving any warning, occasioning accidents which 
 are frequently fatal. It derives its name from the re- 
 semblance to the bottom of a caldron or pot ; in Somerset- 
 shire, it is called with greater propriety a bell-mould. 
 
 CANDLES. " The common pit candles vary in size, but 
 those generally used are forty-five to the pound ; the wick 
 is of cotton, and the candle made of sheep or ox tallow, but 
 clean ox tallow is the best." (Buddie, Report). They are 
 not used so small now, the size being from 20 to 30 to the 
 pound. 
 
 CANNEL COAL. A fine compact description of coal, with 
 a conchoidal fracture ; it burns with a bright flame, like a 
 candle, whence possibly its name. Its composition is as 
 
10 
 
 follows. (Richardson, Transactions Natural History 
 Society, Newcastle, 1837). 
 
 LANCASHIRE. EDINBURGH. 
 
 CARBON 83789 83'698 83808 67'434 67760 
 
 HYDROGEN 5'677 5'643 5-394 5-416 
 
 AZOTE & OXYGEN 8-077 8-001 12-606 12-258 
 
 ASHES 2-548 2-548 2-548 14-566 14-566 
 
 100-000 100-000 100-000 100-000 
 
 There are some beds of cannel coal in the Newcastle coal- 
 field ; and near the roof, and in the middle of a few of the 
 seams, a few inches of cannel frequently occur. 
 
 CANTEEN. A small wooden flat barrel, containing about 
 half a gallon, in which a pitman carries water or coffee with 
 him to his work. A tin bottle is used for the same 
 purpose. 
 
 CAP. The blue " top " on a candle or lamp when it burns 
 in a mixture of fire-damp and air, not in an explosive 
 condition. (See Show). Also to put a shackle on a rope. 
 
 CARTRIDGE. (See Shot). 
 
 CAPHEAD. A top placed upon an air-box, used in 
 sinking, &c., for the purpose of catching as much air as 
 possible ; its front is kept facing the wind by means of a 
 vane. 
 
 CASH. A soft band. Sometimes found separating one 
 stratum from another; when thin, called a cashy parting. 
 
 CASTER. The work of casters was to shovel or " cast " 
 the coals from the keels into the vessels, at the ports in the 
 side of the same for the purpose. Their wages in former 
 times used to be 2s. per day and a pint of beer. 
 
 CATBAND. An iron loop placed on the underside of the 
 centre of a flat corf bow, in which to insert the hook. 
 
 CATCHES. (See Keeps or Keps). Also movable checks 
 by which the tubs are secured in the cages. 
 
17 
 
 CATCHPIN. A strong oak or iron pin fixed over and to 
 the ends of the beam of a pumping engine, which, in the 
 event of a broken spear, by falling on the spring-beams, 
 prevents the damage that would be occasioned to the top or 
 bottom of the cylinder. (See Spring Beams.) 
 
 CATHEAD. An ironstone ball. 
 
 CAVILS. Lots. A periodical allotment of working places 
 to the hewers and putters of a colliery, usually made 
 quarterly, each person having assigned to him by lot that 
 place in which he is to work during the ensuing quarter. 
 
 CHALDRON. The Newcastle chaldron is a measure 
 containing 53 cwts. of coal. The content of the chaldron 
 waggon (custom-house measurement) is 217,989 cubic 
 inches ; and that of the boll being 9676 '8 cubic inches, the 
 chaldron is equal to 22-526 bolls, and not as usually, but 
 erroneously stated, to 24 bolls. The weight of the boll of 
 
 KO 
 
 coals is therefore 22-526 = 2 '35284 cwts - The statute 
 
 London chaldron is to consist of 36 bushels heaped up ; 
 each bushel to contain a Winchester bushel and one quart, 
 and to be 19 J inches in diameter externally ; and as it has 
 been found, by repeated trials, that 15 London pool chaldrons 
 are equal to 8 Newcastle chaldrons (Rees's Cyclopedia), the 
 London chaldron must be equal to 28 - 266 cwts. The content 
 of a London chaldron has been variously estimated, viz. 
 
 28-266 cwts. Beaumont's Treatise on the Goal Trade, 1789. 
 
 27-000 cwts. Dr. Macnab, Letters to Pitt, 1793. 
 
 26-500 cwts. T. Ismay, Evidence on Coal Trade, 1800. 
 
 27*762 cwts. W. Dickson, Evidence on the Coal Trade, 1829. 
 (or 11-21 sts. x 53 cwts.) 
 
 28*462 cwts. B. Thompson, Inventions and Improvements 
 
 1847. 
 
 Coal is at present, and has for some years been sold by 
 weight only. By the Coal Mines Inspection Act, 1872, it 
 was enacted that the amount of wages should, after August 
 1st, 1873, where it depends on the amount of mineral gotten, 
 unless the mine is exempted by a Secretary of State, be paid 
 for by the true weight of the mineral gotten. 
 
18 
 
 CHALKING DEAL. A flat board upon which the crane- 
 man or flat-lad apportions and keeps account of the work 
 done by the putters in the district of which he has charge. 
 
 CHAIN PUMP. (See Rag-wheel Pump.} 
 
 CHANGER AND GRATHER. A man whose province it is 
 to keep the buckets and clacks in order, and to change them 
 when necessary. 
 
 CHASE, OR CHESS, THE ROPES. After the winding-engine 
 has been standing for some time, to run the cages up and 
 down the shaft to see that all is right before men are allowed 
 to get into the cage. 
 
 CHECK- VIEWER. A viewer employed by the lessor to see 
 that the provisions of the lease are duly observed. 
 
 CHECK- WEIGHER. The weigher employed by the work- 
 men. (See Average Weight.} 
 
 CHINLEY COALS, (shingly). Chinley coals are neither 
 round (or large) nor small, but are such as will pass over the 
 skreen and among the best coals. 
 
 CHISEL. (See Bore.) 
 
 CHOCK. Used to prevent the escape of tubs or wagons 
 down an incline. It consists of two blocks of hard wood, one 
 of which can either lie across the rail, or between the rails 
 pointing down the bank and turning on an upright pin 
 placed between the rails ; the other also working on an 
 upright pin on the outside of the rails. When the chock is 
 in use the latter block is pointed up the bank parallel with 
 the rail, and the former being placed across the rail, rests 
 against it. When the set is required to move, the outside 
 chock is knocked to a side, and the inside one moves down 
 between the rails. 
 
 CHOCKS. Wooden billets, made of hard wood, usually 
 about 2 feet long, 8 inches broad, and 6 inches thick, built 
 up two and two crossways to support the roof: the column 
 is usually set upon a small quantity of small coal, which 
 being easily picked out enables it to be taken down without 
 difficulty. 
 
19 
 
 CHOKE-DAMP. The following diagram is illustrative of 
 the combustion of fire-damp or carburetted hydrogen, of 
 which the product is choke-damp, called also after-damp. 
 
 BEFORE ELEMENTARY PRODUCTS OF 
 
 COMBUSTION. MIXTURE. COMBUSTION. 
 
 Weight Atoms. Weight. Weight. 
 
 8 Carburetted J al * on - ?~ .......... ^ Carbonic acid 
 
 I Hydrogen 1 _____ ........ <&--** Steam 
 
 * 
 
 i 7 _____ ........ <--** 
 
 hydrogen, j l jfa*^ \__ Steam 
 
 1 Oxygen... */''/ 
 
 144 
 
 8 Nitrogen 112 _112 Uncombined 
 
 nitrogen 
 
 152 152 152 
 
 ( Williams, Combustion of Coal.) 
 
 This gas, which is the result of an explosion of fire-damp, is 
 most deleterious and causes more deaths than the fire, in 
 the proportion of three to one. (E. Elliott, Evidence on 
 Accidents in Mines, 1835.) 
 
 CINDER COAL. Coal deprived of its bitumen by the 
 action of a whin-dyke or slip. 
 
 CLACK. The low valve of a pump ; its use is to support 
 the column of water when the bucket is descending. 
 
 CLACK-DOOR-PIECE. The portion of a set of pumps 
 immediately below the working barrel in a lifting set ; it has 
 a removable door through which the clack is changed. In a 
 forcing set there are two clacks both placed in the column 
 of pumps, one being below the junction pipe in the H piece, 
 between the bottom of the plunger or ram chamber and the 
 pumps, and the other above it. 
 
 CLAGGY. A seam of coal is said to have a claggy top 
 when it adheres to the roof, and is with difficulty separated : 
 it most frequently occurs when the roof is post or sandstone 
 rock, and is uneven or scabby. 
 
20 
 
 CLAM. A movable collaring for a pump, consisting of two 
 pieces of wood indented to receive the pump, and screw- 
 bolted together. 
 
 CLEAD. To cover with planks or deals. 
 
 CLEADING. The plank covering of a winding drum ; the 
 deal covering of a cylinder of an engine, &c. 
 
 CLEAT. The vertical joints or facings in coal or stone. 
 There are frequently two cleats in coal, at which, when 
 distinct, the coal is broken into rhomboidal fragments. 
 These cleats do not always intersect each other at the same 
 angle : thus the angles in the Brockwell seam, at West 
 Auckland colliery are 100 and 80 ; 'in the Five-quarter 
 seam at Black Boy colliery, 122 20', and 57 40'; in the 
 High Main seam at Willington colliery, 103 24', and 76 
 36' ; in the Main seam at Broomhill collie^, 109 and 71, 
 and in the Main coal at Holywell colliery, 140 and 40. 
 The following directions of cleat are taken from 73 observa- 
 tions : 
 
 TABLE OF DIRECTIONS OF CLEATS IN COAL IN 
 THE NEWCASTLE COAL FIELD (TKUE MERIDIAN). 
 
 H 
 
 w 
 
 w 
 
 w 
 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 M 
 
 (N 
 
 CO 
 
 (M 
 
 CLEATS. Pieces of wood fastened to dry spears for the 
 purpose of steadying them, and preventing them from 
 wearing where they pass through the collarings. Cleats are 
 
21 
 
 also placed upon wet spears to steady them, and prevent 
 the edges of the spear-plates and spear bolt-heads from 
 injuring the pumps. 
 
 CLINCH OR CLINK BOLTS. Cross bolts under spear bolts 
 to prevent the spears from stripping. 
 
 CLINKERS. A slag formed upon fire-bars by impurity in 
 the coal. 
 
 CLIPPERS, CLIPPUS. The hook used, in sinking, to attach 
 the rope to the corf, when it is required to be sent to the 
 surface or down the pit. It is constructed with a piece of 
 flat iron, connected by a hinge joint with the turned up end 
 of the hook which is also flat. When the corf-bow is placed 
 in the hook, this piece of flat iron is put down and kept in 
 its place by an iron spring attached to the shank of the 
 hook, and which requires to be pressed back before the corf 
 can be liberated. A corruption of Cliffe's hook. 
 
 In the ordinary pit hook used when coals were drawn in 
 corves, the catch was connected with the shank of the hook 
 near the top, and pressed by a spring against the turned up 
 point of the hook after the fashion of the spring hook, by 
 which a chain is attached to a watch. 
 
 CLOUR. A small depression of roof into coal, mostly in a 
 post roof. 
 
 COAL-PIPE. The carbonized bark of a fossil plant ; also a 
 very thin seam or scare of coal. 
 
 COD. The carriage or bearing of cast iron, bolted to the 
 underside of the tram, which rests upon the journal of the 
 axle, which is kept in its place by an iron strap. 
 
 COKE. Cinders produced by burning coal in close ovens, 
 only sufficient air being admitted to combine with the 
 volatile carbons : or without any admission of air, the volatile 
 carbon being driven off by external heat, condensed and 
 utilized. The flame produced by the first named process is 
 now by means of flues, frequently applied to raising steam, 
 by being passed under boilers, and to other useful purposes. 
 
 COLLARING. A framing usually composed of pieces of 
 
timber crossed placed under the pump joints in a shaft for 
 the purpose of steadying and supporting the set. Also used 
 for steadying the dry spears of pumps in a shaft. Also for 
 steadying underground horizontal spears, &c. (See Cleats.) 
 
 COLUMN. The water above the clack in a set of pumps. 
 
 COMPASS. A pit compass or dial, will be found most use- 
 ful when divided simply into four quadrants reckoning 90 
 each way from the north and south points marked on the 
 dial. In all careful surveying underground, the tram-plates 
 or other iron or metal way ought to be taken up for at least 
 four yards on each'side of the compass : the surveying lamp 
 should be entirely of copper or brass, and no iron should be 
 found on any portion of the dress or in the pockets of the 
 surveyor. It is also advisable to read off the course from 
 the north end of the needle always to look through the 
 same sights (the low ones are preferable) and to survey the 
 same colliery always as nearly as possible at the same time 
 of day, the diurnal variation of the needle being far from 
 inconsiderable. The following table shows the diurnal 
 variation taken at different hours of the 27th June, 1759, 
 by Mr. Canton. (Philosophical Transactions, Vol. 51.) 
 
 MORNING. 
 
 Hrs. 
 
 Mins. 
 
 Declination West. 
 
 Degrees of 
 Fahrs. Therm. 
 
 f 
 
 18 
 
 18 
 
 2' 
 
 62 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 18 
 
 58' 
 
 62 
 
 8 
 
 30 
 
 18 
 
 55' 
 
 65 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 18 
 
 54' 
 
 67 
 
 10 
 
 20 
 
 18 
 
 57' 
 
 69 
 
 11 
 
 40 
 
 19 
 
 4' 
 
 68| 
 
 f 
 
 50 
 
 19 
 
 9' 
 
 70 
 
 1 
 
 38 
 
 19 
 
 8' 
 
 70 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 19 
 
 8' 
 
 68 
 
 7 
 
 20 
 
 18 
 
 59' 
 
 61 
 
 9 
 
 12 
 
 19 
 
 6' 
 
 59 
 
 11 
 
 40 
 
 18 
 
 51' 
 
 57i 
 
 AFTERNOON. 
 
 At present the diurnal variation at Greenwich is about 
 12' in summer, and 7' in winter. The mean position of the 
 
23 
 
 needle is at about 10 a.m. and at 6 p.m. throughout the 
 
 year. 
 
 In the year 1657, at London, the variation was nil, and in 
 
 1819 it had attained its maximum of westing, which was 
 
 24 41' 42". 
 
 In 1840 the variation at Greenwich 23 18' West. 
 1845 22 W 
 
 1850 22 24' 
 
 1855 ,, 21 48' 
 
 I860 ,. 21 14' 
 
 1865 20 34' 
 
 1870 19 Q 53' 
 
 1875 19 21' 
 
 1880 18 33' 
 
 1885 18 1' 
 
 1888 about 17 40' 
 
 The variation for Newcastle is about 1 50' greater; that 
 
 for Derby 1 Q 10' greater ; and that for Manchester 1 45' 
 
 greater (1881). But these differences would not be quite 
 
 the same in 1840. (From Greenwich Observatot^y.) 
 
 CONDUCTORS. (See Slides.) 
 
 CONICAL DRUM. (See Rope Roll.) 
 
 CONSIDERATION. " Compensation paid to hewers for un- 
 foreseen difficulties met with in their work and which are 
 not covered by the score price." (Nicholson.) 
 
 CONVOY. The brake formerly applied to one of the 
 wheels of a coal wagon. It had one breast, made of wood ; 
 the lever was al.so of wood. Wood wheels were discontinued 
 on the Tan field way in the year 1794. 
 
 COTTERED. Applied to stone or coal, hard, cross-grained, 
 tough. 
 
 CORF. A basket made of hazel, of the capacity of from 
 10 to 30 pecks, formerly used for conveying coals from the 
 working places to the surface. Leading corves are small 
 corves, containing about 6 or 8 pecks, used for carrying 
 stones or rubbish to a stow-board. Since the introduction 
 
of tubs about 50 years ago the use of corves gradually ceased. 
 The corves were made and kept in repair by contractors, 
 named Corvers, who were paid by the score of coals drawn, 
 according to the circumstances of the colliery as to depth, 
 wetness, upcast, downcast, &c., sixpence to one shilling per 
 score, or from Id. to 2d. per ton. 
 
 COUNTER-BALANCE-WEIGHT. (See Staple.) 
 
 COUP. An exchange of cavils. To be valid it must be 
 with the consent of the overman. 
 
 COUPLER. A boy who couples or connects, by means of 
 the coupling chains, the tubs of coal in order to form a set 
 or train. 
 
 COURSING. Conducting the air backwards and forwards 
 through old workings by means of stoppings, properly 
 arranged. Air is usually coursed or shethed " two and two," 
 or " three and three," according to the greater or less 
 quantity of fire-damp discharged ; the meaning being that 
 the current in the former case is conducted up two boards 
 and down two, by means of stoppings called sheth-stoppings, 
 placed in every second wall in each headways-course ; every 
 alternate line of walls, in which the stoppings are placed, 
 being open either at the top or bottom of the sheth, so as to 
 afford a free passage ; that is to say, suppose it to be required 
 to course the air two and two in a panel of twelve boards, 
 and the air to enter at the bottom of the first board, the 
 following sheth stoppings will be required : one in the 
 second, sixth, and tenth wall in every headways-course, 
 except the highest (or, preferably, the two highest), and one 
 in the fourth and eighth wall in every headways-course, 
 except the lowest (or, preferably, the two lowest). The 
 going headways-course, at the face, is frequently made a 
 part of the course, the stoppings being replaced by doors 
 called sheth doors (1849), but it is far better to conduct the 
 air singly along the face headways-course by means of board- 
 end stoppings, and course the air behind these stoppings, as 
 described above. This, besides saving the expense of the 
 sheth doors, keeps the air at the face in a purer and better 
 
25 
 
 state. This mode of ventilation was contrived by Mr. James 
 Spedding, of Workington, 1760. Where the pillars are 
 worked away behind the whole working, which is the most 
 approved plan, there are comparatively no old workings to 
 course, and consequently the above expense is saved. Also, 
 by shortening the run of the air, and consequently the 
 resistance to its motion, a larger quantity is brought into 
 the mine, and the whole placed in a more efficiently venti- 
 lated and safer condition. 
 
 Cow. A wooden or iron fork hung loosely upon the last 
 waggon of a set of tubs ascending an inclined plane. 1 1 
 use is to stick into the floor and stop the set in case of 
 the rope breaking. " It is also used on crabs and gins to 
 take the weight off horses or men when standing." (Nichol- 
 son.') 
 
 CRAB. A species of capstan, worked usually by horses, 
 for the purpose of raising or lowering heavy weights, 
 such as pumps, spears, &c., in a shaft. Ground crabs are 
 used in sinking for lowering the sinking set of pumps 
 as the pit is deepened. The sinking set is collared to 
 two sets of spears, called ground spears ; one spear on each 
 side of the set. At the top of each spear is one of a pair of 
 three, five, or seven-fold blocks, called ground blocks, the 
 other being placed near the pit mouth, and the pumps are 
 lowered by means of the ground ropes which pass through 
 these blocks to the ground crabs. These crabs are worked 
 by men and are of very great power. Steam power is now 
 largely applied to main crab work. 
 
 CRAB-ROPE. Hempen or wire round rope used for pump 
 or other heavy work performed by a crab. 
 
 CRACKET. A low wooden stool or seat upon which the 
 hewer can sit in performing parts of his work. 
 
 CRADLE. A movable stage, supported by a rope, usually 
 the crab rope, used to repair or do work in the shaft. 
 The cradle should be suspended from the rope by not 
 fewer than four chains. In a sinking pit where it is used 
 
26 
 
 for putting in tubbing or walling, &c., the cradle is nearly 
 the full size of the shaft when finished. It is furnished 
 with a door when necessary, so as to allow water to be 
 drawn through it. Provision is necessary for ventilation 
 under the cradle. Sometimes a " half-cradle" is used ; for 
 work more easily performed, a " flying-cradle," upon which 
 two men can be seated ; where one man only is required, a 
 still smaller cradle is used, which may be a piece of oak or 
 elm, 24 inches long, 6 inches broad, and 1J inch thick, with 
 a piece of rope passed under it and firmly secured, the upper 
 part of the loop being hooked on to the suspending rope. 
 
 CRANE. Used to hoist the corves of coal from the tram 
 and swing them on to the rolley, the coals being put by the 
 barrow-man from the working places to the crane, and drawn 
 thence by horses to the shaft. At the shaft the corves were 
 lifted off the rolleys by the winding engine and drawn to 
 bank. Upon the introduction of tubs, attached to the 
 trams, for the conveyance of coals, they were run on to 
 the rolleys, which were constructed with transverse dish- 
 plates, to keep the tubs in their places on their passage 
 to the shaft, the place where they were put on the rolleys 
 being called a fiat. The tubs are now drawn by horses or 
 machinery along the rolley -ways without the intervention of 
 rolleys, and the place where they are taken by the horses 
 from the barrow-man is called a station. 
 
 CRANE-MAN. A lad 16 or 18 years of age, whose business 
 it was to hoist the corves of coals on to the rolleys with the 
 crane. On the introduction of tubs and flats, a younger 
 description of lads was sufficient, say 16 or 16 years of age ; 
 these were named flat-lads ; a name which at the stations 
 they still retain. Under whatever name, the crane-man or 
 flat-lad proportions the work, or "places the work," or 
 quantity of coals to be put by the barrow-men among them; 
 so that each may know to which places he is to go for coals, 
 and the quantity he has to put from each place. 
 
 CREEP. The rising, or heaving, or lifting up of the floor 
 in the excavations in a seam of coal occasioned by the 
 
27 
 
 pillars not having been left sufficient or not having a 
 sufficiently large area to prevent them from being forced 
 into the thill by the superincumbent pressure. The rising 
 up of dough or clay between the hands when pressed upon 
 it, will illustrate this. The softer the thill, the greater the 
 liability to creep. The progressive stages of creep have 
 been well described by Mr. Buddie (Evidence on Coal Trade, 
 1829). "The first appearance is a little curvature in the 
 bottom of each gallery ; that is the first symptom we can 
 perceive ; but we can generally hear it before we can per- 
 ceive it. The next stage is when the pavement begins to 
 open with a crack longitudinally. The next stage is when 
 the crack is completed, and it assumes the shape of a metal 
 ridge. The next is when the metal ridge reaches the roof. 
 The next stage is when the peak of the metal ridge becomes 
 flattened by pressure, and forced into a horizontal position 
 and becomes quite close , just at this moment the coal 
 pillars begin to sustain part of the pressure. The next is 
 when the coal pillars have taken part of the pressure. The 
 last stage is, when it is dead or settled ; that is, when the 
 metal ridge, or factitious ridge formed by the sinking of the 
 pillar into the pavement, bears, in common with the pillars 
 of coal on each side, the full pressure, and the coal becomes 
 crushed or cracked, and can be no longer worked, except by 
 a very expensive and dangerous process." 
 
 Subsidence of the surface has now taken place. 
 
 CREPT PILLARS. Pillars of coal which have passed 
 through the various stages of creep. 
 
 CRIB. Common cribs are circles of wood usually oak, 
 from 4 to 6 inches square, used, with the backing deals 
 placed behind them, to support the side of a pit when the 
 stone is bad. 
 
 A wedging crib is a large crib, made of metal or oak, 
 always used as a foundation for metal tubbing, and most 
 frequently for walling. These cribs, which are from 12 to 
 14 inches in the bed, and 6 or 7 inches thick, in a large pit, 
 are, when of metal, cast hollow (the hollow part being next 
 
28 
 
 to the pit), and weigh about 1 cwt. per running foot. They 
 are set to the centre of the pit by bnff ends and spares, a 
 thin sheeting of oak being placed between the joints, and 
 are then wedged from the back till they are perfectly firm 
 and tight. 
 
 A ring crib may be made of metal or oak of the same 
 size as a wedging crib. It is open at the top for the pur- 
 pose of collecting water, which would otherwise fall down 
 the pit. For a few feet above the crib, the side of the shaft 
 is cut gradually to the back part of the channel, so as to 
 allow the water to drain into it. The cutting is also 
 necessary to allow the crib to be wedged. The water is then 
 boxed or piped away from the crib to the standage, or else- 
 where if required. 
 
 CRIBLE. To curry favour. 
 CROOK-YOUR-HOUGH. (See Hough.) 
 
 CROP. The basset or outburst to the surface of a seam of 
 coal or other stratum ; also to leave a portion of coal at 
 the bottom of a seam in working ; also to set out. (See Set 
 out) 
 
 CROSS-CUT. An excavation driven in any direction be- 
 tween headways course and broadways course. 
 
 CROSSING. An air crossing is an arched way of bricks by 
 which one current of air crosses over another current, or 
 the same current, after having traversed its district ; it is 
 also called an overgate or overcast. The roof is taken down 
 on the crown of the arch and sloped down each way into the 
 airway, the current in which is to pass over the crossing. 
 The area of the airway upon a crossing should in every case 
 be fully as large as its ordinary dimensions. The best air 
 crossings, as taking up the least room, are made with the top 
 of 3-inch plank, slivered at the joints, or with laths nailed 
 upon the joints at the top side ; the whole covered with a 
 coating of lime. They have sometimes, on account of their 
 liability to destruction in cases of explosion, been con- 
 structed with the cover to work with a hinge, so as to admit 
 of its rising when exposed to a blast, and again falling to 
 
29 
 
 its place. Sometimes the return is taken under instead of 
 over the intake ; in this case the crossing is made in the 
 floor, and is then called also an undergate or undercast. 
 This can only be done when there is no liability to the 
 drowning of the air course under the intake airway. 
 
 CROWN-TREE. A plank about 2J inches thick and 6 or 8 
 inches broad, used to support the roof in coal workings, 
 each end of the crown tree being supported by a prop. 
 Crown-trees are best made of larch fir, as being most 
 durable. They are also made of Scotch fir. The price may 
 be from 30/- to 35/- per hundred (1849). 
 
 CRUSH, OR THRUST. This occurs when both the roof and 
 floor of a seam of coal are hard, and when the pillars, 
 insufficient for the support of the superincumbent strata, 
 are crushed by their pressure. The coal is much more 
 injured in this way than by creep. 
 
 CUBE, OR CUPOLA. A shaft sunk near to the top of a 
 furnace upcast, and holed into the shaft a few fathoms 
 below the surface, with a wide chimney erected over it, 
 rising 30 or 40 feet above the surface. It relieves the pit 
 top from smoke. Called also a tube. 
 
 DADD. To dash out a small fire of gas, or a small 
 accumulation of gas with a jacket. 
 
 DAM. (See Frame Dam.) 
 
 DANT. Soft sooty coal found at backs, and at the leaders 
 of hitches and troubles. 
 
 DARG. A fixed quantity of coal to be worked for a 
 certain price. This word is seldom used in the Newcastle 
 collieries, but is the general term in use about Scremerston. 
 It is equivalent to the hewing or score price of the 
 Newcastle collieries. 
 
 DASHING- AIR. Mixing air and gas together, until by 
 being completely incorporated the mixture ceases to be 
 inflammable. This is done by giving the air after its first 
 union with the firedamp a considerable length of run or 
 course. The quantity of air must be ample for sufficient 
 dilution. 
 
30 
 
 DAVY-LAMP. A safety-lamp invented by Sir Humphrey 
 Davy in 1815. It consists of an oil cistern of copper, brass, 
 or other material, containing the wick and oil, and covered 
 by a tight-fitting and close topped cylinder of wire-gauze 
 containing 784 apertures to the square inch, within which 
 firedamp may explode and burn, but without communi- 
 cating flame to the gas outside of the cylinder. The 
 cylinder should not exceed 1J inch in diameter and may be 
 8 inches in height. (Sir Humphrey Davy on the Safety- 
 lamp and on flame, &c.) The only case in which the Davy 
 lamp is stated to be unsafe, is when exposed to a rapid 
 current of explosive atmosphere, from which it may he up 
 to a certain point protected by a shield. 
 
 The first safety lamp was invented by Dr. William Reid 
 Clanny, of Sunderland, in May, 1813, in which the flame of 
 the lamp was insulated, and supplied with air by means of a 
 small pair of bellows. This lamp was first tried in the 
 Harrington Mill Pit, November 20th, 1815. Safety lamps 
 were also contrived by Mr. Brandling, of Newcastle, and 
 Dr. J. Murray, of Edinburgh, but being dependent upon a 
 regular arrangement of the position of gases in the order of 
 their specific gravities, they were not of any practical 
 utility. At about the same time with Sir Humphrey Davy, 
 Mr. George Stephenson, then an engineer at Killingworth 
 Colliery, invented a safety lamp, of which the principle is 
 essentially the same as the Davy. The application was 
 slightly different, the flame of the lamp being surrounded 
 by a cylinder of glass (since surrounded by one of vvire- 
 gauze) and the air admitted into the lamp by means of 
 apertures in the ring at the bottom of the cylinder, the 
 burnt air passing through a perforated copper cap covering 
 the top of the glass. The principle upon which both lamps 
 depend, viz., the impassibility of flame through small tubes, 
 was probably discovered simultaneously by both Sir 
 Humphrey Davy and Mr. Stephenson, but the application 
 of wire-gauze must belong exclusive^ to the former. 
 
 Other lamps have also been contrived, viz., Messrs. Upton 
 and Roberta', Martin's, Mueseler's, Clanny 's, &c. ; but as the 
 
31 
 
 whole of these are to be referred for their safety to the use 
 of small tubes, or wire-gauze, they are, though in some cases 
 possessing great merit, nothing more than modifications of 
 Davy's or Stephenson's lamp (1849). 
 
 Many improvements in safety lamps have been made in 
 recent years, greatly increasing their security under difficult 
 and dangerous conditions. It has been found that whereas 
 at a velocity of current of 6 feet per second, the Davy 
 exploded the surrounding gas ; that at 7 feet, 12 feet and 
 17 feet, the Clanny, Stephenson, and Mueseler lamps as 
 referred to above, did the same. Lamps of modern con- 
 struction will not explode until they are exposed to a' 
 current of from 30 to 40 feet per second. The fullest 
 information on this subject is given in the Report of the 
 Royal Commission on Mines, issued 15th March, 1886. 
 
 DAY-HOLE. An adit or level, driven in at the side of a 
 hill, for the purpose of working the minerals lying within 
 it. Also called a Day-drift, or a Grove ; or a drift driven 
 down in the seam from the out-crop. 
 
 DAY-SHIFT. When a pit is worked both night and day it 
 is said to be worked double-shift, the set of men employed 
 during the day being called the day-shift, and that employed 
 at night, the night-shift. 
 
 DEAD. Unventilated. 
 
 DECK. The platform of a cage upon which the tubs stand 
 when being drawn up or lowered down the pit. 
 
 DELIVERY-DRIFT. Water pumped up a shaft is not 
 usually lifted higher than is necessary ; it is delivered into 
 a drift or adit driven from low ground into the shaft. This 
 is called a delivery or off-take drift. 
 
 DEPUTIES. A set of men employed in setting timber for 
 the safety of the workmen ; also in putting in brattice and 
 brattice stoppings. They also draw the props in the 
 workings from places where they are no longer required for 
 further use. Their wages were about 20s. per week in 1849, 
 at present from 25s. to 30s. There cannot be any fixed rule 
 
32 
 
 for the number of deputies to be employed in a pit, this 
 depending altogether upon the nature of the roof and 
 consequent quantity of timber required to be set for 
 its support, also upon the greater or less quantity of fire- 
 damp produced by the coal. Upon an average the number 
 of deputies may be stated at 1 for every 7 or 8 scores of 
 6 tons each. 
 
 DIAGONAL-STAPLE. A staple sunk diagonally in the line 
 of the back end of the main beam of a pumping engine and 
 a point in the pumping shaft from 10 to 20 fathoms from 
 the surface. Its use is to divide the work of a double-acting 
 engine between the two ends of the beam, by means of a 
 lever beam in the shaft, placed in a hole or chamber made 
 for the purpose, at the bottom of the diagonal staple. The 
 spears working the low set or sets are hung from the lever 
 end, and are also connected by the diagonal spears passing 
 through the diagonal staple from the same point to 
 the inner end of the beam. The upper sets are attached to 
 the outer end of the beam. The result of this arrangement 
 is that when the inner end of the beam ascends it draws up 
 the diagonal spear, lever or V-bob (as it is called), and low 
 set of spears, the outer end of the beam and high set of 
 spears descending, and vice-versa. (See V-bob.) 
 
 DILLY. An inclined plane underground, worked by a 
 balance weight placed upon a tram upon a separate tram- 
 way, heavy enough to draw up an empty tub, but lighter 
 than, and drawn up by, a full tub. It is controlled by a 
 brake, so that the ascending empty tub can be stopped and 
 exchanged for a full one at any place upon the plane where 
 required. 
 
 DIP. Declivity of the strata or coal seams ; to the dip, 
 below the level. 
 
 DIPPER. A hitch which throws down the coal in front of 
 the drift approaching it. The same hitch approached from 
 the opposite direction would be called a riser. 
 
 DIRT. A term to express foulness or fire damp. 
 
DOGS. (See Keps.) 
 
 DOOR. Doors are used underground, where unless a 
 passage were required from time to time, stoppings would 
 be necessary. They are usually placed in pairs sufficiently 
 distant to allow the set of tubs to stand or pass through 
 them without both doors being open at once. Several 
 different descriptions of doors are employed, of which are 
 the following : 
 
 Frame Doors. A frame door is set in a proper frame 
 made for the purpose. It only opens in one direction, viz., 
 against the current of air, and should always be hung so 
 as to fall to, should anyone passing through it neglect 
 to draw it close. Frame doors are always placed in rolley- 
 ways. They should be 6 feet in height and 5 feet in width. 
 The stanchions or frames should be built up with bricks. 
 Frame doors, placed in the barrow way, should be similarly 
 set, and of sufficient size to allow of the passage of the tubs. 
 The trapper is provided with a place to sit or stand in on 
 the windward side of the door, which he pulls open by 
 means of a cord when required. Man doors, which are 
 placed for convenience of communication between different 
 currents of air, are small frame doors which need not be 
 more than 20 inches square, and are secured by screw locks, 
 the keys to which should only be in the possession of the 
 underviewer, overman, or master- wasteman. 
 
 Fly or Swing Doors. These are set in proper frames, 
 and are so constructed as to open both ways, but so, 
 also, as always to fall close when left alone, with sufficient 
 weight to resist the pressure of the air. They are usually 
 protected by a spring on each side to prevent them from 
 being damaged by the tubs when pushed through them. By 
 having a piece of upright board, 8 or 10 inches broad, nailed 
 on the face of the falling stanchion, and by having a piece 
 of brattice-cloth nailed along the bottom, these doors can 
 be made very effective and are very suitable in the workings, 
 but not in the rolley-ways. Hanging sheets made of brattice- 
 cloth are often substituted for fly-doors. 
 
34 
 
 A Bearing-in or Main Door is a door which forces the air 
 through an entire district. This should be a frame door and 
 doubled. A Sheth Door is placed in a going headway's 
 course, where otherwise a sheth stopping would be necessary. 
 (See Coursing.) This may be either a frame or a fly-door 
 as thought proper. 
 
 DOUBLE WORKING. Two hewers working together in a 
 board or wall. An addition of 2d. per yard to the yard 
 price, or 3d. or 4d. per score to the score price in wide boards 
 is frequently made for the inconvenience supposed to be 
 attached to this manner of working. (1849.) 
 
 DOWELL. An iron bolt, sometimes used in putting main 
 brattice together, a portion of the bolt being let into 
 the under-plank, the remainder passing into a hole in the 
 upper. (See Brattice.) 
 
 DOWNCAST. The shaft or drift from the surface by which 
 the fresh air passes into the workings. Also a hitch or slip 
 which casts down the seam below the level at which the 
 hitch is found ; it is also called a down-throw or dip hitch. 
 
 DOWN-THROW. (See Downcast.) 
 
 DRAG. A piece of iron or wood put between the spokes 
 of a tub or waggon-wheel to check its progress where the 
 dip of the way is considerable. When applied to waggons 
 at bank it is always of wood, and of much larger dimensions. 
 Also the resistance which the air meets with in its passage 
 through the workings. 
 
 DRAW. To remove props which are no longer required in 
 the whole by means of a maul, arid in the broken by 
 a pout or punch. (See Maul, and Pout or Punch.} 
 
 DREDGE SUMP. A reservoir through which a current of 
 water is made to flow before passing to a pump, in order 
 that any small stones or sludge may be retained by settle- 
 ment, so as not to fill up or obstruct the water passage into 
 the pump, or wear away the clack or bucket, or gag the 
 same by sticking between the falls and the shell. 
 
 DRIFT. In coal, an exploring place. Usually a pair of 
 
35 
 
 companion drifts are driven simultaneously for ventilation, 
 one being called the fore and the other the back drift. 
 Drifts in stone (called stone drifts) are mostly single. They 
 are driven sometimes for the purpose of exploration, but 
 more frequently because rendered necessary by the occurrence 
 of dislocations in the strata. Stone drifts are often driven 
 for the purpose of cutting other seams of coal, or the 
 same seam at a different level. 
 
 DRILL. A rod of iron, with a chisel end, used in boring a 
 hole in coal or stone in which powder or other explosive is 
 to be placed for blasting. The hammer used in drilling a 
 hole is called a drilling hammer. 
 
 DRIVER. A boy employed in driving the horses on the 
 main roads underground. He is usually 14 or 15 years of 
 age, and his wages are from 13d. to 15d. per day_of 12 
 hours (1849). At present they are from 
 day of 8 hours. 
 
 DEOP.-(See Staith.) 
 
 DROP-STAPLE. An interior pit, sunk upwards, 
 coals from an upper seam, or from the same seam thrown 
 up by a hitch, are lowered in a cage, lifting the cage with 
 an empty tub as it descends. The drum or sheave is 
 governed by a brake. 
 
 DRY- SPEARS. (See Spears.) 
 
 DUFF. Small coals, from which, by means of the 
 apparatus, the nuts have been separated. (See Apparatus.) 
 
 DUMB-DRIFT. " A drift by which the return air is carried 
 into the upcast shaft without passing over the furnace." 
 (Nicholson.) 
 
 DYKE. A fissure in the strata, filled with basalt and 
 detritus from other rocks ; sometimes accompanied by a 
 dislocation. Large slips, or hitches, are also called dykes, 
 as the Ninety-fathom dyke, the Tantobie dyke, &c. 
 
 EAT-OUT. This expression is applied when a level coal 
 drift is turned to the dip, in order to take advantage of (or 
 " eat out") a rise hitch. 
 
36 
 
 ENDLESS CHAIN OR ROPE. (See Engine Plane.) 
 ENGINE BANK. (See Incline.) 
 
 ENGINE PIT. Pumping pit. A pit the whole or a part of 
 which is used for pumping, and on which a pumping 
 engine is placed. At present the word engine is applied 
 indiscriminately, but in its earlier days it was applied only 
 to the pumping-engine, then called a " fire-engine." The 
 subsequently invented machine for winding was called a 
 steam whimsie and afterwards a winding machine, and now 
 generally a winding-engine. 
 
 ENGINE PLANE. Formerly all level main roads or rolley- 
 ways underground were worked by horses, but engine power 
 was introduced about the year 1841 and is now largely 
 used where the planes are long and the traffic considerable. 
 The full tubs are drawn to the shaft, and the empty tubs 
 returned by either the Tail rope or the Endless chain 
 system. 
 
 The Tail rope system is that in which the engine has two 
 drums with a sheave at the far end of the plane. If the 
 line is single, the load is drawn to the shaft by one of the 
 drums, and being also attached to the rope of the other 
 drum (which passes round the sheave) it draws that end 
 also to the shaft, where it is ready on the reversal of the 
 engine to draw the empty train or set of tubs towards the 
 face. The rope which hauls out the full tubs is called the 
 main rope and that which hauls back the empties is called 
 the tail rope. The tail rope is thus twice the length of the 
 main rope. Under this system the trains are long and 
 moved quickly, say 8 or 10 miles an hour. 
 
 The Endless rope or chain is moved at a slow rate, say 
 about 2 miles an hour. It is worked in the case of the rope 
 by a clip pulley, and in the case of the chain, with a pulley 
 in which there are webs, with nicks in them to hold the 
 chain as it passes round the pulley. This system requires 
 a double- way. As the full tubs come out, the empties go in 
 at intervals of 10 or 12 yards or more apart, being attached 
 to the rope or chain by a self-acting clip. Where worked 
 
37 
 
 as above described, the comparative " costs per ton per mile 
 are for the tail rope 1 '879(1. ; for the endless rope 2'061d. ; 
 and for the endless chain l'379d." (Trans. N. of England 
 Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, vol. 17.) 
 ETTLE. To intend, appoint, arrange. 
 
 FACE. The innermost extremity of a place working into 
 the solid coal or stone. 
 
 FACING. A cleat. 
 
 FALL. A dropping down of the roof. Bucket or clack 
 lids. (See Bucket.) 
 
 FAST AND OPEN POINTS. An arrangement at each end of 
 a siding which by means of groves not so deep as the 
 flange on one side, and deeper on the other side of the way, 
 enables the sets, whether going in or outbye, each to keep 
 its own bye-way, without any switch. 
 
 FAST -SHOT. (See Standing Bobby.) 
 
 FAST- WALL. A sheth-wall. The wall in which the 
 bearing- up or bearing-down stoppings are placed. (See 
 Coursing.) 
 
 FAST-JENKING. (See Jenking.) 
 
 FAULT. Any hitch, slip-dyke, or nip, &c., which renders 
 a portion of the seam valueless. 
 
 FEEDER. A spring or runner of water. 
 
 FIERY. A colliery which produces firedamp in dangerous 
 quantity is called fiery. 
 
 FIERY-HEAP. The deposit of rubbish and waste or 
 unsaleable coal ^hich usually takes fire spontaneously. 
 
 FIRE-CLAY. A refractory clay or shale. (See Sagre 
 Clay.) 
 
 FIRED. A colliery is said to have fired when an 
 explosion of firedamp has taken place. 
 
 FIRE-DAMP. Light carburetted hydrogen gas. It is 
 found in most coal mines, and is most abundant in the 
 vicinity of slips and dykes. (It has been found in the lead 
 
38 
 
 mines of Derbyshire.) It is only explosive when mixed 
 with from 5 to 14 times its bulk of atmospheric air. Its 
 specific gravity is '5 5 9 4. It is fatal to animal life when in 
 a concentrated state, but, when mixed with air, may be 
 respired to a great extent without apparent injun 7 . It may 
 be produced artificially by distilling in a coated glass flask 
 at a red heat, the following mixture : 
 
 1 part of stick potassa. 
 
 1 part of dried acetate of soda. 
 
 1 J part of quick-lime. 
 All rubbed to fine powder and well dried. 
 
 FIRE-LAMP. A round iron cage supported on three legs, 
 or hung by chains, in which a coal fire is maintained for the 
 convenience of the banksmen and skreeners. Also some- 
 times placed at the bottom of a shaft to produce ventilation 
 in opening out a colliery . 
 
 FIRST WORKING. (See Whole.) 
 
 FISH. To catch up a drowned clack by means of a fish- 
 head. (See Fish-head.) 
 
 FISH-BELLIED. An early form of railway rail which had 
 its greatest depth half-way between the supporting chairs, 
 the lower edge being elliptically curved between chair and 
 chair. Cast-iron rails were made of this form. Malleable 
 iron rails of the fish -belly pattern manufactured at 
 Ledlington Ironworks under a patent granted to John 
 Birkinshaw and dated December 2, 1820, were used on the 
 Stockton and Darlington Railway at its commencement. 
 
 FISH-HEAD. An instrument used to draw a clack when 
 covered with water and inaccessible by means of the clack 
 door. It is attached to the bottom rod and lowered down 
 through the pumps and past the clack bow, in passing 
 which two shoulders kept out by springs are forced back 
 into the fish-head, after having passed which, the shoulders 
 are pressed out by the springs, and catching under the bow 
 draw the clack to the bucket door or top of the pump. 
 
 FISSLE, FISTLE. To make a crepitant noise or faint 
 crackling. This is heard in early stages of creep. 
 
39 
 
 FITTEK. A coal broker who conducts the sales of coals 
 between the owner of a colliery and the shipper. 
 
 FLANCH OR FLANGE. The crease or raised part or 
 rim of a waggon or tub wheel running on edge rails. Also 
 the projecting rim at the end of pumps by means of bolt- 
 holes through which the length of pumps is bolted 
 together. Before the bolts are put in weizes made of rope, 
 or spun yarn, or of india rubber, or lead are put between 
 the flanges, inside of the bolts. When the weizes are of 
 lead they should be caulked with a flat-edged chisel after 
 being screwed up. 
 
 FLANK-HOLE. (See Bore.) Also a hole put in the flank or 
 side of a drift to widen it by putting in a shot. 
 
 FLAT. (See Crane.} 
 FLAT-LAD. (See Craneman.) 
 
 FLAT-SHEETS. Square or oblong sheets of cast-iron about 
 f inch thick which are nailed upon planking at the top or 
 bottom of a pit and form a metal floor for the free moving 
 about of the coal tubs. They are often also used in the 
 workings where roads cross or converge, as at the top and 
 bottom of small inclines, &c. 
 
 FLEET. " Fleet the rope," or " Fleet the crab." The 
 main crab-rope has three or four turns round the main 
 crab and the tail end of the rope is wound up taut on the 
 tail crab, but as the process goes on, the coil upon the main 
 crab rises, and requires adjusting back or lowering from 
 time to time. To do this a scotch or sprag is put in 
 between the rope and the crab-rope sheave at the bottom 
 of the shearlegs, which securely grips the rope at that 
 point. The crabs are then eased and the crab-rope being 
 slightly slacked the coils are lowered down to their proper 
 position. This operation is " fleeting the rope." With a 
 steam crab there is no " fleeting." 
 
 FLOOR. The surface of the stratum immediately under- 
 lying the coal. 
 
 FLUE. A horizontal chimney from boilers at a distance 
 
40 
 
 from the upcast shaft. They require constant and careful 
 examination and are frequent causes of accident. Also the 
 return channels by the side of, or through boilers, by which 
 a greater surface is exposed to the heat of the boiler fires. 
 
 FLY-DOOR. (See Door.) 
 FLYING CRADLE. (See Cradle.) 
 FOAL. (See Headsman.) 
 
 FOLLOWING-IN is when one man works after another in 
 the same place. The same consideration attaches to it as to 
 double working. 
 
 FOLLOWING-STONE. (See Ramble.) 
 
 FORCING-SET.- A description of pump in which the engine 
 lifts a column of dry spears at the bottom of which there is 
 fixed a ram or plunger which works through a stuffing-box 
 or gland into a vertical chamber beneath. When the engine 
 lifts the ram the water follows it into the chamber through 
 the bottom clack. With the descending stroke the ram forces 
 the water up the rising main, in which a little above the 
 cross pipe there is also a clack. 
 
 FORE HEADWAYS. (See Headways.) 
 FORE OVERMAN. (See Overman.) 
 
 FORE-SHIFT. " The first shift of hewers who go down 
 from 2 to 3 hours before the boys." (Nicholson.) 
 
 FORE- WINNING. Winning out in front of other workings. 
 
 FOTHER. A measure of coals, being | of a chaldron, or 
 17f cwt. ; a good single horse cart load. 
 
 FOUL. In an inflammable state from fire-damp having 
 accumulated. 
 
 FOUL-COAL. " Bad coal ; soft, danty, or hitch coal ; unfit 
 for sale." (Nicholson.) (See Dant.) 
 
 FOX-WEDGE. A long wedge driven between two other 
 wedges with their thick ends placed in the opposite direction ; 
 it is used to bring forward into the pit the lower part of a seg- 
 ment of metal tubbing if when being wedged it should tend to 
 fail backward out of the true line. It is also called astoband 
 
\ 
 
 41 
 
 feather, or plug and feather. An application of this principle 
 to wedging coal was made by the writer in 1869. Two pieces 
 of steel, rounded at the back, and tapered in front as above, 
 were pushed to the far end of a 2J inch drill hole, and a 
 wedge, being the end of a stout bar, was driven between 
 them. The result was satisfactory. 
 
 FRAME DAM. A dam made of wood and of various thick- 
 ness, say from 3 to 8 feet, according to the pressure and size 
 of the place in which it is required to be placed. A frame 
 dam is formed of balks of fir- wood, placed endways against 
 the pressure, and tapered, but with the top and bottom 
 surfaces parallel, and accurately dressed and numbered. The 
 coal in a drift where it is proposed to place a dam, should 
 be perfectly sound and strong, and should be cut back at each 
 side, and dressed true to the sweep of the circle to which the 
 balks are cut. When the balks of wood are well in their 
 places, the joints are firmly wedged until the whole is 
 perfectly tight. It would add to the security of these dams 
 if 8 or 10 yards of strong ashlar or brick walling with cement 
 were put in behind them, commencing at 5 or 6 yards back 
 from the dam, to notch the stone- work into the coal walls so 
 as to bind the whole together. It is necessary during the 
 erection of the dam to make provision for the passage of the 
 feeder of water and for the workmen wedging the dam on 
 the inside, with plugs to be drawn through on closing, and 
 also for an outset pipe. 
 
 Under moderate pressure the balks may, if the dam is 
 only required to be of small size, be placed cross ways and 
 laid upon each other, and then wedged ; or, they may, for 
 still slighter resistance, be constructed of two rows of 3-inch 
 planks set on edge, and parallel, say 18 inches apart, with 
 good clay or sifted dry soil carefully rammed between the 
 sides. They must be well supported on both sides by good 
 props. 
 
 FREE LEVEL. (See Adit) 
 
 FUR, FURRING. The deposit, usually carbonate of lime, 
 
42 
 
 from limestone or other impregnated water, in pipes, 
 boilers, &c. 
 
 FURNACE. A large fire placed near the bottom of the 
 upcast shaft, which by rarifying the air contained in the 
 upcast shaft, causes that disturbance of equilibrium between 
 its column and a column of cold air of equal length, which 
 occasions a constant current of air to travel to and up the 
 upcast shaft. This current is, by proper arrangements, 
 employed to ventilate the colliery workings. The size of 
 the furnace will, of course, vary with the requirements of 
 the mine in which it is to be placed. Thus a furnace 6 feet 
 in width, which in one seam of coal and for the confined 
 workings of a small colliery, would be ample, would be 
 found quite inadequate to cause an efficient ventilation of 
 extended workings in a fiery seam of coal. A furnace of 
 the width of 10 feet with the bars 6 feet long the height 
 above the bars to be 5 feet, with the arch elliptical the 
 area of the furnace drift to the upcast shaft to be not less 
 than 50 square feet, and to rise from the back of the furnace 
 to the shaft at the rate of 1 in 3, the whole being well 
 attended to, will in most cases be sufficient. In a very 
 extensive colliery where much ventilation is necessary, two 
 or even three such furnaces are applied. 
 
 FURTHERANCE. 4d. per score paid in addition to the 
 putting price to hewers for putting. (1849.) 
 
 FUZE. Used in blasting as a substitute for a " kitty." It 
 consists of a waterproof flexible tube about the size of the 
 shank of a clay tobacco pipe, with a fine core of gunpowder 
 or other composition. It is placed in the cartridge and 
 stemmed with it in the shot-hole. It affords, after being 
 ignited, ample time for safe retirement before the explosion 
 takes place. It is frequently ignited by electricity. (See 
 Kitty : Match). 
 
 GAG. An obstruction in the falls or lids of a bucket or 
 clack which prevents them from working. (See Dredge 
 Sump). 
 
43 
 
 GALLOWS TIMBER. A crown-tree with a prop placed 
 under each end. 
 
 GANISTER OR GANNISTER. A very hard and siliceous 
 fire-clay found beneath some of the seams of the lower coal 
 measures. It contains stigmaria roots. It is manufactured 
 into fire-bricks of a highly refractory character, which can 
 be imitated by grinding and mixing up fire-stone post with 
 a less refractory clay. This post is also called ganister. 
 
 GAS. Usually carburetted hydrogen is referred to. 
 Occasionally sulphuretted hydrogen has been found in old 
 wastes. This is easily detected, where present, by its smell. 
 Carbonic acid gas, or sty the, is frequently found in great 
 abundance in coal mines, especially where the seams 
 worked are found at moderate depths from the surface ; and 
 a pernicious gas has been occasionally found to issue from 
 old wastes which is fatal to animal life, but in which a 
 candle will continue to burn with undiminished biilliancy. 
 This has been considered to be owing to a mixture of 
 sulphuretted hydrogen with atmospheric air, l-50th part of 
 which may produce a compound possessing the above 
 properties; but as in a case which occurred at Hartley 
 Colliery, the smell of sulphuretted gas was not described as 
 being present where the man was found dead by the side 
 of his burning candle, the inference is that death was 
 caused by some other gas, most probably by carbonic oxide. 
 The author has knowledge of an instance of the existence 
 in considerable quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen in the 
 Top Hard (Barnsley) seam of coal in South- Yorkshire, and 
 also of " white-damp" or carbonic oxide, in the White Iron- 
 stone Mine in Glamorganshire. " White-damp" is well 
 known in South Staffordshire, but it is there no doubt the 
 result of the spontaneous combustion or gob-fire, which is 
 always more or less prevalent. 
 
 GATEWAY. "A passage through the goaf secured by a 
 pack- wall on each side, for the purpose of bringing out the 
 coals worked on the long-wall system." (Nicholson.) 
 
 GEARS, PAIR OF. (See Gallows-timber.') 
 
44 
 
 GEORDY. The safety-lamp invented by George Stephen- 
 son. (See Davy.} 
 
 GIN. An apparatus consisting of a drum fixed upon a 
 vertical shaft, to which a lever, called a " start" is attached. 
 A horse yoked to the end of the lever, and moving in a 
 circular track, causes the drum to revolve, and to wind or 
 unwind a single rope, or to wind and unwind a pair of 
 ropes working over pulleys into a pit, or where required. 
 Gins are constructed with the barrel or drum from 3 or 4 
 to 15 or 18 feet diameter. Large-sized ones are usually 
 worked by two horses, yoked abreast. Before the 
 application of the steam-whimsie to drawing coals, gins, 
 called also whims, or whim-gins, were used for the purpose. 
 
 GIRDLE. When a stratum of blue or grey metal has 
 interspersed with it bands of post, without partings so as to 
 separate them into complete strata, it is said to be blue or 
 grey metal with post girdles. 
 
 GOAF. A space from which the coal pillars have been 
 extracted. It is usually in the first instance a large dome, 
 resting as the extent increases upon the wreck which has 
 fallen from the roof of the exhausted space. Eventually 
 the pressure to a large extent re-consolidates the whole, the 
 surface subsiding. 
 
 GOB-FIRE. Spontaneous combustion in a goaf. Very 
 rare in the North of England. 
 
 GOING-BOARD. When the crane, flat, or station, is not at 
 the end of the headways-course at the face, and the coals 
 are brought down to it by a board for one, two, or more 
 pillars, this board is called the going (or " gannen") board. 
 
 GOING-HEADWAYS. Usually the headways course next 
 the face. 
 
 GOWK. (See Rider.) 
 
 GRATHE. To put in order, to dress ; to replace a worn 
 clack or bucket leather. 
 
 GRATHELY, GRADELY. Trim, tidy. 
 
45 
 
 GREASER. A boy who greases the tub axles at bank. A 
 machine, in passing over which the axles are greased 
 automatically. 
 
 GKEY-METAL. A slightly siliceous indurated clay of a 
 light grey colour. 
 
 GKEY-METAL-STONE. Grey metal very siliceous and 
 gritty. 
 
 GKEY-POST. Sandstone of a grey colour. 
 GROUND-CRAB. (See Crab.) 
 GROUND-ROPES. (See Crab.} 
 GROUND-SPEARS. (See Crab.) 
 
 GROVE. A drift or adit driven into a hillside from which 
 coal is worked. A drift into a seain of coal from the out- 
 crop. 
 
 GUIDES. (See Slides.) 
 
 GULLETS. Vertical cracks more or less open. Mostly 
 confined to beds of post, sandstone, or rock. At and near 
 the outcrop of such beds, rainfall or other water passes 
 rapidly into mines beneath. 
 
 HACK. A heavy and obtuse pointed pick of the length 
 of 18 inches and weight of 71bs. used in sinking or stone 
 work. 
 
 HADE. The slope or inclination of the leader of a slip- 
 dyke. 
 
 HALF-BALK. (See Balk.) A balk sawn down the middle 
 into halves. Used where the roof is not so heavy as to 
 need a balk. 
 
 HALF-MARROW. (See Headsman.) 
 
 HALF- WORK OR HALF-WARK. When the day's work is 
 half over, or when by reason of bad trade, half-time is 
 worked. 
 
 HAND-FILL. To separate the small from the large coals 
 in the mine, the latter being filled by the hand into the tub 
 or corf, and the former thrown to the side of the working 
 place, or filled separately as required. 
 
46 
 
 HANG. To incline or dip. 
 
 HANGER-ON. (See Onsetter.) 
 
 HANGING-ON. The occupation of the onsetter, also the 
 place where tubs are put into the cage. 
 
 HAUD-OFF, HOLD-OFF. Keep back. Called by a barrow- 
 man putting a full tub or corf to another meeting him with 
 an empty one, the latter being obliged to get out of the 
 way. 
 
 HEADSMAN. A lad not strong enough to put alone, but 
 able to do so with the assistance of a little boy, who 
 performs his part by pulling the tub by a couple of ropes or 
 traces attached thereto, called soams. The little boy is 
 called a foal. He sometimes assists the headsman by 
 pushing behind the tub beside him. The wages made by 
 the headsman, who is 16 or 17 years of age, are about 
 2s. 9d. per day of 12 hours, the foal being paid Is. to 14d. 
 per day (1849). When the boys are of the same age or 
 strength they are equally paid and are called half-marrows. 
 
 HEAD-TREE. A piece of a crown-tree, a foot long, placed 
 upon a prop to support the roof, the head-tree being to 
 extend the bearings of the prop. 
 
 HEADWAYS. The direction of the cleat, also a place or 
 holing driven in this direction. When a pair of headways 
 are driven for exploring or winning the coal, they are called 
 exploring or winning headways, the principal of which is 
 called the fore-headways, and the other the back-headways. 
 
 HEADWAYS-COURSE. A line of walls or holings extending 
 from side to side of a panel of boards. 
 
 HEAPSTEAD. The elevated frame work of wood or iron at 
 bank, to the top of which the pit is continued above the 
 surface, to provide the necessary height to pass the coals 
 over the skeens into the waggons. 
 
 HEAVE. (See Creep.) Also to heave the crab, raising the 
 load. 
 
 HELPER-UP. A lad employed to assist the barrow-man 
 out of a dip place. 
 
47 
 
 HEWER. A man who works coals. His age ranges from 
 21 to 70. His usual wages (1849) are from 3s. 9d. to 4s. 3d. 
 per day of 8 hours working, and his average employment 4 
 or 5 days in the week. He also has, as part of his wages, a 
 house containing two or three rooms, according to the 
 number in his family, and a garden, of which the average 
 size may be 6 or 8 perches ; also a fother of small coals 
 each fortnight, for the leading of which he pays sixpence. 
 
 HEWING-DOUBLE. (See Double-working.) 
 
 HITCH. An abrupt elevation or depression of the strata 
 to the extent of from a few inches to the thickness of the 
 working seam of coal. When of larger dimensions it is 
 called a slip or slip-dyke. Adjoining to a hitch or slip the 
 coal is often inferior, and near to very largo slip-dykes there 
 is frequent evidence of the existence of great heat. 
 
 HOGGER. A wide leather pipe used to deliver water into 
 a cistern. 
 
 HOGGER-PUMP. The top pump of a set, with a short 
 delivery pipe cast into it at right angles, near the top. The 
 hogger is lashed on the short pipe. 
 
 I? HOGGERS. Stockings without feet, chiefly used by the 
 barrow- men or putters. 
 
 HOLING. The communication between a pair of places. 
 
 HOLING-ABOUT. When the coal has been won the first 
 operation is to get an air current between the down-cast and 
 up-cast shafts, and to form off the shaft pillars or walls. As 
 these are sometimes of very large dimensions, and as the 
 coal when first tapped is liable to discharge fire-damp very 
 freely, and as it involves driving considerable distances with 
 bratticed air, very great care is necessary. This operation is 
 called " Holing-about." It was in holing-about in the 
 Bensham seam at Wallsend Colliery that 52 lives were lost 
 on the 23rd October, 1821. 
 
 HOOKER-ON. (See Hanger-on) Thehooker-on used before 
 the introduction of guides, to strike the hook, or hooks, at 
 the bottom of the pit, on to the corf bows. 
 
48 
 HORNY TRAM. (See Tram) 
 
 HORSE BACK. A small balk or depression of the roof. 
 (See Balk.) 
 
 HOUGH. "The posterior part of the knee joint." "The 
 ancle bones more or less completely united." (Webster' 8 
 Dictionary) According to Brockett, hoff or hock is the 
 thigh. 
 
 " Crook your hough ! " the friendly salutation of a pit- 
 man who wants you to sit down and " have a crack " 
 scarcely allows hough to have this meaning. It means 
 either to sit on a seat, or on your hunkers ; originally, in all 
 probability, the latter. 
 
 HOVEN. Crept. (See Creep.) 
 
 HOVER. " Hover a bit." To pause and consider before 
 action. 
 
 " How !" To which the reply is "How AGAIN!" The 
 salutation and response of two pitmen, near to or within 
 hail of each other. It may be friendly or otherwise, but is 
 usually the former. 
 
 HOWDIE. A midwife. 
 
 HUDDOCK, HUDDICK. The cabin of a keel. 
 
 HUNKERS. Sitting on the hunkers. Sitting with the 
 balls of the feet upon the ground and the knees bent, so 
 that the thighs rest on the calves of the legs. This position 
 no doubt became habitual to pitmen from the nature of 
 their underground work, and the conditions under which it 
 is performed. 
 
 JACK. During sinking, whilst the two pits or a pit and a 
 staple are being sunk simultaneously by means of two gins, 
 one of them, to prevent mistakes, is usually called a jack. 
 
 JACK HEAD. (See Staple.) 
 
 JACK-ROLL A winch used for sinking moderate depths, 
 both underground and at bank. Called in West Durham, 
 " Row and Stoches." (Roll and Stanchions ? ) 
 
 JACKANAPES. A succession of frames with pulleys or 
 sheaves suspended therefrom to carry an overhead rope. 
 
49 
 
 JENKING. A fast jenking is a narrow place driven length- 
 ways in a pillar of coal, but unholed into the board on 
 either side of the pillar. A loose jenking is a similar place 
 driven along the side of the pillar and open to the board 
 along that side. These places are mostly driven in working 
 pillars. Wherever practicable, when a jenking is necessary, 
 it should be driven loose sided, a fast jenking very 
 frequently causing a creeping to take place, and almost in- 
 variably rendering the pillar or wall in which it is driven 
 crushed and useless, although to this there are exceptions. 
 
 JET. A species of coarse cannel coal, nearly approaching 
 to a black stone. It burns with a bright flame, but loses 
 little bulk in the fire. Some of these black-stones or shales 
 contain upwards of 20 gallons of oil to the ton. 
 
 IN-BYE. In the workings, or away from the shaft. 
 IN -BYE SIDE. One place further into the workings than 
 another, is said to be on the in-bye side of it. 
 
 INCLINE, INCLINED PLANE. If one end of a plane is 
 higher than the other it forms an incline or inclined plane. 
 If coals are required to be brought down it, and the incli- 
 nation is sufficient to enable the descending load of full 
 waggons or tubs to take up the empty set without any aid 
 but that of gravitation, the way is made into a self-acting 
 inclined plane. If coals are required to be brought up the 
 incline, engine power is necessary. 
 
 An underground self-acting plane should not have a less 
 inclination than 1J inch to the yard, 1 inch being barely 
 sufficient to cause motion. According to Mr. B. Thompson, 
 8 loaded chaldron waggons descending a plane of | of an 
 inch per yard will bring up 8 empty ones at a good working 
 speed. 6 loaded waggons require a fall of f inch to the 
 yard, and 4 loaded waggons require f in. to the yard. (In- 
 ventions, Improvements, and Practice.) 
 
 INSENSE. This word means more than to explain. It 
 means making the person to whom the explanation is given 
 thoroughly understand such explanation. 
 
50 
 
 INSPECTOR, A man employed at the surface to attend to 
 the cleaning and skreening of the coals. His wages are 
 usually 3s. per day, or 18s. per week, with his house and 
 firing free. (1849.) 
 
 An underground inspector is required to attend to the 
 working of the coals, and to see that proper pains are taken 
 to make them large and good. He is also required to attend 
 to the straight driving or holing of the places, and to set on 
 compass marks for the purpose. The back over-man, where 
 a colliery is not overcharged with fire-damp, and his time 
 and attention not sufficiently engaged in attending to the 
 safety of the mine, performs the above duties during his 
 shift. The wages of an inspector are 21s. or 22s. per week, 
 with house and firing free. (1849.) 
 
 INSTROKE. In many leases of coal it is stipulated that 
 the coal demised is to be worked by means of pits to be 
 sunk upon the property, in which case it is not unusual to 
 allow any adjoining royalty to be worked by means of 
 drifts, properly provided, on payment of a rent for this 
 privilege which is called an outstroke rent, the drifts being 
 called outstroke drifts. The coal which is so worked is 
 worked by an instroke, or, if any portion of the royalty 
 first named is worked by means of drifts from the adjoining 
 royalty, this constitutes an outstroke from the adjoining 
 royalty, but is an instroke into the royalty upon which the 
 pits were sunk, the whole of the coal thus worked being 
 drawn at such pits. 
 
 INTAKE. The airway along which the fresh air is 
 conducted into a place, district, or mine. 
 
 JOWL. A sort of "tattoo," beaten with a hammer, and 
 in response, upon the faces of two places or drifts near 
 holing, or intended to hole into each other, by a person in 
 each place, for the purpose of ascertaining by the sound 
 their relative positions. 
 
 JUD. A portion of the seam kirved, nicked, and ready for 
 blasting, called also 'vantish, Vantage, or advantage ; also a 
 
51 
 
 portion of a pillar in course of being worked away in the 
 broken mine. 
 
 JUMP. To drill a hole for blasting with a jumper. 
 
 JUMPER. A drill made of greater length than that 
 commonly used, and having the head swelled out to make 
 it heavy. It is driven by the hewer with both hands. The 
 plan was introduced into the North by South country 
 miners about the year 1832, but has not been much 
 practised. 
 
 KEEPER. (See Inspector.) 
 
 KEEL. A vessel used to carry coals from the Staiths 
 above the old bridge on the Tyne, and above the shipping 
 berths on the Wear, to the ships. A keel is a broad flat 
 vessel (on the Tyne sharp at both ends) carrying 8 
 Newcastle chaldrons or 21 tons 4 cwt. 
 
 KEEPS OR KEPS. Movable frames or supports of iron, 
 which if left free project about 1J inches into the shaft top 
 at each side, beneath the level of the settle-boards or flat- 
 sheets by the thickness of the bottom of the cage. Their 
 use is to support the cage containing the tubs of coals 
 when drawn to the surface, the cage rising between the 
 keeps and forcing them backwards ; but when the cage is 
 drawn above the keeps they fall forward to their places, 
 forming a rest for the cage, until the full tubs are replaced 
 by empty ones. The keeps are then drawn back by the 
 banksman after the cage has been raised, and so held until 
 the empty cage has passed through. 
 
 When there is a hanging-on in the shaft, the keeps are 
 weighted so as always to keep back, except when moved 
 forward by the onsetter. 
 
 KENNER. An expression signifying that it is time to 
 give up work, shouted or signalled down the shaft by the 
 banksman where practicable, and conveyed into the 
 workings from mouth to mouth or by other signal. 
 
 KEY. (See Bore.) 
 
 KIBBLE. A wooden tub, usually square, and of the 
 
52 
 
 capacity of about 20 gallons, used in conveying rubbish 
 from one place to another. It is placed upon a tram. It 
 is frequently made with a bow, similar to a corf-bow in 
 shape. The bow is sometimes hinged. Used in sinking 
 wells, carrying mortar, &c. 
 
 KICKUP. A cradle made of iron placed at the head of 
 each skreen, and supported by a short journal at each side, 
 each bearing being supported by a metal stanchion. 
 It is so balanced that when a full tub of coals is run 
 into it, the cradle with the tub turns over, and 
 the coals are discharged upon the skreen, this position 
 being maintained by a brake until the tub is emptied ; on 
 easing the brake, the empty tub is returned on the cradle 
 to its horizontal position, and taken back to the shaft. 
 
 KINK. To curl into a kind of knot, as highty-twisted 
 rope, especially wire rope, does. 
 
 KIRVING. A wedge-shaped excavation, made by the 
 hewer with his pick, at the lower part of the seam preparatory 
 to blasting. A kirving should seldom be less than 36 inches 
 from the front to the back side, nor exceed 16 inches in 
 height at the fore side, in a hard coal ; in a soft coal, with a 
 good parting at the bottom, the kirving may be deeper, and 
 the height at the front less. The coals obtained from the 
 
 o 
 
 kirving are to a large extent small, and as the size of the 
 kirving is pretty constant, and irrespective of the thickness 
 of the seam, it follows that a greater percentage of small is 
 made in working a thin than a thick seam, the hardness of 
 the two seams being similar. It is of great advantage to 
 have at the bottom of the seam a swad, soft enough to prick 
 in, as it enables a considerable quantity of chinley coal to be 
 got out of the kirvings by careful work. 
 
 KIST. A chest. The deputies' kist is used to keep their 
 tools, plate and brattice nails, &c., in. 
 
 KITTY. A piece of straw, about 4 inches long, filled with 
 gunpowder. It is placed in the pricker hole, which is open 
 to the cartridge or shot in the drill-hole, and the end of the 
 kitty nearest to the cartridge being closed and the outer 
 
53 
 
 end open, it follows that when a light is applied to the latter, 
 the kitty, after the manner of a miniature rocket, flies along 
 the pricker-hole and ignites the powder. 
 
 KNOCK-OFF-HOOK. A hook at the end of a set of waggons 
 to which the rope is attached, from which, by the withdrawal 
 of a cottrel or the knocking off of a catch, the set can be 
 detached when in motion. 
 
 Also a hook by means of which the rope is detached from 
 the cage when it is drawn too high by the winding engine. 
 This hook is so contrived as when the rope is detached to 
 support the cage upon a ring, fixed under the pulleys, 
 through which the hook has passed. 
 
 KNOCK-OFF-JOINT. (See Off-take joint) 
 
 LAID-IN. When a colliery has ceased working from being 
 exhausted, or from any other cause, and is dismantled, it is 
 said to be laid-in. 
 
 LAID-OUT. A laid-out tub of coals is a tub of coals con- 
 taining stones or foul coal beyond a certain specified quantity, 
 usually one quart, the hewer of such tub being fined 
 according to the amount of such stones, &c., found in the 
 tub. 
 
 LAME-SKIRTING. Taking coal out of the side of an 
 excavation. To make a narrow place wide, or a wide place 
 wider. A term peculiar to the Etherley district. When 
 not ordered to be done, it is a fraudulent way of getting coal 
 with little trouble. 
 
 LAMP-CABIN. A place above ground, or underground 
 near the pit bottom, where the safety-lamps are repaired, 
 cleaned, examined, lighted, and locked, before being handed 
 to the workmen in cases where naked lights are not allowed 
 to be taken from the bottom of the shaft. In other cases 
 the lamps are repaired as above, but naked lights are used 
 until stations are reached, where the lamps are lighted by 
 responsible persons, beyond which stations no naked lights 
 are allowed. 
 
 LANDING. The top or bottom of a self-acting incline, or 
 of an engine bank, or the ends of an engine plane. 
 
54 
 
 LANDRY-BOX. A wooden box placed at the top of a set 
 of pumps, into which the water is delivered and spouted to 
 where required. 
 
 LANDSALE. Coals sold to carts at a colliery for direct 
 delivery. AJso in bags, and taken away on horses' or asses' 
 backs into out-of-the-way places. Also a colliery to 
 which there is no railway, or tramway, or canal, is called "a 
 landsale," or a landsale pit. Of these there are several 
 towards the out-crop of the coal measure and limestone 
 seams of coal. 
 
 LAYERED. Choked up with mud. Commonly applied to 
 the falls of a bucket or clack thus prevented from working, 
 or to the choking of the snoreholes of the windbore, when 
 the waterway through them is impeded. 
 
 LAZY-BALK. " A balk of timber placed at the top of a 
 skreen or hopper, against which the top of the tub is 
 thrown in teeming to prevent the tub going over, where 
 there is no cradle or kickup." (Nicholson.) 
 
 LEADER. The gut of a hitch or slip-dyke. 
 
 LEASE. A formal agreement, for a term of years, between 
 the proprietor of a royalty and an ad venturer or adventurers 
 who work the mine. Leases are for various terms, usually 
 from 21 to 63 years, and generally with powers on the part 
 of the lessees to relinquish at the end of any year, or third 
 year, on giving 12 months' previous notice. " Leases under 
 the Dean and Chapter of Durham were formerly granted for 
 original terms of 21 years, renewable every 7 years on pay- 
 ment of a fine, or on a certain annual rent and tentale rent, 
 and sometimes on the payment of a fine and tentale also, in 
 which case the fine covered a stipulated number of tens, to 
 be worked annually. Leases under the Bishop of Durham 
 were generally for three lives, and some (but few) for years 
 under reserved annual rents, and renewable by fine in both 
 cases." (Buddie, Evidence before Select Committee of House 
 of Commons, 1838.) The fine for renewal of Dean and 
 Chapter leases was about 1 years' purchase of the estimated 
 rental of what the mine was worth to let. New leases of 
 
55 
 
 church mines are granted by the Ecclesiastical Com- 
 missioners. 
 
 LED. A led tub or corf means a spare one, for the 
 barrowman to leave empty with the hewer whilst the full 
 one is being put to the flat, the empty one being filled by 
 the hewer against the return of the barrowman with 
 another empty one. 
 
 LEVEL. A drain cut in the bottom stone to set away or 
 convey water. A pair of levels is a pair of drifts, driven in 
 the water level direction of the strata for the purpose of 
 winning coal. 
 
 LEVEL-FREE. Drained by means of an adit or free-level. 
 
 LIFT. To heave at the bottom, to creep ; also a column 
 or parallel columns of pumps ; also a broken jud. (See 
 Jud). 
 
 LIFTING-SET. A description of pump in which the 
 engine lifts a column of spears (which work in the 
 column of water in the pumps or pipes) at the bottom of 
 which is placed a bucket which works in a chamber called 
 a working barrel. When the engine lifts the bucket, it 
 lifts the whole column of water above it, and at the same 
 time the water below follows the bucket through J,he_.clack. 
 
 Lia To lie down. 
 
 i- rn I' tJN J V F, p y rrri-rr 
 
 LINE. To survey. 
 
 LINING-MARK. A drill hole in the roof with a wooden 
 plug driven into it to show where the next lining is to 
 commence. The plug is for the purpose of inserting a 
 small fork from which to hang a plumb-line, behind which 
 to hold the candle or lamp which forms the back-sight. 
 The fore-sight is also fixed by a temporary plumb-line 
 suspended from a piece of clay stuck to the roof. 
 
 LIP OF SHAFT. The bottom edge of a shaft circle where 
 open to the seam workings. 
 
 LIPPEN. To reckon or calculate upon. 
 
 LOFTING. Wood, usually old refuse, placed upon the top 
 
56 
 
 of the ordinary balks or crown-trees, used in timbering 
 through a fallen place, for the purpose of keeping up the 
 loose stones, which would otherwise fall between the 
 common timbering. This mode of timbering is practised 
 in close drifting through a heavy fall, which is less 
 expensive than ridding. Lofting is also frequently used 
 when a place is ridded, part of the stones being con- 
 veniently stowed upon the timber. 
 
 LONG-WORK, OR LONG- WALL, OR LONG- WAY. A system of 
 work in which, the whole of the coal is removed in long 
 face, without any preliminary preparation by pillars, the 
 roads to the face being either supported by pack-walls 
 made from the stone taken down to make road-height or 
 from elsewhere, or by pillars of coal left at either side. 
 This mode of work is of comparatively recent introduction 
 into Northumberland and Durham, due to the necessity of 
 working thinner seams of coal than formerly. 
 
 LOOSE (" LOWSE"). Finish working. (See Kenner, 
 Jeriking). 
 
 Low. A light. 
 
 LOW-ROPE. A piece of tarry rope, used as a torch. Some- 
 times used in shaft or pump-work. The rope passing from 
 the under side of the rope-roll or drum, and over the 
 pulley. 
 
 LUM. A chimney placed upon the top of an up-cast pit 
 for the purpose of lengthening it. 
 
 MACHINE. The engine for drawing coals. Winding- 
 engines or machines are usually constructed to work with 
 high pressure steam, but condensing-engines, although in 
 the first instance more expensive, are much cheaper in the 
 end, the repairs of the boilers being comparatively trifling, 
 and the labour in firing and cost of coals less. A ready 
 rule for calculating the power of a high pressure engine, the 
 diameter of the cylinder, and the pressure of steam on the 
 piston being given, is as follows : 
 
 Square the diameter of the cylinder in inches, multiply 
 
57 
 
 by the pressure of steam in Ibs. per square inch, and divide 
 the product by 400. 
 
 In the case of the condensing-engine, multiply by the 
 sum of the steam and vacuum pressure. 
 MAIN-CRAB. (See Fleet.) 
 
 MAIN-ENGINE. The pumping-engine, until recently 
 usually a condensing beam-engine. The following is the 
 rule for finding the quantity of water which an engine will 
 pump from a given depth : 
 
 Let H = Horse-power of engine. 
 F= Depth of pit in fathoms. 
 G= Quantity of water in gallons per minute. 
 
 Thea H * 55 = G. 
 Jb 
 
 and having any two of the above data given, the third can 
 be found. 
 
 MAIN-ROPE. (See Engine-plane.) 
 
 MAKINGS. Small coal made in kirving and nicking. 
 
 MAN-DOOR. (See Door). 
 
 MAN-HOLES. (See Refuge Stalls). 
 
 MARROW. A partner. 
 
 MASTER-SHIFTER. The person in charge of the shifters. 
 (See Shifters, Shift.) 
 
 MASTER- WASTEMAN. The person who has charge of the 
 wastemen. (See Wasteman, Waste.) 
 
 MATCH. A small piece of candle end or greased twine or 
 tape placed horizontally beneath the end of the kitty used 
 to ignite the powder in blasting. When everything is 
 ready, the workman applies a light to the point of the 
 match, which he has made of sufficient size, and placed in 
 such a position as in burning to occupy time enough before 
 the flame reaches the kitty to allow him to retire to a safe 
 place. Frequently where lamps are used a wire inserted 
 through the gauze and heated to redness in the flame of the 
 lamp is used to ignite fuse, substituted for the kitty. 
 
58 
 
 MAUL, MKLL. A hammer used in setting props, driving 
 wedges to force down stone or coal, and in drilling in stone 
 to drive in the drill ; also, with a long handle, to draw props. 
 
 MA VIES. It may be; perhaps. 
 
 MEETINGS. " Where the cages pass each other in the 
 shaft, or where the full and empty sets pass each other on a 
 self-acting plane." (Nicholson.) 
 
 METAL. Shale. (Plate, of the lead mining districts.) 
 METAL RIDGE OR METAL RIG. (See Creep.) 
 
 MILLSTONE GRIT. Hard coarse post with small pebbles 
 of quartz lying immediately at the bottom of the coal 
 measures. 
 
 MISTRESS. An oblong box, wanting the upper part of the 
 front side, and carried upright, having a round hole in tho 
 bottom to allow the candle to be raised (as it burns down) 
 through clay to support it, arid keep the hole close. The 
 use of the mistress is to carry a lighted candle in a current 
 of air. Used by the drivers. 
 
 MONKEY. A self-acting lever placed between the rails at 
 the top of an inclined plane, the heavy end of the lever being 
 to the dip and the light end rising above the level of the tub 
 axles. On ascending the plane, the axles depress and pass 
 over the light end, which so soon as they have passed is 
 raised again, and prevents any running back of the set. 
 The same object is gained by having a side chock pointing 
 to the rise, and balanced so as to lie diagonally over the 
 rail ; it is pressed back by the tubs in passing, and after- 
 wards falls back into its place behind the last wheel of the 
 set. 
 
 MOTHERGATE. The continuation of the rolley way beyond 
 the flat into the workings. At a future period converted 
 into rolleyway. 
 
 MUSHY. Coal or shale soft and friable, often found near a 
 hitch. 
 
 NARROW BOARD. (See Board.) 
 
59 
 
 NARROW- WORK. Excavations 3 yards in width and under, 
 for which, above the hewing price, an extra price per yard is 
 paid. 
 
 NATTLE. (See Fissle.) By nattle is implied a slightly 
 increased action of the creep. 
 
 NICK. To cut the coal vertically, next to the side of the 
 place, similarly to the kirving, preparatory to taking down 
 the jud. 
 
 NICKINGS. The small coals made in nicking. 
 NIGHT-SHIFT. (See Day-shift.) 
 
 NIP. The effect produced upon the coal pillars by creep ; 
 a crush or squeeze. Also an approach of the roof and thill 
 of a seam of coal towards each other, usually of the former 
 towards the latter, the seam having for a greater or less 
 breadth being occasioned almost or even entirely to 
 disappear. Occasioned by denudation. 
 
 NOOK ("NEUK"). A. corner of a working place at the 
 face ; also, the corner of a pillar of coal. 
 
 NUTS. Re-screened small coal. (See Apparatus.) 
 
 OFF-PUTTERS. (See Staith.) 
 
 OFF-TAKE, OFF-TAKE DRIFT. (See Delivery drift.) 
 
 ONSETTERS. Men who put the full tubs in and take the 
 empty tubs out of the cage at the shaft bottom, or at any 
 other landing or stopping place. They are usually paid by 
 the score or ton, their average wages amounting (1849) to 
 about 4s. per day of twelve hours. 
 
 OPENCAST. A cutting in stone, coal, &c., usually in the 
 bottom of a place where a ridge has been passed over, and 
 where it is less expensive to cut down the whole of the ridge 
 to make a uniform roadway or rolleyway than to drive a 
 stone drift through it. 
 
 OUTBURST, OUTCROP. The rising out of a stratum to the 
 surface, or its appearance at the surface in consequence of 
 the denudation of the latter, or in a cliff. 
 
 OUTBYE. Towards the shaft. 
 
60 
 
 * 
 
 OUTBYE-SIDE. Nearer to the shaft than any other place 
 with which it is compared. 
 
 OUTSET. "An artificial elevation of the ground or an 
 erection of timber or stone round the mouth of a sinking 
 pit to facilitate the disposal of the debris produced in 
 sinking." (Nicholson.) To outset water is to put in a 
 column of tubbing, behind which a feeder of water will rise 
 to its level, and require no further dealing with. 
 
 OUTSTROKE. (See Instroke, Rent.) 
 OVERCAST, OVERGATE. (See Crossing.) 
 
 OVERLAP. A reversed hitch. When the hade of a slip 
 makes an acute angle with the floor of the place that has 
 reached it, the hitch is almost invariably a down-throw. In 
 some districts, as in Somersetshire, there are a great number 
 of instances where the Contrary is largely the case. In 
 Northumberland and Durham this exception has been 
 found, but it is very rare. In such cases the seam is 
 " overlapped " or doubled. 
 
 OVERMAN. The person who, beneath the viewer, has the 
 charge of the workings of a colliery where there is no 
 under- viewer. He sets the pit to work each morning, and 
 attends to all the detail of arranging the work, and getting 
 the coals each man works to the shaft bottom. It is also 
 his duty to see that each working place is properly 
 ventilated and in a safe state. He also keeps a daily 
 account of the work wrought, and of the whole of the under- 
 ground expenses and wages, and gives into the colliery 
 office a fortnightly account of the same, the bill containing 
 the amount earned by each man, or set of men if in 
 partnership, and boy during that time. There is one over- 
 man to a pit, so that if there are two or three pits at a 
 colliery, there are two or three overmen. An overman is 
 almost invariably a man who has passed through all the 
 gradations of pit work, from the trapper upwards, and who 
 has been raised to his situation on account of his ability 
 and steadiness. His wages in 1849 were 26s. to 28s. per 
 week, with house, garden, and coals gratis. 
 
61 
 
 OVERWORKINGS. (See Rent} 
 
 PACK-WALLS. (See Long 'Work) Also band or rubbish 
 built or stowed up behind a face of long work. 
 
 PAIR OF GEARS. (See Gallows Timber.) 
 
 PANNEL WORK. The division of a colliery into districts 
 (or pannels) separated from each other by barriers of coal, 
 except where communications are indispensable, with the 
 intention of confining the results of an explosion to the 
 district in which it takes place. 
 
 PARROT COAL. Nearly the same with cannel coal, which 
 
 see. 
 
 PARTING. A separation between any two beds or layers 
 of coal in the same seam, but without any band. 
 
 PEAS. A description of small coals, smaller than beans, 
 and also produced from the duff, 
 
 PEE-DEE. " A lad employed on board of a keel/' 
 (Nicholson.) 
 
 PICK. An implement used in hewing coal. It consists of 
 an iron head, 18 inches long, and sharp at each end, and 
 weighing from 3 to 6 Ibs. In the centre of the head is 
 wedged a shaft or handle of ash, of the length of 2J feet. 
 The hewer finds his own picks, but has them sharpened and 
 set out for him by the colliery smith (called the "pick 
 sharper ") employed for the purpose, paying to him in return 
 Id. per fortnight. 
 
 PICTURE. "A covering of sheet iron or brattice deals 
 hung from the roof and shaft-framing to protect the 
 onsetters from the dripping of water at the shaft bottom." 
 (Nicholson.) A similar cover to protect the hewer from 
 water which falls from the roof in wet working. 
 
 PILLAR. An oblong or square mass of coal contained 
 between two boards arid two headways courses, and left 
 during the first working for the support of the roof. Pillars 
 vary from 20 to 40 yards in length, and from 2 to 20 yards 
 in thickness. When left so thin as 2 or 3 yards, they are 
 
not, unless the mine is very shallow indeed, intended to be 
 worked away. 
 
 PILLARING. The building up of stone fallen from the 
 roof by the side of any way required to be left open. 
 
 PILLAR WORKING. (See Broken.) 
 
 PIT. A circular, oval, square, or oblong, vertical sinking 
 from the surface. The term shaft, which is often used as 
 synonymous, may either be a pit, or only a portion of one, 
 severed oft' by means of a vertical or main brattice. Thus : 
 " a pit divided by a brattice into two shafts, viz., a coal and 
 an engine or water shaft," is a correct expression. 
 
 PIT HEAP. (See Heapstead.) 
 
 PIT HOOK. (See Clippers. 
 
 PLACING WORK. The direction given by the overman 
 as to the arrangements for the day ; also an operation 
 performed by the cranernan for the purpose of ascertaining 
 the proportion of the tubs or corves hewed, and from 
 whence each barrowman shall put. The putters at the flat 
 cavil at the commencement of each week (or longer period 
 as the custom of the colliery may be) for the " going " ; 
 the first cavil being " first placed " ; the second " second 
 placed," etc. ; the first placed putting from the hewer nearest 
 and furthest from the flat ; the second, from the nearest 
 but one, and furthest but one, etc. : and the last placed, in 
 consequence, getting all his work from the '' middle sheth,' ; 
 as the mid number between the nearest and the furthest 
 places is called. The arrangement is made as follows : the 
 cranemen places the men's names in their order, commen- 
 cing with the nearest, vertically upon the chalking deal, 
 with the number of tubs each man is allowed to hew, so that 
 each may have a fair share of the work to be done ; the 
 tubs are then added up, and divided by the number of 
 putters, which gives the quantity each putter is to put, if 
 hewed ; half of this quantity is then taken by the crane- 
 man, and is made up from the nearest hewers, and the other 
 half from the furthest, and this is the " first placed's (he is 
 
63 
 
 called, " first placeder ") work. If any coals are left of the 
 work of the nearest and furthest hewers, they form the 
 commencement of the quantity to be put by the " second 
 placed" (" second placeder"), and^so on. 
 
 PLATE. Metal Blue or Grey shale : the term " plate " 
 was first used about 35 or 40 years ago, to describe bricks 
 (" plate bricks ") made from metal or shale. " Plate" in the 
 Western parts of the Counties, particularly in the lead 
 mining districts, means the same as regards strata, as Metal 
 in the colliery districts. 
 
 PLATE NAILS. Used in laying tram plates or bridge rails, 
 to nail the plates or rails to the sleepers. They weigh 
 about 22 to the pound ; are from 2 to 2J inches long, and 
 are made with flat countersunk heads, round shafts, and 
 flat points. 
 
 PLUG AND FEATHER. (See Fox wedge.) 
 
 PLUNGER. (See Forcing set) 
 
 POST. Sandstone. (Hazle of the lead districts.) 
 
 POUT, PUNCH. A tool used by the deputies in drawing 
 timber out of a dangerous place. It has a shank about 8 
 feet long with a spade handle, and a head, pointed and 
 slightly curved towards the handle at one side, and like a 
 hammer at the other ; it is either used as a ram to knock 
 the props down, or to draw them out after they have been 
 knocked down ; it is supported by a hook and chain when 
 in use. 
 
 POWDER. Gunpowder : used coarse for blasting, fine for 
 charging kitties. 
 
 PRICKER. A. rod of copper, about a quarter of an inch in 
 diameter at the thick end, at which it is turned round into 
 a ring, and tapering to a point at the other ; it is about 3 
 feet long. The point is inserted into the cartridge for 
 blasting, and by it the cartridge is put into its place in the 
 drill hole ; the pricker being allowed to remain in the hole 
 until it is stemmed or tamped up with small shale or 
 metal. The stemming should be damped. After being 
 
64 
 
 stemmed the pricker is steadily drawn out by the ring-, thus 
 leaving a port-hole to the gunpowder, by means of which, 
 with a kitty and match, the powder is ignited (1849). 
 Frequent accidents having occurred by the ignition of the 
 gunpowder from sparks occasioned by the attrition of an 
 iron pricker against stone or pyrites, the use of iron for 
 the purpose is forbidden by law (Mines Act, 1872.) 
 Copper is not absolutely safe. 
 
 PRICKING. A thin layer of soft coaly shale often found 
 between the bottom of a seam of coal and the regular floor. 
 It is used to " prick " in in kirving and is advantageous to 
 the hewer. 
 
 PROP. A piece of unsawn wood, cut 2 or 3 inches 
 shorter than the thickness of the seam of coal, and set 
 upright beneath the end of a crowntree, or under a head- 
 tree for the support of the roof. Props are best made of 
 peeled larch when this can be obtained. Where the wood 
 is not less than 3 inches in diameter, they are worth, when 
 of Scotch and larch fir mixed, about 4/- per 72 feet (1849.) 
 The supply which used to be principally from Scotland 
 having fallen short, it is now mainly obtained from Norway 
 and Sweden ; and the use of cast and wrought iron, par- 
 ticularly for permanent propping, as in rolley ways, is 
 advancing. 
 
 PROP MAUL. An iron maul, with an ash handle 3 feet 
 long, used by the deputies in drawing or setting props. 
 
 PROVE. To ascertain the position of a seam of coal when 
 it has been thrown downwards or upwards by a slip, or the 
 nature of the strata in a district, by boring or sinking. 
 
 PULLEYS. The wheels placed above a pit, over which 
 the ropes for drawing coals, etc., are passed. They should 
 seldom be less than 10 feet diameter; they are, sometimes, 
 more than 20. They should, as a rule, be of the same 
 diameter as the average diameter of the rope roll. They 
 should be placed as low as is consistent with safety, on 
 account of the angle of the ropes. 
 
65 
 
 PULLEY FRAMES. The gearing above a pit upon which 
 the pulleys are supported ; they were formerly constructed 
 altogether of timber, they are now frequently of iron. 
 
 PUMPS. (See Forcing set ; Lifting set.) 
 
 PUNCH-PROP. A short prop, set upon a crowntree or 
 balk, where it does not support the middle of the roof on 
 account of the roof having fallen before the timber was 
 set. Also a short prop, about 14 or 15 inches long, placed 
 by a hewer under his sump or back-end when there is any 
 danger of its dropping down before he lias got it kirved 
 sufficiently far. It is best always to set these, whether 
 danger is apprehended or not. (See Back Sprays.) 
 
 PUTTER. (See Barrowman.) 
 
 PUTTING PONIES. Ponies 10 or 11 hands high used in 
 substitution for putters or barrowmen. 
 
 QUADRANT. A beam constructed with one half at right 
 angles with the other half, like the letter |_. It is used for 
 converting a horizontal into a vertical motion, as in the 
 case of an engine being required to pump from a shaft at 
 some distance from it. It is frequently made double acting 
 as in _ spears being hung on each end. The horizontal 
 spear from the engine is attached to the top of the vertical 
 leg. 
 
 QUARL. A flag made of burnt fire-clay, used for flooring 
 coke ovens, arid other purposes. 
 
 RAG-PUMP, RAG-WHEEL PUMP. A pump used in early 
 coal mining for lifting water by manual labour from small 
 depths. It consisted of a pipe with an endless chain with 
 discs of iron and leather attached to it at short distances 
 apart, which when moving upwards lifted the water by 
 means of the discs, which passing over a wheel above the 
 top of the pump, returned down to the water outside of the 
 pipe. Bastier's patent chain pump is an adaptation of the 
 chain wheel principle. 
 
 RAKE. A rake with about 8 teeth, 2 inches apart, and 
 3 inches long, used by the hewer in working coal by 
 separation ; the shaft may be 8 feet long. 
 
66 
 
 RAM. (See Forcing Set.} 
 
 RAMBLE. Called also FOLLOWING STONE. A thin 
 stratum of shale or post, often found lying immediately 
 above a seam of coal. It falls down, and getting mixed 
 with the coals, causes some trouble to the hewer, in getting 
 it separated and cast back. At some collieries, an extra 
 allowance of 3d. or 4d. per score is made for hewing with 
 ramble ; at others, the nature of the coal with all its incon- 
 veniences, is taken into account in the hewing price. 
 
 RAPPER. A lever placed at the top and bottom of a shaft 
 or inclined plane, or engine plane, connected with a wire 
 placed between the two. Its use is to signal by means 
 of a hammer or bell. 
 
 RECKONING DAY. " The day on which the workmen 
 receive their pay-notes or checks from the overman showing 
 the amount each man or eack set of men is entitled to 
 receive for the fortnight, usually two days before the pay 
 day." (Nicholson.) 
 
 REFUGE STALLS. Man-holes required by law to be made 
 in engine or self-acting planes and horse roads for retreat 
 during the passing of the trains. 
 
 REGULATOR. A frame containing a sort of door, one half 
 of which slides open past the other half, like a transom 
 window. It is placed in that division of air which has 
 least distance to travel ; the use of the slide being to regu- 
 late the quantity of air travelling in that direction. A row 
 of holes should be made in the middle batten of the sliding 
 part, and one in the middle stanchion of the frame, so that 
 the regulator may be locked by means of a screw bolt in 
 the proper position, to prevent it from being ignorantly or 
 wilfully altered. An ordinary door with a sliding shutter 
 in it to allow a portion of air to pass, is called a regulating 
 door. 
 
 RENK OR RANK. A standard distance of 60 or 80 yards 
 (called the first renk), upon which a standard price is paid 
 for putting a score of coals. This, for 20 peck tubs and 80 
 yards varies from Is. to Is. 3d. per score, the height and 
 
67 
 
 inclination of the seam being taken into account ; and an 
 increased payment of Id. per score is made for every addition 
 of 20 yards to the first renk. The renk is measured by the 
 overman in the middle of the fortnight ; the average 
 distance from the flat or station to each working place 
 being taken, commencing to measure from the middle of 
 the station, and the score price for putting for that fort- 
 night calculated thereon. 
 
 RENT. Colliery rent consists of a fixed or certain rent, in 
 consideration of which a certain quantity of coals is allowed 
 to be annually worked, or worked and vended, but paid 
 whether that quantity is worked, or worked and vended, or 
 not ; and also of a surplus or tentale rent, payable for the 
 coal worked, or worked and vended above the certain 
 quantity. It is usually covenanted that if the quantity 
 worked, or worked and vended, in any year, shall fall short 
 of that allowed in consideration of the certain rent, such 
 " short workings," as they are called, shall be allowed rent- 
 free in future years, when the quantity worked shall exceed 
 that allowed for the certain rent. Excess above the certain 
 quantity is called " over- workings." When the rent is 
 chargeable upon the coal worked, there is allowed free, a 
 suitable per centage for engines, workmen, &c. When it is 
 chargeable upon the coals ivorked and sold, no charge is 
 made for consumption at the colliery. There are also : 
 
 Outstroke Rent, for the privilege of breaking the barrier, 
 and working and conveying underground the coal from an 
 adjoining royalty. 
 
 Shaft Rent, for the privilege of drawing up the shaft the 
 coal worked from another royalty by outstroke. 
 
 Wayleave Rent, for the privilege of conveying, over the 
 surface, from the pit to the boundary, coal worked from 
 another royalty by out-stroke, and drawn up the pit. Way- 
 leave may be charged by any proprietor across whose land 
 he may allow coal, &c., to pass. 
 
 Damaged Ground Rent, usually double agricultural rent 
 for land occupied by engines, heapstead, shops, houses, 
 railways, &c. 
 
68 
 
 RETURN. The airway by which the air returns to the 
 upcast shaft after it has left the working places. 
 RIDE. To go to bank. 
 
 RIDER. Sometimes, at a hitch, there is only a slipping of 
 one fractured edge of the coal past the other, but sometimes 
 these are separated by mineral matter of various composition, 
 often soft clayey shale, called the rider; also called the 
 gowk of the trouble. 
 
 RING. A crib laid in a pit to collect water. (See Crib.) 
 
 RISE. To the rise of; above the level of. 
 
 RISER. A hitch which throws up the coal in the same 
 direction as the drift which approached it. 
 
 ROBBING. (See Broken.) 
 ROLL. (See Balk.) 
 
 ROLLERS. Made usually of metal, sometimes of ha 
 wood, and placed upon inclined or other planes, to support 
 the ropes and remove the friction which would be occasioned 
 by their dragging along the way. 
 
 ROLLEY. A carriage used formerly to carry tubs or 
 corves along the horse-roads underground. The rolley was 
 contrived as an improvement upon the tram upon which a 
 single corf was placed ; a horse drawing one, two, or three 
 corves at a time. Upon the rolley, which travelled upon 
 larger wheels, and on round topped rails instead of tram plates, 
 two, or in some cases, three corves were placed, the horse 
 drawing two or three rolleys. A further improvement took 
 place, when the rolley-ways were constructed more perfectly ; 
 and in some rare cases, as many as 7 rolleys with 21 tubs of 
 coals, each full tub weighing 12 cwt. have been the draught 
 of a good pit-horse. Rolleys have given way to tubs on 
 their own wheels, from 20 to 25 of which upon a carefully 
 laid and well kept way, and containing 8 cwt. each, can 
 be drawn by a good horse. 
 
69 
 
 The following is given as the regular daily work of 12 
 hours of a good pit horse, upon a level rolley-way, in a 
 good state 
 
 EMPTY LOAD. 
 
 Ibs. 
 
 9 rolleys, weighing 7J cwt. each, 
 27 journeys of 500 yards, equal 
 
 to 204,120, led 500 yards. 
 
 18 empty tubs, weighing 2J cwt. 
 each, 27 journeys of 500 yards, 
 equal to 136,080 
 
 FULL LOAD. 
 
 9 rolleys. as above 204,120 
 
 18 full tubs, weighing 9J cwt. each, 
 
 distance as above 517,104 
 
 Total weight equal... 1,061,424, led 500 yards. 
 
 And taking the fraction at 1'lSOth part, or one half of that 
 of common tub-way (see Barrowmari), the power of the 
 horse is found to be for 8 hours equal to 25,515 Ibs. raised 
 one foot high per minute. 
 
 According to Desaguliers, a horse drawing a weight out 
 of a well over a pulley can raise 200 Ibs. for 8 hours 
 together, at the rate of 2J miles per hour, equal to 
 44,000 Ibs. raised one foot high per minute. Mr. Smeaton 
 states the efficiency of a horse at 22,000 Ibs. raised one foot 
 high per minute. The ordinary estimate of engineers is 
 33,000 Ibs. 
 
 ROLLEY-WAY. The horse road underground. 
 
 ROLLEY-WAY MAN. A man whose business it is to attend 
 to the rolley-way and keep it in order. It is also his duty 
 to keep away the work, and see that no time is lost in 
 getting the full waggons to the shaft and the empty ones 
 in-bye again. His wages are about 2s. 9d. for 8 hours, or 
 3s. 4d. if he stands 12 hours (1849.) 
 
 ROOF STONE. The stratum lying immediately above the 
 coal. 
 
70 
 
 ROPE. Pit ropes were formerly all made of hemp, and 
 previous to about 60 years ago, were generally round. They 
 are now almost entirely made of steel or iron wire. The 
 first wire ropes used for winding, following the then form 
 of hemp ropes were made flat, four or six ropes, laid side by 
 side, being stitched together with iron wires ; but where 
 the position of the winding engine, with regard to the pit 
 will allow, round ropes are now almost always adopted. In 
 several cases, however, where the winding engine has been 
 placed very near the pit, so as to be employed in pumping, 
 flat ropes are used. Hauling ropes, both above and under 
 ground, are now also of steel or iron. Crab ropes are 
 generally of hemp, but those of steel or iron wire are rapidly 
 taking their place. Each round wire rope is usually 
 manufactured with 6 strands, each strand containing 6 
 wires, with a hempen or wire core. 
 
 In the year 1842, the price paid at a Durham colliery for 
 a round wire rope weighing 6 Ibs. to the fathom, and having 
 7 wires in each strand, was 77s. 6d. per cwt. ; and for a 
 round wire rope weighing 6J Ibs. to the fathom, and having 
 6 wires in each strand, it was 75s. Od. per cwt. 
 
 ROPE ROLL. A cylinder fixed upon the main shaft of the 
 winding engine, upon which the ropes used in drawing coals 
 are wound. In the case of Flat rope rolls there are two com- 
 partments, or planes, each of a little more width than the 
 breadth of the rope, upon which the rope coils and uncoils, 
 being kept in its place by side arms or horns. The 
 diameter of a flat rope roll should not be less than 8 feet, 
 and may, with advantage, be 10 or even 15 feet or more. 
 
 A Scroll drum is constructed of a comparatively small 
 diameter at the sides, the diameter increasing rapidly 
 towards the centre part which is level, the rope travelling 
 on scrolls of iron mounting up from taking the lift at the 
 bottom towards the top, and continuing to coil for a few 
 turns upon the level portion of the drum, the object being 
 to counterbalance the ropes. 
 
 In a Cunical drum the diameter of the drum in the 
 
71 
 
 middle is greater than that at the sides, the drum surface 
 being plain. 
 
 In a Parallel drum the diameter is the same all across. 
 With this form of rope roll, a rope similar in weight to the 
 winding rope, one end of which is attached to the bottom 
 of the cage at bank, and the other end to the bottom of the 
 cage at the bottom, and allowed to hang freely in the sump 
 forms a complete balance weight. This form has always 
 been adopted in the water balance pits of South Wales 
 chains, however, being altogether used both above and 
 below the cages : it would probably be better to substitute 
 chain for rope in the above case. 
 
 BOUND COALS. Best coals, from which the small has 
 been separated by skreening. 
 
 ROUNDER. (SeeJSore.) 
 
 Row AND STOWCHES. (Roll and Stanchions ?) (See Jack 
 Roll) 
 
 ROYALTY. The minerals with the right of working them. 
 They presumably belong to the owner of the freehold, 
 except in the case of royal mines, from the surface to the 
 centre of the earth. The ownership of the surface may be 
 vested in one person, and of the mines in another. In the 
 case of copyhold and customary lands, the right of property 
 in minerals is vested in the lord of the manor, and the 
 right of possession is vested in the tenant of the surface, and 
 consequently, in such cases, neither the lord nor the tenant 
 can exercise any right to work them without mutual consent. 
 (Bainbridges Law of Mines and Minerals.) 
 
 RUNNER. (See Bore.) 
 
 RUNNING BALK. A balk set in the direction of a drift, 
 at its side instead of -across it, to form a support for the 
 cross balks. A running balk at each side, with balks or 
 planks supported by them is the common method of 
 timbering through an old board or place where the roof has 
 fallen so heavily as to make the entire ridding of the fall 
 too expensive. 
 
72 
 
 RUNNING FITTER. The subordinate of a fitter; he looks 
 out for orders from shippers. 
 
 SAFETY LAMP. (See Davy.) 
 
 SAGRE, or SEGGAR, CLAY. Fire-clay ; argillaceous and 
 siliceous shale used for making fire-bricks ; it is usually the 
 thill of a seam of coal ; it abounds in stigmaria rootlets. 
 
 SAND. " The sand " which is seen in Northumber- 
 land and Durham, is a stratum of soft sandstone underlying 
 the magnesian limestone. When it contains much water, it 
 wastes or falls away to a soft loose quicksand, and where, as 
 in some instances the quantity of water to be contended 
 with is very large, it sometimes presents difficulties in 
 sinking through it which are almost insurmountable. 
 
 SCABBY.- (See Claggy.) 
 
 SCAFFOLD. A wooden platform fixed accross a shaft. In 
 the case of a permanently abandoned pit, where it is not 
 filled up from the bottom, a scaffold is sometimes put in, a 
 few fathoms from the top, above which the pit is filled up. 
 As the wood decays in time, the scaffold falls in with its 
 covering. Such scaffolds, if put in at all, should be secure 
 domes, built with masonry on good foundations. 
 
 SCALE. A scale of air is a portion allowed to escape 
 through a door, or stopping, for the purpose of ventilating a 
 waggon or rolley-way, &c. 
 
 SCALLOP, SKELP. To use the pick in pulling down or 
 hewing coal instead of kirving, nicking, and wedging, or 
 bringing it down with powder, &c. 
 
 SCAMY POST. Soft short jointy freestone, in very thin 
 layers, and much mixed with mica. 
 
 SCARES. Thin layers of pyrites or spar, interstratified 
 in coal seams, or similar layers of coal found in post or 
 metal. 
 
 SCORE. A standard number of tubs or corves of coal at 
 each colliery, upon which the hewers' and putters' prices 
 for working are paid, called the score price. It varies in 
 
73 
 
 different localities from 20 to 26 tubs. Thus on the Tyne, 
 the score consists of 20 ; on the Wear, 21 ; and on the Tees, 
 from 20 to 26 tubs, at different collieries. 
 
 SCORE PKICE. (See Score.') 
 
 SCOTCH. A piece of wood of triangular section with a 
 handle to it placed on the rail before the front wheel of a 
 waggon, or set for the purpose of a gradual arrest of 
 motion. 
 
 SCRAPER. " A round iron rod about J in. in diameter, 
 and 3 feet long, turned up flat at each end and used for 
 cleaning the coal dust out of a drill hole." (Nicholson.) The 
 scraper is used also for pushing loose powder into the hole 
 when it is used in this state. The same precaution which 
 is required in the case of the pricker, is ordered by the 
 Mines Act, 1888, by the prohibition of steel or iron for this 
 purpose. 
 
 SCUTTLE OR SCOOP. Used for filling water from the face 
 of a dip place, or sump into a water tub ; it is usually made 
 with wooden sides and back, and a thin sheet iron bottom. 
 The sides, to the bottom of which, as well as to the bottom 
 of the back the sheet iron is nailed, are at the back end 
 of the same depth as the back, and at the front end 
 gradually curve up to the level of the top of the back. The 
 top is also partly covered from the top of the back forwards, 
 with wood, and in the middle of the back is an iron handle ; 
 it may be made 20 inches long, 12 inches broad, and 6 
 inches deep at the back. 
 
 SEAM. A bed of coal. 
 
 SEG. To bend down, as a plank or balk does at its 
 middle by superincumbent weight. 
 
 SELF-ACTING INCLINE. (See Incline.) 
 
 SEPARATION. Filling round coals only, the small being 
 separated and cast back in the mine. 
 
 SET. To fill a tub unfairly, the large coals being built 
 up and left intentionally hollow in the tub or corf, and 
 
74 
 
 carefully filled over the top, the object being to get full 
 payment for as small as possible a quantity of coals. This 
 fraud can only be practised where the hewers are paid by 
 measure ; in place of which payment by weight is now, with 
 a slight exception, the only legal mode. Also a train of 
 tubs or waggons. Also a column of pumps. 
 
 SET OUT. A tub or corf of coals filled insufficiently, and 
 consequently forfeited. 
 
 SETTERS. Large pieces of coal ; so called by the landsale 
 cartmen, from their use in piling or setting round the sides 
 of their carts, to enable them to hold a larger quantity of 
 coals than could otherwise be placed upon them ; the 
 smaller coals being put in the centre. 
 
 SETTLE BOARDS or SADDLE BOARDS. The portion of the 
 heapstead at the top of the shaft, and between it and the 
 skreens, covered with iron or metal sheets (see Flat Sheets.) 
 
 SHACKLE. A turned bar of iron, the long, flattened and 
 shaped ends of which are rivetted, or collared on, to the 
 turned back and swelled end of a rope, forming at the end 
 an eye by which it is attached to the cage chains, etc. ; or 
 to another rope, in which case there are two shackles ; 
 these ropes are said to be socketted. Also a horse shoe link, 
 with a bolt through eyes at its open end. 
 
 SHAFT. (See Pit.) Also the handle of a pick, hack 
 shovel, or maul. 
 
 SHAFT FRAME. (See Heapstead.) 
 
 SHAFT PILLARS or SHAFT WALLS. (See Holing About.) 
 
 SHAFT RENT. (See Rent.) 
 
 SHAM DOOR. (See Regulator.) 
 
 SHEAR LEGS. (See Bore.) Also two long legs of timber 
 or iron (set over an engine-pit), over which is placed a 
 crosshead or crowntree upon which, and at the bottom of 
 one of the legs, is placed a strong sheave. The crab rope 
 passes under the latter and over the former of these sheaves, 
 and is used by means of the crab for lowering or raising 
 spears or pumps, changing buckets, etc. 
 
75 
 
 SHEATHING, SHEETING. (See Tubbing.) 
 
 SHEAVE. The wheel round which the rope of a self- 
 acting inclined plane, or the tail rope of an engine plane 
 runs ; the speed at which the set upon the incline runs 
 being regulated by a lever attached to a brake which acts 
 upon a crib placed upon the sheave for the purpose ; also a 
 grooved wheel used in place of a roller to guide or alter 
 the direction of a rope. 
 
 SHELL : BUCKET SHELL or CLACK SHELL. A bucket or 
 clack before it is grathed. 
 
 SHETH DOOR. (See Door.) 
 
 SHETH STOPPING. (See Coursing.) 
 
 SHETHING. (See Coursing.) 
 
 SHETHS. The ribs of a chaldron or other waggon. 
 
 SHIFT. The time worked by a man, or set of men, at 
 coal or other underground work. A shift is 8 hours long, 
 except in sinking, where it is 4 hours. The payment for 
 off-hand work, such as waste work, timbering, ridding, etc,, 
 is 3s. Od. per shift of 8 hours ; for the sinker's shift of 4 
 hours it is 2s. Od. (1849.) The sinker, however, generally 
 returns at the end of 8 hours to another 4 hours' shift. 
 When a colliery is worked by two sets of hewers, each 
 working for 8 hours, one set following the other, the first 
 set is called the fore- shift and the second the back-shift. 
 
 SHIFTERS. Men paid by the day for doing shift work. 
 
 SHIFT- WORK. Work paid for by the day or shift. 
 
 SHINGLY COALS. (See Chinley Coal.) 
 
 SHIVERY POST. (See Seamy.) 
 
 SHOOTING-FAST. Blowing down coal with gunpowder, 
 without nicking, by which the coals are produced in a very 
 inferior condition. 
 
 SHORT WORKINGS or SHORTS. (See Rent.) 
 
 SHOT. The cartridge, or portion 01 gunpowder used in 
 blasting. It is put into a cartridge made of brown paper 
 
76 i 
 
 by folding it round a shot stick. The cartridge is about 1 
 inch in diameter, and from 4 to 9 or 10 inches long, or 
 longer if required. A pound of gunpowder will make 5 
 six inch shots. 
 
 SHOT STICK. (See Shot.) 
 
 SHOW. The pale blue " top/' or lambent flame, which 
 appears above the ordinary flame of a candle, when it is 
 burning in an atmosphere mixed with fire-damp. A mix- 
 ture of carbonic acid with the fire-damp, occasions the colour 
 of the " top " to be brown, and much longer and more 
 distinct. When both the fire-damp and the air with which 
 it is mixed are pure, the " top " is very faint ; and great 
 caution and care are required in making the examination. 
 It is by the show upon the candle that the presence of 
 fire-damp may be detected, but it is now the practice to 
 make such examinations with a safety lamp. 
 
 SIDDLE. The inclination of a seam of coal. 
 
 SIDE OVER. To drive headways course across a pillar of 
 coal in working the broken. 
 
 SIDE -WAVERS. The loose sides of a drift or open-cast, 
 which would if unsupported soon fall. It is best to remove 
 them altogether. They generally occur when a crush is 
 taking place. 
 
 SIDING. A bye- way or passing place. 
 
 SINK. To make a pit. (See Pit.) 
 
 SINKER. (See Shift.) 
 
 SINKING SET. (See Crab.) 
 
 SIPING. A small issue of water without pressure. 
 
 SKELPING. (See Scallop.) 
 
 SKIPPER. The captain or master of a keel. 
 
 SKREEN. A frame 4 or 5 feet wide, and 11 to 15 feet 
 long, the upper side of which inclines from the hempstead 
 to the top of the coal waggon ; it is furnished with iron or 
 metal bars placed at the distance of from | to j of an inch 
 apart, upon which the coals are teemed as they are drawn 
 
77 
 
 out of the pit. The coals which pass over the skreen are 
 sent away as best skreened coals ; and the small coal which 
 passes through the bars falls into the duff box, from 
 whence it is taken to the apparatus. 
 
 SKREEN MEN or SKREENERS. Men who pass the coals 
 over the skreens into the wagons, and clean them from 
 stones, slates, brasses, &c. They should be paid in propor- 
 tion to the quantity of dirt picked out from among the 
 coals. Their wages are about 2s. 6d. to 2s. Sd. per day of 
 12 hours (1849.) 
 
 SLAG. (See Brat) 
 
 SLED or SLEDGE. (See Barrowman.) 
 
 SLEEPER. Tram and rolley-way sleepers are pieces of 
 wood about 2J to 3 feet long, about 6 inches broad, and 
 2 or 2J inches thick, for nailing tram plates or bridge nails 
 to, or chairs for edge or round-topped rolley-way rails. 
 They are best made of larch. 
 
 SLIDES. Upright rails, of wood or metal, fixed in a shaft 
 for the purpose of guiding the cages, which have corres- 
 ponding shoes or grooves attached to them. They are now 
 frequently made of wire rope, passing through eyes 
 attached to the cages. They are also made with round 
 topped iron or steel railway rails partly clasped by jaws 
 upon the cages : with these, two guides on one side of 
 each cage are quite sufficient. 
 
 SLIDING DEALS or STRIKING DEALS. Deals placed 
 diagonally from the balk placed across the top of a sinking 
 pit (upon the planking resting upon which and the edge of 
 the shaft the sinking kibbles or tubs are landed), to or to- 
 wards the wall side of the pit under the planking to guide 
 the tubs on to the pit top. 
 
 SLIDING SCALE. " A scale agreed to between masters 
 and men by which wages are regulated according to the 
 selling price of coals, or according to the amount realized 
 on the sale of the coals ; also a scale whereby the hewer's 
 tonnage or score price is regulated by the height of the 
 seam " (Nicholson) ; or by the thickness of band. 
 
78 
 
 SLINGS. " Chains used for convenience in raising or 
 lowering heavy weights." (Nicholson.) 
 
 SLIP. (See Hitch.) 
 
 SLIVER. A thin lath, placed within two groves, cut 
 lengthways for the purpose, in the edges of two planks, 
 intended to be joined together for the purpose of making 
 the joint air or water-tight. 
 
 SLUDGER. (See Bore.) 
 
 SMALL COALS. Coals that pass through the skreen bars 
 before further separation. 
 
 SMALL LEADER. A lad employed to put small coals 
 to a stowboard. 
 
 SMART MONEY. 5s. per week paid to men, and 2s. 6d. 
 per week paid to lads, disabled by accident whilst at work 
 in the pit. 
 
 SNAP. " A small flat pointed pick used on the skreens 
 for chipping off brasses, stone, or band from large coals." 
 (Nicholson.) 
 
 SNORE-HOLES. At the bottom of a set of pumps is a 
 short piece called a wind-bore cast with round holes, 
 through which the water passes, and through the clack to 
 the bucket when raised in pumping. In a sinking pit these 
 holes are plugged above the level, beyond which it is 
 required that the water should not rise. When the level of 
 the water is lowered to the top of the holes, the air " snores " 
 at the top of the holes whence the name. 
 
 SNOT. The cauliflower top of a candle wick. 
 
 SOAMS. (See Headsman.) 
 
 SOCKET. (See Shackle.) 
 
 SOLE. The part of a waggon or tub frame to which the 
 bearings of the wheels are attached, and into which the 
 sheths are inserted. 
 
 SOOTY COAL. Dull, danty, soft coal often found near a 
 hitch. 
 
79 
 
 SPARE. A piece of wood, 6 or 8 inches long, and 6 inches 
 broad, cut from 1 inch Scotch deal, with one of the sides 
 tapered off to the end ; used for driving behind cribs or 
 tubbing. A baft' end being put in first behind the crib or 
 tubbing, and next to the pit wall, and the spare driven 
 between, in the manner of a wedge. 
 
 SPEAR PLATES. (See Spears.) 
 
 SPEARS. The rod of a pump. Spears are made of Memel, 
 or Norway fir, or pitch pine, in lengths of about 40 feet, 
 and joined together with spear plates, which are flat plates 
 of forged iron, say 14 feet long, 4J to 5J in. broad, 1 to 1J 
 in. thick in middle, and \ to f in. thick at ends, and 10 
 bolts in each pair of plates, with cross bolts called clinch 
 or clink bolts to keep the whole firmly bound and prevent 
 stripping. Wet spears are those which, working within a 
 column of pumps are constantly immersed in water ; dry 
 spears are those which pass down to the top of each set ; in 
 a forcing set, the whole of the spears are dry spears. 
 
 SPIGOT AND FAUCIT. A description of pump joint in 
 which each pump (or pipe) is cast with a cup or faucit end. 
 The other or spigot end, being plain, for the purpose ot in- 
 sertion into the cup, the joint being made tight by wedging 
 between the inside of the cup and the spigot. It makes an 
 excellent joint, but requires more putting together than a 
 flanch joint, and is also much more difficult to break 
 should it be necessary to do so. 
 
 SPILE WEDGES. Half wedges. A course of these is 
 driven into the packing behind a wedging crib after it has 
 received as many full-sized wedges as can be driven in. 
 (See Wedge.} 
 
 SPLINT. Coarse grey-looking coal. It burns to white 
 ashes ; it is suitable for burning lime, and the better sorts 
 are well adapted to steam purposes. 
 
 SPLIT. To divide the current of air which has descended 
 the down cast shaft into principal and subordinate currents 
 for the purpose of supplying the various districts with 
 distinct currents of fresh air. 
 
80 
 
 SPOUT. (See Staiths.) 
 SPRAG. (See Drag.) 
 
 SPRAGS. Short props placed under the coal at the front 
 of a kirving as a precaution against its premature fall. 
 
 SPRING BEAMS. Strong balks of timber placed on each 
 side of the beam of a pumping engine at such a level as 
 that if a breakage of the spears were to take place, the 
 inner stroke of the engine would be arrested before the 
 piston descended upon the cylinder bottom. The spring 
 beams also extend beyond the engine-house to the outer 
 end of the beam. The catch-pin (see Catch-pin) does not 
 fall direct upon these balks, but upon others placed above 
 them, which being sloped up at the underside towards the 
 ends, form a spring which softens the fall. 
 
 SPRING HOOK. (See Clippers.) 
 
 STAITHS. "1709. From the state of the trade it was 
 necessary to hold, from time to time, large stocks of coals, 
 in order to give dispatch, to suit tides, and to meet other 
 emergencies. Hence those extensive erections called Staiths, 
 many of which remain to the present day." (Dunn, View 
 of the Coal Trade, 1844.) 
 
 Very few of these now exist. 
 
 The term staith is now applied to the whole of the 
 erections constructed for the shipment of coals, whether 
 they be capable of being used as coal dep6ts or not. The 
 general principle upon which they are now constructed, 
 consists in having a frame upon which the full waggon of 
 coals rests, which is carried down or dropped to the deck 
 of the vessel by the weight of the waggon, its motion being 
 retarded by a balance weight, which is sufficient, after the 
 coals have been discharged from the waggon by the off 
 putter, to raise it up again to the level of the railway from 
 which it descended. In some cases the waggon is not 
 lowered down to the deck as above, but the coals are 
 dropped through the bottom board into an open topped, 
 but otherwise closed spout, with a slide at the bottom ; 
 
81 
 
 in the former case the staith is called a drop, and in the 
 latter, a spout. The spout is often close-topped. 
 
 STAMP. A hole made with the pick point in the coal in 
 which the wedge is fixed before driving with the maul. 
 
 STANDAGE. A portion of workings excavated on the dip 
 side of an engine pit, as a reservoir for the mine water, 
 during a suspension of the pumping engine from work. A 
 drift, called an underlevel drift is driven perfectly level in 
 the stone beneath the seam, between the lowest point of the 
 standage and a point above the bottom of the sump ; 
 and a dam is placed in it containing a plug hole or screw 
 valve, which is closed when the engine is stopped, and 
 opened when pumping is resumed. A good standage is of 
 the utmost importance to the well-being of a colliery. 
 
 STANDARD WEIGHT. (See Average.) 
 
 STANDING BOBBY. A fast shot. A shot which blows out 
 the stemming only. It may arise from the shot being too 
 light ; or from having been insufficiently stemmed ; or from 
 the hole having been drilled too far; called also a blown out 
 shot. 
 
 STANDING FIRE. Where the solid coal has become 
 ignited, and the only means of extinguishing it is by barring 
 it off with air tight stoppings or dams, until the carbonic 
 acid produced has destroyed all combustion ; it is necessary 
 to put a pipe into such dams, the pipe end being bent down 
 under water to allow of the escape of gas, but not of the re- 
 entry of air. In South Staffordshire where " gob fire " is 
 very common, it has been found by practice that the most 
 effectual dam is made with sand. 
 
 STANDING SET. In sinking with pumps when the sinking 
 set has become of sufficient length, the top standing set is 
 placed in a cistern which stands on a strong oak bunton or 
 iron girder set across the pit, and pumps to bank the water 
 delivered into it by the sinking set continued downwards 
 with the sinking. 
 
 STANDING SET BUNTON. (See Standing Set.) 
 
82 
 
 STANDING SET CISTERN. (See Standing Set.) 
 STAPLE. A small pit, sunk upwards or downwards, from 
 one seam to another, or for the purpose of proving 
 a slip dyke. A counterbalance staple is a small pit 
 sunk from the surface for a balance weight to work in, in 
 order to assist the winding engine by equalizing the weight 
 of the ascending and descending ropes. The arrangement 
 is as follows : The rope to which the balance weight is 
 attached is of such a length, that as the ascending and de- 
 scending cages approach each other the balance weight, 
 which consists of a very heavy chain, shall gradually, by 
 resting on the bottom of the staple, relieve the winding 
 engine of its weight, so that at meetings, when the ropes 
 themselves balance each other, no influence shall be exerted 
 by the balance weight. After meetings, the descending rope 
 becomes heaviest, and the engine again winds up the balance 
 weight to counteract its downward impulse, in the same 
 manner as, by formerly unwinding it, the ascending rope 
 was assisted. In the case of flat ropes, the winding engines 
 in a great measure possess a balancing power within them- 
 selves, by the ascending rope gradually increasing its coil, 
 and the descending one diminishing it. A rope or chain 
 equal in weight to the winding rope per fathom, and of 
 suitable length, one end of which is attached to the bottom 
 of one cage and one to the bottom of the other, with a 
 parallel drum is a perfect balance weight. (See Rope Roll). 
 A jack-head staple is sunk for the jack-head or high set 
 of pumps to work in, when the pumping engine has a 
 back beam. 
 
 START. (See Gin.) 
 STATION. (See Crane.) 
 
 STEAM JET. A mode of ventilation invented by Mr. 
 Goldsworthy Gurney, and first applied to the ventilation of 
 collieries by the late Mr. T. E. Forster, in 1848, by which an 
 air current was produced by the escape of high pressure 
 steam through small orifices ; the mode of action being 
 similar to that of the blast pipe in a locomotive engine. 
 
83 
 
 STEEL MILL. A contrivance used, before the invention 
 of the safety lamp, to give light in foul places. " It is an 
 instrument for striking light with flint and steel. A brass 
 wheel about 5 inches diameter, with 52 teeth, works a 
 pinion with 11 teeth ; on the axle of the latter is fixed a 
 thin steel wheel from 5 to G inches in diameter. The wheels 
 are placed in a light frame of iron, which is suspended by a 
 leather belt round the neck of the person who plays the 
 mill. Great velocity is given to the steel wheel by turning 
 the handle of the toothed wheel ; and the sharp edge of a 
 flint is applied to the circumference of the steel wheel, 
 which immediately elicits an abundance of sparks, and 
 emits a considerable light." (Buddie, First Report.) The 
 steel mill was said to be the invention of Spedding. The 
 greatest confidence in its safety at one time existed ; but it 
 was proved to have been misplaced, for to it several ex- 
 plosions of gas were eventually traced. 
 
 STEM. To tamp or fill up a drill hole in which the 
 powder has been placed previous to blasting. 
 
 STEMMER. (See Beater) 
 
 STEMMING. Small coals or stones with which a drill hole 
 is tamped (1849). By the Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1887 
 the use for this purpose of coal or coal dust is prohibited t 
 The use of siliceous stemming is dangerous, particularly in 
 post or sandstone, where the hole is charged with loose 
 powder. 
 
 STENTING. An opening between a pair of headways or 
 drifts, through which the air circulates until another is 
 holed further in-bye. Stentings should be holed no more 
 frequently than is rendered necessary by the quantity of 
 gas issued in driving the drifts ; because, as they require, on 
 the holing of every new one that the last shall be per- 
 manently stopped by a stopping of brick or stone, the too 
 frequent holing of stentings, by increasing the number of 
 stoppings, not only adds to the expense, but increases the 
 liability to loss of air, which at the best stoppings often 
 escapes. 
 
84 
 
 STICK. To cease work in order to obtain an increase, or 
 prevent a reduction of wages. 
 
 STOB AND FEATHER. (See Fox Wedge.) 
 
 STOCK. Colliery stock comprises the establishment of 
 shafts, buildings, engines, waggons, horses, and materials of 
 every description necessary to carry on a colliery. It is 
 divided into 
 
 1. Dead Stock, which consists of such attachments to the 
 freehold, as shafts, engine houses, and other buildings of 
 brick or stone as (in the absence of agreement to the con- 
 trary) are the property of the lessor. 
 
 2. Fixed Stock: this includes everything, except the fore- 
 going, required to keep the colliery in a working state, such 
 as engines, waggons, railway, tubs, tramway, ways, skreens, 
 &c., and a proper working quantity of horses, hay, corn, 
 timber, oil, nails, &c., &c. 
 
 3. Movable Stock consists of what can be sold off the 
 premises without prejudice to the working of the colliery 
 being fully carried on ; it can only comprise, therefore, old 
 pumps, unnecessary engines, and useless materials of every 
 description, and resting coals. 
 
 It is generally understood that horses, hay and corn, and 
 all materials in store are comprehended in the term mov- 
 able (or as it is termed " live ") stock ; but why, if an engine 
 is substituted for a dozen horses, and the work performed 
 the same, the former should be called fixed, and the latter 
 movable, it is not easy to say. 
 
 STONE DRIFT. A drift in stone from seam to seam, or 
 through a fault. 
 
 STONE HEAD. The top of the solid strata. 
 
 STOOK. A small block or pillar of coal left to support the 
 headways course in taking off a jud or lift in pillar working. 
 When the lift has been got, the stook ought if practicable to 
 be removed. 
 
 STOPPING. A wall built in any excavation for the pur- 
 pose of conducting air further into the mine. Stopping 
 
85 
 
 are built of brick or stone where required to be permanent, 
 the windward side of the stopping being plastered carefully 
 with lime. The best and cheapest stoppings are built of 
 the stone which falls from the roof, when it is not too soft ; 
 these should not be less than 4 feet thick. When of brick 
 they may be 9 inches thick. Stone stoppings are superior to 
 brick stoppings, in affording a better support to the roof. 
 All are better for being stowed at the back side. Stoppings 
 which are not required to be permanent, are put up with 
 common brattice, plastered at the joints if necessary, or with 
 brattice cloth. (See Brattice.) 
 
 STOW. To put stones and rubbish from falls requiring 
 removal, or from stone drifts, or from where it is taken up 
 or taken down, &c., into places appointed for the purpose. 
 
 STOW-BOARD. A board driven for the convenience of 
 stowage. 
 
 STKAW. (See Kitty.) 
 
 STRIKE. Wood-full. In former agreements between 
 coalowners and workmen, it was stipulated that the speci- 
 fied coal tubs should be filled "strike or wood-full." 
 
 Also, strike, a more general cessation from labour than 
 implied by stick. 
 
 STRUM. A cover containing small holes placed upon the 
 end of a water pipe at which water enters, to prevent stone 
 or other rubbish passing into the pipe, whereby the passage 
 of the water might be obstructed. 
 
 STYTHE. Carbonic acid gas, often found in old workings, 
 and given off in most shallow mines. 
 
 SULPHUR. A common expression among old miners for 
 fire-damp. 
 
 SUMP. (See Back-end.) Also, in driving a stone drift, 
 or in sinking a pit, that portion kept a yard or more in 
 advance of the drift or pit, to enable the gunpowder or 
 other explosive to act with greater advantage upon the parts 
 left. The origin of the term has been in its application to 
 the advanced part of a sinking pit, where the water 
 
86 
 
 accumulates, arid where the bottom of the sinking set of 
 pumps is placed. 
 
 Also, that portion of a pit, beneath the seam of coal or 
 other bottom landing, where the water of the mine gathers 
 in order to be pumped to the surface. Also, a small 
 reservoir, cut by the side of a dip and wet place into which 
 the water from the face of the place is conveyed by means 
 of levels, or by bowling, and afterwards led or pumped by a 
 hand or horse pump to some point whence it will flow to 
 the shaft. 
 
 SURFEIT. The pressure exercised b}^ pent up gas of any 
 kind easing itself off with some force, frequently rending 
 the roof, sides, or floor of the seam ; this often takes place 
 without any sudden outburst of gas. 
 
 SWAG. (See Seg.) 
 
 SWEEP- PLATES, SWAPES. Curved plates for laying 
 barrow-way round a turn. 
 
 SWALLEY OR SwELLEY. A gradual depression or dish in 
 the strata. In the bottom of the dish the seam of coal is 
 usually thicker. 
 
 SWING DOOR. (See Door.) 
 
 SWITCH. A movable pointed rail, by the turning of 
 which a set of tubs is diverted from the main to a branch 
 way. 
 
 TACK. A small prop ef coal sometimes left in kirving a 
 jud to support it until the kirving is finished, except 
 knocking out the tack. A punch prop is commonly used 
 for the same purpose. 
 
 TAIL CRAB. (See Crab, Fleet.) 
 TAIL ROPE. (See Engine Plane.) 
 TARE. (See Average Weight) 
 
 TEEM BYE. To teem the coals over the resting coal 
 stock or heap when there are no waggons. 
 
 TEN. A measure 'of coals upon which the lessor's rent is 
 paid. It usually consists of 440 bolls of 8 pecks each, but 
 
87 
 
 varies under different landlords, generally within the range 
 of from 418 to 440 bolls ; it rises, however, as high as 550 
 bolls. As the weight of a boll of coals (See Chaldron) is 
 2-35284 cwts., the weight of the ten of 440 bolls is 
 51-76428 tons. 
 
 The ten is also defined by weight as to consist of 18J 
 Newcastle chaldrons of 53 cwt. In this case the weight of 
 the ten is 48*58333 cwt. but this not a ten of 440 bolls. 
 
 In some leases the ten is fixed at 50 tons. 
 
 TENTALE. The rent paid to the lessor for a ten of coals. 
 (See Rent.) 
 
 THILL. The floor of a seam of coal. 
 
 THRUST. (See Crush.) 
 
 THUD. A dull and heavy report made by the rending of 
 the strata far overhead when the coal has been extracted. 
 
 TIE BAND. " A piece of rope or spunyarn used in 
 securing long timber or rails when being sent down in the 
 cage." (Nicholson.) 
 
 TOKEN. (See Average Weight) 
 
 
 TooM.-Empty. 
 
 TRAIL JUD. In driving a wide board to drive forward 
 3 or 4 yards narrow, and then take off a jud sideways, to 
 make the board the proper width. 
 
 TRAM. A wooden carriage, upon which the corves were 
 conveyed along a tramway. Since the substitution of tubs, 
 the trams and tubs are attached together. A tram with 4 
 or more upright arms of iron used for conveying rails, 
 props, &c., is called a horny tram. 
 
 TRAM PLATE. An iron or metal rail of the section |_ 
 and Weighing about 4 Ibs. to the foot, with which the way 
 for the passage of carriages moving on tram or edged 
 wheels, is laid. 
 
 TRAP. The part of a skreen, near to the upper end, shut 
 off by a door worked by a handle by the skreenman, by 
 
88 
 
 which the coals from the last tub teemed on the skreen are 
 pre vented from passing down until the previous tub has 
 been disposed of, and by which door, in proportion as it is 
 raised, the skreenman can control the rush of the coals 
 down the skreen. Also whin, or basalt of whin dykes* 
 called also trap dykes. Also an accident to which, without 
 proper precaution, putters are liable, when from an 
 obstruction in front, the back top edge of the tub, upon 
 which the fingers are usualty placed, cants against the top in 
 a low seam. A couple of hand-holes cut in the ends of the 
 tubs, or cut down below the top edge is an easy remedy. 
 
 TRAP-DOOR (See Door.) 
 
 TRAPPER. A little boy whose employment consists in 
 opening and shutting a trap-door when required : his wages 
 are 9d. or lOd. per day of 12 hours (1849). At present 
 Is. to Is. 2d. per day of 8 hours. 
 
 TRIANGLES. (See Bore.) 
 
 TRIM. When coals from the waggons are dropped or 
 spouted into the hold of a vessel they produce a conical 
 heap which, unless provided against, would soon block up 
 the hatchway. To prevent this, sheets of iron are laid upon 
 the cone as it rises which cause the coals to slide off in all 
 directions ; these are placed by a set of men, called trim- 
 mers, who with shovels and rakes still further distribute 
 the coal, or trim the cargo. 
 
 TRIMMERS, (See Trim.) 
 
 TROD. The diameter of a flanched wheel, not including 
 the flanch. 
 
 TROUBLE. (See Hitch, Fault, &c.) 
 
 TUB. An open topped box of wood or iron, attached to 
 a tram, and used in conveying coals from the working 
 places to the surface. 
 
 TUBBING. A casing put into a pit to keep back water. 
 It was formerly put in with planks, properly dressed at the 
 joints to the sweep of the pit, and kept in their places by 
 being spiked to cribs behind them. Tubbing was also con- 
 
89 
 
 structed of cribs of oak, built one upon another to the 
 required height, and afterwards wedged ; this formed an 
 excellent but expensive tub. At present, tubbing is put in 
 in metal segments. The commencement is made by laying 
 a metal or oak wedging crib at the first good foundation 
 below the feeder of water to be tubbed back, and then 
 setting on the segments, backing the tubbing firmly with 
 soil all the way up so far as it, is required to 'be put in. 
 Half inch sheathing of American fir should be put in at 
 both ends and bottom of each segment, and baff ends and 
 spares driven in behind so as to set the tubbing true to the 
 centre line of the pit. The segments are usually from 1 \ to 
 2 feet high, and about 4 feet long, according to the size of 
 the pit, so that a certain number of segments may form the 
 pit. When the tubbing is all built up, and made secure at 
 the top so that it will not rise with wedging, the joints are 
 wedged with memel wedges, as long as they can be driven 
 in at the joints, the whole being gone twice or thrice over. 
 
 TUBE, CUBE, CUPOLA. (See Cube.) 
 
 TUP. In former days there used to be a fortnight's 
 holiday at the end of the year, when stock used to be taken 
 and no coals drawn. It was the custom to cover with 
 lighted candles the last corf of coals sent to bank, which 
 was called " sending away the tup." The tup's horn, which 
 used to be sent up with every twentieth corf, also accom- 
 panied the illuminated corf. 
 
 TRYING THE CANDLE. (See Show.) 
 UNDER-CAST, UNDER-GATE. (See Grossing.) 
 UNDER-LEVEL DRIFT. (See Standage.) 
 
 UNDER- VIEWER. The responsible manager of a colliery 
 in the absence of the viewer. 
 
 UP-CAST. A rise hitch : the shaft up which the air 
 returns from the workings to the surface. 
 
 UP-THROW. A rise hitch, smaller than an up-cast. 
 
 Y-BoB. A half beam of the form of a letter V. It is 
 placed horizontally in a chamber made for the purpose in a 
 
90 
 
 pumping shaft. Its main gudgeon is placed at the point of 
 the V, and inner end of the chamber, and works in a fixed 
 carriage. The other end of the V-bob projects into the pit, 
 from the gudgeon at the lower end of which the spears 
 are hung. The gudgeon in the upper limb, which is a little 
 shorter, is connected by a spear passing through a diagonal 
 staple under the main engine-house, with a gudgeon in the 
 main beam*, at a point between the cylinder and the main 
 beam pillar. This arrangement is not adopted in modern 
 practice. 
 
 VIEWER. The manager of a colliery; one who has the 
 charge of all underground, and generally of all surface, 
 arrangements. 
 
 WAGGON WAY. Railway, rolleyway. 
 
 WALL. The holing or communication at the end of a 
 pillar between two boards ; several walls in a line form a 
 headways course. 
 
 WAILERS. Boys employed in waggons, to pick out any 
 stones or pyrites which have escaped the observation of the 
 skreenmen. 
 
 WASH. An ancient river bed, since silted up, and very 
 difficult to sink through. Washes are sometimes of great 
 depth, as in the valley of the Team, at Marley Hill, and 
 elsewhere. 
 
 WASTE. The old workings and airways, 
 
 WASTEMEN. Generally old men, who are employed in 
 building pillars for the support of the roof in the waste, and 
 in keeping the airways open arid in good order. Their 
 wages are about 2s. 4d. per day. A master wasteman has 
 (under the viewer or underviewer) the charge of the Avaste, 
 and should be a steady and careful man, and have some 
 skill in ventilation. His wages are about 21s. per week 
 (1849.) 
 
 WATER-BLAST. A sudden eruption of compressed gas 
 from the rise workings of a colliery in which all communica- 
 tions between such workings and the external atmosphere 
 
91 
 
 have been cut off by water. The continued issue of gas 
 eventually overcoming the pressure of the water, forces its 
 way out and produces the blast. 
 
 WATERFALL. A circulation of air through a mine pro- 
 duced by allowing water to fall down one of the shafts. 
 
 WAY. A working district underground. 
 WAYLEAVE RENT. (See Rent.) 
 
 WEDGE. For wedging tubbing, &c., made from Memel 
 plank, 4J inches long, 1J inch broad, and \ inch thick at the 
 top, tapered a little at the sides towards the thin end. For 
 wedging down coal juds or stone, made of iron or steel 6 or 
 8 inches long, flattened towards and pointed at the end. 
 
 WEDGING CRIB. (See Tubbing.} 
 
 WEIZE. " A flat iron ring covered with flannel for making 
 pipe joints watertight. Rings of spunyarn, India rubber or 
 lead are also used for the same purpose." (Nicholson.) 
 The flannel wrapped round the iron should be well saturated 
 with Stockholm tar; and when made of lead, it should be 
 carefully caulked with a flat edged chisel. 
 
 WET SPEARS. (See Spears.) 
 
 WHIN. Basalt, trap. 
 
 WHIN DYKE. (See Dyke.) 
 
 WHOLE COAL A district of coal entirely intact. 
 
 WIDE BOARD. (See Board.) 
 
 WIMBLE. (See Bore.) 
 
 WINDBORE. The bottom pump in a set. (See Snore- 
 holes.) 
 
 WINNING. A pillar of coal with its board ; also a re- 
 covery of coal, by sinking, or drifting in coal or stone. 
 
 WIRE-DRAWN. An engine is wire-drawn when there are 
 not a sufficient number of holes in the wind-bore left open 
 for waterway. 
 
 WORKING. The crackling of roof stone previous to 
 falling. 
 
92 
 
 WORKING BARREL. The portion of a pump in which the 
 bucket works (see Lifting Set). An easy rule for calcula- 
 ting the quantity of water drawn at a single stroke in a 
 working barrel of a given diameter, is as follows : Square 
 the diameter in inches, and divide by 10 for the gallons in a 
 3 feet stroke. 
 
 WORKINGS. The excavations of a colliery. 
 
 Y-PiECE. Framed timber hung on to the outer end of 
 the beam of a pumping engine to which the spears are 
 attached. 
 
 YARD PRICE. The price per yard paid for narrow 
 working. 
 
 YARD WORK. (See Narrow Work.) 
 
 YOKING. When two sets of waggons approaching each 
 other on the same line, come into collision. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 BEMROSE ANT) SONS, PRINTERS, DERBY AND LONDON. 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 REC'D LD 
 
 20 19B7 
 
 LD 
 
 EEffD 
 
 2 4 1980 
 
 l 1973 9 
 
 -# 
 
 2? 
 
 LD 21-100m-6,'56 
 (B9311slO)476 
 
 General Library 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley 
 

 
 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 

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