Cabin, an enclosed place underground used for a particular purpose such as an underground office, e.g. Lamp cabin or Deputy's cabin, often hewn out of the stone and whitewashed; or another name for the Lamp Room on the surface.Cable belt conveyor, a heavy-duty, high capacity, conveyor belt that uses two stranded steel ropes, one on either side of the belt to provide tensile pull. Moulded rubber shoes along the edge of the belt grip the steel ropes, which support the belt and provide the motive power. Cable belt conveyers can carry coal up steeply inclined roadways for long distances.
Caddy, powder box for explosives.
Cage, the lift in a mine shaft for raising and lowering men and materials. First introduced by John Curr of Sheffield in about 1787. Also called a ‘Chair’, (N.East), or alternatively a ‘Basket’, (S.Wales).
Caging, the act of putting tubs into the cage or drawing them off.
Cage dip, a roadway driven to the rise in ‘rearers’ workings used as the intake airway. (N.Staffs.).
Cage guides, -see Guides.
Cage props, -see Keps.
Cage seat, the beams or cross-girders constructed over the sump at the shaft bottom and on which the cage rests.
Cage shoes, fittings bolted to the side of the cage which engage with the ridgid guides in the shaft.
Cager, a power operated ram. Usually hydraulically powered, but in the earlier days steam powered. Also used for pushing mine cars on and off the cage at the pit bottom or the pit top.
Caisson sinking, Drum or Drop shaft, a method of sinking a shaft through wet clay, sand or mud down to firm strata. A cast-iron tubbing, attached ring by ring on the surface, is gradually lowered as the shaft is excavated. There is a special air-tight working chamber at the bottom of the lining. A cutting shoe at the lower end of the tubbing helps it to penetrate the soft ground.
Cakes, -see Gubbin.
Caking index or Agglutinating power, a method used in the laboratory for determining the degree of caking, coking power or binding together of coal when a pulverised sample is heated in a prescribed manner.
Calaminker, red clay. (Shrops.).
Caldron bottom, Caadron-arse or Cauldron-arse, the fossil root of a tree or fern lying on the roof of a seam of coal. It could drop without giving any warning, occasioning accidents. It derives its name from the resemblance to the bottom of a caldron or pot; in Somersetshire, it is called a ‘bell-mould’.
Calliard - see Galliard.
Callice, Callis or Clod and callice, dirt and waste, or a shaley coal. (Lancs.).
Calley-stone, a type of gannister. (Yorks.).
Calling course, the time at which the ‘caller’ made his rounds from house to house to wake the early shift men. He would then make a later call to wake the boys and day workers. In early days he would knock on the door and call ‘Wake up and go to work, in the name of God!’. (19th century N.East). The ‘knocker-up’ was still employed in the Lancashire mill towns as late as the mid. 1940s.
Calm, caulm or calmy blaes, pale coloured shale or mudstone (Scot.).
Campacking, a method of packing employing a series of moving wedge shaped arms called ‘cams’, positioned at the rear of the powered supports. The ripping debris is passed from one cam to the next until it is tightly packed between roof and floor.
Camper, coal slightly altered by whin; or dirty coal. (Scot.).
Canaries. During a mine rescue operation, the rescue team would enter the mine wearing breathing apparatus. As the amount of air carried was limited, the breathing apparatus would not be brought into use until absolutely necessary. To avoid delay by having to stop to test for gas with a safety lamp, the team would carry two or three canaries in separate cages. At the first sign of carbon monoxide (after damp), the bird would become distressed and in some cases fall from its perch. A small cylinder of oxygen was often carried to resuscitate the bird. There are now more sophisticated electronic means of testing for gas.
Canch, Caunch or Kench, the face of a ripping or brushing; or the part of the roof of an underground roadway (top canch) that has to be taken down; or the portion of the floor (bottom canch) that is required to be removed to increase roadway height; or the step of rock up onto the face when dinting or pavement brushing. - see also Brush, Rip, Dinting and Lip.
Canch holes, holes drilled and fired around the ‘sumpers’ in shaft sinking or road heading. Also called ‘side holes’.
Candle coal or Cannel coal, an unlaminated coal that breaks with a glassy, conchoidal fracture, rather like that of pitch. Composed of much-altered plant material including spores, resin, cuticles and oil algae. Probably water transported and deposited as organic sediments. It burns with a bright, smoky flame like a candle.
Cank or Kank, a compact, fine-grained sandstone, or any fine-grained rock that was hard to drill. (Yorks.), e.g. an irony mudstone or siltstone. The cank in the Mansfield Marine Band is an ankeritic siltstone.
Cank balls, nodular masses of cemented bind or sandstone in other beds; sometimes a term applied to ironstone nodules (Yorks.).
Canker, the ochreous sediment in pit water, hence ‘cankery water’, impure water, red in colour. - see Ochre.
Cannel, -see Candle Coal.
Canopy, the roof member of a chock-type powered support.
Cant, the amount of inclination across a set of rails on a curve.
Cantilever bars, -see Link bars.
Cap, a small piece of wood placed between either the top of a prop and the roof support bar or at the base of a prop. Also called ‘cappers’- also see Biscuit; or a horizontal girder or timber set between two props to support a roadway; or a detonator or ‘blasting cap’. - see also Detonators; or the blue cap on the flame of a candle or oil lamp when burned in a mixture of firedamp and air, also called a ‘top’. - see also Blue cap; or a strong slab or block of concrete placed over a shaft, usually on abandonment; or the attachment of the rope to the cage, also called a ‘rope capel’, ‘capel’ or ‘sword’; or to put a shackle on a rope, (N.East.). See also Cauldron bottoms; or a hood with steel goggles and a pad to go between the ears, placed over a pit pony’s head for protection.
Capel or Cappel, the means by which the winding rope is attached to the cage suspension gear, including white metal plugs, bent-back wire in a tapered bore and a ‘wedge capel’, where the rope is gripped between a pair of clamping wedges.
Capes, movable sides and ends put on a hutch, waggon, or cart to increase its capacity. (Scot.).
Cap head, a top placed upon an air-box, used in shaft sinking, &c., for the purpose of catching as much air as possible; its front is kept facing the wind by means of a vane.
Cap lamp, a rechargeable battery operated light worn on a miner's safety helmet.
Cappers, -see ‘Cap’.
Capping or Rope capping, the fixing of a winding rope to the top of the cage. Originally often achieved by bending back the end of the rope to form a loop and then clamping the pieces together. This proved a source of weakness and ropes are now capped using a steel socket containing the separated strands of the end of the rope where molten white metal is poured into this socket, forming, on cooling, a solid white metal cap.
Car, a mine wagon. The name is now used for large mine tubs i.e. mine cars. - see also Shuttle car; also another term for ‘canker’. (N.Staffs.).
Carbonisation,the process of converting coking coal into coke.
Carbonite, a ‘second class’ explosive composed of 25% nitro-glycerine, 30% potassium nitrate, 4% barium nitrate, 40% wood meal and 1% sodium carbonate. This explosive could be fired by flame or fuse, but in order to develop a rapid and powerful explosion, it required to be fired by a detonator. Said to resemble gunpowder in its action, except that it was flameless when exploded. It would not explode when struck by a hammer or a stone.
Cardox, a blasting method used in gassy mines that employs gas at high pressure. The gas is carbon dioxide and steel shells or cartridges (essentially steel tubes with firing and discharge heads) are filled with liquid carbon dioxide, inserted into pre-drilled holes in the coal or rock and then actuated by a powder fuse primer. The gas then escapes through ports at the end of the shell disrupting the coal or rock by a heaving force acting through any existing planes of weakness. This method was designed to produce lumps rather than coal fines. Was being used in over 70 collieries by 1946.
Carts, a term for small tubs. (S.Wales & Forest of Dean).
Carred-water or Carrod-water, water coloured with yellow ochre (hydrated oxide of iron) held in suspension. (N.Staffs.).
Carribel, a permitted explosive of medium strength which could be used in wet holes provided immersion time did not exceed 2-3 hours. Could be used for coal and ripping shots in conjunction with short-delay detonators.
Carrigal or Carriage, a wheeled bogie on which a number of hutches are placed for conveyance of coal or a platform on wheels for conveying hutches in a level position on a highly-inclined roadway. (Scot.).
Carry, the thickness of roof-rock taken down in working a seam; or the thickness of seam which can be conveniently taken down at one working; or the width of face, as in stooping. (Scot.).
Carrying bars, log bars used to span wide underground openings. –see Bars.
Carry water, drainage water.
Cart, a measure of 12 cwts. of riddled coal (but in practice varying from 12 to 15 cwts.), by which miners were formerly paid. (Scot.).
Cartridges or plugs, charge of blasting powder contained in a paper case.
Carving arse, -see Cauldron bottoms.
Carvings, the air roads formed by the angle of the steps in longwall working where the face is stepped. Also called ‘Steps’, ‘Corners’, or ‘Cuttings’.
Cash, waste obtained from holing; or a soft band such as coaly blaes, sometimes found separating one stratum from another, (Scot.); when thin, called a ‘cashy parting’, (N.East).
Casting, moving coal along the face by throwing it using shovels in the absence of a conveyor or tubs. This produced much small coal by breakage; also to shovel or "cast" the coals from the keels into the vessels, at the ports, (N.East.); also moving the same dirt or coal from its source to its destination where the distance was too much for one man, (a term used regularly in pack building).
Castle, a construct of chocks, set cross-wise in a vertical tower, to give maximum roof support.
Cat, a thin band of carbonaceous shale or inferior coal; or a ball made by mixing coal and clay together.
Catband, an iron loop placed on the underside of the centre of a flat corf bow, in which to insert the hook, (N.East.).
Catcher, a safety or disengaging hook that comes into action during ‘over-winding’ or another name for the ‘Keps’. (Lancs.); or a qualified face worker without a regular position in a face team, who covers for absentees. (S.Staffs.).
Catches, the cage support at the shaft top, also called ‘keps’ or ‘keeps’; or the movable checks by which the tubs are secured in the cages.
Catch prop, a prop set temporarily under broken roof bars for safety during roadway repair work; or props set down the middle of a roadway for extra support, also called ‘middle sets’ or ‘centre props’.
Cat coal, coal containing pyrites. (Yorks.).
Cathead or Cat-heed, or Cherker, an ironstone ball, (N.East). Roughly spheroidal ironstone nodules larger than ‘dog balls’; or inferior ironstone. (Scot.). Also see Cauldron bottoms.
Cats, burnt clay used for tamping in wet strata.(Scot.)
Catshead, -see ‘Boilum’.
Caunch, -see Canch.
Cautionary zone, a zone in which unworked coal lies at or less than a specified distance from unconsolidated deposits or other sources of danger, such as old workings.
Cauldron bottoms, base of a fossil, often an upright tree trunk, in the roof. Also called ‘Carving arse’, ‘Kettle bottoms’ or ‘Bell’ (S.Wales), or ‘Cap’, ‘Cat-head’ or ‘Pot-hole’.
Cave or Caving, to allow the roof to fall by removing the supports or waste packs.
Caved-in, ground where the roof has fallen or where the sides of the roadway have collapsed.
Cavils, Cavels or Cavills, a type of lottery system or draw by which is decided the working place (cavil or cavel) of each individual hewer. (N.East).- see Kyevilin day.
Caving, method of mining which allows the waste area behind the face to collapse on the removal of supports.
Cavity packing, roadside packs built in two sections with a space between them. Sometimes used to promote better roof control. Also called ‘double packing’.
Chawdpies, i.e. ‘cold pies’, referring to any accident to the tram causing a disappointment.
Cellar coal, any seam lying a short distance below a main seam in which sumps or cellars are made. (Lancs.).
Central gate, the main gate positioned centrally between, and shared by, two adjacent faces. i.e. a middle gate.
Ceentre leg, a prop placed under the centre of a baulk, arch or girder.
Cementstone, impure argillacous limestone.
Chaffingdish or Lamp of Fire. A fire basket lit and suspended in the upcast shaft to heat the air and promote ventilation in the mine. (N. Staffs.).
Chain Coal-cutter, it cut a groove in the coal by means of an endless chain travelling round a flat plate called a jib. The chain consisted of a number of chain boxes each with a cutter pick. The cutter pulled itself along the face by a rope.
Chain conveyor or Scraper chain conveyor. - see Armoured flexible conveyor.
Chain of dippers or Chain of buckets, an early device for removing water from a mine – at regular intervals on the outside of a revolving chain were attached oblong buckets or oxhide dippers.
Chain-wall, a system of working by means of wide rooms and long narrow pillars, sometimes called ‘room and rance’. (Scot.).
Chain runner, Chain boy or Chain man, a person in charge of, and who accompanies, trains of hutches in mechanical haulage. (Scot.).
Chainless haulage, a rack and pinion mechanism between the armoured face conveyor and the shearer.
Chair, another word for ‘cage’.(Derbys., Durham).
Chaldron, the Newcastle chaldron was a measure containing 53 cwts. of coal.
Chalker-on, -see Craneman.
Chalking deal, a flat board upon which the craneman or flat-lad apportions and keeps account of the work done by the putters in the district of which he has charge, (N.East).
Chance or Chance Band, an irregular, often nodular, band of ironstone. (N.Staffs.).
Chandler. In the early days of mining the chandler was employed at the colliery to manufacture candles.
Chap, -see Sounding and Jowl.
Char, coke or more usually calcined ironstone. (Scot.).
Chargeman or Chargehand, a working foreman or team leader who is not a mine official.
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 ride the cage.
Check, - see Motty, Pin, Tally and Token.
Check grieve, a person who checks the weight of mineral at a colliery on behalf of the landlord. (Scot.).
Check man, a man who kept a record of miners’ tokens sent out on their loaded coal tubs.
Check out, where there is a meeting of the roof and pavement, the seam being thereby cut off, a want. (Scot.).
Checker packs, square packs placed in a chess board pattern. Adopted where the available stowing material was not sufficient for complete packing of the waste.
Check rail. two rails mounted on a track in such a way as to force derailed tubs to come back on the track.
Checkweighman, person employed by the miners to verify the weights of the tubs; a ‘Justiceman’ in Scotland.
Check viewer, a viewer employed by the lessor to see that the provisions of the coal lease are duly observed.
Cheek. The side of the roadway.
Cheeking, stripping the sides of a roadway.
Cheeseblock, a wooden wedge, placed between the rails, used for stopping tubs running downhill. Also called a ‘Dumpling’. (Yorks.).
Cheeses, clay ironstone in cheese-shaped nodules. (Derbys.).
Chemist's coal, an ancient term given to a particular kind of hard splint coal which used to be carried by women in their shifts or chemises, out of the mines. The word ‘chemise’ became changed to chemists. (Scot.).
Cherker, -see Cathead or Cat-heed.
Cherry coal, a freely burning non-caking coal with a shiny resinous lustre, giving a bright flame. (Scot.).
Chest, a wheeled box used to carry water also called a ‘veal’ or ‘voun’. (Scot.).
Chesting, drawing water by means of a chest or veal. (Scot.).
Chews or Chows, coal filled with a harp, i.e. middling sized pieces of coal. (Scot.).
Chimney work, a system of working thick beds of clay ironstone. The debris left from working the bottom beds was used as a platform to work the higher beds.
Chinley, Chinglees or Shingly coals, coals that are neither round (or large) nor small, but are such that they will pass over the screens and are some of the best coals, (N.East); or pieces of coal the size of marbles.
Chirls or Churrels, coal which passes through a harp i.e. small coal free from dross or dirt. (Scot.).
Chitter a seam of coal overlying another one at a short distance. (Lancs.); or waste rock broken during mining and picked or washed out from the coal.
Chittery coal, bright coal, free from fusain or muddy partings, with a conchoidal fracture and brittle nature. (Yorks.) i.e tending to chip.
Chock, a roof support made of interlaced horizontal, usually square, sections of timber (usually hardwood) about 2 feet long and 6 inches square. The centre of the chock would sometimes be filled with rubble, special devices called chock releases chould be incorporated in the chocks so that they could be easily released when under the pressure of the roof at the time they had to be withdrawn, also called ‘cogs’ or ‘stacks’; but the term cog was sometimes applied to chocks made up of round timber; or the name for a modern hydraulic powered roof support, or hydraulic chock; or blocks of hardwood used to prevent the escape of tubs or wagons down an incline.
Chock blocks, square section, rectangular wooden blocks used to assemble a chock.
Chock fitter, the man in charge of maintaining the coalface hydraulic supports. Sometimes called the ‘Dowty fitter’.
Chock release, an arrangement consisting of two wedges kept together by a locking device. When unlocked the wedges fall apart and allow the quick dismantling of the chock.
Chocker on. Two rails mounted on a track in such a way as to force derailed tubs back onto the rails. i.e. a check rail/s.
Chokedamp or blackdamp, an accumulation of carbon dioxide.
Chogs, blocks of wood used as packing behind the pipes in a pumping shaft. (Yorks.).
Chummings (chum’uns), empty tubs. (N.East).(‘Chum’ means anything empty).
Cinder, inferior ironstone. (N. Staffs.).
Cinder coal. Coal near a ‘trap’ or a ‘whin dyke’, which has been altered by the heat of the hot rock.
Circular arch, a roadway support consisting of an ‘H’ section girder of circular form and usually made in three or more parts joined together by bolted fishplates. The finished roadway resembled a tube.
Clacks, flaps used for ventilation control in the mine, often made of thick rubber sheeting.
Claggy, a seam of coal is said to have a ‘claggy’ top when it adheres to the roof and is with difficulty separated, (N.East). Also applies to the floor.
Clam, a clip used for retaining pipes or electrical cables etc.; or a haulage clip, an appliance for attaching mine-cars or tubs to a haulage rope.
Clamp, a heap in which iron ore, mixed with coal, is calcined.
Clann(e)y or Chenny, a type of safety lamp.
Clarain, a coal type with a satin-like lustre made up of thin laminae of vitrinite set in a very fine ground-mass of plant debris.
Clarty, muddy. (N.East).
Clatch harness or Clatch iron, the cross bar of iron attached to the fall of the rope with chains and hook at each end to suspend the corve by. (Yorks.).
Clay-back, a back slip in a coal seam containing a clayey deposit.
Clayband, an argillaceous ironstone, usually found in bands a few inches in thickness, or in nodules.
Clay-dyke, a vertical fissure sometimes met with in coal seams, which has been filled in with clay.
Clay-seam, inferior coal between the Hards and Top Softs of the Barnsley Seam. (Yorks.).
Clay-seam dirt, a clay parting between the Clay Seam and the Top Softs of the Barnsley Seam. (Yorks.).
Clead, to cover with planks or deals, (N.East).
Cleading, the rope grooves in a winding drum; or a term for Lagging.
Clean coal, a coal seam free from dirt partings; or coal from which impurities have been separated.
Clean locker, the locker in the pit head baths where a miner stores his everyday clean clothes between shifts. - see also Dirty locker.
Cleaning in, -see Bannocking.
Cleaning up, filling coal or stone from where it has fallen, cleaning up spillages.
Cleat, small-scale distinctive joint set (‘the cleat’) confined within the coal seam, arranged subnormal to bed boundaries. There are usually two orthogonal sets at about 85 degrees. One is usually prominent and is called the ‘main cleat’(also called the ‘Face cleat’,‘Bord cleat’ or sometimes the ‘Slynes’), the other being the subsidiary cleat (called the ‘Back’, ‘Butt’ or ‘End’ cleat). Individual cleats are commonly restricted by coal beds of different coal types and only sometimes extend through more than a few 10s mm. Cleat frequencies are typically >30/m in most bright coals and measurable displacement is essentially absent although slickensides are seen, particularly on any mineralised coatings and probably relate to later movement. Also called ‘backs’ (Derbys.). –see also Slip. Also the name given to a small piece of wood used on top of sprags and in timbering, also called a ‘glut’ or ‘timp’.
Cleat spar, whitish, crystalline mineral usually mixed carbonates of iron, lime and magnesium (ankerite) in the cleat of coal.
Cleavings, the horizontal partings in coal seams which divide the coal into separate beds.
Cleek, a hook. In former times the baskets in which the coal was drawn up the shaft were attached to the rope by a cleek, and the cleek in course of time came to mean the whole organization for raising the coal from a colliery. Hence stopping the cleek or stegging the cleek, i.e., causing an interruption of the output of the coal. (Scot.).
Cleek coal, coal as it comes from the pit, i.e. run-of-mine. (Scot.).
Cleeksman or Cleekie, the person who unhooked the baskets of coal at the pithead; a pit-headman. (Scot.).
Cleft, -see Reed. (Scot.).
Clevis or Clivey, a spring-loaded hook attached to the winding rope; or a shackle for the easy coupling and uncoupling on chain haulage, winding etc.
Cliffe’s Hook, a safety device comprising a spring attached to the end of the gin rope to stop the loose bar from disengaging.
Clift or Cliff, another word for hard ‘shale’ or shaley sandstone. (S.Wales).
Clift-cwar or Clift-qwar, another word for ‘siltstone’. (S.Wales).
Clip, a metal device provided with two jaws which are being pressed by a handle, used for attaching tubs to the rope of an endless rope haulage.
Clipper on, the man who attaches and detaches tubs on and from the rope of an endless rope haulage.
Clippers or Clippus, the hook used in shaft sinking to attach the rope to the corf, a corruption of Cliffe's hook; or the ‘Clipper’ is a person who attaches clips to a moving endless rope used for haulage.
Clivvy hook, the hook which attaches the rope to the kibble or hoppit in shaft sinking and is provided with a special locking tongue,designed to suit the particular form of kibble in use; or a safety link, also called a ‘Clevis’, used for attaching tubs to a rope.
Clod or Clot, a soft shale lying directly above the coal seam. It invariably falls as the coal is taken from beneath it and has to be separated from the coal and discarded. Often traversed by numerous oblique, discontinuous, slippery surfaces (slickensides or listric surfaces). Also known as clot. (Som.). In the Bristol area it was called ‘come-down’ or ‘comb-dung’; or a thick fireclay above or below a seam of coal. (Lancs.), (Scot.); also known as bannocking dirt or was a decomposed shale (Yorks.). Clod was also a term used for any lenticular or irregular friable dirt below, and particularly above a coal seam. Clay or soft mudstone. (S. Wales).
Clod coal, strong homogeneous coal. (Scot.).
Clog, a sledge loaded with stones and dragged around by the gin, to which it acts as a brake; or a flat wedge over a post –see Lid.
Clour, a small depression of roof into the coal, mostly in a post roof, (N.East).
Closer, a short link rail.
Close place, a narrow drift without a separate air return. (Scot.).
Clump, -see Clunch. (Lancs.).
Clunch, an unlaminated mudstone with rootlets, the fireclay floor or seatearth underclay of some coal seams, also known as ‘spavin’ - see Stone clunch.
Coal auger, a special type of continuous miner consisting of a large diameter screw drill which cuts, transports and loads the coal on to vehicles or a conveyor.
Coal balls, nodular calcareous rounded inclusions in coal seams, often containing well preserved plant fragments.
Coal Burster or Hydraulic Cartridge, an appliance for loosening coal by means of high pressure water or oil. It consisted of a round stainless steel bar with small telescopic rams acting on a steel liner in a shothole.
Coal cleaning, a process that separates coal from other foreign material such as shale or sandstone etc. usually utilising the difference in their specific gravities. The unwanted material is generally heavier than the coal.
Coal cutter, -see Cutter.
Coal drawing, the extraction, haulage and winding of coal from the face to the pit head.
Coal face, the place where the coal is hewed or won.
Coal face working or weighting, movement of the coal due to strata pressure. –see Weight and Weighting.
Coal fauld, a storing place for coal. (Scot.).
Coal heugh, a place where coal is dug, a coal pit. (Scot.).
Coal flour, very fine coal dust.
Coal gate, the main gate or roadway leading away from a coalface along which the coal travels, either in tubs on a haulage road or by conveyor belt. Sometimes called the ‘mothergate’. (Mids.). - see also Main gate.
Coal head, the working place in a coal heading.
Coal hill, ground occupied at a pithead or mine-mouth for colliery purposes. (Scot.).
Coalite, trade name for a smokeless fuel produced by carbonising coal at a temperature of about 600ºC.
Coal jig or Wash box, a plunger type of jig used to wash or separate coal from shale and other impurities, working on the principle of density difference. Principally consisting of a perforated plate upon which the run of mine coal rests and alternative upwards and downwards currents of water are passed through by the action of plungers causing the lighter coal to stratify in the upper layers of the bed and the heavier refuse to settle to the lower layers for removal.
Coal leads, thin veins of coal in a fault zone.
Coal metals, strata in which coal seams occur. (Scot.).
Coal plough, -see Plough.
Coal pipe, the carbonized bark of a fossil plant; also a very thin seam or scare of coal, (N.East).
Coal preparation plant, the place on the surface of the mine that cleans the coal and prepares it for sale. Also called the ‘Coal Washery’ or ‘Washery’.
Coal Reserves,the economically mineable part of the coal resource.
Coal Resource,coal in the ground with reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction.
Coal rith or Coal ree, a sale place for coal other than at a colliery. (Scot.).
Coaling money, money, probably about a guinea, paid to the sinkers and labourers after shaft sinking was completed – presumably successfully. (N. East).
Cob, a small pillar of coal left to support the roof.
Cobbles, the market name for coal of the size of a double-fist, about 3 to 6 inches in dimensions.
Cobs or Cobbles, large lumps of coal. Cobs were larger than cobbles. (Lancs); or a graded size of anthracite below large coal, about 5 inches (13 cm).
Cockelshell, black shale full of mussels (Particularly in the Adwalton Stone Coal, (Yorks.)).
Cocker, roadway timber support consisting of two uprights and two bars forming the cross-member in the roof in the shape of a shallow inverted ‘V’. (N.Staffs.); or inclined prop set against overhanging coal tops for safety reasons. (S.Staffs.).
Cockermegs or Cockersprags, a set of three sprags to hold the coal on the face during holing. One 6ft sprag is placed horizontally in the middle of the seam and the other two 3ft sprags are set at an angle up to the roof and down to the floor from this middle sprag. (N.Staffs.). Also called a ‘ Reeple’.
Cockering, herring-bone supports. A method of support by which a centre support, of beams or bars of timber running longitudinally along the roof of the roadway is supported systematically by inclined struts or props with their base spragged in the side of the road. The whole structure having a herring-bone like appearance. (N.Staffs.).
Cockle Bed, fossil band comprising non-marine lamellibranches or ‘mussels’.
Cockwood, an 8 – 10 inch offcut piece of wood taken home and used for firelighting. (S.Staffs.).
Cod, a bearing of cast iron, bolted to the underside of a tram, (N.East).
Codger, rear box and roller at the tail end of the face around which the conveyor belt makes its return run. (N. East).
Coffering, -see Tubbing.
Cog, square support made up of small lengths of square cross-sectional timber. –see Chocks and Stacks; or a stone support for the waste area immediately behind the coal face. (S.Staffs.). -see Chock.
Cog and rung gin, an early form of winding plant operated by horses. This comprised a drum with spokes or rungs, working on a horizontal shaft and mounted directly over the mine shaft. The drum was driven by a crude horizontal cog wheekl the vertical shaft of which was rotated by a long pole or lever to the outer end of which was harnessed a horse or horses, which ran in a circular track around the shaft top. –see Horse whim.
Cogger, a miner engaged on building cogs.
Cogging, another term for Lagging.
Coke, the cellular residue from the carbonisation of a coking coal in commercial ovens or retorts at a temperatures of about 900ºC.
Coke breeze, the finer coke products from coke ovens and gas works, used in the manufacture of breeze concrete.
Coking coal, distinguished from other bituminous coals by its property of undergoing partial fusion on heating and the evolution of gases resulting in a cellular structure to the coke formed.
Collar, the mouth of the pit shaft; or timbers around the mouth of the pumping shaft which supported the pumping set; or the top bar of a wooden roadway support set. -see Head piece, Cross-piece, Bar or Crowntree.
Collar clip, resembling a pair of blacksmith’s tongs, the main part was about 10 inches long, the top made into a hook to attach it to the drawbar of the tub. The bottom part formed jaws which were kept together or opened by a hoop which slid up and down the clip.
Collaring buntons, buntons in a shaft for steadying the pumps and taking the vibration.
Collier, a term derived from the word ‘colled’ meaning the slow burning of wood to form charcoal. Originally this term was used for the men who stacked the cordwood for making the charcoal. It was later adopted to refer to the coal miner.
Colliery Agent, a colliery official with a status between the manager and the owner.
Collins Miner, a remote controlled continuous miner for thin seam extraction. The coal was extracted in a series of parallel ‘stalls’, 6-7ft wide and 100 yards long. The extraction was controlled entirely from the roadway at the entrance to each stall and the cutting unit carried with it an automatically extending belt conveyor, ventilation ducting and cables for power and control. The machine was conceived by Mr H. E. Collins of the N.C.B.
Colzaline, a petroleum spirit used to fuel safety lamps.
Composite seam, a seam composed of two or more layers, separated by clean partings or dirt bands. e.g. South Staffs. Thick Coal.
Compound ventilation. Ventilation by means of a number of splits.
Concealed Coalfield, the part of the coalfield where the coal measures are covered by younger rock strata such as the Permo-Trias. –See also Exposed Coalfield.
Concessionary coal, - see Allowance coal.
Condie, another term for Waste.
Conductor, another name for a shaft guide rope or guides.
Conduits, -see Congates.
Congates, near horizontal drivages driven cross-measures through a thick coal seam. (S.Staffs.). Also called ‘conduits’.
Conical dum, a grooved drum of varying diameter used for winding ropes.
Conicycle, early underground airborne dust spot sampling instrument.
Conny, Coombe Coal (Notts.).
Consideration, compensation paid to hewers for unforeseen difficulties met with in their work.
Continuous cogs, a chock devised and used in N. Staffs., (Talk O’ th’ Hill Colliery), erected along the roadside forming a good air-tight packing. The timbers were side-lapped at their ends.
Continuous miner, a machine designed principally for driving headings in coal. It cuts the coal and loads it. ‘Joy’ was one of the common types.
Contraband, matches, lighters, cigarettes, etc. banned in the mine.
Contra coup or Counter coup, dip in an opposite direction. (Scot.).
Control Room, the main communications centre for the colliery.
Convergence, the movement of the roof and floor towards each other after removal of mineral (rock or coal or both). The rate is measured as either the convergence for a given advance of the face or in a given time.
Conveyor track, the part of a longwall face occupied by the face conveyor.
Convoy, the brake formerly applied to one of the wheels of a coal wagon, (N.East).
Conway Attachment, a device used, when the Sylvester box has reached the end of its travel along the ratchet, to hold the pull on the Sylvester whilst the box is moved into a new position.
Coom, wooden centering for an arch, hence the roof of a mine or roadway is said to be “coomed” when it is arch shaped; or soot , the dust of coal (Scot.).
Cooperise, a crowbar (Yorks.). – see also Gavelock.
Coreplugs, -see Stemming.
Corf, Caurf, Corfe or Corve, (Dutch: Korf), a large wicker basket, usually made of hazel, used for transporting coal from the workings underground to the surface. The corf held about 4 to 7 cwt. of coal; or a shallow wooden box on runners like a sled used for hauling coal out of low workings. (Derbys.); or a measure of capacity for coal used throughout the British coalfields. The weight of the corf varied from area to area and over a period of time. Also called ‘pit boxes’, - see also Creel.
Corf batter, boy who dried the wet corf over a brazier and cleaned off the dirt and mud before it was sent back down the pit.
Corf bow, a metal bow which was fitted to the corf to hang it on the winding rope.
Corner, -see Carvings.
Corner rackings, triangular beams of wood used at the corners of rectangular shafts.
Corners, bands of clay-ironstone. (S. Wales).
Cornish, cannel coal or anthracitized cannel. –see Bast. (S. Wales).
Corrity, cross-bedded.
Corrity stone bind, stone bind in alternate layers of yellow brown and grey; short grained (Yorks.).
Cottered, a term applied to stone or coal when hard or tough, (N.East).
Coup, an exchange of cavils, (N.East); or a bank, or face of a bing, where debris is tipped; or to overturn. (Scot.).
Coup up, a recess in a single road where empty hutches are thrown off the road to allow full ones to pass. (Scot.).
Coupler, a man or boy who coupled tubs together; the term also applied to the coupling device.
Coupt or Coup, to turn over a tub or part of a machine. (N. East).
Course, -see Strike.
Coursing, a more efficient way of conducting air through the mine by means of partitions and stoppings. Coursed ventilation – ventilation by the same air current without splitting.
Coursing or Pillar airing, a method of ventilation in gassy pits where the ventilation current is channelled or ‘coursed’ (or ‘shethed’ in the N. East) through the waste.
Cousie, a self-acting incline. (Scot.).
Cover or Cover rock, the strata overlying a coal seam; or the earth and soft material from the surface down to the first layer of rock.
Cow, a safety device attached to the back tub of a ‘run’ on a steep inclined road. (N.East). - see Backstay, Devil and Monkey. If attached to the axle – called an ‘Axle Cow’.
Cowl, a type of hudge for winding water from the sump to the surface. Often fitted with a valve that opened automatically for filling and emptying. (Som.);; or an attachment on a ranging arm of a coal cutter or shearer to suppress dust and direct coal onto the armoured face conveyor.
Crab or Ground crab, a type of windlass used underground near the face. (Lancs.); or a type of capstan usually worked by horses and used for raising and lowering heavy weights such as pumps etc. in the shaft.
Cracket, a low wooden stool or seat used by the hewer when under-cutting the coal. (N.East). - see also Cratch and Stool.
Cracks, end joints, cutters, the secondary joints in strata, usually at right angles to backs. (Scot.).
Cradle, a suspended scaffold used in the shaft when repairs were being carried out or during sinking. In later years the shaft men would work from the top of the cage; or a loop made of chain in which men were lowered and raised in the shaft before the advent of the cage. (Mids.). - see also Bant; or a guide used to guide ropes around bends in haulage roads.
Cradling, the stone walling in a shaft.
Cramp, a device for bending tub rails to set the track around a curve on the haulage road. - see also Jim Crow and Rail bender.
Crampet, a bracket used in a pumping shaft to hold the pumps and pipes in place. (Derbys.).
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, (N.East).
Crane boards, a return airway connected directly with the furnace. (N.East).
Crane brae, a short incline in steep working. (Scot.).
Crane place, the place in the pit where baskets of coal are transferred from the inbye rollies, using cranes, to the railway wagons (tubs) for onward transport to the shaft, (N.East).
Crank, small coals. (S.Wales).
Cranky, early nickname for a pitman. Also called a ‘pit-yacker’.
Craneman or Crane-hoister, a boy managing the crane by which the corves are transferred from the tram to the rolleys and for ‘chalking-on’, i.e. keeping an account of the number transferred. (N.East). –see Flatman.
Crapply, friable.
Crash packing, a technique which allows the roof to cave in under it's own weight as the face advances, thus filling in the waste. Also known as ‘cropping’, ‘drawing the wood’ or ‘total caving’.
Cratch or Cratcher, a small stool of varying design used by colliers when holing-out under the coal particularly when working inclined seams. (Lancs.). - see also Cracket and Stool.
Craw coal, Craws or Crow, a thin seam of inferior coal. (Scot.).
Craw picker, a person who picked stone from coal or shale at the pit top. (Scot.).
Crawley, a short chain conveyor connecting the face conveyor with belt road conveyor.
Crease, a wooden tramway on inclines down which iron shod sledges slide. (Som.).
Creel, a wicker basket used by ‘bearers’ for carrying coal on their back with a head strap for steadying. (Scot.); or a large wicker basket used for winding coal up the shaft. (Scots.).
Creep and Thrust. The gradual lifting of the floor or the gradual caving of the roof and sides caused by the weight of the surrounding strata. –see also Heave and Squeeze.
Creeper, a mechanical device, such as a powered chain drive, placed between the rails to assist tubs or mine cars, by engaging the axles of the mine cars, up short inclines or to advance mine cars at a loader or in the pit bottom.
Creeshy (Greasy) blaes, nodules of bituminous shale which fall out when the coal is worked away from beneath them. (Scot.).
Cribs, segments of timber, iron or concrete, encircling a shaft to form a foundation for the walling or tubbing, also known as a ‘curb’. They were supported at intervals, generally of about 3ft, by a few vertical props and were hung together by planks, termed ‘stringing deals’, which were nailed against them.
Cribbing, a mode of lining a shaft, where great pressure of water had to be withstood, by means of cribs of oak built one upon other, carefully bedded and tightly wedged.
Crocodile, two hindged flat plates approx 2 feet wide, placed on the floor to protect cables during shot firing.
Cronjie, another name for a Sylvester. Also called a ‘Buller’. (S. Wales).
Crop, where a seam of coal rises to and is exposed at the surface, short for ‘outcrop’; or to leave a portion of coal at the bottom of a seam in working; also to set out, (N.East). – see also Basset.
Crop coal, bottom coal inadvertently left between the undercut and the intended floor, and subsequently removed to maintain the true floor horizon. Also a term used for coal worked at outcrop, sometimes illegally.
Croppers, shots place around the sides of a sinking shaft after the ‘sumping shots’ have been fired.
Cropping, - see Crash packing; also a fine for not sending out a full tub.
Cross-cut or crut, a roadway connecting two other more important roads; or a double-handled saw; or a roadway driven at an angle to the bords and headways; or a roadway driven through the strata from one seam to another where the seams are steeply inclined, also called a ‘cross measures drivage’ or a ‘cross measures drift’.
Cross fault, a fault connecting two larger parallel faults.
Crossgate, a roadway driven at approximately 30-45º to the main gate roads, also known as a ‘slant’, used to illiminate the need to maintain long lengths of gate roads and to facilitate the removal of coal from the face and gates to the main haulage in longwall working. Can be driven in the goaf and is then known as a ‘scour’ or ‘gob level’. Also called a ‘deep-head’ or ‘drift road’.
Cross-marras, miners who shared the same workplace, but on a different shift. (N. East).
Cross measures drift, -see Cross Cut or Crut.
Cross pack, packs arranged across from one roadside pack to another or from one longitudinal pack to another to check the leakage of air through the waste.
Cross-piece, -see Collar, Bar and Crowntree.
Crow coal, a term sometimes used for anthracite due to its shiny black appearance.
Crow picker, -see Craw picker and Batt-picker.
Crown or Crowntree, a flat bar or ‘cross-piece’ used in roof support, (Mids.); or the centre section of a metal arched roof support. Also known in other coalfields as a ‘bow’; or an iron socket on the end of the winding rope that was attached to the cage chains. It was in use before the development of safety devices to prevent overwinding. (Som.).
Crown down, an old term for ripping or taking down the roof of a roadway to make more headroom. (Bris., Som.).
Crowned, when the roof lids and posts all fit well together. (N.Staffs.).
Crown-in, collapse at the surface due to subsidence forming a ‘crown hole’, a circular depression or hole.
Crowntrees, half-round lengths of timber fixed under a roof of a working place. (Scot.).
Crow-stone, a term used for ‘ganister’.
Crozzle, to cake or harden, e.g. crozzling- the aggregation of coal when burning, usually in coke making. (Derbys.); or contorted non-carbonaceous shale. (N. Staffs.).
Crucible Swelling Number,a number derived from the shape of a coke button obtained from a British Standard laboratory test involving heating a sample of coking coal in a crucible of a particular shape. The higher the number, the better the coking properties.
Crump, - see Bump or Weight.
Crush, the crumbling of pillars or the sides of roadways due to strata pressures.
Crusher, a machine for reducing the size of stone, rock or coal.
Crust, whitish fine sandstone, (Shrops.).
Crut, a cross-measure tunnel or drift.
Crutter, person working in a crut, driving cross measures roadways.
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.
Cuckoo shots, explosive shots fired in the roof of a longwall working between the coal face and the waste, or in any waste area.
Cuddie or Cuddy, a bogie loaded with weights, as in: ‘Cuddie brae’- a self-acting incline where the cuddie was used to counter balance the weight of the full hutches being lowered down the steep inclined road. (Scots.).
Culm, an inferior type of anthracite or the smalls and slack of smokeless coal. (S.Wales).
Cundie or Cundy, a low narrow passage cut between two roadways to allow supplies to pass through or for ventilation - see also Slit, Sniggett and Snicket; or a water culvert or drain; or the unfilled space between two packwalls; or, in steep longwall workings, a long narrow roadway without rails down which the coal was rolled to be loaded into ‘hutches’ at the bottom; or another word for the Waste, (Scot.).
Cupola, a chimney erected above or close to the upcast shaft to carry away the smoke from the ventilation furnace; or another name for the ventilation furnace.
Curb, a shaft support ring for walling or ‘tubbing’ made of timber (about 4 inches square) or cast iron. - see also Crib. Wooden curbs supported the cleading or backing deals which retained the loose rubbish or sides of the shaft.
Curl-stone, ironstone exhibiting cone-in-cone structure. (Shrops.).
Curly cannel, a variety of cannel coal which brakes with a small conchoidal fracture, used chiefly for the manufacture of paraffin oil. See also Smooth cannel and Bad cannel. (N. Wales).
Curry pit, a hole, or shallow shaft, between two coal seams, used as a return airway. (Leics.).
Curtilage, the area of land enclosed for Colliery use.
Curving, cutting into the whole coal as the preparatory course to blasting or wedging it down, undercutting the coal.
Curvings, the debris produced, mainly small coal chippings, from the process of curving or undercutting.
Cushion pack, a pack formed with loose dirt without walls.
Cut, a shaft underground from one seam to another. – see Drop Shaft and Staple; or a stint; or a machine cut in a coal seam.
Cut-chain inclines, inclines using chains with links where tubs can be attached at intermediate points. (Scot.).
Cut-off, a break in the roof next to the face. –see also Guttering.
Cut over, -see Boxed.
Cutter chain, the endless chain carrying picks which travels around the jib of a chain coal cutter.
Cutter or Coal cutter, a name given to several different types of coal cutting machines, but particularly one that has a flat jib fitted with a chain and cutter picks, used mainly to undercut the coal prior to firing down with explosives. Also the name given to the operator of these machines.
Cutter loader, a machine that cuts coal from the face and loads it on to a conveyor.
Cutter pick, a replaceable cutting tool in a machine used for mining coal or for ripping.
Cuttery, much intersected with joints or fissures, e.g., cutlery sandstone. (Scot.).
Cutting, -see Carvings.
Cutting horizon, a level, usually predetermined, at which a cut is made in the coal on the coalface. This will often be a line in the seam at some distance below the roof or above the floor.
Cutting nog, -see Nog.
Cutting side, -see Fast side.
Cwar, another word for sandstone. (S. Wales).
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