Back, the plane of cleavage in coal having a smooth parting, an easy parting in the coal at a high angle to the roof and floor. To work with the cleavage is said to work the 'back of the slip' or 'on the back'. When working against the cleavage it is said to be working 'on end'; or a term describing coal projecting from the line of the face after cutting; or a fissure in the coal. -see also Slip.Back end. In working a 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 was able to make it with his pick. This was followed by a vertical cut of equal depth, 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 was placed and the coal blown down. This was called the 'sump'. The remaining half of the place was called the 'back-end' and was similarly undermined and shot down, (N.East).
Back-end man, a man who works behind the coal cutter as it moves along the face. His duties may include cleaning the cuttings from behind the machine and setting props to support the roof or coal.
Back-casing, temporary lining built in the upper part of a shaft during sinking through weak ground. This was usually left in behind the final lining on completion. Also called 'brick casing'.
Back cleat,-see Cleat.
Back coal, coal which miners were allowed to carry home for firecoal.
Backwork or Backbye work, work done outbye of the working face. Also called 'oncost work'.
Back coming, the working out, towards the shaft, of the pillars in the stoop-and-room working. (Scot).
Back dook, the return airway. (Scot).
Backfill, mine waste or rock used to support the roof after coal removal.
Backing or Backing deals, wooden planks, some 6 ft long, driven down close together behind the cribs if required, in bad ground; or backing, the stowing of dirt back into the waste.
Back-overman. The overman in charge of the backshift.
Back ripping, ripping other than at the coalface to reopen air-roads closing up with the effects of strata pressure. It involves removing the existing deformed roof supports, excavating to the required dimensions and then re-setting with new supports.
Back road, the return air-road.
Back shaft, the non-drawing shaft, i.e. the one used for other purposes other than drawing coal. This was usually the Upcast Shaft.
Back shift, the second shift of hewers in each day. They usually commenced work four hours after the pit began to draw coal. In later years back-shift became synonymous with the afternoon and night shifts.
Back-splinting, working the upper of two seams backwards by longwall, using the roads of the lower seam. (Scot.).
Backs, another word for 'cleats'. -see also Back; or the interior workings of the mine. In South Wales the word is used to describe crush-fractures, frequently inclined at an angle of about 45 degrees to the roof and floor of the seam. (Also called 'riders'). There is usually much powdery crushed coal in these and they are quite common, -see Back.
Back shear, a vertical cut made in the seam in advance of and parallel to the face line.
Back skin, a large leather covering for the back and shoulders used in sinking and shaft work; or just protection for the back in other work underground.
Back slip, a joint in a coal seam which is inclined away from the observer from floor to roof. It would be a 'Face slip' from the opposite direction.
Back slope, a slope with the stalls branching off and working the seam with back slips along the face. (S. Wales).
Back slum, tubway connecting the tubways on one side of the shaft to the other for returning the empties.
Backstay, a drag or trailer fixed to the back of a haulage train or set as a safety device when going up hill, to prevent runaways.
Bad cannel, a variety of cannel coal which occurs in association with ironstone. See also Smooth cannel and Curly cannel. (N. Wales).
Badger, -see Brat. (Bristol & Somerset).
Baff-ends, two outer wedges used in setting tubbing, used with a third central wedge called a 'spare'; or generally pieces 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 position in a shaft.
Baff week. At one time the colliers were paid on a two week basis. The baff week was the second week. i.e. the week they didn't get paid. (N.East).
Bags, inferior coal associated with the upper part of the Barnsley Seam, (Yorks.).
Bag-muck, dirt parting above the bags. - see Bags,(Yorks.).
Bag of gas, a cavity found occasionally in gassey seams of coal containing gas under pressure, (N.East). - see Blower.
Bag or Bagging, -see Bait.
Bagging, a flexible canvas tube used to conduct air from an auxiliary fan to where it was needed at the head of a drivage.
Bait, food taken underground for the mid-shift meal break. OE "to bite or tear". - see also Snap, Bag or Bagging (Lancs.), Tommy (Teeside), Piece (Scots.).
Bait poke, the bag in which the bait is carried.
Baiting, Bating, Beating or Beating-up, removing the floor dirt to improve the height of a roadway. - see also Bate, Dint, Dinting, Pocking and Pavement brushing.
Bakie, a sled or a slype. (Scot.).
Balance brow, a self acting inclined plane in steep seams. Driven on the full rise of the mine, down which full tubs of coal were lowered and the empties elevated up on a kind of carriage or platform on wheels actuated by a rope or chain haulage from above. (N.Staffs.).
Balance platforms, systems designed to load and unload automatically multiple decked winding cages at the shaft bottom. Also called 'hydraulic decking plant'.
Balance rope, a rope hung under the cage in the shaft as a counter-balance.
Balance weight, a replacement for one cage in a small shaft.
Balanced Dirsct Rope Haulage, a modified form of direct rope haulage in which a power driven reversible pulley (surge pulley) is used instead of a drum. The full trams are hauled up on one end of the rope while the empties go down on the other end. It involves a double track or a by-pass.
Balanced Ventilation, a system of ventilation in which the districts (each with its separate split) are so arranged with regard to length and resistance, that the use of ventilation regulators is unnecessary. Regulators, although sometimes unavoidable, reduce the efficiency and increase the power required to ventilate the mine.
Balk, -see Baulk.
Balls or Ball Ironstone, nodular concretions of clayband ironstone. Sometimes used to describe rounded masses of sandstone.
Ballstones, an early term for ironstone. (N.Staffs.).
Bally seating, underclay with nodular concretions. (Lancs.).
Baln stone, the roof rock or roof stone, (N.East).
Band, any widespread thin rock deposit; or a winding rope or chain; or a bed or seam of coal; or a thin layer of shale in the coal.
Band scale, an arrangement under which colliers are paid an agreed sum for removing a dirt band, inaddition to the usual tonnage rate.
Banded coal, coal seam made up of layers of various types of coal from hard bright coal to dull coal, or mineral charcoal.
Bandsman, the man who loaded the cage at the pit bottom. (S.Staffs.) - see also Onsetter.
Banjack, compressed air drill.
Banjo, a large type of collier's shovel, usually pear shaped, also known as a 'pan shovel', 'oscar' (S.Staffs.) or 'pit pan'; or an old type of miner's water bottle (S. Mids.); or an iron frame for carrying a false clack. (Scot.).
Banjo end, the location on a cutting machine for transmitting power to a cutting chain.
Bank or Benk (or earlier - Banck), the colliery surface near the shaft and at the level from which the cages are loaded and unloaded; or a general term for the surface; or to cover the fire in a boiler or domestic fire grate with slack or small coal to make the fire burn slowly through the night. Pronounced 'Bonk' in N. Staffs.
Bank-head, the top of an incline.
Bankman or Banksman. The manager of a small mine employing less than a dozen colliers was known by many different names but the most common in the Midlands and Durham was Bankman or Banksman (16th Century). He usually stood at the head of the shaft to direct operations, and was responsible for the everyday running of the mine and for the sale of the coal; also the person in charge of the shaft and cage or skip at the surface of the colliery, i.e. the person at the surface who operates the signals from the cage or skip to the winding engineman and Onsetter, controls the loading of the cage and collects the checks or tallies from the men as they enter the cage. He may also search men for contraband. Sometimes called the 'banker'or 'lander', or the Browman in Lancashire.
Banker, -see Banksman.
Banking, the bringing of a cage to a stop at the rail level (the pit top or bank) and the replacement of loaded mine cars or tubs by empty ones and the release of the cage for its return journey.
Banking-out, the operation of changing the tubs in the cage at the surface.
Banking wagon, a moveable security cover over the shaft top during sinking, also called a 'running bridge'. A moveable platform of wood, usually, mounted on a frame with wheels. Rails are laid on this platform on which the tip wagons run.
Bank plates, cast iron sheets with which the heapstead or pit bank was laid out or floored to help in the manipulation of tubs.
Bank road or Navvy, a tub road along the coal face.
Bankswoman, a female employed on the bank to pick dirt and stones from the coal, before the introduction of the screening plant. (S.& N. Wales, Scot., Lancs.) - see also Pit brow lassies.
Bank to Bank, the time occupied by a collier between leaving the bank, i.e. pit top, and returning to the same. i.e.a shift.
Banicking, holing in the roof immediately above the coal seam and breaking down the coal off the face with crowbars. (Cannock).
Bannock, to overcut the coal by hand (S.Staffs.); or a brownish grey clay used for making firebricks. (Shrops.); or any argillaceous (mud/silt grade) rock forming the roof of a coal seam.
Bannocking, a method of working a seam of coal containing a dirt band. By removing the dirt parting before the top coal. (S.Derbys. and Leics.); or cutting or holing horizontally in or above the top of the coal, also called 'top-holing', 'benching' or 'cleaning in'.
Bannocking dirt, soft, slippery shale or musdstone forming the roof of a coal seam.
Bant, an old Lancashire dialect word for string and could be from the earlier 'band', a rope or chain. Later it was used to refer to a certain number of men, usually three or four. Before the introduction of cages and conductors the men would ride up and down in the pit shaft sitting in short loose pieces of chain attached to the hemp rope in a cluster, with their knees facing inwards towards the centre of the shaft. There were usually two bants, the lower or bottom bant, composed of men, and the upper or foaley bant, made up of a cluster of lads fastened a few feet above the heads of the men. In later years the word was used in the sense of 'to catch the last bant' or the last journey into or out of the pit on the underground haulage.
Baraque, a boring tower erected on the surface over a shaft being bored e.g. as in the Kind-Chaudron method.
Bar, a horizontal timber or metal crosspiece between two props. - see also Slab, Bars and Strap.
Bare, to strip or cut by the side of a fault or boundary.
Bargainmen, men employed on piece work in stone drifting, cutting through troubles, etc. (N.East). i.e. bargain work.
Barges, sheets of iron, zinc or wood, for shedding water aside in wet shafts or workings. (Scot.).
Bar-hook, a fork-like trailing bar attached to the back of the last tub on an incline to arrest the journey in the event of a detached or broken coupling, chain or rope. Also called a 'trigger' or a 'devil'.
Baring dirt, similar to 'bannock' but may occur above or below a coal seam or interstratified with the coal.
Barred in, trapped underground by a fall of roof etc.
Barren ground. When a seam of coal becomes too thin to work it is said 'to become barren ground'. (Gloucs.and Bristol.). In other areas it was also known as 'dead ground', or an area that lacks coal or any other valuable mineral.
Barren measures, strata with unproductive seams of coal, e.g. of an unworkable thickness.
Barrier, Barrier coal, Barrier pillar or Pillar, a area or tract of coal left unworked to separate the workings of one colliery from those of another. The barrier was also left in place to protect a working colliery from the build-up of gas and water in old and abandoned workings. A barrier would often be left in between working districts in collieries for the same purpose.
Barring, a method of securing the sides of rectangular shafts in Scotland where the strata is very strong. Lining was inserted only where the sides of the shaft were not strong enough to stand without support; or the name of the wooden lining itself.
Barring-down, removing from the roof and sides of mine workings, loose rock or coal.
Barrings, a set of timber bars and props supporting underground roadways or shafts.
Barrow, the next development in vehicles for transporting coal underground after the sledge. Gang planks were often laid on the floor where it was soft, forming a 'barroway'.
Barrowmen or Hurriers, men who transported coal from the workings to the shaft bottom or some intermediate transfer point underground. The name originates from the time when barrows were used for transporting coal. (Newcastle). - see also Putter.
Barrow way, the underground road along which the barrowmen worked, (Newcastle); or an access road or heading to a panel in panel work.
Barry system, a system of coal face transport in which empty tubs enter by one gate, pass along the face where they are filled and return along the next gate, on a multi entry face. (Mids.), also known as the 'Nottingham System'.
Bars, these may be of wood or steel and are generally from 4 feet 6 inches to 7 feet in length. They are set with two or more props to hold them to the roof. Compared with props and lids they are more stable, they support greater areas of roof and are in consequence more suitable for supporting broken roof. Wood bars are generally made by sawing props lengthwise so that the bars are half round, but bars of rectangular section are sometimes used. Their widths and thicknesses vary but the average wood bar is 5 inches wide and 2' inches thick. Steel bars have a corrugated section, so that their resistance to bending is greater than that of flat bars. They are not as easily damaged as wood bars; if bent they can be straightened and reset several times. Steel bars of 'H' section or channel |'| section may also be used, especially if the bars have to be long. Long bars such as this are frequently used at road heads and at other special places.
Bashing, to build airtight stoppings using colliery waste. - see Stoppings; or the complete stowing of roadways or old workings.
Basket (measure), a common measure in Lancashire in the 17th and the 18th centuries. Similar to a 'corf' or 'corve'. It contained approximately 1.1 cwt of coal. There were eight baskets to the load and ten loads equalled one 'rook' i.e. 88 cwt or 4.4 tons.
Basket, a shallow pan into which smalls were raked by the fillers for loading into the tubs. (S.Staffs.); or before the introduction of the cage, baskets were used for winding. - see Corfe and Corve.
Basket ventilation, a system of ventilating a mine using the principle of hot air rising. This was achieved by hanging an iron basket containing burning coals in one of the two shafts or in a section of a bratticed shaft. The hot air rising in the shaft caused an updraft which drew the foul air out of the mine which was replaced by clean air descending the other shaft or section. The first recorded use of this system was in a colliery at Cheadle, North Staffs in about the 1650's.
Bass or Bast, black carbonaceous shale. (Yorks., Lancs. and Staffs.); or a thin band of cannel in a seam or an impure anthracitized cannel. (S.Wales.).
Bastard, inferior coal, which burns to a white powdery slate (Yorks., Lancs., and Staffs.); or dirt in coal. (Yorks., Lancs., and Staffs.); or meaning 'impure', or 'mixed' as in bastard ground. (S. Wales).
Bastard cannel, cannel coal and inferior cannel coal that accompanies the blackband ironstones in N. Staffordshire. Also called 'Peel' or 'Hoo-Cannel'.
Bastard fireclay, underclay or seatearth of a coal seam which is unsuitable for manufacturing firebricks.
Bastard seatearth, seatearth that has no overlying coal seam.
Bastard Whin, very hard sandstone, but not so flinty as to be called 'whin', (N.East).
Basset or Basset edge, the point where a coal seam comes to the surface or 'outcrops'.
Bassett side, -see Rise side.
Bast, -see Bass.
Bat, or Bats, Batt or Battice, carbonaceous shale or stone in coal. (Mids); or alternative term for 'Bass'; or sometimes used to denote the hard part of the holing under a seam, (Scot.); or an alternative term for 'Bass'.
Bate, to excavate the floor material of a roadway to re-grade it after floor lift. (S.Staffs. & N. East). - see Dint.
Batt-picking, an old term for picking out stone by hand in the screening process. -see also Crow-picking.
Batting out, another term for coal cutting. (S.Staffs.).
Battleaxe, -see Tadge.
Baulk, a partial washout in the top part of a coal seam, often filled with sandstone; or a sudden thinning out of a seam; also a strong timber beam; or an interruption of the coal seam.(N.East).
Baum pots, calcareous concretions in the coal or in the roof. (Lancs.).
Baum washer or Baum jig, a system for cleaning run of mine coal invented by Baum in 1892. A well known type of coal jig washer in which the water pulsation is obtained by admitting compressed air above the water level at one side of the washer box instead of the operation of plungers as in other jig washers.
Bawdwiss or Board-wise, cleated coal easily worked. (N.East), c.f. headwiss (headwise), difficult coal to hew.
Beche, an instrument having some resemblance to the extinguisher of a candle, it was used for the purpose of extracting the bottom portion of a broken set of rods from a borehole or shothole.
Beachleaf marl, finely laminated brown marls, possibly of glacial origin. (Lancs.).
Beans, a descriptive name for very small coals, the size of a bean; or more specifically, cleaned and screened anthracite product 7/8 by 3/8 inch.
Bearer, the bar or girder set across the entrance to a roadway supporting one end of the road bars at a road junction. Also called a 'junction bar', 'carrying bar', 'crossing', 'frame' or 'horse collar'.
Bearers, in early coal mining, these were boys, girls or women who transported coal underground in baskets on their backs, i.e. in the 'bearing system'.
Bearing , to undercut the coal face by holing.
Bearing doors, double doors on a main airway. (Scot.).
Bearing System, -see Bearers.
Bearing-up stops, -see Keps.
Bears, calcareous clay-ironstone in nodules (Derbys.).
Beat knee, swollen knees due to inflammation of the knee joints by crawling or kneeling and shovelling for long periods.
Beater, an iron rod used for stemming or tamping a shot hole prior to blasting.
Beating or beating up, - see Baiting.
Beat out the gas, a practice widely used in coal mines, prior to the seventeenth century, of swinging a miner's jacket or brattice sheet to dilute and remove a local accumulation of firedamp.
Beche, an instrument resembling the extinguisher of a candle,used for the purpose of extracting the bottom portion of a broken set of rods from a borehole or shothole.
Bedrock, the first solid rock met when sinking a shaft.
Bed separation, thin cavities formed along bedding planes due to differential lowering of the strata over mine workings.
Beehive pit, -see Bell pit.
Beethoven, a dynamo-condenser type of shot firing device.
Beetle, a small locomotive engine driven by compressed air, the invention of Messrs. Lishman and Young, (N.East). -see also Tugger.
Bellite, a 'third class' explosive which could only be exploded by a special detonator composed of fulminate of mercury. This explosive comprised 80% ammonium nitrate and 20% dinitrobenzol and obviated the risks from explosion by heat or sparks or by any ordinary shock. The invention of Carl Lamm, said to act like the best slow powders and was very useful for coal-mining.
Bellmen, men who worked on the conveyor belts or rope haulage signalling system.
Bell mould, -see Caldron bottom.
Bell pit. One of the earliest methods for working coal that was lying very near to the surface. It consisted of short shafts from the surface to the coal seam, belled out at the bottom as far as possible until it became unsafe. When it became too dangerous to work the miners would abandon it and sink another nearby. The refuse from the new shaft would often be thrown into the old one. Also called a 'beehive pit'.
Bell wires, two bare wires that covered the length of a haulage system, which, when held together made a bell ring as a signal to the haulage driver.
Belt or Belt conveyor, a conveyor belt, a moving endless belt. A series of conveyors, in tandem, would be used to carry coal from the face to the shaft or in some cases up a drift to the surface. It was driven by a drum to which it returns after passing around a tail pulley. Belt conveyors could vary in length from a few yards to over a mile. - see Cable Belt Conveyor. Conveyor belting was made of layers, or plies, of woven cotton (called cotton duck) which had been impregnated with rubber. These layers are enclosed in a rubber cover. It is the cotton duck that enables the belt to withstand tension. The rubber protects the cotton from damage.
Belt clamp, a device constructed from lengths of timber which were clamped to the conveyor belt either side of a damaged joint. The clamps were then drawn together by using two 'Sylvesters' thereby taking the tension out of the conveyor belt between the clamps. The belt-man would then cut out the damaged joint and remake a new one.
Belt-cleaner, a man employed to clear up the spillage alongside and below the conveyor system. A necessary job to prevent fires caused by friction, or a device fixed to a conveyor belt to scrape dirt from the surface of the belt as it passes.
Belt and chain. Worn by drawers (often children) before the mid 19th century in order to pull sledges or baskets along the floor of the seam.
Belt extension, adding lengths of structure to a conveyor belt to make it longer as the coal face or roadway advances.
Belt fastener. A conveyor belt consists of a number of lengths of belting joined together so that it is endless. The joints must be as strong as they can be made, and several types of commercial coupling or belt fastener were used, such as Bristol, Hayden Nilos and Comet.
Belt idler, a cylindrical roller that is mounted on a frame which supports and guides a conveyor belt. These and the metal supporting frame are called the 'belt structure'.
Belt-men, the maintenance team responsible for the underground conveyor system.
Belts, an underground conveyor system.
Belt take-up,a belt pulley, generally under a conveyor belt and inbye the drive pully, kept under strong tension parallel to the belt line. Its purpose is to automatically compensate for any slack in the belting created by start-up, etc.
Ben or Benn, a queue of men waiting to ride the cage; or inwards - towards the workings; or the workman's right to enter the pit, hence the term 'claiming his ben', i.e. going to the pit in the morning and having his right to enter the pit and have hutches in his turn acknowledged, which right he may then delegate to his boys. The day's work of a youth, indicating the proportion of a man's 'darg' which he is able or allowed to put out, is termed quarter-ben, half-ben, three-quarter-ben, accordingly. (Scot.).
Bench, to under-cut the seam. Also called 'kirving' or 'holing'; or to work coal in layers from the top downwards; or a landing place (Scot.).
Benching, breaking up the bottom coals using wedges when the holing has been made in the middle of the seam; or top-holing, -see bannocking.
Bend-away, the order given by the person in charge for the cage to be drawn to bank, (N.East).
Bend-up, an order given by the person in charge to raise the cage slowly, so that it may be instantly stopped on the order "Hold!" being given, (N.East).
Bent, a seam which is rendered more difficult to work on account of the unequal distribution of the weight of the overlying strats is said to be 'bent'.
Bevin Boys. During WW2, the shortage of manpower in the mines resulted in the Ministry of Labour, (Minister: Ernest Bevin), inaugurating a policy of drafting men of military age into the mines. From July 1943, the draftees for the mines were chosen by ballot and a number of men already serving with the forces were given, and took the option of working in the mines.
Bevin Shift, a colloquialism for idle shifts which, with the help of too easily obtained medical certificates, qualified the miner for the guaranteed weekly wage.
Bibbley Rock, a conglomerate, (N.& S.Staffs.).
Bi-Di's, bi-directional shearers, capable of cutting the coal in both directions along the coal face.
Biggin, a pack built to support the roof, hence the term 'bigging', the building of packs.
Billy, a box for holding ironstone when ironstone was mined along with the coal (Forest of Dean).
Billy Coal, a thin unworkable coal seam, occurring above or below a workable seam. (N.Staffs.).
Bin or Binn, the parting of black bass in the Bin Mine. (Lancs.).
Binching, the stone 'seatearth', or 'fireclay' on which the coal seam rests. (Som.).
Bind or binds, indurated shale or mudstone; or clay frequently containing clay ironstone; or sandstone or hard shale. (N. East). A term often applied by miners to any fine grained rock.
Bind bass, black sandy or silty shale.
Bind metal, argillaceous shale. (Yorks.).
Bind rock, bedded sandstone.
Binder, an extra large roller used on haulage roadways to guide ropes around curves. (N.East); or a streak of impurity in a coal seam.
Binding coal, another term for bituminous coal, (N.East).
Bing or bin, a colliery waste heap. (Scot.).
Biscuit, a piece of wood about 1' inches thick and 4 inches square, placed between the top of a prop and the roof bar. Used with a wooden prop the biscuit would absorb the roof pressure and in most cases save the prop for further use. When used with steel supports it helped to stop the slip of steel on steel when erecting a prop and bar. - see also Bonnet, Cap, Lids and Wedges.
Biscuit wheels, tub wheels without flanges, operated on L-section cast iron tub rails.
Bite, a harness used by men for pulling the loaded coal tubs underground in places where there was no access for horses.
Bitting, the name of, and the action of, small pieces of stone falling from the roof.
Bituminous coal, coal intermediate in rank (maturity) between sub-bituminous coal and semi-anthracites and includes coking coals.
Black air, -see Blackdamp.
Blackband ironstone, a carbonaceous sideritic ironstone occurring in beds, usually associated with coal seams and containing sufficient included carbonaceous matter to enable it to be calcined without the addition of further fuel, also known as 'hard binds' in Scotland. Exploited commercially during the latter half of the 1800s in the Ayrshire and North Staffordshire coalfields.
Black bass, black carbonaceous shale.
Black-batt or bat, black, carbonaceous or bituminous shale.
Black coal, coal slightly burned by igneous rock. (Scot.).
Blackberry dirt, a crumbly carbonaceous shale forming a band 2 or 3 inches thick in the Bullhurst Seam. (N.Staffs.), sometimes used for stemming shotholes.
Blackdamp or Chokedamp, a mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide,(in British coal mines generally between 78 and 95% nitrogen and 5 to 22% carbon dioxide), present in mines. The gas will not support a flame or life. Usually found in old mine workings where ventilation is poor. Also known in Yorkshire as 'Black air'.
Black drug or drub, black, thin bands of soft, partially carbonised, earthy matter, (Yorks.).
Black list, a band composed of thin layers of bright coal and fusain in the hards of the Barnsley Seam, (Yorks.).
Black-Jack, a kind of cannel coal (Derbys.).
Blacklung disease, -see Pneumoconiosis.
Black marble, indurated shale. (Yorks.).
Blacks, coaly blaes, (Scot.), or black shale, (Yorks.).
Black scale, black finely laminated carbonaceous shale. (Yorks.).
Blackstone, highly carbonaceous shale (N. Staffs.).
Black slums, coaly shale or clay. (Shrops.).
Black spit, pneumoconiosis, a disease of the lungs, caused by the inhaling of coal dust, causing the spitting of black phlegm.
Blaes, shale or mudstone, laminated, but typically soft and fissile. (Scot.).
Blaes and balls, blaes with embedded ironstone nodules. (Yorks. & Scot.).
Blast coal, -see Lignite.
Blasting cap,a detonator containing a charge of detonating compound, which is ignited by electric current or the spark of a fuse. Used for detonating explosives.
Blasting out of the solid, the blasting down of coal without first undercutting it.
Blast packing, -see Pneumatic packing.
Blast piece, part of an old reciprocating pump.
Blaw, a sudden escape of gas from the strata or the coal into the workings. (N. East).
Bleed, coal is said to 'bleed' when water oozes in drops from its pores.
Bleeder,special air course developed and maintained as part of the mine ventilation system and designed to continuously move air-methane mixtures emitted by the gob away from active workings and into mine-return air courses.
Bleeder shaft, a type of ventilation shaft employed at some coal mines to increase ventilation at an individual longwall panel or group of panels. Bleeder shafts are usually smaller than primary ventilation shafts.
Blind Coal, a coal that has lost part of its volatile constituents dut to its proximity to an igneous intrusion. It is partly carbonised and so burns with little or no smoke. (Scot.).
Blind drift, a pilot heading that has been driven in search of coal and then abandoned. Often used for storing equipment.
Blind heading, a heading or roadway with only one way in or out.
Block, an area of coal worked between pre-determined boundaries.
Block sprag or Gib, a wedge-shaped wood block for supporting machine-cut coal.
Blocking out, driving roadways all the way around a piece of coal it is proposed to work to ensure that it is free from faults or other features that may hinder its exploitation.
Blocking-up, -see Dinting.
Blocks or Stops, small wooden blocks, mounted between the rails, to stop loaded tubs running away down an incline. Also called 'stop blocks' or 'juts'.
Blow, floor lift due to gas or strata pressure. -see also Blaw.
Blow down, to use explosives to bring down the coal on the coalface prior to loading.
Blow out, an unsuccessful shot which is usually the result of poor stemming of the explosive.
Blower, a flow of gas (firedamp) from some chasm or fissure in the coal or surrounding strata lasting for long periods, without apparent decrease. - see also Bag of gas and Blaw; or a small fan supplying air to a subsidiary working place or a dead end.
Blue bind, shale of bluish colour, or sandy shale or siltstone.
Blue-cap, the characteristic blue haze over the flame of a safety lamp when firedamp or methane is present in the atmosphere.
Blue clod, bluish grey mudstone or shale. (Shrops.).
Blue devil, the ignition of localised pockets of gas resulting in momentary blue flames.
Blue metal, - see shale.
Blue stone, an argillaceous rock (or shale) mixed with particles of sand. (Yorks.).
Buffs, blinkers worn by pit ponies (Yorks.).
Boam, a beam, usually the log supporting the pit pumps. (Scot.).
Bond, a cage in manriding mode waiting to ascend or descend the shaft. (S.Staffs.).
Booster or Booster fan, an underground ventilation fan used to increase the ventilation of a district or seam.
Bord or Board and Pillar, a system of working coal by partial extraction which is similar to 'pillar and stall' in which between 30 and 60 per cent of the coal would be removed depending on the condition and the weight of the roof. Sometimes the pillars would be worked out at a later date by using the retreat system. Also known as 'board and wall', 'post and stall' 'square work' and 'stoop and room'. The bord is a roadway driven in the seam, usually at right angles to the cleat; or the principal working place with one or two hewers (N.East).
Boardways, headings driven across the cleat, or 'on the bord'.
Boardway's course, the direction at right angles to the line of cleavage or cleat of the coal.
Bob-a locker, the man who stood by the side of the road pushing lockers between the spokes of the tubs to slow down their progress. (N.Staffs.).
Bobbies Helmet an inclusion in the roof that could fall without warning. So called because of its shape (F of D)
Bobbin, the return pulley wheel on a self-acting incline.
Bogey or Bogie, a flat-bottomed truck for manriding or transporting materials. - see Flat Danny or Horned Danny. Also known as a 'Tram'.
Boghead coal or Torbanite, closely allied to some varieties of oil shale and consists essentially of oil-bearing algae mixed with small quantities of sediment.
Boilum, hard calcareous or siliceous nodules of irregular shape found in the shales and under-clays of the Coal Measures. (N.Staffs.)
Boll or Bowl (measure), a measure of capacity used in the North of England and Scotland for grain, coal and other dry goods. The coal boll was probably derived from the corn boll, i.e. the amount a man could carry. The boll or bowl was a wooden tub or wheelbarrow used to load coals into the keels on the Tyne. At Gateshead in the mid 16th century the boll contained eight gallons. In the first part of the 17th century, in a lease of mines from the Prior of Tynemouth, the 'chaldron' was defined as six bolls. The size of the boll was fixed by statute in 1678 and contained 22 gallons and a 'pottle'. By 1704 at Town Moor Colliery (N.East.) the boll had risen to 36 gallons. In evidence before a Select Committee of the House of Lords, in 1829 the boll contained 9676'8 cubic inches, or 34'899 imperial gallons. It would appear that the boll never attained a uniform measure.
Bolt, a steel rod, about 1 inch in dia. used in 'roof bolting' -see also Slot-and-Wedge and Wedge-and-sleeve bolt; or a short narrow heading connecting two roadways in 'square work'. (S.Staffs.) Also known as a 'Bolthole'.
Bond, a thin band or stratum. (N.Staffs.); or a cage in manriding mode waiting to ascend or descend the shaft, a 'Bont' (S.Staffs.); or a 'Bond of Timber', a bar with two legs under it as a support.
Bone, a hard canneloid coal or cannel. (Lancs.).
Bonnet, an overhead cover for a cage constructed in the form of an inverted 'V' to deflect anything falling down the shaft while men were riding; or a section of a seam left in situ to form a roof. (Scot.); or the metal casing around the gauzes of a safety lamp; or a flat rather than a wedge shaped piece of wood on the top of a prop. - see Biscuit, Lid and Crown piece; or an overlying layer of shale or gas coal that is worked along with the coal seam. (Scot.).
Boobey, a type of box which held 6 to 8 cwt.of coal in which dirt or rubbish was sent to the bank or surface. (Som.).
Boodle,to move coal, dirt or stone with a shovel or by hand.
Boom ripper, a machine for cutting down a ripping by means of a rotating cutting head on a fixed or telescopic hydraulic boom.
Booster, a machine that adds to the work of another, i.e. a booster fan is one used to supplement the main fan.
Boother, a boulder in the 'Glacial Drift'; blue 'Boothers' were much prized for road-making on farms. (N.Staffs.).
Bord and pillar, -see Pillar and stall.
Bord cleat, -see Cleat.
Bord, or Board, the main cleavage or cleat in coal seams. The direction of the cleat; or a roadway at right angles to the main cleat, or a roadway with solid coal sides. 'Board' or 'board' was also the principal working place some four to five yards wide, where one or two miners worked, hewing the coal.
Bord face, a coal face advancing in a direction at right angles to the line of main cleat.
Bordroom man, a repairer who cleans and erects supports in old workings in the bord & pillar method of coal mining.
Borer, a long iron bar with a hardened chisel shaped tip used to bore shot holes in coal. Also known as a 'puncher' it was used without the aid of a hammer. The miner used a jab and twist action to bore the hole. - see Boring bar, Driller and Jumper; or a person whose business it was to search for minerals by boring.
Bosh or water bosh, a tank or tub out of which the horses drank underground. (S.Wales.).
Bossing, the holing or undercutting of a coal seam. (Scot.).
Bottle-coal, coal containing a high percentage of volatile hydrocarbons, suitable for gas making. (Scot.).
Bottomer, a man who cleaned the loose coal from the collier's stall, loaded it into tubs and hauled it away; or the person who loads and unloads the cages at the bottom or intermediate landings in a shaft. (Scot.).
Bottoming, -see Dint or Dinting.
Bottom cut, the cut made by a coal cutting machine at the base of a coal seam prior to the coal being drilled and fired.
Bottom gate, on an inclined face the lower of the two or more gate roads serving the face.
Bottom pillar or Bottom stoop, the block of mineral left unworked at a shaft for its support.
Bottoms or Bottom coal, the lowest section of a coal seam that may or may not be extracted.
Boundary fault, a large fault usually forming the boundary to the mine or a section of the mine.
Bout, a metal hook, about 6 feet long, used for withdrawing timber from old workings. (N. East).
Boutgate, a road by which the miners can reach the surface, a travelling round a shaft at a landing or a travelling-road from one seam to another. (Scot.).
Bouton, a projecting stone in a shaft or underground road. (Scot.).
Bowk, originally a small wooden box used for lifting refuse out of a sinking pit. Later it was one of the many names given to a large barrel or bucket-shaped tub used when sinking shafts. - see also Kibble and Hoppit. Also the term used to describe in the North East for a report made by the cracking of the strata owing to the extraction of the coal beneath, or the noise made by the escape of gas under pressure.
Bowkin, word used to describe the sound of the unsupported roof falling after the timber has been removed.
Box, a hutch. (Scot.).
Boxed. A bar set into the coal face is sometimes said to be 'let', 'dinted', 'needled', 'stamped', 'stomped', 'notched into', 'boxed' or 'cut over'.
Box bottoms, the small coal or slack that fell to the bottom of the tubs or boxes. It was produced by breakage in transit. (Leics.).
Box-end, the tension end of a conveyor belt.
Box scraper, a method of loading coal on a longwall face adapted from the main-and-tail haulage system and a forerunner of the coal plough. The simplest type consisted of a double-drum haulage engine that pulled a bottomless scraper box, skip or scoop backwards and forwards along the face by means of a main-and-tail rope. The system was first introduced in 1929. - see also Slusher.
Boylom, blackband ironstone from Apedale, N. Staffs.
Brace,landing stage in the headframe at which the skips are run out from the cage.
Bracehead, a piece of tough ash or oak, about 3ft long, passed through an eye in a short piece of iron, at the other end of which is a male screw to connect with boring rods. Using this men could manually turn the boring rods to form the borehole.
Braddish, - see Brattice.
Bradford Breaker, a screening and coal crushing machine which uses gravity impact to break the coal. It passes the run-of-mine coal through a cylindrical screen 8-14ft in dia. and 15-22ft long. It could deal with 500-600 t.p.h. reducing the coal to size according to the screen plates fitted.
Bradley & Craven clip, similar to the Sylvester & Weaver clip except that the side plate was activated by a screw that worked the head of a pin that secured the two plates together.
Brae, an inclined roadway. (Scot.).
Brailer, -see Lagging. (Scot.).
Braird, to widen up the holing. (Scot.).
Brake, to lower trams down a dip using a wheel and rope. (N.Staffs.) - see also Jig.
Brake incline or Brake dip, a self-acting haulage system that used a hand-operated brake to control the speed of descent. - see also Gravity haulage and Gate.
Brakesman, the man managing the winding engine.
Branch, dull hard coal forming the top part of the Silkstone Seam, (Yorks.); or sometimes inferior cannel coal.
Branches, cross-measure drifts. (Som.).
Brashing, the action of coal falling away from the face. - see also Ratching.
Brashy, rotten old timbers in the mine that had been attacked by fungus and could look sound, but were in fact brashy. (Yorks).
Brass, Brasses or Brassy, iron pyrites, fools gold, iron sulphide, a brass-like mineral occurring in coal. Thought to be possibly one of the causes of heating or spontaneous combustion in wastes or gobs. In South Wales the term 'brass' was also used to refer to hard ferruginous lenses of siderite or sphaerosiderite (iron carbonate).
Brass band, a layer of ironstone and pyrites.
Brassey coal, coal containing golden specks of iron pyrites; also a well-known coal seam in the Lancs. Coalfield.
Brat, inferior coal; or 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, (N.East). The latter called 'Badger' in Bristol & Somerset.
Brattice and Brattice cloth, a division or partition in a shaft, heading or other underground working place to direct air to a specific point, often to dilute flammable or noxious gases. It could also be used to divide the place or a shaft into two parts, one for the ingress of fresh air and the other for the egress of the used air. A brattice could be constructed of wood, brick or stonework, or heavy-duty tightly woven (sometimes tarred) cloth nailed to a timber frame or timber boarding.
Brattice pack, -see Chock.
Bratticed shafts, before the Act of 1862 made it compulsory for every mine to have a second shaft it was common practice to divide the shaft into two or more sections by means of brattices. This enabled the one shaft to be used for several functions simultaneously e.g. winding, pumping and ventilation. These partitions were a source of great danger. Being constructed from timber, if the brattices caught fire or were wrecked the men would be trapped below ground.
Brazzle, Brazzil, Brazils or brazzles, another name for iron pyrites; also ? the term 'brazils' was used for small round nut-shaped nodules found in some blackband ironstones.
Breadth, a series of coal pillars formed by rearer working. (N.Staffs); or a predetermined area of coal to be worked. - see also Panel.
Breaks, cracks and fissures found in the strata and coal seams due to the working of coal in the near vicinity or subsidence. This can also occur when a seam is being worked above a previously worked area. (S.Staffs.). Subsidence cracks at the surface are called 'Break lines'.
Break lines, -see Breaks.
Breaker props, props set at the waste edge or around any area of roof or floor from which rock is to be removed by blasting. Also called 'Breaking-off timber'.
Breaking-off timber, the roof supports that were set under the canch/rip that defined the dimensions of the canch before it was fired down.
Breast coal, -see Wall coal.
Breasting, a short heading stall, worked at right angles to, and forming the face of the main level or a short face advancing along the strike in 'rearer working. (N.Staffs.); or a wide heading or level; or pushing tubs etc. as opposed to pulling them. (N.East); or the face of an unworked area of coal between the lowest level and the outcrop or boundary of old workings. (Scot.).
Breeding fire, spontaneous combustion, usually caused by ventilation air mixing with fine coal and made worse by the presence of pyrites. (S.Staffs).-see also Heatings.
Breese or Breeze, fine slack. (Scot.); or small coal; or poor coke, used to manufacture breeze blocks.
Brew or Brow, section of rock above the seam that is removed to extend the gate road. (S.Staffs). - see also Rip; or a dipping roadway. (N.Staffs. & Lancs.).
Brick casing, -see Back-casing.
Brick coffering, a thick brick lining, formerly much used in circular shafts as a support and to exclude water.
Bricking curb, a curb set in a circular shaft to support the brick walling.
Bride cake or Bright cake, black, highly carbonaceous slickensided shale with mussels, (Yorks.).
Bridge rails, iron rails, the upper part of which was hollow, weighing about 5' lbs. per foot, used in barrow-ways instead of tram-plates; the tubs being fitted with flanged wheels, (N.East).
Bridle or bridal chains, short chains by which the cage is attached to the winding rope; or a chain for preventing tubs overturning when travelling on a steep incline. (Scot.). Also called 'Bull chains'.
Brig, a small section of unripped roadway, usually outbye, still within height requirements.
Brights, bright coal, mainly vitrain.
Briquette, a moulded block of compressed solid fuel made from crushed coal.
British or Brettys, a packwall or stone pillar in longwall working; a cundie pillar. (Scot.).
Britisher, a strong corner pack formed of chocks built of broken wood and filled with stone.
Brittice or brittish, -see Chock.
Brob or brobs, the innermost undersprag/s when more than one sprag is set in the holing.
Broken jud, a jud in the process of being worked. (N.East).
Broken place, an easy place to work with soft or loose coal. (N.East).
Broken working, the second stage of bord and pillar working, i.e. abstracting the pillars. Also known as 'robbing the pillars'.
Brosing or Brosing time, meal time. (Scot.).
Brot, a thin stratum of coal contaminated with lime or pyrites. (Scot.).
Brow or Broo. Hill or bank in Scotland, also the pit top; or a haulage incline underground e.g. a 'jig brow' in Lancashire; or the face of a fault plane, (N.East); or a landing (Wales).
Brow edge, the rock face that accompanied a change in height of a roadway, i.e. a rip.
Brow edge support, the inclined support legs and cross beam temporary support set against the face of a canch/rip.
Browman, man in charge of the pit bank or pit brow, i.e. the Banksman, responsible for the loading and unloading the cages at the surface and for signalling to the winding engineman. (Lancs.).
Brown coal ,woody or soft peaty looking coal, brown or black in colour, with a high moisture content. - see Lignite.
Brown Metal Coals, coals that when broken give much brown or red dust.
Brown Rake, shale with ironstone bands and balls.
Brush, the ripping face of a roadway. (Scot.) - see Ripping; or unscreened coal straight from the mine, i.e. 'run-of- mine coal', (Bris. and Som.); or a strand torn out of a wire rope. (Scot.); or a rich brown haematite iron ore (Forest of Dean); or a roadway through the goaf.
Brushing, the action of ripping. Normally enlarging a road by taking down the roof; also a rich brown iron ore. (F.of D.); also the strata above or below a worked seam taken out in making the roadways. (Scot.).
Bucket pump, a reciprocating lift pump formerly much used in shafts and sinkings.
Buckler or Buckler machine, a machine for making new joints in a conveyor belt. (Scot.).
Bug dust, the fine particles of coal or other material resulting from the boring or cutting of the coal face by drill or machine.
Buffer beams, beams fixed in a shaft to prevent pump rods from travelling too far. (Scot.).
Buildas. A way a Butty could avoid paying for work done. He would call 'buildas' half way through the working day and then pay nothing for the half days work that had been done, or pay a proportion of the wages in beer.
Builders, large blocks of unlaminated sandstone, which are used for rough building purposes such as foundation work or strong walls. (N.Staffs.).
Building, a portion of the pack wall as it is built.
Bull, an iron rod used for preparing a shot-hole, which has been lined with clay to protect the shot in wet ground, i.e. also to 'bull' a hole, (N.East), (Yorks). - see also Pricker; or a fork-like trailing bar attached to the back of the last tub on an incline to arrest the journey in the event of a detached or broken coupling, chain or rope; or another word for a Derrick or Warwick.
Bull chains, -see Bridle chains.
Bulldog clip, an old lever type clip for attaching tubs to a rope.
Bull end, return roller unit of a belt conveyor.
Bullion or Stone bullion, calcareous concretions, occasionally ironstone nodules or quartzite boulders. (Lancs).
Bull props, props set at an angle to prevent tubs running away on an incline. Various other names used; Bull Stumps, Warwicks., Derricks, (S.Derbys)., Stall, Stell, (Scot.).
Buller, another name for a Sylvester.
Bulls, -see Ringer and Chain.
Bullseye, early type of hand held electric lamp with a bulbous lens.
Bull's head, the motorised end of a boring machine. The name roughly describes it's shape. Various other names used in other coalfields are, Pig's head, (Leics.), Tup, (Lancs.), Tich, (S.Derbys.).
Bull stakes, the four posts at the floor of the shafts to which the conductors are fixed. (Yorks.).
Bully, a developing heading driven to the dip, usually the full dip, of the coal seam and worked by rope haulage.
Bummer, the man in charge of a group of men on the longwall face. Various other local names were used such as Coddy, (Leics.), Puffler, sometimes Fuffler, (War.), Pool-leader and Leading man, (Scot,), also Face captain and Face chargeman (Lancs.).
Bumming, heaving or rising of the pavement. (Scot.).
Bump, the sound caused by a break in the strata above while underground, or the actual movement due to the break; or a sudden floor uplift due to a break in the floor. Also called a 'pounce', 'crump', 'goff' or 'goth'.
Bumper, a large piece of iron that was used as a counter balance on a hand windlass when winding loaded corves or tubs up and down an underground staple shaft. (Som.) and (Bris.), also iron catches fitted in a cage to hold the tubs in place during winding. (Lancs.), (Mids.) -see also Puller.
Bumpers, miners involved in moving forward the face conveyor belt on a daily basis. (N. East). - see also Pullers.
Bunches, small temporary areas or pillars of coal left during holing to support the coal until the holing is complete. (N.Staffs.).
Bunker, a high capacity hopper either above or below ground to store run-of-mine during a breakdown in the shaft or between the shaft and the washing plant or to act as a buffer between the production face/s and 'outbye' transport systems; or areas of loose coal after shotfiring, or a place where coal was stored temporarily. (N.East).
Bunker top-holes, another term for a rise heading in steep seam working. (S.Wales).
Bunkey, a small fault in a coal seam, (S.Derbys.).
Bunter, a long (12 feet) stick device with a square end, used for withdrawing props. It was larger than the pout or punch used in other coalfields. (S. Staffs.).
Bunton, a beam of wood or steel placed horizontally across a shaft to act as a support or for fixing equipment or a brattice. - see Main Buntons and Collaring Buntons.
Burgy, small coal also slack or poor coal with a high dirt content; or coal that readily breaks into smalls; or run-of-mine or unscreened coal. (Lancs.).
Burncole, an old term for House Coal.
Burnett's coal wedge, a roller wedge patented in 1884 by C. Burnett. The wedge was used to break down coal after it had been undercut.
Burnt or Red shale, carbonaceous shale that has remained for a long period in a colliery tip and undergone spontaneous combustion to convert it into a reddish, hard, inert material, useful as a fill.
Burr, - see Cank; also another word for sandstone.
Buskins, sacking tied around the legs when working underground in water. (S.Staffs.).
But, the direction outwards towards the shaft. (Scot.).
Butt, another word for a heading, i.e. a roadway, usually in coal. (S.Wales).
Butt cleat, -see Cleat.
Butterfly, a detaching hook associated with cages. In the event of the cage being 'overwound' the hook detached the cage from the winding rope and prevented the cage from going through the headgear and into the winding house.
Buttock, a corner formed by two coalfaces more or less at right angles, such as the end of a working face, also called the 'fast side'; or any short piece of coal approximately at right angles to the face; or the amount of coal removed from a handgot face in one operation (cycle), also called a 'turnover'.Sometimes called a 'Jow Face' in Lancashire. Also known as a 'dressing', 'web', 'drift', 'pane', 'piece' or 'cut'.
Buttocking, a method of working a handgot longwall by forming a length of coal on bord, known as a 'buttock', which is then worked parallel to the face. If worked in both directions, it was known as 'double buttocking'. A modification of the buttocking system was 'continuous buttocking', where a buttock was commenced at one end of a face and was then advanced, or 'taken up', until it reaches the end of the stall in which it was started. The next stall and succeeding stalls take up the work in turn, and the first stall commences another buttock, producing a stepped face line.
Button-man, a man who monitors conveyor transfer points. Stopping and starting the conveyors after stoppages or breakdowns, by use of the button.
Buttress pack, a strong pack in the waste, stronger than and in addition to the roadside packs, placed some distance away from the roadway to protect it. If this is carried out on both sides of the roadway with comparatively narrow roadside packs, then this is termed 'Double packing'.
Butty, a mate or working partner in the pit. Several men could work a 'butty system' together in a working place or district within a mine, also an early name for an underground boss, contractor or Charter Master who supervised the extraction of coal for the owner. He engaged and paid the underground labour.
Buttyman, a man in charge of others who is paid for the whole job and he himself pays those under him. The 'butty system' first started with a miner employing members of his own family including his wife and children to transport coal from the workings to the pithead.
Buzzard, small layer of inferior coal in the roof of the Arley Mine. (Lancs.).
Buzzer, a steam siren sounding at the beginning and end of each shift and at midnight to let in each New Year. If a miner was late for work he was said to be 'buzzed'. (S.Staffs.).
By gate, the passages from the mainways to the headings. (Yorks.).
By-pit, a pit or shaft situated at a higher elevation than the main winding shaft of the colliery, e.g. on a hillside. The by-pit was usually a ventilation pit that promoted natural ventilation currents.
Byard, a leather belt worn across the chest used by drawers for putting the tubs. (N.East).
Byat or Byatt, a harness, which in the south (Staffs) is described as the 'girdle', but differs from it by being a pair of straps over the shoulders, meeting in a broad piece behind, and terminating in a chain and hook, used for drawing coal dans. (N Staffs), - see also Bite.
Bye Pit, a coal drawing pit generally near an engine or pumping pit.
Bye work, -see Dead work.
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