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COAL AND COAL-MINING 
 
 EY WABINGTON W. SMYTH, M.A., F.K.S., PKES.G. 
 
 CHIEF INSPKCTOR OF THE MINKS OF THK CKOWN AND Of THE 
 DUCHi* OF OOKXWALL 
 
 STRAHAN & CO., PUBLISHERS 
 
 56 LUDGATE HILL, LONDON 
 
 1869 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE following pages have been written as an ele- 
 mentary account of Coal, and the modes of working 
 and raising it from the pits. Those who are familiar 
 with the details of this great branch of British 
 mdustry may probably object to the brevity with 
 which portions of the subject have been treated ; 
 but I must plead in reply the narrow limits allotted 
 me. I have endeavoured as far as possible to 
 supply a general view of the methods and appliances 
 employed in various districts, giving the fuller promi- 
 nence to a description of the principal coal-producing 
 regions at home and abroad, and of the various pre- 
 cautions needed for the preservation of human life. 
 
 Public attention has been forcibly called, whilst this 
 work was in the printer's hands, to the question of the 
 duration of the coalfields ; and the Royal Commission, 
 appointed during the last session of Parliament, tes- 
 tifies to the importance of providing our political 
 economists with more accurate data than it has 
 hitherto been possible to obtain. In my closing 
 chapter the same topic has been somewhat briefly 
 
 303505 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 handled ; and as I have dwelt, not on speculations, but 
 on statistical facts and personal observation, I have 
 seen no grounds, in the numerous speeches and 
 writings produced within the last six months, for 
 wishing to modify my statements. 
 
 Finally, whilst I would refer the student for ampler 
 details to the treatises of M. Combes, M. Ponson, 
 and M. Burat, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Greenwell, Mr. Hedley, 
 and to other works mentioned in my text, I trust that 
 this little introduction to Coal-mining bears internal 
 evidence of not being mere extract of books, and that 
 whilst intended mainly to convey sound informa- 
 tion to the unpractised it may, nevertheless, contain 
 matter of interest for viewers and overmen, to a long 
 list of whom I have to express my thanks for many an 
 instructive and agreeable day underground. 
 
 w. w. s. 
 
 LONDON, September, 1866. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEK I. PAGK 
 
 THE USE OF COAL: ITS COMMENCEMENT AND EXTENSION , . 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MODE OF OCCURRENCE OF CoAL 15 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 ORGANIC REMAINS, AND ORIGIN OF COAL 28 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 COALFIELDS OF THE NORTH 44 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 COALFIELDS OF CENTRAL ENGLAND 54 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 COALFIELDS OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND, SOUTH WALESA <ND IRELAND 64 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 CONTINENTAL EUROPEAN COALFIELDS .... 72 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 COAL OF NORTH AMERICA .87 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 COALFIEIDS OF ASIA AND OF THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE 98 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. PAGE 
 
 SEARCH FOR COAL; BORING; AND SINKING OF SHAFTS . . 104 
 
 ^CHAPTER XI. 
 DRIVING OF LEVELS AND CUTTING THE COAL . . . - . 120 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 POST-AND-STALL, AND LONG WORK . . . . . S 130 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 CONVEYANCE UNDERGROUND 146 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 RAISING THE MINERAL IN THE SHAFTS . * . . .159 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 DRAINAGE AND PUMPING 176 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 LIGHTING OF THE WORKINGS . .190 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 VENTILATION . 202 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 COLLIERY ACCIDENTS AND THEIR PREVENTION . . . .221 
 
 CHAPTER XIX, 
 
 DURATION OF THE BRITISH COALFIELDS , . . . 237 
 
COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE USE OF COAL I ITS COMMENCEMENT AND EXTENSION. 
 
 IN these our modern days, surrounded as we are by 
 coal fires, steam, and coal products, it is somewhat 
 difficult to imagine ourselves in the position of the 
 early writers on natural history, who touched with 
 uncertain pen on what they thought to be the leading 
 characters of a rare and ambiguous mineral. Many 
 of the passages which have been quoted from ancient 
 authors as indicating a knowledge of the use of coal 
 have no reference whatever to the substance to which 
 we now give the name, but indicate simply charcoal, or 
 even wood-fuel. The translators of the Scriptures have 
 thus employed the word coal in the same sense as the 
 Greek anthrax, the Latin carlo, and the German kohle; 
 the same, in fact, as was usual in our own language, 
 until wood and charcoal came to be supplanted as fuel 
 by their stony relative. 
 
 Certain varieties of this mineral were noticed by the 
 ancients, although with little idea of the probability 
 of their receiving any extensive application. Thus 
 Theophrastus, the pupil of Aristotle, in an oft-quoted 
 passage, described, nearly 300 years B.C., a fossil or 
 
 B 
 
2:*- :*'."! ^COA AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 stone coal of an earthy character, found in Liguria 
 (now the province of Genoa), and in Elis, on the way to 
 Olympias, capable of* kindling and burning like char- 
 coal, and employed by smiths. Ampelitis, a black 
 stone " like bitumen," and Gagates, or jet, are men- 
 tioned by Pliny and others as available for medicinal 
 or ornamental purposes ; but neither the naturalists 
 who endeavoured to describe the various products of 
 creation, nor the historians who enumerated the sources 
 of wealth of particular countries, leave us the impres- 
 sion of their having seen or heard of a generally useful 
 fossil fuel. It has been attempted to show that the 
 early Britons worked coal ; and a stone axe, stated by 
 Pennant to have been found in the out-crop of a coal 
 seam in Wales, has been well-nigh worn out in the 
 service; but we have no satisfactory evidence on the 
 subject prior to the later days of the Roman occupation? 
 when roads had been carried through many of the coal- 
 producing districts. Coal cinders have been found 
 amid the ruins of several of the Roman stations in 
 Durham, Northumberland, and Lancashire, and more 
 recently at Wroxeter, the ancient Uriconium, the 
 destruction of which place dates, according to Mr. 
 Thomas Wright, F.S.A., from the 6th century.* 
 
 It is not until the thirteenth century that we obtain 
 clear proof that coals were systematically raised for fuel. 
 In 1239 King Henry III. is stated to have granted a 
 charter for this purpose to the townsmen of Newcastle- 
 on-Tyne ; and so early was the produce of their pits 
 attracted to the devouring focus of London, that by the 
 beginning of the next century great complaint arose on 
 
 * The cinders were still on the ground adjoining the baths when 
 the British Association excursion visited the spot in September, 1 865. 
 
THE USE OF COAL 3 
 
 the injury done by the coal smoke to the health of the 
 citizens. In 1306, on petition by Parliament, King 
 Edward I., says Stowe, "by proclamation, prohibyted 
 the burneing of sea-coale in London and the suburbs, 
 to avoid the sulfr-rous smoke and savour of the firing; 
 and in the same proclamation commanded all persons 
 to make their fires of wood." Not twenty years, how- 
 ever, passed away before the inevitable consequence of 
 a gradually pressing scarcity of wood followed; the 
 banished " sea-coale " again sailed up the Thames, 
 landed in the capital, and actually effected a lodgment 
 in the royal palace.* From that time forth, with a 
 temporary check during the civil wars, the coal trade 
 grew with the growth of the population, especially of 
 London and the east coast, and pari passu with the 
 rapid destruction of the forests. 
 
 On the Continent the coal basin of Zwickau, in 
 Saxony, appears to have been the earliest known in 
 Germany, and it is said that its working can be carried 
 back to the time of the Sorben wends, about the tenth 
 century. In 1348 the metal-workers of that town were 
 forbidden to pollute the air with the smoke of coal. 
 In Westphalia coals seem to have been dug near Dort- 
 mund as early as 1302. 
 
 The first mention of coal-mining in Scotland occurs 
 in a grant executed in 1291 in favour of the abbot and 
 convent of Dunfermline. Coal was probably worked 
 on a small scale in several of the English and Welsh 
 districts about this time ; and we have the evidence of 
 the quaint old traveller, Marco Polo, to show that the 
 Chinese were at the same epoch well acquainted with 
 its use. 
 
 * "The History of Fossil Fuel." London, 1841. 
 B 2 
 
i COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 One of the earliest manufactures which depended on 
 the use of coal was glass -making, commenced about 
 1619 on the banks *of the Tyne. In the year 1635 a 
 proclamation of King Charles, prohibiting the impor- 
 tation of foreign glass, set forth that " Sir Robert 
 Mansell had by his industry and great expense per- 
 fected that manufacture with sea-coal, or pit-coal, 
 whereby not only the woods and timber of this king- 
 dom are greatly preserved, but the making of all kinds 
 of glass is established here, to the saving of much 
 treasure at home, and the employment of great num- 
 bers of our people." 
 
 Up to the end of the seventeenth century pit-coal 
 was employed for little else than household purposes ; 
 but it is not possible to obtain statistics of the quan- 
 tities raised, excepting the amounts which were shipped. 
 London and the east and south-east coast, as well as 
 some continental ports, were supplied by Newcastle 
 and Sunderland, which, about 1704, shipped off in a 
 year respectively 
 
 178,143 chaldrons, or 473,080 tons, 
 
 and 
 65,760 chaldrons, or 174,264 tons. 
 
 In 1750 the vend from both ports together amounted 
 to 1,193,457 tons. 
 
 Dublin and the east coast of Ireland were supplied 
 from Flintshire and Whitehaven ; whilst the require- 
 ments of the rest of the country were variously con- 
 tributed to by small workings in the Lancashire, Staf- 
 fordshire, Warwickshire, and other coalfields. Many 
 experiments had in the meanwhile been tried in Staf- 
 fordshire and the Forest of Dean to substitute pit-coal 
 for wood-coal in the smelting of iron ; but before this 
 
THE USE OF COAL. 
 
 great revolution in commerce could be accomplished, 
 about one hundred and twenty years were to be occu- 
 pied in trials, disappointments, losses, and delays. 
 
 Meanwhile the beginning of the eighteenth century 
 was marked by the first wavering steps of the infant, 
 Steam, so soon to develop into the mighty giant, 
 depending for his strength on coal, himself making 
 possible the extraction of the fuel from amid dif- 
 ficulties till then insurmountable, and opening out a 
 thousand new methods for its consumption and appli- 
 cation. Thus far coal had been valued for the pro- 
 duction of HEAT only : it was now to enter upon a 
 second phase of usefulness that of the generation of 
 FORCE. Already ingenious minds had pondered on the 
 possibility of raising water from the mines by aid of 
 the power of steam. Solomon de Caus, a French 
 engineer, in his work, published in 1615, entitled 
 " Les Raisons des Forces Mouvantes," proposed the 
 experiment in scientific terms ; and the Marquis of 
 Worcester, in his " Century of Inventions," in 1655, 
 rather dimly foreshadowed what might be done. But 
 it was reserved for our countryman, Captain Thomas 
 Savery, to apply the steam practically by the intro- 
 duction of the principle of a vacuum, and to erect 
 engines for the actual unwatering of mines at Great 
 Work, in the parish of Breage, Cornwall, and in 
 several other localities. In his paper, read to the 
 Royal Society in 1699, and in his treatise, " The 
 Miner's Friend," 1702, Savery describes the construc- 
 tion of his fire-engine, and renders it very clear that 
 although the coals to be used were to be " of as little 
 value as the coals commonly burned in the mouths of 
 the coal-pits are," this ingenious invention, in which 
 
6 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 tlie water was first "sucked up" into a receiver by 
 condensing the steam within it, and then forced up a 
 stand-pipe by the direct impulse of the steam, required 
 at least another step to fit it for general application. 
 This step was the interposition of a piston, on the 
 surface of which the steam should exert its power ; 
 and the application was ere long made by Newconien. 
 Some years, however, before this, Dr. Papin, a French 
 refugee, had proposed an engine, in which a piston 
 working in a cylinder should be raised by the explosive 
 force of gunpowder, and then depressed, on the con- 
 densation of the -gases, by atmospheric pressure. Soon 
 afterwards he endeavoured to obtain the same result, so 
 difficult of regulation with gunpowder, by introducing 
 the elastic power of steam.* But although experiments 
 were made at certain mines in the Auvergne and in 
 Westphalia, Papin'"s contrivance was so far unsuccessful. 
 Newcomen appears to have been assisted by the 
 suggestions of Dr. Hooke, the secretary of the Royal 
 Society, and to have first tried his " fire-engine " on 
 the large scale at a colliery near Wolverhampton. His 
 mode of condensation by cooling the outside of the 
 cylinder at every stroke proved to be inefficient, and it 
 was only when he introduced an internal jet of cold 
 water that success became decided. In concert with 
 his assistant, Galley of Dartmouth, he erected near 
 Newcastle and in Yorkshire several engines of 23 
 inches cylinder, and in 1720 constructed at Wheal 
 Fortune, in Ludgvan, an engine with cylinder of 
 47 inches diameter, working 15-inch pumps, to be 
 soon followed by others at Wheal Rose, near Redruth, 
 
 * The engine with its piston (pistittum] is described and figured in 
 the " Acta Eruditorum," LipsisB, 1707. 
 
THE USE OF COAL. 7 
 
 Wheal Busy, and Polgooth mines. Coal was burnt 
 under their clumsy dome-shaped boilers at a fearful 
 rate ; but what matter ? It must be done, if the hid- 
 den treasures of tin in the west, and coal in the north 
 were to be followed up to depths that had been proved 
 unattainable by aid of the water-power at the com- 
 mand of the mines. The convenience with which the 
 new invention could be applied caused it again often 
 to be used as a lifter of water to the top of water- 
 wheels ; and thus whether applying its force directly or 
 indirectly, it prospered, and spread through the length 
 and breadth of the land. A few of these old New- 
 comens, or atmospheric engines, working the pump- 
 rods with the intervention of a horizontal " beam," or 
 " bob," and more or less patched and modified, have 
 survived even to our own times. 
 
 About the time that the miners began to employ on 
 a large scale the facilities afforded them by the new 
 fire-engine, there arose from another side an applica- 
 tion of coal, founded upon its calorific power and on 
 the action of the gaseous products of its combustion. 
 Between 1730 and 1735, Mr. Abraham Darby, of Coal- 
 brook Dale, in Shropshire, succeeded at length, through 
 the introduction of the process of coking, in smelting 
 iron with pit-coal. The iron trade of Great Britain 
 had at that period sunk to a very low ebb, but was now 
 destined to rise to a height which is one of the great 
 marvels of all the world, and that in a chief measure 
 by the employment of the beds of mineral fuel so won- 
 drously stored up in close proximity to the iron ores 
 which have formed the great staple of our manufacture. 
 
 Still, during all this period we have no general 
 statistics of coal. More and more of it came to be 
 
COAL AND COAL-MINING . 
 
 consumed as wood became yearly more scarce, and as 
 population and commerce increased. After the middle 
 of the eighteenth century a more scientific treatment 
 of the fuel and of the steam to be raised by its aid 
 began to occupy attention, and the devices which had 
 for their object the economisation of coal, very soon, 
 successful as they were, increased a hundredfold the 
 consumption of the very substance they sought to 
 spare. Foremost among these was James Watt's 
 admirably reasoned contrivance of a separate vessel 
 for the condensation of the steam ; and then followed, 
 with the rapid distribution of " Boulton and Watt's " 
 engines over the whole civilised world, a series of 
 improvements, originating in great part among the 
 uncertain adventures of the Cornish tin and copper 
 mines, where economy of fuel became one of the 
 manifest elements of mining success. The names of 
 Murdock, Woolf, Hornblower, Trevithick, and Grose 
 are household words with the miners who are conscious 
 of the great extension of enterprise which has become 
 possible in consequence of the successive introduction 
 of plunger pumps, high -pressure steam, expansive 
 action, tubular boilers, and the clothing of steam pipes 
 and cylinders. True that each of these inventions has 
 had for its aim the reduction of the cost of fuel in pro- 
 portion to the work done ; but the result is an enormously 
 increased aggregate consumption of coal, with a still 
 more greatly multiplied amount of work done directly, 
 and a superlative increase in the general traffic and 
 prosperity of the kingdom. 
 
 About the year 1803 there was brought into practical 
 application another grand employment of coal the 
 production of LIGHT. For upwards of a century 
 
THE USE OF COAL. 9 
 
 various experiments, and latterly on a manufacturing 
 scale, had been made on the distillation of coal in order 
 to procure tar and oils, whilst the application of the 
 invisible gases produced was strangely neglected, 
 notwithstanding attention had been called to the 
 moderately lighting properties of the fire-damp so 
 largely evolved from many of the northern collieries. 
 Soon after 1792, Murdock, the engineer in charge of 
 some of Boulton and Watt's engines, suggested that 
 the gas might be conducted through tubes and em- 
 ployed as an economical substitute for lamps and 
 candles. To light him on his homeward way over 
 the Cornish downs he used to carry a bag of gas 
 under his arm with a lighted jet before him, and 
 tradition still tells of his frightening the superstitious 
 miners whom he met in the dark, by a sudden squeeze 
 of his bag, which threw out a long flame, taken assuredly 
 for the fiery tongue of the arch demon himself. 
 
 The rapid extension of the gas manufacture within 
 the last two generations need not be dwelt upon, and 
 the vast quantities of fossil fuel now employed for this 
 indispensable adjunct of our modern civilisation may 
 be imagined when it is remembered that hardly a town 
 exists within moderate distance of a coalfield or of 
 the sea coast, in which gas is not used for the lighting 
 of the thoroughfares as well as for that of public and 
 private buildings. 
 
 The year 1830 witnessed the commencement of 
 another great drain upon our coal-mines, accompanied 
 it is true with enormous advantages to other trades, 
 but also originating in what appeared to be a more 
 economical use of coal. The application of the fiot 
 blast, by Neilson, to iron furnaces, begun at the Scotch 
 
10 COAL AND COAL-MINES. 
 
 works, saved so large a proportion of the coal needed 
 for the smelting of each ton of pig-iron, that the great 
 majority of the ironworks were forced by competition 
 to adopt the same method; and in spite of a very 
 common belief that the quality of the produce was 
 thereby injured, the result has been an enormous in- 
 crease of the total quantity of coal used for this purpoGe, 
 with a much greater increase to the iron trade. If we 
 take, as an example, the results in Scotland, we find 
 that the ton of pig-iron, as made in 1829 at the Clyde 
 Iron Works, required the coke of 8 tons 1 cwt. of 
 coal, whilst in the following year the introduction of 
 air heated to 300 Fahr. brought down the consumption 
 per ton of pig to 5 tons 3 cwts. Eight cwts. of coal 
 were consumed in heating the blast, so that the actual 
 saving per ton of pig-iron was 2^ tons. In 1833, when 
 raw coal had come to be used instead of coke, 1 ton of 
 pig-iron was made with 2 tons 5J cwts. of coal, which, 
 with 8 cwts. for heating the blast, made a total of 2 
 tons 13 cwts. Hence by the application of the hot 
 blast, the same amount of fuel reduced three times as 
 much iron, and the same amount of blast did twice as 
 much work as previously.* 
 
 Now the production of pig-iron in Scotland has risen 
 as follows : 
 
 Tons. 
 
 1820 20,000. 
 
 1830 37,500. 
 
 1839 200,000. 
 
 1851 775,000. 
 
 1861 950,000. 
 
 1864 1,158,750. 
 
 Whence, at the rates above quoted, the total con- 
 
 * Percy's " Metallurgy of Iron," p. 398. 
 
THE USE OF COAL. 11 
 
 sumption of coal in iron smelting would have been, in 
 
 Tons. 
 
 1820 161,250. 
 
 1864 2,621,671. 
 
 It must not however be concluded that this enormous 
 development in the Scotch trade was due to the hot 
 blast alone. Concurrent with that great improvement 
 was the employment of the abundant and economical 
 mixture, the " blackband," for the discovery of which 
 Britain is indebted to Mr. Mushet. But the main fact 
 remains that every advance which tends to cheapen 
 the productions of manufacture enlarges so widely the 
 field of operations, that coal, the basis of the whole of 
 them, is always demanded in ever-increasing quantity. 
 
 In the absence of accurate data it is estimated that 
 in Great Britain about ten millions of tons of coal were 
 raised in a year at the beginning of this century. The 
 continental production at the time was exceedingly 
 small, the backwardness of many manufactures and 
 the large expanses of forest land having delayed the 
 necessity for turning to subterranean fuel. Within a 
 short time after the conclusion of the great war, steam- 
 engines were rapidly supplanting or acting as auxiliaries 
 to water power, and the coalfields of our own and 
 foreign districts became the scene of more active re- 
 searches. But it was not until the facilitation of traffic 
 by means of steamboats and railroads, that the steady, 
 absorbing march of the present epoch commenced. 
 When between 1829 and 1835, the locomotive engines 
 running on wrought-iron lines, and the coasting and 
 sea-going steamers, were proved to be a triumphant 
 success, leading to imitation in foreign countries, and to 
 enormous multiplication in our own, a new system of 
 
12 COAL AND COAL-MINES. 
 
 the distribution of raw material may almost be said to 
 have been started. Nowhere is the result more striking 
 than in the London* district, which now receives by 
 sea, railway, and canal, upwards of Jive millions of tons 
 per annum, or doubtless more than the production of 
 the entire kingdom in the earlier years of George III. 
 
 Many new and striking applications of coal have 
 within the last few years rewarded the exertions of 
 chemists. The once useless and fetid products of its 
 distillation have been made to yield sweet scents and 
 savours. From its naphtha are obtained the paraffine oil 
 and the beautiful translucent solid paraffine, which in 
 brilliancy and purity excels wax itself; and from its 
 aniline are obtained a galaxy of brilliant colours, among 
 which need only be mentioned the popular mauve and 
 magenta to prove the varied forms under which the 
 products of coal have found their way into the useful 
 arts. 
 
 The International Exhibition of 1851, possible only 
 under these conditions of mechanical advancement to 
 which we have referred, naturally directed the attention 
 of inquirers more forcibly to the statistics of mineral 
 produce. It was roughly estimated that for 1850 
 the production of all the British coal-mines was 
 42,000,000 tons ; France was raising 4,433,000 tons ; 
 Prussia and Belgium followed, with smaller quantities ; 
 and then Austria, with a little above 1,000,000 tons. 
 
 In 1853, Mr. T. Y. Hall, of Newcastle, after much 
 investigation, stated the British production to be 
 56,550,000 tons. 
 
 At length, in 1854, through the instrumentality of 
 Mr. Robert Hunt, of the Government Mining Record 
 Office, aided by the recently appointed inspectors of 
 
THE USE OF COAL. 
 
 13 
 
 1854 
 
 64,661,401, oi 
 
 'wh 
 
 1855 
 
 64,453,070 
 
 > 
 
 1856 
 
 66,645,450 
 
 
 
 1857 
 
 65,394,707 
 
 
 1858 
 
 65,008,649 
 
 
 1859 
 
 71,979,765 
 
 
 1860 
 
 83,208,581 
 
 
 1861 
 
 85,635,214 
 
 
 1862 
 
 83,638,338 
 
 
 1863 
 
 88,292,215 
 
 
 1864 
 
 92,787,873 
 
 
 1865 
 
 98,150,587 
 
 
 
 coal-mines, we obtain reliable statistics ; and the 
 following table will command the attention, if it does 
 not excite the astonishment, of every reader. 
 
 COAL PRODUCTION OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 Tons. Tons. 
 
 4,976,902. 
 
 5,879,779. 
 
 6,737,718. 
 
 6,529,483.* 
 
 7,081,949. 
 
 7,412,575. 
 
 7,222,718. 
 
 7,694,558. 
 
 7,529,341. 
 
 8,063,846. 
 
 9,170,477. 
 
 The vast quantity represented by these figures may 
 be brought before the eye by the following comparisons, 
 supposing that we take the approximation of one ton 
 being, as it lies densely packed in the earth, one cubic 
 yard. If we take the area of Lincoln's Inn Fields, 
 measured up close to the houses, at eleven acres, about 
 the dimensions of the base of the Great Pyramid, and 
 could stack the coal as nature has done in the seams, 
 the British coal raised last year would form, on that 
 base, a solid block of the height of 5,229 feet, or as 
 high as Snowdon surmounted by another mountain of 
 half its height. 
 
 Again, taking the distance from London to Edin- 
 burgh, four hundred miles, the same quantity, similarly 
 packed, would build a wall the whole way, of twelve 
 
 * The exports of 1854 to 1858 are from the returns to the House of 
 Commons, the remaining numbers are taken from the statistics com- 
 piled by Mr. Robert Hunt, F.R.S., Mining Record Office, Museum of 
 Practical Geology. 
 
14 COAL AND COAL-MINES. 
 
 feet thick and ninety -nine feet high; whilst if put 
 together in the broken state in which coal is commonly 
 used, it would give a wall of more than double that 
 thickness. 
 
 This yearly production, obtained by the labour of 
 about 240,000 men, is palpably a gigantic effort for so 
 small an area as that of our united coalfields, and 
 naturally excites apprehension for the future. 
 
 The statistics of the produce of the mines of most 
 of the European countries are well kept up, although a 
 few can only be roughly estimated, and it is interesting 
 to compare the 
 
 ANNUAL AMOUNT PRODUCED BY THE CHIEF COAL-BEARING COUNTRIES. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Great Britain and Ireland (1864) . . . 92,787,873. 
 United States of America . . . (about) 14,000,000. 
 Prussia, including Silesia, &c. (1864) . . 21,197,265.* 
 
 Saxony (1863) 2,331,083.* 
 
 Zollverein States, besides the two last (1863) 1,704,340.* 
 
 Austria (1862) 4,573,031.f 
 
 Belgium (1864) 1,000,000. 
 
 France (1864) 11,100,000. 
 
 British American Colonies (1863) . . . 652,854. J 
 Spain ... . . . . . 353,346. 
 
 It is hence evident that although our favoured 
 country has so long taken the lead, all civilised 
 countries have entered into the race of competition; 
 and it becomes a matter of anxious inquiry to learn 
 under what circumstances the treasure is in each 
 country developed, and where it is likely to be best 
 expended or longest economised. 
 
 * Given in the official statistics in zollcentner t of which 20 = 1 ton 
 early. 
 
 f The Vienna centner is 56 kilogrammes, the zollcentner 50. 
 % Report of Chief Commissioner of Mines, Halifax, 1865. 
 
MODE OF OCCURRENCE OF COAT,. 16 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MODE OF OCCURRENCE OF COAL. 
 
 THE substance receiving the name of true coal (in 
 contradistinction to lignite and brown coal) is, in 
 almost all the coal-producing countries, found in beds 
 or seams divided from one another by more or less 
 thick strata or beds of shale, sandstone or grit, and 
 indurated clay, the whole being termed collectively the 
 Coal Measures, and belonging to a still larger group of 
 stratified rocks called the Carboniferous Formation or 
 System (Systeme kouilliere, or anthraxifere, Fr. Stein- 
 kohlen-gebirge, Ger.). 
 
 It is difficult to define exactly what constitutes a 
 Coal. Several legal trials on a grand scale, in Edin- 
 burgh, London, and in Prussia, have only succeeded in 
 making it more clear than ever that no suitable de- 
 finition exists, and that whilst all parties may agree in 
 recognising the characters of a typical coal, differences 
 of opinion will soon arise when the substance to be 
 determined approaches the boundary of the shales and 
 of the bitumens. 
 
 It is obviously loose to assert that " anything is a 
 coal which is dug out of the earth and will burn ; " 
 whilst on the other hand it is inconveniently strict to 
 demand any approach to a definite composition as 
 indispensable to coal. We may fairly require of it 
 that it be black or dark brown, capable of direct 
 employment in furnaces and fire-places for the pro- 
 duction of heat, brittle, and not soluble like the 
 bitumens in ether, oil of turpentine, or benzole. The 
 
16 COAL AND COAL-MINES. 
 
 following are the chief characters of the various sub- 
 stances regarded as coals. 
 
 ANTHRACITE (Stone, Kilkenny, or Crow-coal). 
 Black, with black streak ; fracture, conchoidal ; does 
 not soil the fingers; specific gravity, 1*3 to 1'75; less 
 easily kindled than other kinds of coal ; often decrepi- 
 tates much in burning ; composition, carbon in great 
 proportion, generally 90 to 95 per cent., hydrogen, 
 oxygen, and nitrogen in minute quantities. 
 
 BITUMINOUS COAL. Black, of various shades, streak 
 sometimes greyish black ; lustre, more waxy than that 
 of anthracite, in some varieties dull ; fracture, sub- 
 conchoidal to uneven, the substance often divided bj 
 cleats or joints into parallel-faced figures (cubical coal, 
 dicey, <fc.) ; specific gravity, 1*25 to 1-4; composition, 
 generally from 73 to 90 per cent, of carbon, 8 to 22 
 per cent, of oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, with (as 
 in anthracite) a variable amount (3 to 30 per cent.) of 
 earthy matter constituting the "ash." 
 
 The term bituminous coal is somewhat deceptive, and 
 it must be remembered that it does not mean that any 
 bitumen (or mineral pitch, soluble in ether, &c.) is 
 contained in it, but that the gases, oxygen, hydrogen, 
 and nitrogen, enter more largely into its composition 
 than in anthracite, and give it a more flaming character 
 in burning. The varieties generally recognised are 
 mostly named after their application or chief proper- 
 ties : Free-burning, steam or smokeless coal, non-caking 
 coal. These, in different grades, approach towards the 
 anthracites, and are chiefly valued for engine and smelt- 
 ing purposes. They often exhibit, in parts of the seams 
 at least, a peculiar fibrous structure, passing into a 
 singular toothed arrangement of the particles, called 
 
MODE OF OCCURRENCE OF COAL. 27 
 
 cone-in-cone, or " crytallised coal." Some of these 
 " dry " coals will coke, but the smalls, from their not 
 agglutinating, cannot be used for that purpose. With 
 the addition, however, of pitch or tar to the amount of 
 8 or 10 per cent., the small may be made into " patent 
 fuel," or " agglomerated coal/' 
 
 Caking-coals are those which tend to partially fuse 
 when burning ; emitting jets of gas, and, as a rule, 
 giving off abundant flame and smoke. The " household 
 coals " are generally of this variety, and are valued 
 in great measure according to their freedom from ash. 
 The " smalls " have the valuable property of fusing 
 together into large masses when duly heated ; whence 
 they are abundantly turned into coke for iron-smelting 
 and for burning in locomotives. 
 
 A single seam or bed often contains layers of 
 different descriptions of coal, which may in some 
 cases advantageously be divided from one another and 
 separately sold for divers commercial purposes. 
 
 A remarkable instance of this was noticed by me in 
 the " Top-hard," a famous Derbyshire and Yorkshire 
 seam, at Handsworth, where its aggregate thickness 
 was 55 inches. The divisions were as follows : 
 
 Inches. 
 
 Roof coal . . . 2 
 
 
 Batt (black shale) . 2 
 
 useless, thrown away. 
 
 ' 
 
 Brassy piece (pyritous) 5 > 
 
 
 Rough, bright . 4 
 
 for house fires. 
 
 Best bright . 
 
 . 4 
 
 good for making soft coke. 
 
 Top hard . 
 
 ' 4 1 
 
 
 Dead bed . 
 
 . 8 
 
 "converting" coal, for steel making. 
 
 Bottom hard 
 
 . f] 
 
 
 Rough bright 
 
 . 6 
 
 for house fires. 
 
 Soft bright . 
 
 . 3 
 
 for soft coke. 
 
 Dirt, parting, 
 
 9 to 12 
 
 
 Holing coal . 
 
 . 4 
 
 very dusty soft coal 
 
18 COAL AND COAL-MINES. 
 
 Cannel is commonly considered a variety of bitu- 
 minous coal, with the beds of which it is not unfre- 
 quently associated id parallel layers ; but it is a fair 
 question whether it should not, in scientific nomen- 
 clature, be separated from the coals proper. It is black 
 or brownish, dull in lustre, breaks with a flat con- 
 choidal fracture, is not made up like ordinary coal of 
 thin laminae, does not soil the fingers, often contains 
 teeth and scales of fishes, and, according to some of 
 our best microscopists, is readily distinguishable from 
 coal by the general absence of vegetable structure. Its 
 name, from cannyl, a " candle," is derived from the 
 readiness with which it lights and gives off a steady 
 flame. Some varieties, however parrot coal (Scot- 
 land) and rattlers (Yorkshire) decrepitate and crack 
 loudly on the fire. Cannel is largely employed for 
 gas-making. 
 
 It is by no means easy, if at all feasible, to draw a 
 distinct line of demarcation between cannel and the 
 black basses, bats, or crisp shales, which occur in the 
 coal measures, but contain too much earthy matter to 
 allow them to be of present value. And between all 
 these and the torbanite, or " Boghead mineral," there 
 exists a relationship which makes the difference only 
 one of degree. This last is a brown, tough substance, 
 containing little more than 9 per cent, of carbon, 60 to 
 69 per cent, of volatile matter, and the "ash" so abun- 
 dant and so equably diffused through the mass, that 
 when the mineral has been " burnt," or had the vola- 
 tile parts extracted by distillation, it is taken out of 
 the retort blanched in colour, but in volume looking 
 just as when it was put in. Its great value con- 
 sists in its oil and gas-yielding properties a ton of 
 
MODE OF OCCURRENCE OF COAL. 19 
 
 this mineral giving as much as 15,400 cubic feet of 
 gas, whilst good cannels give but 8,000 to 10,000 
 feet. Torbanite is classed by some authors as a dis- 
 tinct mineral species, and by others as a bituminous 
 shale. 
 
 Lastly, we have BROWN COAL, or LIGNITE, a mineral 
 more distinctly than any of the foregoing formed 
 of a mass of vegetable matter; some stems, in fact 
 (lignite proper), presenting the appearance of unde- 
 composed wood. Colour, brown to pitch-black ; lustre 
 sometimes resinous, sometimes dull ; specific gravity 
 0*5 to 1*5; fracture various; burns easily, with a 
 smoky flame and unpleasant odour. Composition, 
 50 to 70 per cent, of carbon, a much larger proportion 
 of oxygen than in the bituminous coals, hydrogen and 
 nitrogen about the same. A large amount of water 
 generally present. Varieties of it are termed accord- 
 ing to their aggregation pitchy-coal (peck kohle\ 
 slaty-coal (schiefer kohle), paper-coal or dysodil, bast- 
 coal, needle-coal, and earthy-coal. 
 
 Certain examples of the brown coal of the better 
 sort so closely resemble the good bituminous coals as 
 to be indistinguishable by any trenchant ditference of 
 composition in appearance. It has, however, been 
 usual to apply this name to all the coals which occur 
 in formations more recent than the true carboniferous 
 period. Thus the name brown coal not a very happy 
 one embraces as many qualities and varieties as does 
 the old family name COAL, from which it is now held to 
 be a distinct off-shoot. 
 
 For a general account of the geological phenomena 
 which have to do with the occurrence of the coal- 
 measures, we must refer the reader to the " Treatise 
 
 c 2 
 
20 COAL AND COAL-MINES. 
 
 on Geology," by the late General Portlock,* or to some 
 of the various " handbooks " and " manuals " already 
 before the public. We have only space in the present 
 little volume to deal with those parts of the subject 
 which are more specially related to the finding and 
 working of coal. 
 
 Our descriptions will almost entirely have reference 
 to the strata of the true carboniferous system, as being 
 without comparison the most important. It is there, 
 in the upper part of the Palaeozoic or "ancient life" 
 division of the earth's crust, that the great coalfields of 
 the world are sought out and worked. But some coun- 
 tries, as Italy, for example, are not fortunate enough to 
 possess any of these within the ken of man, and must 
 content themselves with brown coal alone ; others, like 
 Hungary, have brown coal of several successive periods 
 and of very different qualities. Much value will then 
 attach, locally, to this minority among the coals, and 
 the following table will show with clearness the succes- 
 sion of the entire series of strata in their true geo- 
 logical sequence, along with the different classes of 
 "oal which they have been proved to contain. 
 
 It is to be remembered that whilst the annexed table 
 exhibits the natural sequence where all the strata are 
 developed, it frequently happens that some of them are 
 missing from their places. Thus, in Belgium and 
 North France the coal-measures lie immediately be- 
 neath the chalk or cretaceous beds. In South Stafford- 
 shire the carboniferous limestone and other strata 
 under the coal, down to the Silurian rocks, are want- 
 ing. In South France (St. Etienne) all stratified 
 rocks are absent, and the coal-measures rest directly 
 
 * Weale's Kudimentary Series. 
 
TABLE OF THE STRATIFIED ROCKS. 
 
 Showing the position of Beds of Fossil Fuel. 
 
 
 Group. 
 
 Chief Divisions. 
 
 Locality of Coal or Brown Coal. 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 i 
 
 .2 
 
 a) C 
 S 
 
 Norwich Crag. 
 Bed and 
 Coralline Crag. 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 t> 
 
 
 
 H" 
 M 
 
 a> 
 
 1 
 
 Faluns of Touraine, 
 Molasse Sandstones, 
 &c. 
 
 Austrian Alps. 
 Germany. 
 Leafbeds in Mull. 
 Lignite in Antrim? 
 Vancouver Island. 
 Bovey, Devon (Heer). 
 
 g 
 
 EH 
 
 i g 
 
 W 
 
 Bagshot Sands. 
 London Clay. 
 Woolwich Beds, &e. 
 
 Tyrol, and the Venetian Alps. 
 South Styria, some beds of fathoms in 
 thickness. 
 
 d 
 
 o 
 
 Cretaceous. 
 
 Upper Chalk. 
 Lower Chalk. 
 Chalk Marl. 
 Upper Greensand. 
 Gault. 
 Lower Greensand. 
 
 Austrian Alps, in the Gosau beds. 
 Coal, up to 4ft. thick, Lettowitz, &c., in 
 Moravia. 
 
 Santa Fe de Bogota, South America. 
 
 w 
 g 
 
 Weal- 
 den. 
 
 Weald Clay. 
 Hastings Sand. 
 
 Good brown Coal beds in North Ger- 
 many. 
 
 SECONDARY, OR 
 
 Oolitic or 
 Jurassic. 
 
 Portland Oolites. 
 Oxford do. 
 Bath do. 
 
 The Lias. 
 
 Purbeck dirt-bed, with Lignite. 
 Mori, Tyrol. 
 Kimmeridge " coal." 
 Productive coal in Lower Oolite, Brora; 
 Yorkshire ; Pennsylvania. 
 Excellent coal at Funfkirchen, and 
 Steierdorf in South Hungary. 
 
 
 | 
 
 Rhcetic beds. 
 Keuper. 
 Muschelkalk. 
 New red Sandstone. 
 
 
 
 l| 
 
 *f 
 
 New red, in part. 
 Magnesian Limestone. 
 Lower red Sand. 
 
 Coalfields of India not older than this. 
 
 V, OR PALAEOZOIC. 
 
 TO 
 
 I 
 
 Coal-measures, often divi- 
 sible into 3 groups. 
 
 Millstone grit. 
 Carboniferous Limestone. 
 
 True Coal in England, Scotland, Wales, 
 France, Belgium, Prussia, Bohemia, 
 Moravia, Spain, the United States, 
 Nova Scotia. 
 Anthracite in South Wales, Ireland, 
 Pennsylvania. 
 Coals in North England. 
 Coal in Northumberland, Scotland, 
 Eussia. 
 
 PRIMAB 
 
 || 
 
 ft 
 
 Old red Sandstone. 
 Slaty rocks, 
 Killas, Sic. 
 
 New South Wales Coals appear to be- 
 long to period from hence up to the 
 Trias. 
 
 
 Silurian. 
 
 Ludlow rocks, &c. 
 Bala beds. 
 Llandeilo Flags. 
 Cambro-Silurian Slates. 
 
 Anthracite in Co. Cavan, and Isle of 
 Man (Laxey mine) ; Norway. 
 
22 COAL AND COAL-MINES. 
 
 upon granite. Similarly, it has to be borne in mind 
 that the coal itself may possibly not be present, al- 
 though the group abve it and the group below it may 
 be in their places ; but the order of the superposition is 
 never changed. 
 
 Those who learn their practical lesson in one single 
 coalfield are apt to acquire notions about the physical 
 conditions which require to be corrected by visits to 
 other districts, to make them capable of general appli- 
 cation. Thus, whilst the total thickness of the coal- 
 measures in Shropshire and South Staffordshire is only 
 from 1,000 to 1,600 feet in thickness, in North Staf- 
 fordshire it reaches 5,000 feet, in South Wales 14,000 
 or 15,000 feet, and in Saarbriicken, in Prussia, no less 
 than 20,000 feet. 
 
 The great bulk of the series of rocks, termed coal- 
 measures, consists of shales or indurated slaty clay, 
 variously coloured grey, bluish, or black (clod, bind, 
 batt, metal, &c., of the colliers) ; of dense clays, a bed 
 of which almost invariably underlies every seam of 
 coal (warrant, pounson, clunch, &c.) ; and of sandstone 
 (post, rock, or stone) of various degrees of hardness and 
 roughness of grain, though seldom containing pebbles, 
 except in the strata which occupy quite the lower part 
 of the series. The actual beds of coal, then, from an 
 inch or two thick, up to 8 or 10 feet (generally con- 
 sidered " workable" when above 18 inches or 2 feet in 
 thickness), and making up in the aggregate perhaps 
 100 feet of coal, form but an inconsiderable part, in 
 dimensions, of the great mass of rocks with which they 
 are interstratified. 
 
 Whatever may be the form of the surface of the 
 ground, it rarely happens that the coal-measures under 
 
MODE OF OCCURRENCE OF COAL. 23 
 
 it, whether deep or shallow, lie in a flat position for 
 more than a small distance. They are found to incline 
 (dip or pitch) more or less regularly from the moderate 
 angles of 6 or 8 to as much as 25 or 30, a " sharp 
 pitching," or even in exceptional cases to 70 or 80 
 (rearing or edge seams). , Whatever happens in this 
 way to one of the beds, the others are similarly affected, 
 because the strata throughout this system or group are 
 all conformable or parallel.* 
 
 The inclined position of the beds will necessarily 
 bring them at some point or other to the surface, un- 
 less they are overlaid by some newer formation de- 
 posited unconformably upon the ends of the upturned 
 strata. Hence it is that a great insight into the cha- 
 racter of a coal district may be obtained by a careful 
 study of the surface, especially in brook-courses, which 
 run more or less in the direction of the dip and rise of 
 the seams. If we follow out the subject over a larger 
 area, we shall find many variations to take place, and 
 the coalfield assuming a form which may be traced as 
 on a map if the tract be surrounded by older forma- 
 tions, but about which there will be uncertainty if the 
 measures are observed to dip beneath other and newer 
 groups of rock. When the beds dip for a while and 
 then ascend or rise, they form a trough or saddle, and 
 when they rise on all sides towards the surface, as in 
 the Forest of Dean, they constitute a basin. The out- 
 line of the shapes into which the coalfields have been 
 brought by the forces of elevation and depression may 
 be studied in the geological maps ; but where these 
 
 * Certainca ses have been observed in which, one portion of the coal- 
 measures is slightly unconformable to another ; but this does not 
 interfere with the doctrine of the general parallelism of the beds. 
 
24 COAL AND COAL-MINES. 
 
 forces have exercised their powers on a grander scale, 
 the measures are often folded back, corrugated, or con- 
 torted in such a manner as to present great complexity. 
 Examples of this may be seen in Pembrokeshire, at 
 Yobster, Somersetshire, and in the Belgian coalfield. 
 
 In addition to this general disturbance from the 
 original more or less horizontal position in which 
 the beds must have been deposited, they have been cut 
 through by inclined planes of fissure, and so dislocated 
 that they are now lower on the one side of the line of 
 fault than on the other. The amount of throw or leap 
 may be only a few inches or feet, in which case the 
 workings are not much affected ; but the movement 
 may in many instances be shown to have arrived at 
 hundreds, and more rarely, to thousands, of feet. A 
 great number of these troubles within a small space 
 may render a seam of coal so "faulty" as to be worth- 
 less ; whilst, if they are filled with clay, and suitably 
 distant from one another, they serve a useful purpose 
 in dividing a coalfield into water-tight compartments, 
 and a jealous eye is thence kept on their security. 
 
 If we now turn back from the larger view of the 
 whole group of strata, and look at the seam itself, we 
 shall- note, first, its thickness, an amount varying 
 generally from 18 inches to 8 feet. In Somersetshire 
 they contrive to work seams with only 11 inches of 
 coal ! At Whitehaven and in the upper measures in 
 Fintshire, seams of 10 and 12 feet thick are worked. 
 In South Staffordshire, 30 to 36 feet, at Pictou, Nova 
 Scotia, 36 feet, and at Pottsville, U.S., 40 feet, are the 
 thicknesses of exceptional seams, put together by the 
 superposition of several of ordinary dimensions. A 
 very thick one will rarely be of clean coal throughout \ 
 
MODE OF OCCURRENCE OF COAL. 25 
 
 partings will occur, of clod or various earthy material, 
 which, if of a few inches, may not occasion much in- 
 convenience, but if they get to be more than 18 inches 
 or 2 feet, may practically interfere with the possi- 
 bility of working advantageously. Iron pyrites or 
 brasses will sometimes run with a line of parting, and 
 needs to be carefully picked out. The partings are 
 often mere planes of division, and are then sometimes 
 smooth surfaces,s&'^s,requiring caution in undercutting ; 
 but are more generally films of black, soft, and fibrous 
 coaly matter, apparently made up of small fragments 
 of carbonised wood. Then comes the physical condition 
 of the coal, to whichever of the kinds above enumerated 
 it may belong. Is it dense, hard and unjointed, it 
 will be expensive to cut, but more valuable from giving 
 a large proportion of "round" or massive coal. Is it 
 divided, like the Derbyshire, by one set of backs or 
 faces, running most regularly parallel, it will need a 
 special direction of the working faces. Is it, on the 
 contrary, divided by two sets of divisional cleat, as in 
 some of the Northern coal, the direction is not so 
 important. These divisional planes are generally al- 
 most vertical, but in South Wales (Pontypool, Mer- 
 thyr, &c.) they dip at a considerable angle ; and when 
 they here and there meet a " rider " inclined the other 
 way, they form a loose mass of coal, very dangerous to 
 unwary colliers. 
 
 They&w, thill, or seat (pavement, Scot.), of the coal 
 is an underclay, generally good for fire-brick : if soft, it 
 is apt to heave, under the pressure from above, into the 
 opened roads, and greatly to multiply expenses. Here 
 and there a quartzose silt forms the seat, especially in 
 some of the lowest seams (Yorkshire, Lancashire, &c.) 
 
26 COAL AND COAL-MINES. 
 
 It is so hard as to make a capital road stone, known a 
 Canister, but bears the black rootlets thick in it, whic i 
 we see in the ordinary bottom-clay, spaven, or warrant 
 The ganister is commonly a foot or 20 inches in thick- 
 ness, and has clay again beneath it. 
 
 Lastly, the roof or top of the seam is one of the mos 
 important items in the economy of its working. A 
 good tenacious shale or bind is the most favourable. 
 But rock or sandstone roofs there are, which will hold 
 up for a very great breadth of ground, and come down 
 pretty manageably, whilst others can hardly be trusted. 
 It is most fortunate that the frequent planes of division 
 which almost invariably split up the coal, do not pass 
 up into the roofs. If the immediate cover of the coal 
 be too short or soft or cracky to stand well, it may be 
 necessary to leave some inches of coal as a roof, or 
 again (depending on the strata overhead), it may be 
 better to rip down a foot or two (or even four or five 
 feet sometimes) to afford security to the roads 
 
 It must not be forgotten that although the coal- 
 seams are, as a rule, more persistent and regular than 
 any of the beds of rock which accompany them, they 
 are subject to variations which may influence their 
 value, and often withia a small area. The thinning by 
 a gradual depression of the roof till sometimes the 
 entire coal is gone, but for a certain width only, is a 
 kind of fault (nip or wanf), that has often been noticed, 
 and is confined to one seam, not affecting, or only 
 slightly, those above it or below it. An interesting 
 example of this kind occurs at Denby Colliery, Derby- 
 shire, where a channel of 320 yards wide was found 
 eroded in the " deep hard" coal for half a mile in 
 length, whilst the next seam above it, the " upper soft 
 coal," has proved continuous, and been worked over the 
 
MODE OF OCCURRENCE OF COAL. 27 
 
 entire area. Another sort of thinning is where the 
 floor rises, if sharply, in a "hog-back" or saddle; ii 
 gently, like a swelling undulation, which subsides again 
 in 10, 20, or 40 yards, and is succeeded sometimes not 
 merely by the usual normal thickness of the coal, but 
 by an exceptional amount, to make up as it were for 
 the thinness to which it had before been reduced. 
 
 One of the most notable examples of this kind is in 
 the fine colliery of Seaton Delavel, where throughout a 
 depression of 1,000 yards in length between the old 
 and the new or Forster pits, and for 120 yards wide, 
 the seam is from six to seven feet thick, whilst on both 
 sides it dwindles rapidly till much of it is but 2 feet 
 6 inches, and has been unworkable. 
 
 In the Forest of Dean the Coleford high Delf seam, 
 averaging 4J feet thick, is here and there reduced to 
 much less, and then rapidly expands till (Miles' Level 
 colliery) it attains 9 and even 11 feet thickness. 
 Variations so considerable are more frequent in the 
 lower than the upper coals, and coupled with the 
 smoothly polished under surface which may occasionally 
 be noticed, lead me to think that the coal must have 
 remained in a plastic condition long after it was covered 
 up with sediment, and that it has been much squeezed 
 and moulded by the various movements to which the 
 strata have been subjected. 
 
 The introduction of bands of foreign matter, as part- 
 ings, between the laminae of the coal, has already been 
 described ; and these, so apt in particular districts to 
 multiply as well as to increase in bulk, are frequently 
 to be added to the other elements of uncertainty which, 
 in some regions more than others, render coal-mining 
 a more speculative undertaking than it at first sight 
 would appear to be. 
 
28 COAL AND COAL-MINES. 
 
 C5APTEK III. 
 
 ORGANIC REMAINS, AND ORIGIN OF COAL. 
 
 NOT a doubt can exist in the minds of those who have 
 either observed for themselves or fairly examined the 
 description of others, that the coal has been produced 
 from an accumulation of various kinds of trees and 
 smaller plants. The bed of fire-day or clunch which 
 lies beneath each seam is full of stems and dark fila- 
 ments ; the shale overhead is often so charged with the 
 brightly preserved fronds of ferns, flattened trunks of 
 trees, and various strange forms of leaf, as to rival all 
 that can be shown in a princely conservatory. The 
 sandstones contain fragmentary trunks and branches, 
 and the coal itself may be seen, on carefully dividing 
 its laminse, to show the impressions of numerous vege- 
 tables, with at intervals a film of soft silky " mineral 
 charcoal ; " whilst many parts in which the unassisted 
 eye can trace no structure, reveal in their slices under 
 the microscope plain traces of the Flora of the primeval 
 world. 
 
 These appearances vary much in different coalfields, 
 and in the different seams of a single field. Certain 
 authors, especially Dr. Goppert, of Breslau, are of 
 opinion that many seams can be safely distinguished 
 by the difference of the plants associated with them. 
 Mr. Salter, following Mr. Binney and Professor Phillips, 
 has recently endeavoured to show, for certain seams of 
 our own country, that there are useful distinguishing 
 characters in the animal remains (mollusca, fish, &c.) 
 which often occur in the roof shales. But the subject, 
 noble and every way interesting, has strangely been 
 
ORGANIC REMAINS, AND ORIGIN OF COAL. 
 
 left to the handling of occasional visitors of collieries, 
 and needs much further inquiry. 
 
 We will endeavour to put together a brief synopsis 
 of the principal forms of vegetation which are met with 
 in the coal-measures, premising only that whilst some 
 500 different plants, derived from this source, have 
 been described, a short sketch like the present will be 
 mainly useful if it lead the inquirer to study the works 
 of some of the authors who have contributed to this 
 branch of knowledge Witham, Lindley, and Hutton, 
 Brongniart, Goppert, Binney, Sternberg, Corda, 
 Dawson, Williamson, Hooker, and Bunbury. 
 
 SIGILLAEIA. A great proportion of the actual coal 
 appears to have been formed of the prostrate flattened 
 trunks of this tree, mostly by carbonised bark alone. 
 They are sometimes as much as 
 3 to 5 feet in diameter and 30 to 
 60 feet in length. Their beautiful 
 fluted and symmetrically scarred 
 patterns may often be seen cross- 
 ing one another in luxuriant confu- 
 sion in the roof from under which 
 the coal has been removed. I had 
 an excellent opportunity some 
 years ago, in conjunction with 
 Mr. Beete Jukes, of observing the 
 bared upper surfaces of successive 
 steps of the Dudley thick coal 
 when it was being worked open to 
 the daylight, and when they all 
 showed fine impressions of Sigil- 
 laria. 
 
 Some thirty-five species of this tree have been 
 described, but they appear to have no analogues in the 
 
 Fig. 1. Sigillaria elegans. 
 
 Forest of Dean. 
 (Half the natural size.) 
 
30 COAL AND COAL-MIXES. 
 
 present world. Sigillaria stems of full thickness and 
 a few feet in height are frequently found erect, some- 
 times hundreds together in a very small area. Often 
 they stand based close upon the seam of coal, and most 
 unfortunately for the safety of our colliers, since, 
 conical as they are, and generally surrounded by a 
 smooth surface, they are apt to drop out without warn- 
 ing, in a mass weighing from a few cwts. to a ton. They 
 are thus commonly known as bell-moulds, coal-pipes, 
 or cauldron-bottoms, and may be traced by a slight 
 circular outline, often formed of bright coal. 
 
 STIGMARIA. The curious plant found so universally 
 in the clays or indurated sills beneath the coal, was long 
 
 Fig. 2. Stigmaria ficoides. (Half natural size.) 
 
 supposed to belong to a distinct family, but the 
 researches of Mr. Binney in Lancashire, and Mr. 
 Richard Brown in Nova Scotia, have proved it to be 
 the root of Sigillaria. From the central boss great 
 
ORGANIC REMAINS, AND ORIGIN OF COAL. 31 
 
 cylindrical arras extended in every direction, branching 
 oftentimes into two, and the smaller ones into two 
 agfiin, and thus occupying an area of many yards. 
 From the little tubercles regularly arranged on the 
 root there branched off innumerable rootlets, which we 
 now find squeezed into narrow carbonised ribands, 
 confusedly interlaced with the clay, and stretching for 
 many feet away. These can only be seen fully developed 
 when the form has been preserved by being embedded 
 in a quartzose silt, like the ganister bed of some of 
 the lower coals, when it becomes evident that each was 
 attached by a curious rounded base resembling a ball 
 and socket joint. 
 
 LEPIDODENDRON. The trees of this beautifully 
 marked family also attained a length of upwards of forty 
 
 Fig. 3. Lepitloilendron obovatum. (Half natural size.) 
 (Le Botwood Colliery, Shropshire.) 
 
 feet, and are referred to some forty species. The size 
 is the more extraordinary when we find that they are 
 considered by botanists to belong to the Lycopodiacece 
 
32 
 
 COAL AND COAL-MINES. 
 
 or club-mosses, the largest of which now livmg in 
 tropical climates attains a height of only 3 feet. 
 
 An elegant cone^ often found well preserved in iron- 
 stone among the coal shales, and termed Lepidostrobus, 
 is now recognised as the fruit or catkin of the 
 Lepidodendron. 
 
 Halonia, a stem from 2 to 4 inches thick, looking in 
 outline like a knotty blackthorn, is reputed by Dawes 
 and others to be the root of Lepidodendron. 
 
 CALAMITES. Jointed and striated stems occurring 
 abundantly in some of the shales have been compared 
 by the unlearned with bamboo, and by the earlier fossil 
 botanists with Equiseta or " horse 
 tails," of gigantic dimensions. 
 But Brongniart in 1849 adduced 
 reasons for doubting its being a 
 cryptogamous or flowerless plant, 
 and the later observations of 
 Binney, Dawes, and Williamson 
 associate it with Calamodendron 
 as a concentric part of the same 
 trunk, but leave its affinities in 
 the modern world more uncertain 
 than ever. 
 
 The Calamites have also been 
 found in their original erect posi- 
 tion, the root end terminating in 
 a cone, for the most part curved.* 
 They seem to have formed a 
 dense brake of perhaps half the 
 height of the Sigillaria. 
 
 * The conical end used to be taken for the top of the stem, ana 
 sometimes by collectors for a fish's snout. 
 
 Fig. 4. Calamites decoratus. 
 
 Derbyshire. 
 (Half natural size.) 
 
ORGANIC REMAINS, AND ORIGIN OF COAL. 
 
 33 
 
 ASTEROPHYLLITES. Under this name are grouped 
 several kinds, perhaps genera of plant, characterised 
 by the graceful arrangement of their leaflets in the form 
 
 n 
 
 L 
 
 Fig. 5. Asterophyllites equisetiformis. Forest of Dean. (Natural size.) 
 
 of a star. Some of the botanical authorities incline to 
 consider it the foliage of the Calamodrendron, whilst 
 others annex it to the Sphenophyllum, or wedge-leaf, 
 and make the entire plant aquatic. 
 
 CONIFERS, or Firs. Among the trunks found 
 petrified in the sandstones, many exhibit under the 
 microscope a structure which proves them to belong to 
 the araucarian division of pines, of which the species 
 brought from Norfolk Island is a well-known modern 
 representative. The coal-pines were peculiar from 
 containing a very large pith, which, found separately 
 as a ringed cylinder, used to be described as an 
 independent plant, under the name Sternbergia. 
 Angular, nut-looking fruits, called Trigonocarpum, are 
 referred to this class of trees ; and it is surmised that 
 a roundish, veined leaf, which was formerly named 
 
34 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 CyclopteriS) as being a fern, may have been the foliage 
 of some of their species. 
 
 Again, in the films of soft mineral charcoal or 
 " mother-of-coal," which, of the thickness of a knife- 
 blade to a quarter of an inch (rarely), run evenly be- 
 tween the brighter laminae of the coal, frequent in 
 some, absent in other seams, the angular fragments 
 of woody-looking substance, all mashed up together, 
 present in many instances this araucarian structure. 
 Other portions exhibit a bast tissue, or elongated cells, 
 probably from wood of Sigillaria and Lepidodendron. 
 
 Of this confessedly highly-organised class of trees, 
 the most abundant remains are referred to one genus 
 called Dadoxylon. 
 
 FEKNS OB FILICITES. These graceful relics of a 
 former world of vegetation adorn the shaly roofs of 
 many of the coal seams, sometimes clearly spread with 
 their black tracery on a grey ground, a true specimen 
 of nature-printing; at others tossed and tumbled in 
 wild profusion throughout several feet in thickness of 
 the roof-stone. A careful eye, and still better if 
 aided by a microscope, may often see their traces in the 
 coal itself, and in some of its dull unpromising parts 
 may descry innumerable spiculae or hair-like needles, 
 which Dr. Dawson refers to the vascular bundles of 
 decomposed plants of this tribe. 
 
 Certain of the botanists have named and described 
 hundreds of species ; others, more cautious, remind us 
 that considerable difference of appearance may be seen 
 on the several fronds of one plant, or even on the 
 pinna of the same frond; and that the number of 
 species may thence have to be reduced. 
 
 A general resemblance to ferns of the present day 
 
ORGANIC REMAINS, AND ORIGIN OF COAL. 35 
 
 must not be confounded with identity of species or 
 
 Fig. 6. Pecopteris pteroides. (Hulf natural size.) (Forest of Dean.) 
 
 even genus. It is to be remembered that the whole 
 of the coal-measure ferns 
 are utterly extinct, and 
 their place in nature is 
 supplied by fresh races. 
 
 PECOPTERIS (adherent 
 fern). The name ALE- 
 THOPTERIS is given to 
 those species in which 
 the pinnules are long 
 and narrow. The leaflets 
 adhere by their base to 
 the rachis or stem, and 
 are traversed by a strong 
 mid-rib, from which veins 
 branch off almost perpen- 
 dicularly ; some of them 
 simple, some bifurcating, 
 but never intersecting. 
 Sometimes found with 
 fruit patches (son) in the back of the fronds. 
 
 D2 
 
 ' Fig. 7, Pecopf en's (Alethopteris) Searlii 
 (Half natural size.) 
 
COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 NEUROPTERIS (nerved fern). Leaves more or less 
 heart-shaped and entire, not adhering by their base or 
 to one another ; veins very fine, dichotomous, arched 
 as they rise obliquely from the base of the leaflet; 
 
 Fig. 8. Neuropteris gigantea. Cwm Avon. (Half natural size.) 
 
 bears a general resemblance to the recent Osmunda 
 regaliSj or royal fern. The leaflets are sometimes so 
 long as to suggest comparison with examples of 
 glossopteriS) an oolitic species, and with the recent 
 Hart's-tongue. 
 
 Fig. 9. Jsphenopteris latifolia. Felling Colliery Newcastle. (Half natural size.) 
 
 SPHENOPTERIS (wedge-fern). Very variable general 
 
ORGANIC REMAINS, AND ORIGIN OF COAL. 37 
 
 aspect; leaflets contracted at their base, lobed, and the 
 lower lobes largest, reminding the observer of our recent 
 Adiantum ; veins on the leaflets radiating from the base. 
 
 The ODONTOPTERIS, or, tooth-fern, and LONCHOPTERIS, 
 or spear-fern, are genera which occur less frequently 
 than the above. 
 
 Some of these fronds appear to have belonged to 
 low plants, others to have grown on large and lofty 
 trees ; and certain trunks, called Caulopteris and 
 PalceopteriS) exhibiting clear and frequent scars left 
 after the fall of the fronds/ are supposed to have 
 been the tree-ferns of the carboniferous period. 
 
 Lastly we must not omit to mention a kind of plant- 
 remains which have engaged the attention of but few, 
 but which have played an important part in the 
 making up of certain coals. 
 
 These are broad, parallel-veined, elongated leaves, 
 referred by authors to very different plants. The most 
 frequent, which was described by Corda as Flabellaria, 
 has been since termed Cordaites (probably identical 
 with Pycnophyllum,) Bron.). The leaves were not 
 attached by narrow bases, but clasped the stem, and 
 were deciduous. The vast numbers of them, layer 
 upon layer, visible in certain cases, testify to their 
 having accumulated in thick banks. 
 
 No single circumstance about the coal vegetation is 
 more remarkable than its uniformity over a large 
 portion of the world. It has long been known that a 
 great part of the plants of this epoch are alike all over 
 Europe, and even North America. In Australia many 
 of them occur, and at Melville Island, in lat. 76, and 
 in other boreal spots described by Arctic navigators, 
 similar genera are found. 
 
38 COAL AND eOAL-MINING. 
 
 It has hence been argued that the climate of the 
 globe was at that period more equable ; and advancing 
 another step from this basis, the earlier geologists 
 supposed that it was owing to a generally diffused 
 higher temperature an intermediate stage between 
 the original globe, of fused matter, and our own times, 
 of a cooler crust. But more accurate investigations 
 have set aside this hypothesis, and shown that the 
 general type of the coal flora is that due to a warm 
 not hot climate, in which moisture was very abundant. 
 To account further for the inordinately luxuriant 
 growth of the plants which made up the fossil fuel, 
 Brongniart suggested the hypothesis that the atmos- 
 phere must at that period have contained a much larger 
 percentage of carbonic acid (poison to animals, but 
 nutriment to plants) than it does now. And when we 
 consider the enormous volume of carbon in the coal and 
 carbonaceous beds, which must have been obtained from 
 carbonic acid, and add to it all that which has been 
 locked up since in making the thousands of feet thick 
 of limestone, or carbonate of lime, we certainly have a 
 cause which must have played its part. What were the 
 animals which at this time tenanted the globe, is an 
 interesting but difficult inquiry, when we consider the 
 accidents on which it depends that the remains of land 
 animals should be preserved for our study. The 
 Archcegosaurus was the first coal reptile found (in 
 Bavaria, 1844), one probably intermediate between the 
 batrachians and the saurians ; but the last few years 
 have added several to the list; one of them, the 
 Dendrerpeton Acadianum, having been curiously found 
 by Sir C. Lyell and Dr. Dawson in the hollow stump 
 of an erect Sigillaria. 
 
 Quite recently, in November, 1865, Professor 
 
ORGANIC REMAINS, AND ORIGIN OF COAL. 39 
 
 Huxley lias been able to determine, in a collection of 
 specimens obtained from the Jarrow Colliery, Kilkenny, 
 no less than four, if not five, genera of Amphibian 
 Labyrinthodont reptiles. 
 
 Among the other vertebrate animals fishes were 
 common enough, their teeth, scales, and spines being 
 abundant in many of the roof shales. Agassiz 
 described above 154 species from the coal-measures, 
 a great part of them predaceous, and stated to be more 
 highly orgaiised than any living fish. 
 
 Of the Mdlusca vast quantities are found, best pre- 
 served by behg imbedded, petrified, in nodules of iron- 
 stone, or flattened in the shales. 
 
 In association with the lower seams of coal, in most 
 of our Britisi fields, shells of a decidedly marine 
 character occrr. Sometimes one seam, sometimes 
 several, will exhibit in its roof of black shale, and 
 commonly witlin a few inches of thickness, multitudes 
 of a pecten or comb-shell (Aviculo-pecten papyraceus) , 
 and of a curld chambered shell, somewhat like a 
 nautilus (Gonictites Listeri), with rarer examples of 
 Productus, Ort/oceratiteSj Lingula, &c. The bivalve 
 Antkracosia, mtch resembling the Unio, or Horse- 
 mussel of our fcsh waters, is sometimes found in the 
 same group of dmizens of the sea. 
 
 Throughout allthe middle and upper measures, the 
 great bulk in factof the coal-producing strata, Anthra- 
 cosia alone, with some rare exceptions, out of all the 
 above, continues is existence; but this sometimes in 
 such quantities tht entire strata (" mussel-bands "), 
 of several inches thick, are made up of them. To 
 these may be addd. Mr. Salter's genus Anthracomya, a 
 mud-burrowing sbll, occurring also in dense beds like 
 those of the modrn mussel. The black band iron- 
 
40 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 stones of North Staffordshire are literally crowded 
 with them. 
 
 And, lastly, through the whole range of the coal 
 strata there may be noticed, either attached to other 
 fossils or embedded in the stone, the minute spiral 
 case of a sea annelid, termed Spirorbis carbonarius, and 
 the seed-like valves of a little crustacean, Cypris, or 
 Cythere. The tracks of large worms (probably marine) 
 occur in great abundance in the clay ironscones which 
 so often diversify the coal shales, and thelatter some- 
 times exhibit the remains of crickets and /)ther insects. 
 
 When we pass downwards to the grent foundation 
 stone on which our coalfields rest, and yith which the 
 lower seams of Scotland and those a Kussia are 
 associated, we find, in the carboniferoijs limestone, a 
 series of strata bearing the most evident traces of 
 marine origin. In part, nothing but lianks of corals 
 and encrinites ; in others, filled with they ell-preserved 
 shells of T&rebratula, Spirifer, and Profactus, they tell 
 us plainly of deposits formed in a sii of moderate 
 depth; and since the thickness of tbse beds varies 
 from 500 to nearly 2,000 feet, it seen/s probable that 
 the floor of that sea must have been more and more, 
 though not uniformly, depressed. In the period that 
 succeeded that in which the millltone grit was 
 deposited there is evidence of muci disturbance by 
 sea and land ; granite and other rockabroken into bits, 
 or rolled into pebbles, and wafted aid dragged about 
 by currents and eddies, whilst an jccasional bed of 
 quietly settled shale reveals the shjlls of Goniatites, 
 Bellerophon, Lingula, and other deizens of the sea, 
 who had found a lull, either in pice or time, amid 
 the turbulence of the period. Andthroughout these 
 strata we find the preparatory symptjms, as it were, of 
 
ORGANIC REMAINS, AND ORIGIN OF COAL. 41 
 
 the great coal-making epoch that was approaching, in 
 stems and impressions of several of the genera of 
 plants that were soon afterwards so multiplied. 
 
 Some years ago there were authors of weight who 
 inclined to the opinion that coal had been formed by 
 the drifting of large masses of vegetable matter into 
 bays or estuaries, and they pointed to the " rafts " of 
 the lower Mississippi as examples of a similar process 
 still in action. But since due attention has been paid 
 to the constant presence of the roots in the floor of the 
 seams, to the upright trunks often one series above 
 another and to the high state of preservation of the 
 most delicate remains, it has been generally agreed 
 that most of the appearances are explained by assuming 
 that the vegetation grew on the spot where we now 
 find it.* Some writers there are still who have a 
 hankering after the old aquatic origin, and, supported 
 by the evidence of fishes and marine shells, would 
 assign salt water as a habitat for some of the coal 
 plants. But with others the doubtful point is whether 
 the trees and undergrowth flourished on dry land or 
 swampy sea margins. We can no longer doubt that 
 the under-clay was a true soil, in which the great 
 Sigillaroid trees were fixed by their tap-roots, their 
 spreading radical branches, and filamentous rootlets. 
 How many generations of these trees may have risen 
 to maturity and died away before the conditions were 
 favourable to their being preserved, it is hard to sur- 
 mise ; but at length, when a mingled matting of vege- 
 
 * Franz von Beroldingen appears to deserve the credit of first sug- 
 gesting the view that the coal-beds are the peat-bogs of a former age, 
 converted first into brown coal and afterwards into stone coal. 
 (Beobachtungen, &c., die Mineralogie betreffend, 1778.) In this 
 theory he was supported by De Luc, and after many years by 
 Schlotheim, Noggerath, and Lindley and Hutton. 
 
42 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 table matter, stems, roots, leaves, &c., had accumulated, 
 like the pulpy mass of a modern peat-bog, the surface 
 of the area was, with much uniformity, depressed. 
 Then would flow back the waters, fresh or salt, over 
 their ancient domain, and, according to the sediment 
 they were able to carry, would deposit sand or mud to 
 be one day known as the rock or the shale-roof. The 
 Mollusea above enumerated then burrowed in the soft 
 ooze, close upon the top of the buried vegetation ; in 
 many cases the stumps of the old forest remained 
 standing, whilst mud or silt was deposited around 
 them, until the central portion of the trunk would rot 
 away, serve for a time as an asylum for some of the 
 lizards or land-shells of the period, and then get filled 
 in with petrifying matter. As the water deepened it 
 was haunted by fish of many kinds, whose exuviae fell 
 to the bottom and were there buried up, and thus bed 
 after bed of sediment accumulated, sometimes to the 
 depth of a few feet, sometimes to hundreds of yards 
 if the continuous depression of the land was maintained 
 until circumstances favoured again the formation of 
 a proper soil (the under-clay), and of a growth of trees 
 and plants, when we should have a recurrence of the 
 same phenomena. 
 
 An enormous bulk of vegetable matter would be 
 , needed thus to form one of our thicker seams of coals ; 
 but we have seen how the latter are generally divisible 
 into several beds, and these again into thin laminae, 
 whilst we know that peat -bogs of the present day, 
 without the special advantages of the coal jungle, attain 
 depths of 30 or 40 feet. It has been estimated that 
 eight feet thick of packed woody substance would be 
 needed to make one foot of coal ; but we may take it 
 for granted that such an amount would represent only 
 
ORGANIC REMAINS, AND ORIGIN OF COAL. 43 
 
 a fraction of the total amount of vegetation that 
 flourished at the time, since much of it must doubtless 
 have escaped from the preservative process of interment. 
 We cannot afford space to dwell on the chemical 
 argument by which this derivation of the different kinds 
 of coal is shown to be probable; but the following 
 table, borrowed from Dr. Percy's " Metallurgy, " sup- 
 plies at a glance an illustration of the successive steps 
 in the change from woody tissue to anthracite. The 
 porportions of carbon in each substance being taken at 
 the constant amount of 100, the hydrogen and oxygen 
 will be found to have been more and more eliminated. 
 
 Carbon. Hydrogen. Oxygen. 
 
 1. Wood (mean of 26 analyses) . . 100 12-18 83-07 
 
 2. Peat 100 9-85 55-67 
 
 3. Lignite (average of 15 varieties) . 100 8*37 42-42 
 
 4. Ten-yard coal, South Staffordshire 100 6-12 21.25 
 
 5. Steam coal from the Tyne . . .100 5*91 18*32 
 
 6. Pentrefelin coal, South Wales . . 100 475 5-28 
 
 7. Anthracite, Pennsylvania . . .100 2*84 174 
 
 When the buried forest had once been fairly covered 
 up by hundreds, and as the land sank, by thousands of 
 feet of rock, we may conceive it subjected to those 
 conditions of pressure, temperature, and moisture, 
 which were needed to change it into that condensed 
 form of fuel now so necessary to mankind. 
 
 And when at length, after ages of due preparation, 
 portions of the coal formation were upheaved into the 
 islands and continents, the seams of coal were brought 
 into a position to be accessible to man, and the forces 
 of the sunbeams, which fell upon the jungles of the 
 primeval world, are again unlocked and made subser- 
 vient to our use, when we now decompose by burning 
 those compounds which had been called into existence 
 by the solar light and heat. 
 
44 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 COALFIELDS OF THE NOKTH. 
 
 IN order to enable us to form a due estimate of the 
 coal resources of the various countries, we must glance 
 at the extent and character of the coal-measures as 
 they are developed in the different districts ; and since 
 the history and commercial importance of the coalfield 
 of Newcastle give it the pre-eminence, we may conve- 
 niently start from that focus of activity. 
 
 It must be premised that the limits of a coalfield 
 are not to be confounded with the area coloured as 
 " coal-measures " in a geological map; for although 
 in some regions (as in South Wales) it is one and the 
 same thing, the coal-seams are often well known and 
 largely worked beneath other newer formations, which 
 in a map are represented by their proper colour, 
 whether they overlie coal-measures or any other older 
 rocks. We shall, therefore, in many instances have to 
 speak of a coalfield as such, where it signifies the 
 extent of proved coal-producing ground, whatever the 
 mere covering may be composed of. 
 
 On examination of a geological map it will be seen 
 that, coming southward from the Durham coalfield on 
 one side of the central chain of North English hill 
 country, and from that of Cumberland on the other, a 
 large interval separates them from those of Yorkshire 
 and Lancashire respectively. It will be seen, too, that 
 there are certain features of connection in each case 
 between the East and the West, which it is not so easy to 
 establish between North and South, and we may there- 
 fore take one division for this chapter as including the 
 
COALFIELDS OF THE NORTH. 45 
 
 coal regions north of a line drawn from the mouth of 
 the Tees westward through Kendal and the south side 
 of the Lake country. 
 
 About equidistant from the Irish Sea on the west 
 and the North Sea on the east rises the broad backbone 
 of the hill country, composed of the carboniferous lime- 
 stone with all its numerous subdivisions so carefully 
 studied by the lead-miners of those breezy fells, and 
 bearing on its culminating points, and on the high 
 ground extending for many miles breadth on the east, 
 a capping of millstone-grit. On the west side, or 
 towards Penrith, this main chain has been greatly 
 disturbed and abruptly broken at an early geological 
 period, whilst on the other side the land slopes more 
 uniformly from the high grouncl. The strata here, 
 inclining gently eastward, partake of the same regula- 
 rity, and as we proceed towards the coast, succeed in 
 ever ascending order till the various coal-seams " put 
 in," one after the other, and are at length similarly 
 capped by the magnesian limestone, and soon after- 
 wards not cut off, but surmounted by the sea. The 
 field of the Blythe, Tyne, and Wear, so-called after 
 its rivers, extends from the Coquet on the north to near 
 the Tees on the south, for about 50 miles in length, 
 with a breadth of about 20 miles for a great part of the 
 way, till it narrows to a point when it passes north of 
 the Blythe, an area in all of 705 miles. For some 
 miles in breadth along the western side, only a few of 
 the lower seams are worked; then, in a line ranging 
 through Newcastle and Durham, we get the full num- 
 ber of the workable seams; and again, following a 
 sinuous course from Tynemouth past Houghton-le- 
 Spring to near Bishop Auckland, the overlying 
 
46 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 permian formation succeeds, represented by a generally 
 bold outline of magnesian limestone resting on the 
 irregular lower red sand, which, from its water-bearing 
 and loose properties, presents great difficulties to the 
 sinking of shafts eastward of this line. 
 
 In former days this upper was confounded with the 
 lower (carboniferous) limestone, and it was supposed 
 that a limit was thus formed to the coalfield on either 
 side. It was, therefore, a bold step, when the Messrs. 
 Pemberton, relying on true geological reasoning, de- 
 termined to pierce downward from the coast near Sun- 
 derland, and search for the hidden coal-measures below. 
 Their famous Monkwearmouth pit was commenced in 
 1826, and had to pass through 330 feet of this newer 
 formation, towards the bottom of which no less than 
 3,000 gallons of water per minute had to be raised by 
 pumping power, until it was successfully tubbed off. 
 At 285 fathoms depth they cut the Hutton seam, 
 having previously intersected the Maudlin or Bensham 
 seam 20 fathoms higher. And these results appear to 
 establish a curious point in the configuration of the 
 coalfield. The seams which thus lie nearly 1,700 feet 
 below the sea at Sunderland occur at a less depth as 
 they pass to the north and to the south, whilst west- 
 ward they rise to their outcrop at Howes Gill an 
 elevation of 740 feet above the sea, giving a difference 
 in level of 2,440 feet. It would appear, then, that this 
 is the deepest part, or a sort of transverse trough in 
 the stratification ; but as the measures have generally 
 a gentle inclination eastward, where they have been 
 sunk to along the coast, it yet remains to be proved 
 whether the deeper part of the entire basin does not lie 
 further seaward, and the probability remains of a large 
 
COALFIELDS OF THE NORTH. 47 
 
 area of this productive coalfield extending beneath the 
 German Ocean. At these deep pits, and those of 
 Ryhope and Seaham, also sunk within the last few 
 years at a small distance from the coast line, the 
 deeper seams of the field have not yet been reached ; 
 but from sections obtained in the shallower pits in the 
 west, the succession is perfectly well known. 
 
 The total thickness of the measures from the lowest 
 known seam upwards may be taken at little more 
 than 2,000 feet. The upper half contains only a few 
 unworkable beds, the lower half all the valuable seams. 
 In this field, as in all others, the thickness and cha- 
 racter of a particular band of coal will be found to 
 vary, and that to such an extent as to occasion much 
 difficulty in identifying the seams of distant pits. A 
 coal which is suitable for steam purposes in one part 
 of the area, will be more fitted for household use in 
 another ; and that which is the mainstay of a colliery 
 in one locality may be barely traceable in another. 
 
 The chiefly important seams are the following : 
 
 Feet. Inches. 
 
 Monkton and Hebburn Fell seam 2 10 
 
 High main 6 
 
 Metal coal 3 
 
 Yard coal (Main coal of Hetton, 6 feet) ... 3 8 
 Bensham or Maudlin, 4 feet 8 inches at Monk- 
 
 wearmouth 6 
 
 Six-quarter 2 6 
 
 Five-quarter (Low main at Monkwearmouth) . 4 1 
 
 Low main (Hutton seam 4 feet on the Wear) . 6 
 
 Crow coal, generally thin, at Ryton .... 2 3 
 
 Five-quarter 3 8 
 
 Ruler 1 6 
 
 Townleymain 3 10 
 
 Stone coal, or five-quarter ) 3 9 
 
 } Busty Bank. 
 
 Six-quarter ) 3 4 
 
 Three-quarter 2 6 
 
 Brockwell . .32 
 
48 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 The average number of seams found to be workable 
 in any one section may, I believe, fairly be taken as 
 twelve, with, about 50 feet of coal in the aggregate. 
 
 Great advantages exist in the district : first, in the 
 general regularity of the measures, dipping at a very 
 moderate angle % commonly about 1 in 20 ; the con- 
 venient thickness of the seams, from 3 to 6 feet ; the 
 excellent qualities of the coals, and the usual goodness 
 of the roof, which allows of wide working places and 
 roads, with a very small expenditure of timber. The 
 difficulties are the considerable depths of the sinkings 
 in the newer pits, the watery strata to be pierced, and 
 the large amount of fire-damp giving off by many of 
 the seams. 
 
 Faults or slip-dykes are few and far between as 
 compared with most coalfields, and the whin or basaltic 
 dykes, which traverse the district in an -east-south-east 
 direction although they injure the coal on both sides 
 of them to a distance of some yards are not found to 
 derange and interfere with them as they do in Scotland 
 and South Staffordshire. Among the ordinary faults, 
 the most remarkable is the great 90 fathom dyke, 
 which appearing on the coast near Cullercoats, where 
 it displaces the strata to that amount ranges past 
 Gosforth to Blaydon, and then entering on the more 
 hilly ground, may be traced westward through the 
 limestone range to the new red sandstone in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Carlisle. Along this part of its course the 
 throw, though variable, is sufficient to inlay, as it were, 
 on its north side a long strip of coal measures, and 
 thus to give rise to the collieries of Stublick, Midg- 
 holm, Tyndal Fell, Ac. 
 
 The variations in quality of the seams as they range 
 
COALFIELDS OF THE NORTH. 49 
 
 through this extensive field give rise to different com- 
 mercial applications. The best " household coal/' 
 commonly called after the well-known Wallsend pits, 
 extends from the Tyne to the Wear, and from the last- 
 named river to Castle Eden, and occupies another area 
 about Bishop Auckland. The denser white-ash steam 
 coal characterises the district beginning some five 
 miles north of the Tyne ; whilst the tender coals, which 
 afford an admirable coke, are largely worked all along 
 the line of the outcrops on the west, from Wylam and 
 Ryton down to the outskirts of Raby Park. 
 
 The total production of the Durham and Northum- 
 berland field, which, in 1854, was 15,420,615 tons, is 
 for the year 1864 no less than 23,284,367 tons. This 
 enormous increase is in great part due to the rapid de- 
 velopment of the Cleveland iron district, in North 
 Yorkshire. The iron furnaces in the three districts 
 fed with the coal from this field were, in 1854, as 
 many as 58; in 1865 they were augmented to 105 
 actually in blast ; and as huge quantities of Durham 
 coke are now conveyed to the western coast for the 
 smelting of the hematite ores, the total quantity of 
 coal thus consumed is probably much more than 
 doubled in one decennium. 
 
 CUMBERLAND COALFIELD. In the mountain lime- 
 stone district about Alston, two or three small seams 
 of anthracite (crow coal), mostly of but a few inches 
 thick, have been worked for lime-burning, &c., yet are 
 of little commercial importance. But a remarkable 
 change occurs on their passing the great dyke, or fault, 
 above described ; for on the line of the Newcastle and 
 Carlisle railway one of them has been worked at 
 Blenkinsop, of good bituminous character, and no less 
 
 E 
 
50 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 than 6 feet thick, surmounted by a limestone roof. As 
 these seams pass northward they increase in number 
 and importance, till in the farther parts of Northum- 
 berland they are described by Mr. Boyd as being twelve 
 in number, from 2 to 4 feet each ; and thus it is that 
 they form an introduction to the series of limestone 
 coals so valuable in Scotland.* 
 
 On the western side of the great limestone chain 
 slight indications of much-disturbed coal-seams occur 
 near the base of the great Cross Fell escarpment ; but 
 the important part of the Cumberland coalfield only 
 appears distinctly on emerging from beneath the red 
 sandstone cover, south of Wigton, whence it laps round 
 the older rocks of the Lake District, by Maryport, 
 Workington, and Whitehaven, to its termination, near 
 St. Bees. 
 
 The total thickness of the measures, as well as the 
 number of seams, is notably less than in the Durham 
 field, whilst its length is under 30 miles, and its proved 
 breadth about 6 miles. The quality is also inferior for 
 household coal, and very much so for coking. Cer- 
 tain of the seams are, however, remarkable for thick- 
 ness and regularity, as well as the peculiar circum- 
 stances under which they have been worked. These are 
 best exhibited at Whitehaven, where along a coast line 
 of nearly 2 miles extensive operations have been carried 
 on by Lord Lonsdale to the distance of 1J mile under 
 the sea. The strata here dip slightly seaward, but are 
 intercepted by a numerous succession of faults which 
 have rendered their exploration unusually difficult and 
 expensive. Fortunately, the dislocations have been of 
 such a character as to allow of this large area being 
 
 * See Mr. Boyd's paper in the Transactions of the Institute of 
 Mining Engineers. 
 
COALFIELDS OF THE NORTH. 51 
 
 mainly worked by horizontal roads driven off from the 
 William, Wellington, Croft, and Salton pits, at depths 
 of from 100 to 150 fathoms. The principal seams 
 (omitting two or three thin beds above and below) 
 are as follows : 
 
 Bannock band, 6 ft. 4 ins. to 10 ft. 11 ins., including 14 ins. to 
 
 3 ft. 6 ins. of "metal" partings. 
 Strata 20 fins. 
 Main band, 9 ft. to 1 1 ft. 9 ins., with occasional partings of 2 ins. 
 
 to 1 ft. 3 ins. 
 Strata 40 fms. 
 Six-quarter band, 4 ft. 
 
 In the year 1765, M. Jars states that operations had 
 already been extended to the distance of a quarter of a 
 mile under the sea ; that three seams were in work : 
 an upper, rather stony, 5 feet coal, used for salt-mak- 
 ing; the second, 75 fathoms deeper, the Bannock band; 
 and the main band of 10 feet thick. Wooden rails 
 were in use, and the drainage was effected by four fire- 
 engines, two of which stood on the sea-shore. Fire- 
 damp appears to have been very troublesome, and it is 
 a remarkable fact that the manager of the mine had 
 at that early date proposed to the authorities of White- 
 haven to lead pipes through all the streets of the town 
 to light them at night with the natural gas. 
 
 At Workington the seams were also wrought be- 
 neath the sea, but as they rose towards the bottom of 
 the sea, they were followed up too far, and as due pre- 
 caution was strangely disregarded, the sea burst in in 
 1837, and the lamentable result was the loss of thirty- 
 six human lives, and the entire destruction of the 
 colliery. The same seams are extensively worked on 
 their rise at the Clifton and other collieries in the 
 valley of the Derwent, and again towards Maryport 
 and Wig ton. 
 
 E2 
 
52 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 The total production of this county has increased 
 from 887,000 tons in 1854 to 1,380,795 tons in 1864. 
 
 COALFIELDS OF SCOTLAND. In tracing northwards the 
 great calcareous mass which forms the mountain lime- 
 stone of Derbyshire and Yorkshire, we have seen above 
 that when it enters Cumberland and Northumberland 
 it has already greatly changed its character. Divisional 
 strata of shale (plate] and sandstone (hazel) separate 
 the bands of limestone, and coal seams make their 
 appearance, which, beyond the great 90-fathom dyke, 
 attain considerable technical importance. And when 
 at length we cross the border, and enter upon the 
 Scottish area, we find this formation lapping round 
 the great upheaved districts of older rocks ranging 
 from Kirkcudbrightshire to Berwick to contain a 
 valuable and largely-worked series of coal-seams. 
 
 The range of the carboniferous formation in Scotland 
 extends from the coast of Ayr to the mouth of the 
 Frith of Forth, and over an irregular width of from 
 20 to 30 miles ; but as regards the workable portions 
 it is broken up into several distinct fields, partly by 
 the uprising of the lower coalless strata, and partly by 
 the interference of vast masses of igneous or trap rocks 
 (the whin of north England), sometimes bedded, and 
 at others injected as dykes. 
 
 The full thickness of the coal-bearing strata is well 
 shown in the coalfield of Midlothian, east of Edinburgh, 
 where a district of about 9 miles long by 2 or 3 miles 
 wide, is occupied by "measures" perfectly analogous 
 in character and contents to the English coalfields.* 
 
 * See Mr. Millies' account of this coalfield in the Trans. Roy. Soc. 
 Ed., and Mr. HowelTs description in the Memoirs of the Geological 
 Survey, 1861. 
 
COALFIELDS OF THE' NORTH. 53 
 
 In a total amount of about 1,200 feet, including a 
 middle band of 200 feet of unproductive rock, are 
 developed some twelve seams, mostly from 2 to 5 feet 
 thick, although one of them, the "great seam/' attains 
 a thickness of 8 to 10 feet. 
 
 Below these comes the millstone grit, of 340 feet 
 thick, and then in descending order the carboniferous 
 limestone, with a total thickness of 1,590 feet, but 
 containing, along with only some 40 feet of limestone 
 in many thin bands, a series of about seventeen beds 
 of coal of from 2 to 5 feet each (Howell). 
 
 The lower limestone is without coal. 
 
 Mr. Matthias Dunn, writing in 1830, gave an in- 
 teresting description of the working of the outcrop or 
 edge coals, which, in a measured section at Niddrie 
 Colliery, he states to be twenty-four in number, work- 
 able seams, with a total thickness of 95 feet of coal in 
 4,344 feet of measures, included between the " gratna- 
 cham " or " diamond " above, and the " north greem " 
 seam below, which rests nearly upon the thick encrinital 
 limestone. 
 
 The Fifeshire coalfield, as described by Mr. Landale, 
 presents a valuable array of seams, one of which the 
 Dysart main seam attains the unusual thickness of 
 21 feet; but this region is much dislocated by faults 
 and interfered with by igneous rocks. 
 
 Passing westward through Clackmannan, Stirling, 
 and Linlithgowshire, we come to the important fields 
 of Lanarkshire and Ayrshire, where the chief features 
 are the admirable gas or parrot coals, the moderately- 
 thick splint coals, used for iron-smelting, and the black 
 bands, or beds of carbonaceous ironstone, which have 
 for many years been the mainstay of the surprising 
 
54 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 production of Scotch pig-iron. Mr. Ralph Moore, adopt- 
 ing a similar three-fold division to that above cited, 
 states the general character of the section to be 
 
 1. The true coal-measures, 840 feet, from the upper 
 4-foot coal down to the slaty-band ironstone, in- 
 cluding ten seams of 2 to 5 (and in one case 8) feet 
 in thickness. 
 
 2. The millstone grit, 960 feet. 
 
 3. The limestone series, 2,200 feet, with three beds 
 of black-band ironstone, and several seams of good 
 coal. 
 
 The importance of the coalfields of Scotland may be 
 inferred from the fact that in 1854 the production of 
 coal was 7,448,000 tons, from 367 collieries ; in 1864, 
 12,400,000, from 497 collieries. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 COALFIELDS OF CENTRAL ENGLAND. 
 
 IF the reader will take in hand a geological map of 
 England,* and fix upon the curious rugged hill of 
 Mow-Cop, near Congleton, as his -centre, he may draw 
 a circle with a radius of 60 miles, which will embrace 
 sixteen patches of coal-measures, being fields and 
 basins more or less separated from one another. Geo- 
 
 * It has been thought unnecessary to insert a map in this little 
 volume, when so many good geological maps on a useful scale are 
 before the public. As a series arranged according to increasing size, 
 may be recommended Sir Rod. Murchison's little map prepared for 
 the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge ; Prof. Ramsay's 
 England and Wales ; Knipe's British Isles ; and Greenough'a large 
 map, edited by the Geological Society. 
 
COALFIELDS OF CENTRAL ENGLAND. 55 
 
 logically, we have very good reasons for assigning a 
 common origin to the whole of them, and considering 
 them to be the separately visible portions of one vast 
 deposit, which, in the course of ages, has variously been 
 depressed and covered up by newer strata, then up- 
 raised and denuded in part, so that after the fashion 
 of Virgil's famous oak-tree whilst the higher portions 
 may have stood 8,000 feet above the crests of the Peak 
 of Derbyshire, the lower beds approximate to Tartarus 
 by dipping down from off the Buxton moorlands to 
 a depth of some 12,000 feet beneath the plains of 
 Cheshire. And the inductions of geology in this respect 
 will at no distant day be required to solve a question 
 of national moment the continuity and position of 
 the coal-measures between these apparently disjointed 
 fragments. 
 
 YORKSHIRE AND DERBYSHIRE. From Leeds to Not- 
 tingham there extends an unbroken range of coalfield, 
 65 miles long by from 8 to 20 miles wide, inclining on 
 the whole gently to the east, where it is covered in' 
 succession by the lower red sand, the magnesian lime- 
 stone, and the new red sandstone. Whilst, therefore, 
 bounded on the west by the outcrop of the beds, it is 
 on the east only overlaid by newer formations, and in 
 all probability extends far beneath them. 
 
 The thickness of the measures where fully developed 
 (which is not the case until some miles away from the 
 outcrop) is about 3,000 feet, out of which the lower 
 several hundred feet are chiefly noticeable for the occur- 
 rence of flagstones, and of coals with ganister floor, 
 whilst the shales contain the marine shells, already 
 enumerated at p. 39. The chief seams of coal and 
 ironstone are found in greater number towards the 
 
56 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 bottom than the top of the measures, and the former 
 may be taken on the average at sixteen in number, 
 with 45 feet total thiekness of coal. The most remark- 
 able of the seams is the " top-hard," which, in Derby- 
 shire, is 5 to 6 feet, but increases on passing into 
 Yorkshire, till it becomes the " Barnsley thick bed," 
 of 9 feet. Another seam, now well known in the 
 London market, is the " Clod " or " Black Shale" of 
 Derbyshire, the " Silkstone" of South Yorkshire; and 
 one of the purest house coals ever seen is the " Kil- 
 burn coal," a bed only developed in the south of 
 Derbyshire. 
 
 In these counties, then, with the adjoining Notting- 
 hamshire, we have the largest continuous coalfield in 
 England ; for we may estimate that it occupies about 
 800 square miles. But one of its most welcome fea- 
 tures is its prolongation eastward, first proved on the 
 large scale by the Duke of Newcastle's spirited sinking 
 at Shireoak, where commencing in the red sandstones 
 at the distance of five miles from the visible coalfield, 
 and cutting the top-hard coal at 510 yards deep it is 
 not only shown that all the measures are in their proper 
 place, but that they may be expected to lie at moderate 
 depth and an easy inclination. It may be roundly said 
 that this success assures us of half as much again to be 
 added to the resources of the coalfield, and a speculative 
 mind will reckon on a still larger augmentation. 
 
 LANCASHIRE. More irregular in form, and much 
 intersected by great faults which dislocate the strata 
 to the amount of hundreds of yards, this coalfield is 
 one of our noblest. Crossing to the westward the 
 ridge of lower rocks which separate it from Yorkshire, 
 a watchful eye will recognise the re-entry into the 
 
COALFIELDS OF CENTRAL ENGLAND. 57 
 
 ground of the various seams which had been seen to 
 pass out on the opposite side of the hills. Especially 
 is this to be noted with the Ganister coals, and the 
 peculiar fossils in their roofs, and with the Arley mine 
 or seam, which occupies the place of the Black Shale 
 or Silkstone. 
 
 As a general feature, although much interfered with 
 by the great dislocations, the analogous arrangement 
 to that of Yorkshire is observable, viz., that the seams 
 incline off from the high country of the moorlands, 
 and are succeeded, after occupying a variable breadth 
 of surface, by the newer beds of the Permian and 
 Trias formations. But the total thickness of carboni- 
 ferous strata, as well as the number of coals, is much 
 greater than on the eastern side of the chain of hills. 
 
 Mr. Binney, the assiduous explorer of this field, has 
 long since found it convenient to divide its thickness 
 of above 7,000 feet into three portions, as follows : 
 
 1. Upper coalfield, including the peculiar Ardwick 
 limestones, with numerous fish-remains, and seve- 
 ral thin beds of coals. 
 
 2. Middle coalfield, 3,500 feet, containing all the 
 more important seams from the Worsley four feet 
 downwards. 
 
 3. Lower coalfield, or Ganister series. 
 
 The chief centres of activity are St. Helens, Wigan, 
 Chorley, Bolton, Manchester, and the outlying tract of 
 Burnley. The seams are generally from three to six 
 feet thick; one of the most noted is the excellent 
 Cannel of Wigan, three feet, sometimes occurring in 
 close proximity to the "King-coal;" and here, as at 
 Pendleton, Patricroft, &c., near Manchester, very 
 
58 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 extensive collieries are worked at depths of from 400 
 to 600 yards. The total number of seams above two 
 feet in thickness is on the average 16 to 20, with about 
 70 feet of coal in the aggregate, whilst the entire area 
 is given by Mr. Hull, who has examined it for the 
 Geological Survey, as being 217 square miles. 
 
 CHESHIRE. The Lancashire is continuous on the 
 south and east with the Cheshire coalfield, so that a 
 narrow strip belonging to this latter county exhibits a 
 very similar succession of strata. A special interest 
 lias been given to its mining by the fine shaft (the 
 deepest in England) lately sunk by Mr. Astley, at 
 Dukinfield, to the " Black Mine," at the depth of 686 
 yards ; and pierced through no less than 22 workable 
 coals. Towards Congleton this coalfield fines off, and is 
 divided by a very narrow interval from that of 
 
 NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE. Here a very singular plica- 
 tion or fblding of the strata brings in a most valuable 
 succession of coal-measures, amounting in the whole to 
 about 5,000 feet in thickness. 
 
 1. The upper portion of 1,000 feet contains a 
 quantity of red and purple clays, much used in the 
 potteries for bricks, &c., and only a few thin coals. 
 
 2. Pottery coals and ironstone measures , 1,000 to 
 1,420 feet, with 8 to 13 seams of coal of above 
 two feet thick, mostly inferior ; and 10 to 12 mea- 
 sures of ironstone. 
 
 3. Lower thick measures, containing the chief furnace 
 coals, from the Ash to the Winpenny inclusive, 
 17 or 18 seams above two feet. Ironstone scarce 
 or absent. 
 
 4. Lowest measures, 800 feet, with from two to four 
 thin coal seams. 
 
COALFIELDS OF CENTRAL ENGLAND. 59 
 
 Neglecting the seams under two feet in thickness, 
 we have in certain measured portions of this field no 
 less than 40 seams, with a total thickness of 140 feet 
 of coal; in another c se 24 seams, with 109 feet. 
 Among its more remarkable beds are the courses of 
 carbonaceous ironstone, or black-band, which occur three 
 or four in number, with a variable thickness, but 
 amounting in some cases to three, four, and even six 
 feet, often crowded with shells of the bivalve Anthra- 
 comya. Near these also comes in a thin band of fresh 
 water (?) limestone, containing spirorbis earbonarim, 
 and analogous to the Ardwick limestones near Man- 
 chester, and to a bed with the same fossils in the coal- 
 field south of Shrewsbury, and in that of Warwick- 
 shire. 
 
 The boundary on the eastern side of the tract is the 
 outcrop, against the bleak hills of millstone grit; on 
 the west the new red sandstone, under which its beds 
 plunge ; and on the south an irregular line, occasioned 
 by dislocations and the inletting of the overlying Per- 
 mian strata. 
 
 A small outlying field, named after the town of 
 Cheadle, with seven or eight seams, is of very limited 
 importance. 
 
 Taking your stand on the high ground on the west 
 of the Potteries coalfield, you may, on a clear day, 
 descry the Shropshire field on the south, and the 
 Welsh hills on the west, with the coal area of Denbigh- 
 shire at their base. The plain of new red sandstone 
 and marl exetnds almost like the sea from one hill 
 range to the other, and the idea involuntarily suggests 
 itself to the mind of the geologist that the coal-mea- 
 sures are continuous beneath those broad intervals, 
 
60 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 even though the depth may be such as to render them, ' 
 in part at least, unattainable to man. 
 
 DENBIGHSHIRE ANO FLINTSHIRE. Commencing sud- 
 denly with a bold promontory of the carboniferous 
 limestone near Oswestry, a band of coal-measures 
 reposes against the chain of hills which course by 
 way of Ruabon and Mold to Mostyn, at the mouth of 
 the Dee. The seams are not numerous, but some of 
 them, as the 3-yard and 5-yard coals, are remarkable 
 for their thickness ; and a bed of cannel, lately found 
 near Mold, is no less noted for its excellent quality. 
 Moreover, the boundary of the field being, on the east 
 and north-east, the overlying new red formations, 
 leaves it very probable that a large amount of coal, 
 continuous with that already worked, may be found at 
 moderate depths. 
 
 SHROPSHIRE. Omitting some small unimportant 
 patches of coal around Shrewsbury, we arrive in the 
 Coalbrook-dale district at a focus of colliery working 
 intimately connected with the development of the 
 British iron-trade. The total thickness of the mea- 
 sures is but 1,000 to 1,200 feet, and the number of 
 seams of coal with their height also diminish rapidly in 
 going south, so that the 55 feet of coal at Donnington 
 dwindles to 40 feet at Lightmoor, and to 16 feet at 
 Amies, near Broseley, south of which town all the iron- 
 stone measures so valuable north of the Severn are 
 represented by a single bed the Crawstone. The 
 especially interesting geological characters of the dis- 
 trict have been excellently described by Prestwich 
 (Geol. Trans. 2nd Ser. vol. v.), and further details on 
 the ironstones are given in u The Iron Ores of Great 
 Britain " (Mem. of Geol. Survey, 1862). 
 
COALFIELDS OF CENTRAL ENGLAND. 61 
 
 The whole of the old or hitherto-known coalfield will 
 in a very few years hence be entirely exhausted ; but 
 already successful workings have been put through the 
 Permian rocks which border its eastern margin ; and 
 the geologist has little doubt that were he possessed of 
 physical penetrating power enough to enable him to 
 dip with the coal-seams as they incline eastward, he 
 would, after a deep underground passage of some 14 
 miles, emerge again in the coalfield of 
 
 SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE AND WORCESTERSHIRE. The 
 " black country," as it has been popularly called, 
 exhibits the most amazing focus in the world of the 
 various manufactures which depend on a plentiful 
 supply of coal. Its mingled forges, pit-heaps, engines, 
 canals, railways, and blast furnaces, and the roar of 
 activity which pervades the district, create in the 
 visitor a feeling of confusion, which only gradually 
 subsides into admiration of the great natural advan- 
 tages conferred by the contents of the substrata, 
 advantages which have been the means of attracting a 
 dense population, and of raising upon and around it a 
 vast assemblage of various and prosperous branches of 
 industry. The total area is not large about 90 square 
 miles and the total thickness of measures moderate 
 say 1,800 feet; but the presence in the southern part 
 of the field, about Dudley, Bilston, and Wolverhamp- 
 ton, of the 10-yard coal (from 24 to 36 feet thick) has 
 been a feature of importance without a parallel. The 
 roughness of the surface has been repeated below 
 ground, and the mode of working this admirable de- 
 posit of fossil fuel has been a model of which we have' 
 no reason to be proud : sad loss of life and great waste 
 of coal having characterised it almost throughout ; and 
 
62 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 the rapid exhaustion of the present pits renders it pro- 
 bable that in a few years the workings of the " thick 
 coal " will be matter -of history. Meanwhile the lower 
 seams of the " Heathen " and " New Mine " coals are 
 coming into great employ, and a comparatively new 
 field of many different seams the separated represen- 
 tatives of the 10-yard coal has been rapidly opened out 
 in Cannock Chase. For the details of this coalfield we 
 must refer the reader to the excellent description by 
 Mr. Jukes, in the "Memoirs of the Geol. Survey," 
 2nded., 1859. 
 
 The number of seams may be given as averaging six, 
 with a total thickness of 50 feet of coal. 
 
 Two peculiarities of this coalfield require to be men- 
 tioned, even in a brief sketch like the present. 1st, the 
 prevalence of intrusive dykes and bands of igneous 
 rock, the white and green rock of the miners ; and 2ndly, 
 the absence of the millstone grit and carboniferous 
 limestone, the coal-measures reposing directly upon 
 the silurian shales and limestone. 
 
 The glory of South Staffordshire as an independent 
 district is past ; but the iron-masters make a gallant 
 fight of it in competing with other districts by the in- 
 troduction from great distances of cheaper iron-ores as 
 well as coals, and by strict attention to the quality of 
 their products. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. On the south-east of Tamworth, 
 the clearing away of the red marls reveals a coalfield, 
 which runs for some 15 miles in length by Nuneaton 
 and Atherstone, in the same south-easterly direction 
 as the Trent- Valley Railway. The total thickness of 
 its constituent rocks is nearly 3,000 feet; but the 
 lower half is unproductive, and the upper half contains 
 only five seams, will) an aggregate of 2Q feet of coal. 
 
COALFIELDS OF CENTRAL ENGLAND. 63 
 
 The area, too, being only 30 square miles, leaves this 
 a very unimportant tract at present ; but its signi- 
 ficance as an indication is not to be overlooked, seeing 
 that, like the last and next following coalfields, it is 
 surrounded for the most part by the new red forma- 
 tions, and may, therefore, with confidence, be expected 
 at a future day to be greatly extended. 
 
 LEICESTERSHIRE. In this county again after an 
 interval of a few miles of the covering, of red rocks a 
 coal-producing tract presents itself. With a total 
 amount of strata a little less than the last, it exhibits 
 more seams, generally ten of workable thickness, 
 with 45 feet aggregate of coal. The Moira Colliery, 
 near Ashby-de-la-Zouch, is very largely opened on the 
 fine " main seam " of 12 feet thick, of which only the 
 upper six feet, the over coal, is taken out in the present 
 operations ; the nether coal, of rather inferior quality, 
 remaining for a future day. 
 
 The actual area of the denuded coalfield is only 15 
 square miles ; but several pits have already been sunk 
 with success beyond its boundaries through the over- 
 lying strata. 
 
 It will be interesting to compare, for the above dis- 
 tricts, the production of coal during 1864 with that ol 
 ten years ago. 
 
 Produce of coal in 1854. 1864. 
 
 Yorkshire 7,260,000 tons. 8,809,600 tons. 
 
 Derbyshire 2,406,696 4,470,750 
 
 Nottinghamshire. . . . 813,474 796,700 
 
 Lancashire 9,080,500 11,530,000 
 
 Cheshire 786,500 822,750 
 
 Shropshire 1,080,000 1,150,000 
 
 Staffordshire and Worces- 
 tershire 7,500,000 11,459,851 
 
 Warwickshire 255,000 754,000 
 
 Leicestershire 439,000 890,500 
 
 North Wales 1,143,000 1,987,060 
 
64 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 The ratios of increase in ten years in the different 
 counties are remarkably unlike ; and whilst in most 
 cases the quantity raised has been augmented by from 
 20 to 60 per cent., in a few of them it has been more 
 than doubled. The numerous canals and railways of 
 central England greatly increase the mutual connection 
 of these several fields, and as time advances, new bore- 
 holes and sinkings will ere long throw additional light 
 on their natural relationship. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 COALFIELDS OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND, SOUTH WALES, 
 AND IRELAND. 
 
 BRISTOL AND BATH. A large area, extending for some 
 25 miles in length from the Mendip hills on the south, 
 and closing to a point near Wickwar, consists of coal- 
 measures exposed to the surface in large patches, but 
 covered over much of their extent with the newer forma- 
 tions red sandstone, lias, and oolite. On the southern, 
 western, and north-eastern edges the coal-bearing strata 
 repose on the carboniferous limestone; whilst their 
 eastern termination, where they pass under the Bath 
 oolites, is at present uncertain. The total thickness 
 of the series, above the millstone grit, or " Farewell 
 rock," is about 5,000 feet; but except over certain 
 small portions of the ground, the upper part of the 
 series, containing some of the best household coals, 
 has been swept away by denudation prior to the de- 
 position of the red rocks. Thus, in the rich district 
 
COALFIELDS OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND, ETC. 65 
 
 north-east of Bristol, the uppermost seams appear to 
 be absent, whilst in the neighbourhood of Radstock 
 and Midsomer Norton a very interesting basin-shaped 
 deposit of them is explored by the collieries of H.R.H. 
 the Prince of Wales and of Lady Waldegrave. These 
 seams are already deep at some of the pits; as for 
 example, 200 fathoms at Clandown (where 40 fathoms 
 are sunk through overlying formations), and above 
 100 fathoms of barren strata intervene before another 
 group of coal seams is arrived at. The second group 
 occupies, of course, a much larger area than the first, 
 and is worked at Farrington Gurney, &c. Next in 
 order comes a great thickness of sandstones, termed 
 the " Pennant," which occasionally present the rough 
 structure of millstone grit. Below the Pennant we 
 have again a deep series of shales, containing a con- 
 siderable number of seams, some of which are worked 
 at Bedminster, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, &c. ; whilst the 
 lowest coals, very close to the limestone base, arc 
 worked at Yobster, Ashton, and at Nailsea. 
 
 It is observable that the mode of working adopted in 
 the southern part of this district, coupled with certain 
 local advantages, has rendered it possible to work 
 coal seams of little more than one foot thick ; nay, in 
 one of the " little veins," I have measured the height 
 to be only 11 inches of coal ! We may, therefore, take 
 a comparatively greater number of seams in this field to 
 be " workable," and it would appear that they may be 
 grouped as follows : 
 
 Upper series, Eadstock, 6 seams, with total of 11 to 12 feet of coal. 
 Second, or Farrington series, 4 workable seams, with 6 to 12 feet of coal. 
 Pennant grit, with thin seams, 1,500 feet. 
 
 Third series, Bedminster, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, "\ 20 to 36 seams, with 
 Lowest series, Vobster, Nailsea, &c., * 60 feet of coal. 
 
 
 
bO COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 The last two groups are not very distinctly separated, 
 and their seams are difficult to identify, from their 
 being variable in character and being much disturbed 
 where they approach the limestone. Indeed, the ver- 
 tical and even overthrown condition of the strata at 
 Vobster, on the north flank of the Mendip hills, is our 
 nearest approach, in Great Britain, to the abrupt fold- 
 ings which are so remarkable in the coalfields of 
 Belgium. 
 
 When we look to the numerous and thin seams of 
 the south portion of this field, and the violent contor- 
 tions to which, along with their limestone base, the 
 coal strata have been subjected, we are induced to 
 recognise the Belgian type, and to look eastward, in 
 the direction of the axis of disturbance, for a continua- 
 tion of the trough of coal-measures. Evidence, how- 
 ever, not altogether conclusive, has been obtained by 
 boring, which would make it probable that the lower 
 measures also, like the upper ones, crop up under the 
 overlying rocks. Towards Bath, at Twiverton, seams 
 of the lower series, much faulted and highly inclined, 
 are worked, but it is uncertain how far they extend. 
 We may also speculate on the coal-measures being 
 brought in again by convolution on the south side of 
 the Mendips, beneath the more recent formations ; 
 but on this point no trials appear to have been made. 
 
 It may be remarked, that a source of error in estima- 
 ting the quantity of coal in the ground is very observ- 
 able in parts of this field; viz., that certain tracts of 
 the good seams have been so faulted and squeezed by 
 natural causes as to yield little else than slack, and 
 thus to be commercially valueless. And a notable 
 peculiarity is met with in the overlap faults at Radstock 
 
COALFIELDS OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND, ETC. 67 
 
 and Clandown, where the seams are dislocated by slides 
 in a direction opposite to the usual one, and are thus 
 doubled over themselves, so as to give, over a breadth 
 of from 50 to 200 and even 300 yards, a double tract 
 of the same coal. 
 
 FOREST OF DEAN. This complete and picturesque 
 little coal basin, clothed in great part with fine oak 
 forest, is an admirable study for the student, dipping 
 on all sides towards the centre, and skirted by its base 
 rock, the carboniferous limestone. It is about 34 square 
 miles in extent, and from its regularity is thoroughly 
 known, even where as yet unproved by pits.* 
 
 The coal measures are about 2,300 feet thick, and 
 contain, principally in their lower part, eleven seams of 
 18 inches up to 5 feet high, giving a total thickness of 
 about 27 feet of coal. 
 
 Below the Churchway, and above the Coleford HigL 
 Delf seam, there occurs a thick series of sandstones, 
 giving rise to numerous excellent quarries, and which 
 in some degree appears to be equivalent to the Pennant 
 of the Bristol field. 
 
 Several of the coals about the middle of the series 
 are remarkable for the great number and variety of 
 fossil-plant remains found in the roofs : whilst the 
 lowest thick coal, the Coleford Highdelf, from 4 to 
 10 feet 6 inches, shows only sigillarise and other large 
 obscure trunks of trees. Ironstones are almost entirely 
 absent, but the want of them is amply made up for by 
 the admirable brown oxide of iron found abundantly in 
 
 * A beautiful model, showing most instructively the position of the 
 various seams, was constructed some years ago by Mr. T. Sopwith, 
 F.K.S., and was deposited by H.M. Commissioners of Woods and 
 Forests in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn-street. 
 
 F2 
 
68 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 churns or irregular deposits in the upper portion of 
 the limestone. 
 
 The Dean Forest field produced in 1854, 420,866 
 tons of coal; in 1865, 739,840 tons. 
 
 DEVONSHIRE. In the north of this county, the 
 neighbourhood of Bideford is remarkable for the occur- 
 rence of small seams of anthracite, or culm, which have 
 been worked to a considerable extent. They are of but 
 small commercial importance, but are interesting as 
 offering a parallel to* the thin seams found in the large 
 tract of carboniferous slate in the south-west of 
 Ireland. 
 
 SOUTH WALES. The magnificent coalfield which 
 extends from Pontypool on the east to St. Bride's 
 Bay on the west, and occupies some 900 square miles, 
 chiefly in the counties of Mon mouth, Glamorgan, and 
 Carmarthen, is no less remarkable for its thickness 
 than for the variety and excellence of its products. 
 Based upon a foundation of bold hills of limestone, 
 which rise on its northern, southern, and eastern limits, 
 it forms through a great part of this length an elon- 
 gated basin, containing a mass of picturesque hilly 
 land, intersected by numerous streams, which have a 
 mainly north and south direction, and in which the 
 greater number of the works are situated. The very 
 numerous dislocations by which it is intersected follow 
 a still more regular meridional course. The great 
 breath of the field, from 12 to 16 miles, and the rapid 
 inclination of the strata, would soon carry them down 
 to unattainable depths, but for their being again raised 
 nearer to the surface by an axis of elevation, or anti- 
 clinal ridge, which is traceable along a considerable 
 distance in an east and west direction. 
 
COALFIELDS OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND, ETC. 69 
 
 In Monmouthshire the thickness of the strata is far 
 less than in the more western portion, and the maxi- 
 mum depth to the lowest important seam (the Black 
 Vein) may be estimated at 650 yards, whilst the lowest 
 workable coal would be reached at 750 yards from the 
 surface in the valleys.* Here the uppermost notable 
 seam is the well-known house coal, the Mynydd Isslwyn, 
 5 feet 6 inches, which, occupying only the middle of the 
 trough, has already been worked out over a great part 
 of its area. Beneath this comes a great thickness of 
 sandstones, the " Pennant ;" and below that again the 
 measures, including the excellent furnace-coals and 
 clay iron ores, which have given rise to the great iron- 
 works of Pontypool, Ebbw Vale, Tredegar, &c. 
 
 Farther west, the sandstones are greatly augmented 
 in thickness, and are surmounted by a series of mea- 
 sures with many workable seams, which appear to be 
 exhibited in full development to the north of Swansea. 
 But still farther westward, at Llanelly, an upper series 
 of seams occupy a comparatively narrow area, coursing 
 east and west, where the full thickness of the coal- 
 measures is estimated to amount to no less than 
 10,000 feet. If, therefore, we include these, where 
 they are worked on the north-east of Llanelly, and 
 extending to the Llwchwr River, we have the following 
 full section : 
 
 Uppermost or Llanelly series, 1,000 feet, with 8 seams, and a total of 18 
 
 feet of coal. 
 Penllergare series, &c., 3,000 feet, with 16 seams above 18 inches, and a 
 
 total of 50 feet of coal. (Down to the Hughes seam of Swansea.) 
 Swansea sandstones (Pennant), 2,700 feet, with 15 seams and 28 feet 
 
 of coal. 
 Lower series, 400 to 1,400 feet, with 18 seams and 83 feet of coal. 
 
 * According to surveys made by Mr. T. Forster Brown, F.G.S., 
 H.M. Deputy Gaveller in Dean Forest. 
 
70 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 The local variations, and especially the thinning- at 
 eastward of many of the beds, render a general section, 
 such as the above, inapplicable except to a limited part 
 of the area. 
 
 On the west of Carmarthen Bay the thickness of the 
 measures is again greatly reduced, and their value is 
 much deteriorated by the violent foldings and convo- 
 lutions to which they have been subjected, and which 
 may be seen at their maximum in the cliffs of St. 
 Bride's Bay. 
 
 The north-eastern part of the field is principally 
 remarkable for its excellent partially bituminous coals. 
 In the neighbourhood of Aberdare the seams acquire in 
 the highest degree those free-burning and yet smoke- 
 less properties, which adapt them especially to steam 
 purposes. The run that has consequently been made 
 upon the coals of these valleys, has led to the opening 
 of such numerous, and such vigorously worked col- 
 lieries, that large tracts of the best seam, the Aberdare 
 four-foot, have already been exhausted. From hence 
 westward the coals of the south outcrop remain bitu- 
 minous as i'ar as beyond the Llanelly district, whilst 
 those along the northern side of the field change to 
 anthracite, and this latter variety of coal alone is 
 yielded by the seams rising northward in Carmarthen- 
 shire, and by all those of Pembrokeshire. Even within 
 a distance of a few hundred yards, the Llanelly beds 
 are seen to be bituminous where they rise to the south, 
 and anthracitic in the opposite side of the trough. 
 
 The produce of the western districts has been as 
 follows : 
 
 1854. 1864. 
 
 Gloucestershire and Somersetshire . 1,492,366 tons 1,950,000 tona. 
 Monmouthshire \ R ~ no nnn J 4,028,500 , 
 
 South Wales 8,500,000 { 6>948>000 > 
 
COALFIELDS OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND, ETC. 71 
 
 An examination of the constituent strata, and of the 
 positions of these western coalfields, will lead to the 
 induction that they have formerly been united, and 
 that in Dean Forest we have a link between its larger 
 neighbours, which has been preserved from denudation 
 by its fortunately having been folded into a basin form. 
 The twenty miles which intervene between Coleford and 
 the Welsh hills exhibit only the Old Red sandstone, 
 the base on which coal measures once rested, long since 
 swept away by the wearing action of the sea, when 
 the land has been raised after periods of submergence. 
 
 IRELAND. The coalfields of the sister country form 
 a most interesting study to the geologist, but unfor- 
 tunately yielding only a total annual quantity of 125,000 
 tons, present to the commercial or technical inquirer 
 features of little present value and of no future pros- 
 pects. He who has passed long days in exploring the 
 hilly coal country of Carlow, Kilkenny, or Tipperary, 
 now examining the fossils of the shales, which remind 
 him of those of the lowest coal series of central England, 
 and anon looking down upon the wide plains of car- 
 boniferous limestone which form the great bulk of the 
 low country, cannot but soon arrive at the conviction 
 that Nature probably gave to Ireland with a liberal 
 hand, but has again taken away what she had given. 
 The isolated little coalfields which exist at present are 
 but the remnants of important deposits which have 
 been torn away by denudation ; and as they are unmis- 
 takably the few lowermost beds of the formation, no 
 discoveries are to be expected from boring. It is, 
 nevertheless, noticeable that the lower portions of the 
 carboniferous strata are developed in great thickness, 
 for the limestone is succeeded by several hundred feet 
 
72 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 of black shale, as in Derbyshire, and then by some 500 
 to 700 feet of flagstones, which form a parallel to our 
 millstone grit. The coal measures attaining sometimes 
 a thickness of 1,800 feet, contain but a few seams, 
 mostly very thin, of anthracite, extremely broken, 
 compressed, and uncertain, in county Cork, but in the 
 Tipperary and Castlecomer fields, forming basins of 
 considerable regularity. 
 
 In the north of Ireland, coalfields of very small 
 extent occur in Tyrone and Antrim ; which, although 
 some of the seams are of bituminous quality, exhibit 
 in the main characters very similar to those of the 
 south. And thus the whole of the deposits of fossil 
 fuel, being but fragments capable of a very limited 
 supply, it is fortunate that the town populations of 
 Ireland can be supplied with such facility from the 
 Clyde, Whitehaven, the Mersey, and the Dee ; and 
 that Nature has in some measure made amends for the 
 absence of coal by the gift of peat bogs of unsurpassed 
 extent and quality. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CONTINENTAL EUROPEAN OOALI1ELDS. 
 
 FRANCE. Although unable fully to supply the de- 
 mands of a large population and high civilisation, the 
 French coalfields are neither few nor poor in contents. 
 The sum total of the coal production of France is 
 obtained from above fifty different patches of the coal 
 formation, only a few of which need to be cited as of 
 permanent importance. They may be grouped as the 
 
CONTINENTAL EUROPEAN COALFIELDS. 73 
 
 coalfields of the north, of the centre, and of the 
 south. 
 
 That of the north, occupying a narrow strip of land 
 in the departments du Nord and Pas de Calais, is at 
 the one end continuous with that of Belgium, whilst 
 on the other it gradually diminishes in value as it IP 
 followed from Valenciennes and Bethune, towards 
 Hardinghen and Boulogne. Considering how the coaL 
 measures are covered by the chalk, or cretaceous strata, 
 80 to 150 yards thick, some of them offering very 
 serious obstacles to the sinking of shafts, it is credit- 
 able to the sagacity and perseverance of the French 
 engineers and coal owners that they have so ferreted 
 out the character and position of these concealed trea- 
 sures, as to have brought the production of this field 
 already up to three millions of tons. The seams are 
 not actually traceable without a gap into Belgium, but 
 are of a similar character, regular and numerous, yet 
 thin : thus the 12 beds of Aniche give together but 
 23 feet of coal; 4 beds worked at Douchy, 11 feet 
 6 inches ; 18 at Anzin, 39 feet. 
 
 A comparison of these features with those exhibited 
 on the flanks of our Mendip hills, and an observation 
 of the underground course of the sharp trough of 
 French coal strata, deflected as it is from its Belgian 
 direction when it arrives at Douay, inclines us to the 
 speculation that the palaeozoic rocks may be continuous 
 from the Severn to the Rhine. The question may pos- 
 sibly be of little practical importance, but is one of 
 great interest as regards the original deposition of the 
 carboniferous series.* 
 
 * Mr. Godwin Austin long since propounded this view on purely 
 geological grounds. Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., vol. xi. 
 
74 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 The coalfields of central France are remarkable for 
 their irregular and small area, and the fragmentary 
 and unequal state in which most of the seams occur. 
 They are commonly based upon some of the primary 
 rocks, granite, gneiss, &c. ; and a great part of their 
 constituent mass consists of coarse grits, and, towards 
 the base, of rough conglomerate. The seams attain, 
 here and there, a vast thickness, even up to 40, 60, 
 and 80 feet, but are much broken, and subject to 
 sudden changes. Some of the French geologists are 
 inclined to consider them the result of deposition in 
 lakes, in contradistinction to the fields of the North 
 and of England, where they repose in the obviously 
 marine beds of the mountain limestone. 
 
 The most important of them is the district of St. 
 Etienne and Eive de Gier (Loire), occupying a length 
 of about 34 miles, and in which the lower seams occupy 
 an area of 60,000 acres. One of these varies from 30 to 
 70 feet in thickness. On these follow some hundreds 
 of yards thick of barren sandstones, and then an upper 
 series of 20 seams of from 3 to 16 feet thick, which 
 only cover a surface of about 10,000 acres, and in the 
 midst of which the full thickness of the basin appears 
 to be near 5,000 feet. The active manufacturing in- 
 dustry of this neighbourhood has raised the production 
 to as much as three millions of tons. 
 
 Another remarkable basin is that of the Saone et 
 Loire, the chief working centres of which are Creusot, 
 Blanzy, Montceau, Montchanin, and Epignac, where the 
 measures contain only ten beds of coal, but at Blanzy 
 two of them run from 30 to 60 feet each ; and at Mont- 
 chanin, as at Creusot, one seam attains locally the extra- 
 ordinary amount of from 60 to 130 feet in thickness. 
 
CONTINENTAL EUROPEAN COALFIELDS. 75 
 
 Most of these central fields are, unfortunately, mere 
 basins in the older rocks, so that their contents are 
 rigidly defined ; yet a few of them as that of Creusot 
 and Blanzy offer some prospect of continuation, 
 especially on the south-west, beneath the covering of 
 newer formations. 
 
 In the south, the coalfield of Alais, in the depart- 
 ments du Gard and Ardeche, conveniently situate for 
 the supply of the coasts of the Mediterranean, and that 
 of the Aveyron, are both of them noticeable for a yield 
 which has increased much within a few years past, and 
 for having probable reserves beneath the Jurassic strata, 
 which on certain sides bound the visible extent of the 
 coal-measures. 
 
 In 1863, with a home production of 10 J millions of 
 tons increased in 1864 to 11,100,000 France con- 
 sumed half as much again imported from abroad.* 
 Since 1815 the amount raised from French pits has 
 been multiplied tenfold ; but it is still a problem 
 whether the rapidly increasing demand will ever be 
 met by the production of the country. My own visits 
 to a few pits have impressed on me the conviction that 
 the French coal-seams are usually much more difficult 
 to work economically than our own ; and that hence 
 the prices, ruling higher than in more favoured dis- 
 tricts, will always render it difficult for the coal-owners 
 to compete on the large scale with those of England, 
 Belgium, or Prussia. 
 
 BELGIUM. The deepest pits in the world have been 
 opened in that narrow, but actively worked, zone of 
 
 * The imports into France were, in 1864 : 
 
 From Belgium 3,500,000 tons. 
 
 Prussia 1,800,000 
 
 England 1,200,000 
 
 6,500,000 tons. 
 
COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 coal-measures which, runs from west to east by Mons, 
 Charleroi, and Namur, to Liege. Especially in its 
 western portion, the district of Hainaut, the high angle 
 of inclination of the strata, sharply folded and even 
 zigzagged into a narrow trough, has occasioned the 
 shafts to attain in several cases over 750 m , or 2,460 
 feet ; one shaft, at the Viviers Reunis, near Grilly, even 
 l,040 m , or 3,411 feet. 
 
 The Belgian coalfield, which is in all above 100 
 miles in length, and generally 4 tp 6 miles wide, is 
 subdivided into several basins, among which that of 
 Mons exhibits the fullest development of the forma- 
 tion. No less than 157 seams are known by name, of 
 which 120 are workable, varying from 10 inches to 
 3 feet. The upper series of 47 seams, not seen else- 
 where in the country, are the Flenu, a coal burning 
 with long flame and giving off much gas ; the next 
 group of 21 are coking coals ; then comes a third, of 
 29 beds of charbon de forge; and last, 20 to 25 beds of 
 charbon sec or maigre, dry coal, burning with small 
 flame. 
 
 The production of the different districts of this field 
 was, in 1863 : 
 
 1863. 1864. 
 
 Mons .... 3,203,397 tons. . . 3,453,345 tons. 
 
 Centre . . . 1,319,175 . . 1,394,757 
 
 Charleroi . . 3,578,230 . . 3,822,290 
 Namur . . . 255,767 
 Liege. . . . 1,988,361 
 
 Total . . . 10,345,330 tons. 
 
 The northern side of this long synclinal trough in- 
 clines much more moderately than the southern ; and 
 in the sharp-angled zigzag contortions the same con- 
 trast between the two sides may often be seen; an 
 
CONTINENTAL EUROPEAN COALFIELDS. 
 
 77 
 
 arrangement recalling the phenomena of our Pem- 
 brokeshire field. M. Dormoy, a French engineer, has 
 constructed some beautiful maps to illustrate his views, 
 and considers that, in consequence of the swerving 
 direction of a great east and west dislocation, the 
 southern half of the trough is wanting, except in the 
 rich elliptical basin of the Couchant de Mons, where 
 the total thickness of the measures is estimated at 
 8,000 feet. 
 
 A striking example of the zigzag structure of the 
 coal-measures is. seen in the accompanying section of 
 the mine des Six Bonniers, near Namur. 
 
 Fig. 10. 
 
 The mode of working is generally by a modified 
 kind of long- work, but one requiring a vast quantity 
 of timber, much of which is lost. Within the last 
 twenty years great strides have been made in the 
 improvement of their machinery, and the output at 
 the larger pits is very considerable ; whilst the expense 
 of deep sinkings tends, as in the north of England, to 
 increase the area worked from a given pit. The quan- 
 tity raised per man is much less than the usual English 
 
78 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 standard, partly in consequence of the thinness and 
 difficult position of .the seams. Not long ago all the 
 work-people were, by. law, obliged to travel up and 
 clown by ladders, but at present many are raised by 
 the cages ; and the fahrkunst, or, as it has been termed, 
 Warocquiere (from M. de Warocque, who erected an 
 excellent one on his own works at Mariemont), has been 
 applied with great success at several of the larger 
 collieries. 
 
 The price of coals in Belgium is very high; 16s. to 
 205. per ton being obtained for large, and 85. to 10s. 
 and 15s. for mixed and small. They are divided into 
 the following classes, according to size : Homlle, large 
 blocks ; gaillette, lumps ; gailleteries^ pieces the size of 
 a fist ; gailletins, or tetes de moineau, nuts ; and menu, 
 smalls, or slack ; whilst the name of gilleteux is given 
 to mixed sorts. 
 
 PRUSSIA. Almost continuous with the Belgian field, 
 the two highly contorted coal-basins of the Inde, near 
 Eschweiler, and of the Wurm, near Aix-la-Chapelle, 
 have been worked from a very early period ; and ex- 
 tending as they do to a great depth, contain large 
 reserves of coal. In the same direction, farther east- 
 ward, after crossing the valley of the Khine, comes the 
 large and rich coalfield of the Ruhr, or of West- 
 phalia ; which, although mined near Dortmund as early 
 as 1302, has only within the last quarter of a century 
 risen to a high degree of importance. 
 
 That portion of the coalfield which is visible at the 
 surface consists in the main of three parallel synclinals, 
 rich in a vast number of seams, of which the upper- 
 most are a good bituminous coal, the middle series 
 semi- bituminous (Sinter or Ess-Kohleri), and the lower 
 
CONTINENTAL EUROPEAN COALFIELDS. 79 
 
 seams non-bituminous or Sand-coals. There are here 
 110 less than 117 seams, in 1,203 fathoms of measures, 
 containing an aggregate of 294 feet of coal. Nearly 
 three-fourths of the number are of workable size, and 
 they are now recognised and mapped over the entire 
 district by the aid of three or four guide-seams of 
 special character and persistence. Of late years 
 numerous and systematic borings through the chalk 
 strata which overlie the coal-measures on the North 
 have proved the existence of several additional similar 
 folds over a still larger area, so that the prospective 
 value of the field has been more than doubled ; and it 
 is estimated that it contains no less than 39,200 
 millions of tons. But perhaps the most remarkable 
 
 Hagen. Eecklinghausen. 
 
 Herdecke. Gastrop. 
 
 Fig. 11. 
 
 a. Lower carboniferous rocks, sterile sandstones. 
 5. Productive coal measures. 
 c. Cretaceous strata. 
 
 coalfield of the Continent is that of Saarbriicken, on 
 the south of the Hunsriick range, and on the left bank 
 of the Ehine. In this extensive and isolated tract a 
 greater thickness of measures and of coal exists than 
 anywhere else in Europe. Prussia has the good fortune 
 to possess the lion's share, whilst a small but valuable 
 division, containing the lower seams only, falls within 
 the confines of Khenish Bavaria (Khein-pfalz), and the 
 tail end has been proved by borings and sinking to 
 extend within the French frontier. The coal basin, in 
 
80 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 outside measure, is about 60 miles long by 20 wide, 
 and its lower strata attain, in a line from Bettingen to 
 Tholei, the enormous depth of 20,000 feet, whence a 
 great portion of the coal must ever remain practically 
 unattainable. 
 
 The Prussian mining officers, under the lead of 
 Noggerath and Von Dechen, have made most accurate 
 surveys and sections of the measures, from which we 
 find that the total number of seams above 6 inches 
 thick is 164, containing in all, 338 feet of coal, whilst 
 the number at present deemed workable, i.e. above 
 2 feet, is 77 ? with 240 feet of coal, and they estimate 
 that the quantity of workable coal down to the depth 
 of 342 fathoms, in the three Prussian circles of 
 Saarbriicken, Saarlouis, and Ottweiler, is 2,7 50 millions 
 of tons, whilst the total amount in the measures for 
 the same limited area would be above ten times that 
 quantity. 
 
 In the International Exhibition of 1862, perfect 
 sections of some of these beds of coal engaged attention, 
 and the seams called Callenberg, Schwalbach, Beust, 
 and Blucher, reared up against the walls with their 
 full height of 10, 12, and 14 feet, afforded a fine 
 sample of the products of collieries which now export 
 largely into France. One notable peculiarity in the 
 coals, and in which they differ strangely from those of 
 Westphalia and Belgium, is that the lowest known 
 seams are bituminous or caking coal, a ad that the 
 higher they range in the series the more dry or 
 anthracitic do they become. Of small importance as 
 reserves of fossil fuel, compared with the two last, 
 but yet very suggestive in a geological point of view, 
 are the two isolated protrusions of coal of Ibbenbiiren 
 
CONTINENTAL EUROPEAN COALFIELDS. 81 
 
 and the Piesberg, near Osnabriick. They consist of 
 true coal-measures, in which from five to seven seams 
 have been proved and worked on a moderate scale. 
 Before quitting Westphalia, it should be added that 
 seams of exceptionally good coal, for the newer forma- 
 tions, occur in the Wealden strata which traverse a 
 part of the kingdom and extend into Hanover and 
 Brunswick. In the districts of Tecklenburg, Minden, 
 Osnabriick, &c., these seams, which run from 10 to 44 
 inches, are a good deal worked for local purposes, and 
 yield in some places caking, in others anthracitic 
 coal. 
 
 Another Prussian coal region, that of Wettin and 
 Lobejiin, near Halle, claims attention as forming a 
 link between the north-western fields and those of 
 Saxony. It has long been worked, although figuring 
 to a very small amount in the annual returns. 
 
 On crossing the Prussian territories to their south- 
 eastern corner, we arrive at the remote and compara- 
 tively unwrought coalfields of Silesia. That of Lower 
 Silesia extends through the circles of Landshut, Wal- 
 denburg, and Glatz into Bohemia on the south-west. 
 That of Upper Silesia occupies parts of the circles of 
 Ratibor, Bybnick, Pless, &c., and passes on the one side 
 into Moravia and Austrian Silesia, on the other by 
 Beuthen, towards Krakau. This latter field especially, 
 which was commenced upon only in 1784, is of a value 
 which has not been sufficiently appreciated. Measured 
 at its full thickness from the saddle of Zabrze towards 
 the outcrop, it is stated to contain no less than 333 
 feet of coal in seams of above 2J feet thick ; whilst 
 its extent, reaching far beyond the boundary shown ic 
 maps, is difficult of limitation, from the fact of the 
 
82 
 
 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 coal-rneasures passing beneath newer formations. But 
 whilst the total mass of the strata appears to be some 
 10,000 feet thick, and much of the coal may therefore 
 lie at unattainable depths, it is made out with fair 
 probability that this repository must contain an avail- 
 able quantity, even within a working depth already 
 exceeded elsewhere, of 50,000 million tons of coal ! 
 
 The structure of this latter coalfield is not yet so 
 thoroughly explored as to give certainty to calculations 
 for the future, but the surveys of men distinguished 
 no less as miners than as geologists, Yon Oeynhausen, 
 Yon Carnall, and Krug von Nidda, leave little doubt 
 that the district of the head-waters of the Oder may 
 be looked to as a source of supply long after we shall 
 have burned out our last ton of coal from most of the 
 pits of our Western countries. 
 
 With the steady advance in production of the 
 Prussian coalfields it may be observed that the most 
 flourishing is that of Westphalia, where the position 
 is eminently favourable to cheap transit, and where 
 consumption has been fostered by the price being 
 lowered considerably below the standard of other 
 Continental producers. 
 
 The following table exhibits the quantities raised 
 from the several districts of Prussia during the years 
 1863 and 1864 
 
 Official centre. 
 
 1863. 
 
 1864. 
 
 Coals. 
 
 Brown 
 Coal. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Coals. 
 
 Brown 
 Coal. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Breslau (Silesia) 
 Halle (Pr. Saxony) 
 Dortmund (Westphalia) 
 Bonn (Saarbriicken) ... 
 
 Tons. 
 4,421,119 
 52,971 
 6,875,120 
 2,955,364 
 
 14,304,574 
 
 Tons. 
 188,807 
 3,645,189 
 1,631 
 190,576 
 
 Tons. 
 4,609,926 
 3,698,160 
 6,876,751 
 3,145,940 
 
 Tons. 
 4,923,417 
 65,889 
 8,146.433 
 3,412,005 
 
 Tons. 
 223,172 
 4,258,117 
 1,344 
 
 166,887 
 
 1~649"520 
 
 Tons. 
 5,146,539 
 4,324,006 
 8,147,777 
 3,578,892 
 
 
 4,026,203 
 
 18,330,777 
 
 16.547,744 
 
 21,197,214 
 
CONTINENTAL EUROPEAN COALFIELDS. 83 
 
 The brown-coal or lignite of Prussia, as well as of 
 Nassau and several other North German territories, 
 now commands a great sale as a fuel, well enough 
 suited to many purposes. The shallow basins of 
 tertiary rocks generally sandstones which yield it, 
 are scattered in patches over a vast extent of country, 
 but attain special importance on the Lower Khine, in 
 the Westerwald, in the Wetterau, on the River Elbe, 
 and in the Thuringian district. 
 
 The coalfields of SAXONY, although locally important, 
 and interesting as having been geologically well explored 
 by Naumann, Von Gotta, Geinitz and Yon Gutbier, 
 are not likely to exercise much influence on European 
 production. That of Zwickau was worked at a very 
 early date, and being found to extend beneath the 
 New Red sandstone, offers a good magazine for future 
 supply. Where best developed on the left bank of the 
 Mulde, it exhibits 9 seams, with 96 feet of coal. 
 
 From the careful examination of the coal plants, 
 instituted by the Saxon geologists, it is shown that 
 whilst the undermost seams of Silesia, the culm series, 
 may be termed Lycopodiaceous or Sagenaria coal, the 
 lower seams of Zwickau are chiefly of SigillaricB^ 
 forming pech-kohle or pitch-coal ; that next above the 
 Sigillaria zone comes the Calamite coal, principally 
 shown in the Russ-kohle seam, which attains locally a 
 thickness of 22 feet 6 inches. Above this occurs the 
 Annularia zone, and lastly, including the uppermost 
 seams, the Fern zone.* 
 
 The coalfields of Haynichen, and of Potschappel 
 
 * The Flora of our coalfields of Gloucestershire aad Somersetshire 
 offers, I think, a parallel to the above ; but its details need closer 
 examination. 
 
84 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 are of far smaller note, but the position of the latter, 
 near Dresden and the silver mines of Freiberg, gives 
 it a special value. On the whole, this little kingdom 
 produced in 1863, of coal and brown-coal together, 
 2,331,083 tons; the true coal being 1,902,467 tons, 
 raised from 88 pits, by 12,000 workpeople.* 
 
 AUSTRIA. The large amount of forest still existing 
 in many parts of the Austrian monarchy has rendered 
 coal a requirement of no serious importance until 
 within the last few years, when the great increase of 
 steam navigation, of railways, and manufactures, has 
 given impetus to the production of every kind of fossil 
 fuel. The true coal formation stretches from Lower 
 Silesia into a limited district of Bohemia, at the base of 
 the Eiesengebirge ; and that of Upper Silesia forms a 
 tract of considerable importance around Mahrisch, or 
 Moravian Ostrau, where it is largely worked by Von 
 Rothschild and others. On the north-west side of 
 Prague the coal-basins of Schlan and Rakonitz, that 
 of Radnitz, and the western one of Pilsen, extending 
 in the aggregate over some 600 square miles, are all 
 being rapidly opened ; but no less remarkable are the 
 strikingly thick seams of brown-coal (sometimes from 
 30 to 50 feet) found in the flat country of Elnbogen, 
 Bilin, Commotau, &c., and largely shipped on the Elbe. 
 
 * The rapid increase of production in Saxony, especially since the 
 year 1830, will be appreciated from the statement of annual raisings at 
 intervals of ten years : 
 
 Year. Saxon scheffel, nearly = 4 cwts. 
 
 1790 30,800 
 
 1800 62,000 
 
 1820 65,000 
 
 1830 165,000 
 
 1840 780,000 
 
 .. . . 1850 4,200,000 
 
 1860 .. . . . . 7,874,000 
 
CONTINENTAL EUROPEAN COALFIELDS. 85 
 
 The Austrian States raise in the year above four 
 millions of tons, of which nearly the half is brown- 
 coal, but some of the varieties of the latter are so like 
 good bituminous samples of the older coal that I have 
 seen one of our most experienced Newcastle pit-men 
 entirely at fault in judging of them. A very superior 
 quality occurs at Fiinfkirchen in Southern Hungary, 
 and at Steuerdorf and some other localities in the 
 Bannat, where it needs an examination of the fossils 
 in the shales to convince you that they are in the 
 Lias formation. The tertiary brown-coals of Hungary 
 and in the Austrian Alps, especially in Styria and 
 Carinthia, are not only of a very useful character, but 
 occur in seams which in some instances attain the 
 surprising thicknesses of 50, 70, and even 120 feet. 
 
 SPAIN. Although the Mediterranean countries are 
 generally devoid of true coal, exhibiting only here 
 and there deposits of lignite of no great importance, 
 the Spanish peninsula presents a notable exception, 
 boasting a large coal-field of numerous seams super- 
 posed on the carboniferous limestone of the Asturias, 
 and two others apparently of great though unex- 
 plored value at Belmez and at Villa Nueva, near 
 Cordova. But no great development can be expected 
 whilst the means of communication remain so bad 
 that the habitual transport of the produce of the 
 collieries is effected on donkey-back. 
 
 RUSSIA. It is no matter of wonder if, in this most 
 extensive of European countries, the abundance of 
 forest, and the scantiness of population, have retarded 
 exploration for coal. But the researches of Sir 
 Roderick Murchison and his associates, Count Key- 
 serling and M. de Verneuil, have proved the existence 
 
86 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 of a gigantic extension of lower carboniferous rocks, 
 ranging along the flanks of the Ural Mountains, over a 
 length of about a thousand miles. It is only here and 
 there that any coal-seams have been proved to exist ; 
 but, although much interrupted, they are distinctly 
 shown to occur on both sides of the great dividing chain. 
 
 These authors have attached especial importance to 
 the coal-field of the Donetz, between the Don and the 
 Dnieper, near the northern corner of the Sea of Azof; 
 where the middle carboniferous limestones contain a 
 number of workable coal-seams not remarkable for 
 goodness of quality over an area of about 11,000 
 square miles. At the collieries of Lissitchia Balka, 
 900 feet of measures exhibited several seams, giving 
 an aggregate of 30 feet of coal, and 50 feet of beds of 
 limestone with marine fossils. 
 
 Le Play states that he found 225 outcrops with 
 above 400 feet of coal ; Prof. Helmersen more recently 
 (1864) asserts the existence of nearly 400 seams;* 
 and as the northern side of the field is covered by the 
 cretaceous rocks, and coal-measures have been already 
 proved beneath them, it appears probable that there is 
 here a vast development of the older coals, of which 
 we have notable examples at home, in Northumberland 
 and in Scotland. 
 
 The researches of Auerbach and Trautschold on 
 the coals of central Russia, published in 1860, describe 
 a well-marked coalfield in the Governments of Tula and 
 Kaluga, with an area of above 13,000 square miles. 
 
 It appears doubtful whether any seams of the ordi- 
 nary upper coal have yet been found ; but should such 
 be discovered to extend beneath the overlying Permian 
 
 * Vide Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., vol. xx. 
 
COAL OF NORTH AMERICA. 87 
 
 strata, it seems not improbable that Russia may one 
 day be shown to possess stores of coal, in some degree 
 commensurate with the magnitude of her territorial 
 proportions. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 COAL OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 SOUTH of the St. Lawrence and the great chain of lakes 
 an astonishing proportion of the surface of the North- 
 American continent is occupied by the carboniferous 
 formation ; and if we merely compare the coal-areas of 
 the New World with those of the Old, as indicated in 
 geological maps, we should conclude that the total extent 
 of the deposits of Europe stand, as against those of 
 America, in the humble ratio of 1 to 21. But an 
 important fallacy is involved in these comparisons, 
 inasmuch as the position of the American coal strata, 
 with respect to the under and overlying rocks, is such 
 as to exhibit their entire area (in the midst of which 
 also large tracts are barren), whilst many most valu- 
 able portions of the European coalfields are covered by 
 newer formations ; and there seems reason to doubt 
 whether in the former there ever occur such great 
 accumulations of coal as distinguish some of the fields 
 of the latter. 
 
 In the British colonies, NEW BRUNSWICK and NOVA 
 SCOTIA are especially noticeable for a great thickness of 
 carboniferous strata, which have been already explored 
 by Prof. Dawson and Mr. R. Brown. The number of 
 seams is comparatively small ; but it is interesting to 
 
88 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 observe that the plants found in or near them belong 
 to the same genera, and often to the same species, as 
 those of the coals of Europe. 
 
 The Cumberland coalfield, occupying a tract which 
 rises towards the Cobequid hills, exhibits along the 
 shores of the Bay of Fundy, at the Joggins, an un- 
 rivalled natural exposure of strata, which Sir W. Logan 
 has measured to be upwards of 14,000 feet thick. But 
 although 70 seams of coal are included, very few of 
 them, and those only thin, are found of workable 
 dimensions. Near Amherst, the productive division 
 is stated by Dawson to be 2,800 feet thick, with seven 
 seams of from 1 to 3 feet thick ; giving a total 
 amount of not more than 16 feet of actual coal. 
 
 A remarkable contrast to this state of things exists 
 in a limited district at Pictou, where, in a much smaller 
 bulk of measures, there occur 5 or 6 good seams, the most 
 noticeable of which is the Pictou main coal, no less 
 than 37J feet in thickness, inclusive of some bands of 
 shale and ironstone. 
 
 In the northern and central parts of Cape Breton, 
 around the town of Sydney, another coalfield, of con- 
 siderable economic value, forms, according to Mr. 
 Brown, one extremity of a great coal region, the main 
 body of which extends under the sea towards New- 
 foundland. The same practical author estimates the 
 productive measures as occupying 250 square miles, 
 and as possessing a thickness of 10,000 feet. A fine 
 natural section, on the north-west side of Sydney Har- 
 bour, shows a total of 1,860 feet of measures, with 34 
 seams of coal, but four only among them are workable, 
 each from 4 feet to 6 feet 9 inches. The excellent 
 papers by the two above-named authors, in the Quar- 
 
COAL OF NORTH AMERICA. 89 
 
 terly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 
 contain most valuable contributions to our knowledge 
 of the plants and animals of the coal. The quantity 
 raised and sold in the province, during the year ending 
 the 30th September, 1865, was 651,256 tons. 
 
 The extensive coal-fields of the UNITED STATES are 
 evidently, from their character and positions, but the 
 huge remnants of a vast coal area, which once extended 
 from the St. Lawrence down to the mouth of the Mis- 
 sissippi, and from the shores of the Atlantic to Kansas 
 and the frontiers of Mexico. Although they may be 
 separated from one another by gaps of many miles in 
 width, the intermediate space is occupied by the same 
 floor of lower rock on which the coal-measures rest ; 
 and the productive portion of the strata is preserved in 
 the several basins, by occupying the depressions of the 
 undulated flexures to which the entire mass has been 
 subjected. Most violent on the east, along the line of 
 the Alleghanies, these foldings become more and more 
 gentle westward, so that in the great regions of the 
 Ohio and the Missouri the inclination of the beds is 
 very small, and their unbroken extent proportionally 
 great. Coupled with this fact, moreover, it is found 
 that the character of the coal changes : bituminous and 
 caking in the broad flat areas, it becomes more and 
 more dense when affected by the contortions of the 
 Appalachian chain, until, in the parallel synclinal 
 deposits of Pennsylvania, it becomes a pure an- 
 thracite. 
 
 Prof. Rogers, in his elaborate " Geology of Penn- 
 sylvania/' dwells upon another broad feature of general 
 interest. The beds of conglomerate (millstone-grit) 
 and sandstone, which occur in great thickness, and of 
 
90 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 coarse grain, on the east, gradually thin away and 
 become finer as they approach the west; whilst the 
 slight traces of limestone, associated with the coal- 
 measures in Pennsylvania, become more and more 
 important as they reach the successive western dis- 
 tricts, until beds, that in the Potomac basin are only 
 10 feet, become expanded at Wheeling to 200 feet in 
 thickness. And as the coarseness of grits and con- 
 glomerates points to the proximity of the land whence 
 they were derived, whilst the limestones abound in 
 marine organisms, it results that in the coal period 
 deep-sea conditions prevailed in the west; and that the 
 mass of land, from which the sandy constituents of 
 the coal-measures were derived, must have existed 
 where the Atlantic now rolls its billows. 
 
 The coalfields of the United States, estimated by 
 Rogers to occupy an area of 196,850 square miles, are 
 five in number : 
 
 1. The Appalachian coalfield, forming a series of 
 producive basins in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, 
 Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, extends in a N.E. 
 and S.W. direction for 875 miles an unbroken length, 
 second only to the spread of the lower carboniferous 
 rocks along the western flank of the Ural. 
 
 In the southernmost and deepest or the Pottsville 
 trough of anthracite, it appears that about 25 workable 
 seams have been proved, in other parts only 10 or 12 ; 
 so that, although a maximum thickness of 207 feet of 
 coal has been ascertained, the average would not exceed 
 70 feet. 
 
 Some of the lower seams of the anthracite attain ex- 
 ceptionally the thickness of from 10 to 40 feet, probably 
 in consequence of the local disappearance or attenuation 
 
COAL OF NORTH AMERICA. 91 
 
 of the shales and grits which elsewhere divide from 
 each other six or seven different seams. At Lehigh 
 Summit mine the great coal-bed is a magnificent seam 
 of 50 feet, containing 30 feet of good coal.* 
 
 In the bituminous field of western Pennsylvania, 
 seven to ten workable seams f are found in a thickness 
 of about 2,100 feet of strata, and the same number 
 may be identified in north-west Virginia; whilst, as a 
 proof of gradual attenuation westward, it seems that in 
 the western coal-field of Missouri and Iowa seven or 
 eight workable seams at the utmost are included in 
 about 700 feet of strata. 
 
 The upper series, cropping out a little to the north 
 and north-west of Pittsburg, is based upon a remark- 
 able seam of coal, named after that town. Prof. 
 Rogers has traced out, con amore, the prodigious extent 
 of " this superb bed," and shows how incompatible 
 with any drift theory are its persistency and regularity. 
 With a thickness of 8 feet at Pittsburg, rising to 12 or 
 14 feet in the south-eastern basins, and dwindling on 
 the Great Kenawha to 5 feet, and at Guyandotte to 
 3 feet, its superficial measurement amounts to about 
 14,000 square miles ; and if we include some detached 
 basins, which indicate its former extent on the east, it 
 would appear that the Pittsburg seam formerly (before 
 
 * To guard against misapprehension, it is well to remember that it 
 appears to be the local practice to name a seam by the thickness of the 
 coal as roughly measured in the driving of a cross cut ; and as the beds 
 rise at various angles, the amount thus taken is generally much in 
 excess of the true thickness. Thus Mr. Eogers states that the so-called 
 " 39-foot vein" is really 26 feet horizontally measured, and 15 feet 
 measured in an European way, fairly across the seam ; and, after all, 
 8 feet only are of saleable coal. 
 
 f Near Pittsburg, above the P. searn of 10 feet, is the Waynesbury 
 coal, feet, and below it 5 seams with about 22 feet of coal. 
 
92 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 denudation) occupied a surface of no less than 34,000 
 square miles. 
 
 Another observable? feature of the upper series con- 
 sists in the intercalation of bands of limestone charged 
 with marine fossils, and amounting sometimes, in the 
 aggregate, to 150 feet thick. One bed especially, 
 which overlies the Pittsburg coal, has been remarked 
 to increase from 2 feet in the Cumberland basin to 
 41 feet at Brownsville, and 54 feet at Wheeling. 
 
 Tne aggregate thickness of coal contained in the 
 measures, generally, of the Appalachian coal-field, is 
 fkr less than that above given for the anthracite region. 
 Even where the basin is deepest, and the seams are 15 
 or 16 in number, it scarcely amounts to 40 feet; whence 
 it is inferred by Rogers that, considering the great 
 amount of denudation, we are hardly entitled to assume 
 a higher general average for the whole field than 25 
 feet. 
 
 The coal-trade of Pennsylvania may be said prac- 
 tically to have commenced with the first shipment in 
 1820, and the following numbers, given in the report 
 of the Philadelphia Board of Trade, show the increase 
 in quantity sent to market at intervals of ten years : 
 
 Year. Tons. 
 
 1820 365 
 
 1830 174,374 
 
 1840 841,584 
 
 1850 3,177,537 
 
 1860 8,151,569 
 
 In 1864 the production amounted to 10,035,249. 
 
 2. Illinois and Indiana coalfield. This is a somewhat 
 oval tract, lying between a wide anticlinal exposure of 
 Devonian and Silurian rocks on the east, and the saddle 
 of carboniferous limestone of the Upper Mississippi on. 
 
COAL OF NORTH AMERICA. 93 
 
 the west, having a total area of some 51,000 square 
 miles. 
 
 Within this vast district, nearly as extensive as the 
 Appalachian, many local disturbances and undulations 
 affect the strata, and confine the available basins within 
 limits which are not yet thoroughly explored. In 
 western Kentucky, the productive coal-measures are 
 estimated at 3,429 feet thick ; the lower series includ- 
 ing a hard sandstone, called the Anvil Bock, at the 
 top being 1,029 feet, with nine workable seams, and 
 the upper group being 2,400 feet, with eight workable 
 seams and numerous bands of limestone. An aggregate 
 amount of 40 to 50 feet of coal has here been proved ; 
 but since all explorers agree that there is a great 
 amount of undulation bringing the older strata to the 
 surface the flexures running N.W. and S.E., or oppo- 
 sitely to those of the Appalachian range no satisfac- 
 tory estimate of the average quantity of coal can yet be 
 obtained. 
 
 3. Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansas. In this enormous 
 area, where upwards of 73,000 square miles are stated* 
 to be occupied by coal-measures, we cannot but look 
 upon the latter as being of a degraded type ; not only 
 the stony strata, but the beds of coal also having 
 greatly dwindled, both in number and thickness. Prof. 
 Swallow, reporting on the geology of Missouri, esti- 
 mates the total sections of the coal-measures on that 
 river at 650 feet; the upper portion containing thin 
 beds of buff limestone, and no workable coal ; whilst 
 the lower group, between Booneville and the mouth of 
 the La Mine, includes six coal seams, two only of 
 which, of 3 feet and 6 feet respectively, are workable. 
 
 * Eogers, " Geology of Pennsylvania," vol. ii. 
 
94 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 Dr. Dale Owen, in reporting on Arkansas, mentions 
 the occurrence of several seams of coal opened upon in 
 different counties foi smiths' use ; but most of them 
 are only a few inches thick ; one alone, the Spadra 
 seam, being 3 feet. They appear to be semi-anthracitic, 
 and to be intercalated among the lower members of 
 the formation ; viz., with the millstone-grit, and close 
 down on the "Archimedes" limestone. Sundry out- 
 lying deposits of coal and cannel promise to be of local 
 value; but the contents of the field, as hitherto de- 
 scribed, are so utterly disproportionate to the magnifi- 
 cent show which it makes in a geological map, that in 
 a comparison of the coal-measures of different countries, 
 the mere statement of its area is of no value. 
 
 4. Coal-field of Texas. This extreme south-western 
 district, estimated at 3,000 square miles in extent, will 
 be looked upon by the geologist as originally an exten- 
 sion of its larger neighbour in Arkansas. 
 
 5. Michigan coal-field. A very considerable extent of 
 land, between Lakes Huron and Michigan, and esti- 
 mated at 12,000 to 15,000 square miles, is occupied by 
 a shallow basin of gently inclined or horizontal coal- 
 measures. The foundation on which they rest appears 
 to be carboniferous limestone ; frequently containing, 
 as it does also in British North America, deposits of 
 gypsum. It appears singular that the interior of this 
 coal district is imperfectly known, and that as yet only a 
 few points have been noticed where coal crops out. From 
 these appearances it has been conjectured that but very 
 few beds of workable coal probably the very bottom of 
 the series exist here ; and a parallel is offered to the 
 bad plight of the Irish coalfields, robbed of their chief 
 contents by Nature's great planing- tool of denudation. 
 
COAL OF NORTH AMERICA. 95 
 
 It will excite no surprise that in a country of which 
 the interior is so scantily peopled, and the timber-land 
 still so abundant, the coal-trade should be but of recent 
 origin, and the quantity of fossil-fuel brought into the 
 market from native mines very inferior to the yield of 
 European countries, in proportion to the extent of the 
 coal-rocks. It was only in 1820 that the first modest 
 instalment of 365 tons of coal was sent from the mines 
 of Pennsylvania ; and we have seen that, doubling itself 
 sometimes in five, sometimes in ten years, the amount 
 has increased to above ten millions of tons in 1864. 
 The other coal-producing States lag far behind, as will 
 be inferred from the following table, showing the pro- 
 duce for the year ending June, 1864, from the returns 
 made to the Internal Revenue Department : 
 
 State. 
 Rhode Island 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Tons. 
 3,656 
 . 12,698,412 
 787,269 
 
 District Columbia . 
 Western Virginia . 
 
 742 
 398,815 
 91,036 
 
 
 66,187 
 
 Ohio 
 
 . 1,324,685 
 
 Indiana 
 Illinois 
 Michigan .... 
 
 146,787 
 925,293 
 16,296 
 50,204 
 
 
 236 
 
 California .... 
 Washington Territory . 
 
 Total . 
 
 44,938 
 7,754 
 
 . 16,472,410 
 
 Certain of the " disloyal " States are here omitted, but 
 Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama would only appear 
 for comparatively trifling quantities. 
 
96 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 It is reported,* too, that " great looseness seems to 
 exist in the compilation of figures involving large sums, 
 as well as in the returns required to be made by the 
 companies." Whence it is probable that, allowing 
 for local consumption, &c., the amount raised in the 
 States cannot be less than 18 millions of tons. 
 
 Years ago the progress of the Pennsylvanian mines 
 would have been much checked but for the duty placed 
 upon the importation of foreign coals, which has been 
 varied from time to time, and is now 1 dollar 25 cents 
 per ton of 28 bushels. The distance from the mines to 
 the chief centres of population, along the sea-board, is 
 from 80 to 120 miles, and the carriage appears to cost 
 nearly as much as the value of the coal at the pit's 
 mouth. The price at New York ranging in general 
 from 22s. to 24s. per ton, and occasionally (as in 1864) 
 running up much higher, admits an importation into 
 the States of above half a million tons annually. 
 
 The great wealth in fossil-fuel of North America does 
 not end with the true coalfields above described. In 
 eastern Virginia, a tract some 26 miles long by 4 to 
 12 miles wide, contains coal in the lower part of the 
 Jurassic group (with fossils very similar to those of our 
 Whitby beds in Yorkshire), and the main seam is stated 
 to attain the thickness of 30 and even 40 feet of good 
 bituminous coal. The measures form an irregular 
 basin, resting upon granitic rock, and the seams are 
 much disturbed, and subjected to thinning where they 
 are closely superimposed upon their primary bed.f 
 
 On the Pacific side of the continent, lignites of good 
 
 * Reports from Her Majesty's Secretaries of Embassy and Lega- 
 tion, 1866. 
 f See Lyell, Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., vol. iii. 
 
COAL OF NORTH AMERICA. 97 
 
 quality, and often in seams of from 3 to 10 feet thick, 
 make their appearance at divers localities. They appear 
 to belong to the Cretaceous series ; to which age Dr. 
 Hector has satisfactorily referred the lignites of the 
 Saskatchewan Eiver and of Vancouver's Island. 
 
 The geologists and statistical writers of the United 
 States have constructed diagrams and numerical tables, 
 which get handed about from one book to another, and 
 give, as I think, very erroneous ideas of the over- 
 whelming importance of the American coalfields as 
 compared with those of Europe. It may be true 
 enough that a vast area of country is occupied by rocks 
 of the carboniferous period, and a proclivity to big 
 figures may be gratified by calculating the tens of 
 thousands of square miles of extent ; but it should be 
 recollected that among the European coal-fields are 
 several in which, as in Westphalia and Silesia, the 
 greater part of the productive ground lies covered by a 
 cloak of newer formations. The total area of coal- 
 measures in the United States is given as 200,000 
 square miles, whilst that of Kussia is set down as 100 
 miles ; and this simple " unit of measure " is then 
 applied as a standard showing the littleness of all the 
 European fields. But if the same method of calculation 
 were applied to Russia that has been acted on in Iowa and 
 Missouri, and we were to take the length and breadth of 
 the tracts over which coal-bearing rocks have been 
 found to exist, and may be deemed continuous, that 
 empire, instead of figuring as a petty unit, would 
 run the States a hard race for mere extent of car- 
 boniferous formation. 
 
 On passing, then, to what is of more weight the 
 thickness of workable coal we are constrained to be- 
 
 H 
 
98 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 lieve, whilst fully recognising the colossal value of the 
 Appalachian and of the Illinois and Indiana deposits, 
 that the data for the estimation of the contents of the 
 others are not yet satisfactory, and that the progress 
 of exploration in such vast tracts will show many an 
 element for subtraction. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 COALFIELDS OF ASIA AND OF THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE. 
 
 ON turning our gaze eastward from Mediterranean 
 Europe to the Levant, we may observe the continuation 
 of similar characters in the rare occurrence of true 
 carboniferous strata, and in the frequent exhibitions 
 of lignites of cretaceous or of tertiary age. The only 
 remarkable instance of the former which we know in 
 Western Asia is the coalfield of Eregli on the south 
 shore of the Black Sea, a district which was urged 
 into some little activity during the Crimean war, but 
 which appears to have so far sunk back again into 
 the old sleepy state of ill-management as not even to 
 supply the limited requirements of Constantinople and 
 the other towns bordering on the Euxine. Every now 
 and then the disclosure of something black cropping 
 out on hill or river side leads to the publication of a 
 paragraph which makes the round of the European 
 newspapers, and tells of the discovery of a new " coal- 
 mine," generally of " inexhaustible extent," and " quality 
 equal to the best Newcastle coal." It turns out to be an 
 instance of the patchy distribution of the lignites, 
 
COALFIELDS OF ASIA, ETC. 99 
 
 which have seldom been good enough to command 
 serious attention; although in one case, in the Lebanon, 
 considerable workings were carried on for this article 
 during the occupation of Syria by Ibrahim Pasha. 
 
 In India, large tracts of land, especially known 
 about the Upper Damoodah and in Burdwan, are 
 occupied by a coal-formation which, besides its extent, 
 is notable for very peculiar geological features. The 
 active missionaries, Messrs. Hislop and Hunter, 
 described to the Geological Society of London, in 1855, 
 the occurrence of plants in the coal-bearing sandstones, 
 some of them of genera which might be taken as 
 common to the coal-measures of Europe, but others, 
 such as Zamites, Taeniopteris, Glossopteris, Vertebraria, 
 and Trizygia, which indicate a Jurassic age. Some of 
 these bear a close resemblance to the contents of our 
 Oolitic coal-beds of North Yorkshire, and to those of 
 Virginia, and the parallel is rendered stronger by the 
 presence of remains of Lepidotus and jEchmodus, 
 Jurassic fish, in the Kota shales, which appear to 
 belong to the same series as the Nagpur plant-bearing 
 beds. 
 
 Messrs. Blanford and others of the geological staff 
 under Professor Oldham, have been working out the 
 relations of these Eastern coalfields ; and one of the 
 latest results announced is that Mr. Medlicott has dis- 
 covered, in 1865, in the Assam district, south of the 
 Brahmapootra, several workable seams of coal of a 
 better quality than any hitherto found in India. 
 
 Farther to the north-east, the ingenious and closely- 
 packed natives of China and Japan discovered at a 
 very early period the value of the fossil fuel which in 
 both countries exists in large quantity. Writing of 
 
 H2 
 
100 
 
 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 the northern part of China, Marco Polo stated, in 
 describing his travels between 1270 and 1290, " Through 
 the whole province of -Cathay, certain black stones are 
 dug out of the mountains, which put into the fire, 
 burn like wood, and, being kindled, preserve fire a long 
 time ; and if they be kindled in the evening, they keep 
 fire all the night ; and many use these stones because 
 that though they have plenty of wood, yet there is such 
 frequent use of stoves and baths, that the wood could 
 not serve." 
 
 There appears to be no doubt that several large and 
 rich fields, producing coals of good quality, exist in 
 China ; but we have obtained hitherto only meagre and 
 fragmentary accounts of some of them from travellers 
 unprepared with technical knowledge. On the upper 
 waters of the Yang-tse-kiang coal seams crop out to 
 the surface over a very large area, and are worked on a 
 small scale by levels driven into the hills. 
 
 In the prefecture of King-hua, W.S.W. of Mngpo, 
 and near the town of E-u, coal-pits are described by 
 the Rev. R. Cobbold, which have been opened upon 
 seams of a bright non-bituminous coal. The mines are 
 from 300 to 500 feet deep, sunk in lifts of 40 to 
 50 feet at a time, and having the mineral raised by 
 successive windlasses at the intermediate stages. 
 
 Notwithstanding the facilities of water carriage 
 existing throughout a great part of China, it is manifest 
 that great improvements must take place in the mining 
 operations before these stores of mineral fuel can be 
 made fully available for manufacturing and for the 
 requirements of the steam navigation of the Eastern seas. 
 
 A certain amount of prejudice, derived no doubt 
 from negative evidence, disinclines us to believe in the 
 
COALFIELDS OF ASIA, ET?Cy ; V 
 
 existence of carboniferous formations within the tropics, 
 and the discoveries of coaly substances hitherto made 
 in the warmer regions of the earth have generally 
 tended only to show that beds of lignitic matter were 
 formed even in these latitudes amid some of the later 
 formations, whilst the true carboniferous rocks have 
 not yet been traced within many degrees of the equator. 
 A great local value may attach to these coaly lignites 
 of superior quality when workable in certain situations 
 accessible to steam vessels, as at Labuan and elsewhere 
 in Borneo,* and even on the banks of the Zambesi. 
 
 On arriving at the southern latitude of Sydney, in 
 Australia, we meet again a great development of the 
 carboniferous system, exercising already a considerable 
 influence on the fortunes of our rapidly growing 
 colonies. Since the systematic description of the coal- 
 bearing beds of this region by Count de Strzelecki, in 
 1845, numerous observations upon them have been 
 contributed by Mr. Beete Jukes, the Rev. W. B. Clarke, 
 Mr. Selwyn, and Mr. W. Keene, which leave no doubt 
 as to the palaeozoic character of the lower part of a 
 great conformable series of strata, although the upper 
 portion presents anomalies reminding us much more 
 of the Indian coalfields than of anything which we 
 possess in Europe. 
 
 Mr. Clarke proposes the following general divisions 
 
 1. Wianamatta shales, 700 to 800 ft. thick,->v 
 
 2. Hawkesbury Rocks, or Sydney Sand- Upper carboniferous, 
 
 stone, 800 to 1,000 ft. thick, L or Permian (Dana), 
 
 3. Upper coal measures, with the coal-seams Jurassic (Me Coy). 
 
 of Newcastle, &c., 5,000 ft. thick, J 
 *. Lower carboniferous rocks, 8,000 ft. thick. 
 
 See Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., vol. iv., p. 96, and vol. ix., p. 54. 
 
LG2 i : COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 The presence, along with the coal seams, of such plants 
 as two species of Glossopteris, Cyclopteris angusti folia, 
 and certain species of Spkenopteris and Phyllotheca, 
 gives a parallel to the fossils of strata more recent than 
 the European carboniferous, but there is at present a 
 difficulty in drawing a line of demarcation between 
 the groups No. 3 and No. 4, whilst in the latter both 
 plants and shells of the carboniferous and devonian 
 series are abundant. 
 
 Mr. Keene, the Government Examiner of Coalfields, 
 states that he recognises eleven distinct seams, which are 
 more or less worked. Several of these are from 4 to 6 feet 
 thick. The Wallsend seam, worked between Minmi and 
 Newcastle is 9 feet of good coal ; that of the Agricultural 
 Company's Bore-hole Colliery is 9 feet; and one which 
 crops out near Stroud, on the same company's lands, 
 is as much as 30 feet, including sundry partings of 
 shale and fire-clay. On the Hunter river, for a distance 
 of fifteen miles up from Newcastle, several considerable 
 collieries are worked, and even thirty miles farther 
 north, at Kix's creek, near Singleton, a good seam has 
 been opened upon. South of Sydney, about sixty 
 miles, at Bellambi and Wollongong, shipments are 
 made of the coal obtained from workings on the out- 
 crops of seams of very regular persistence in thickness. 
 
 The products of the Australian collieries are various 
 in character, smith's, household, and gas-coal being 
 obtained from different pits, and a large amount of 
 steam coal of very serviceable quality being regularly 
 supplied to sea-going vessels. Several beds of bi- 
 tuminous shale and cannel, which occur chiefly in the 
 division No. 3, have recently attracted much attention 
 as sources of rock oil. Imitating the mother country 
 
COALFIELDS OF ASIA, ETC. 103 
 
 not only in the names of its seams and mining localities) 
 New South Wales has opened out a considerable foreign 
 trade, and shipments of coal have long been made to 
 China, India, and even to the ports of California. 
 
 It is not our object in this chapter to do more than 
 invite attention to a few among the coal-bearing forma- 
 tions of parts of the world distant from Europe, which 
 appear to promise future importance. We need not 
 refer, except in passing, to those minor deposits of 
 lignite or of true coal which undoubtedly may be 
 developed and acquire a local value, although unable to 
 weigh much in the coal trade of the world. Tasmania 
 and New Zealand come under this category, and some 
 of the lignites of the latter country stand high for 
 quality. 
 
 Turning farther westward, we find that coal-beds 
 exist in the Falkland Islands, and that South America 
 promises great results of but little value at present, 
 whilst her population is sparse and her forest lands of 
 enormous extent. Yery interesting, however, is the 
 coalfield of Santa Fe de Bogota, in New Granada, the 
 fossils of which prove it to be of cretaceous age. Mr. 
 David Forbes has pointed out the existence of true 
 carboniferous rocks near the mountain lake of Titicaca, 
 situated no less than 12,600 feet above the sea; and 
 within the last few years successive notifications have 
 been made of important areas of true coal in various 
 parts of the flourishing empire of Brazil. 
 
104 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SEARCH FOB COAL ; BORING ; AND SINKING OF SHAFTS. 
 
 A VALUABLE amount of light may be throvm upon the 
 character of a coal district by surface researches, unac- 
 companied by the breaking of the ground. Quarries, 
 roads, protruding rocks, sea-cliffs, ploughed fields, and 
 water-courses, will all yield to an experienced eye their 
 quantum of information. Even when, as in parts of 
 Lancashire, the general surface is occupied by a thick 
 cover of clay, gravel, &c. (the drift) , good facts may be 
 gleaned in the channels and banks of the brooks which 
 have cut their way down to the harder rock. Now and 
 then a very complete view of the raised edges of a 
 whole series of strata may be seen ; as in the cliffy 
 shores of the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, and of 
 Cape Breton ; whence we have sections, measured by 
 Sir William Logan and Mr. R. Brown, embracing 
 thousands of feet of strata. In the county of Carlow, 
 Ireland, in South Wales, and in the North of England, 
 there are frequent opportunities of thus obtaining a 
 measurable profile of some of the lower coal-measures. 
 In this kind of search we must learn to avoid being 
 deceived by vain resemblances. Especially dangerous 
 is it to trust to mere outward likeness in the shales or 
 " metals" to those of the coal series : such may belong 
 to the Silurian, to the Lias, or to other formations. 
 If true carboniferous shales, we ought to be able to 
 find in them some of the fossils proper to the period, 
 before pronouncing on them. Still more irrelevant 
 is it to form conclusions on the presence of coal- 
 
SEARCH FOR COAL, ETC. 105 
 
 measures because the surface is covered with a CO!Q 
 clay, or because you have limestone on one side of 
 your field of action, or because ironstones have been 
 found about the place. Each of these circumstances 
 may be true of a coalfield, but is not necessarily so : each 
 may also be true of many other formations, and would 
 require corroboration by other characters. The pre- 
 sence of a spring of water depositing ochreous oxide 
 of iron is often noticeable near the out-crop of a coal- 
 seam, but the mineralogist will recollect that, since 
 this appearance is derived simply from the decompo- 
 sition of iron pyrites, it may occur in many other 
 classes of rock in which that common mineral has been 
 accumulated. Not even the underclay, with its matted, 
 carbonised roots, is sufficient evidence of the nearness 
 of a bed of coal, for such a material has sometimes been 
 deposited, and either the conditions for the abundant 
 growth of the coal-plants have not supervened, or the 
 coal may have been formed, and subsequently been 
 removed by natural denudatory action. 
 
 In these cases, a pick and shovel may sometimes 
 lend useful aid ; but more commonly it becomes ad- 
 visable to resort to "boring," either for the actual 
 testing of a particular spot, or for filling up the gaps 
 between portions which may be tolerably well deter- 
 mined at the surface. 
 
 This subject has been already treated in one of the 
 Rudimentary Treatises by Mr. Swindell, and we shall 
 therefore touch on it but briefly 
 
 The ordinary mode of boring through the alternating 
 rocks overlaying or forming a coalfield is by means 
 of a steeled chisel, or bit, of various form, screwed to 
 rods of the best bar-iron, about an inch thick, screw- 
 
106 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 jointed at intervals of from 6 to 18 feet. At the spot 
 selected for the bore-hole, it is usual either to erect a 
 wooden-staging, or to sink a preliminary pit to a few 
 feet or yards in depth, so that a greater length of rods 
 may be drawn at once, and part of the tedious delay of 
 screwing and unscrewing may be avoided. To aid in 
 this object, too, a tall triangle, derrick, or shear-legs, 
 with sheave, should be erected ; within which the rods 
 may be drawn and lowered by the agency of a windlass. 
 In order to lift the rods and cutter a few inches for 
 each stroke or blow, either a spring-pole may be used, 
 fastened down at the but-end, and with the rods sus- 
 pended at the thin extremity; or a windlass, round 
 which a rope coming from the rods is passed with 
 two or three turns, whilst a man holds the " slack," 
 and when the cutter is raised to a sufficient height by 
 the men at the windlass, slips the rope to allow the 
 rod to fall. Meanwhile a rotatory motion is given to 
 the rods at each stroke by the master borer and his 
 assistant, holding a cross-bar which clutches the upper 
 rods a little above the surface. The chisel thus at each 
 blow cuts the ground in a fresh position, and when this 
 action has been continued long enough, the rods are 
 withdrawn, by unscrewing length after length, and the 
 ' sludger," an iron tube of 6 feet long, with a valve in 
 the bottom, is lowered by a rope, and being dropped 
 heavily several times to the bottom of the hole, soon 
 gets filled with debris, which being then brought to 
 the top are carefully examined, whilst the rods are 
 again lowered, to go on with the pounding action. 
 
 In order to reduce the time and expense of this 
 mode of boring, the Chinese system of boring by a 
 rope instead of rigid rods, has been a good deal 
 
BORING FOR COAL, ETC. 107 
 
 employed of late years ; but it is open to the objection 
 of sometimes making the hole untrue, and more often 
 j of ending in the catastrophe of a broken rope, and of 
 the heavy iron cylindrical cutting-tool remaining at the 
 bottom of the bore-hole. 
 
 Exploring bore-holes are generally from 3 to 5 inches 
 diameter, and may be guarded against many of the 
 accidents to which they are liable, by being lined with 
 pipes of sheet-iron, added on from above as the hole 
 increases in depth. 
 
 When larger diameters are to be employed, and 
 greater depths than 300 or 400 feet attained, the 
 serious difficulties which supervene are met by various 
 contrivances, such as the hollow rods first successfully 
 used by (Eynhausen, wooden rods with iron connections, 
 the free-falling cutter first devised by Kind, &c. ; but as 
 these relate chiefly to the boring of Artesian wells for 
 water or for brine, we need but mention them here. 
 
 We may, however, cite as, perhaps, the most remark- 
 able borehole yet accomplished, one which has not long 
 since been completed by Herr Kind, for exploring pur- 
 poses in the coalfield of Creusot, in France, to the depth 
 of 920 metres, or 3,017 feet English. 
 
 Steam-power has for these purposes been largely 
 employed of late years. Messrs. Mather and Platt 
 have made remarkable borings by their ingenious 
 cutter worked with a flat wire rope ; and several patents 
 have been taken out in England and Scotland for 
 different means of applying this more economical 
 power, whilst Messrs. Kind, Degousee, and Mulot have 
 severally availed themselves of it in their great works 
 in Germany, France, and Belgium. 
 
 At some mines a set of boring-rods is specially kept 
 
108 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 for exploratory work, and for occasional operations to 
 assist the working of the mines ; whilst in many of our 
 districts the work is performed under contract, by 
 borers who devote themselves to this particular task. 
 The tariff for boring at Newcastle was, in 1854, 
 
 for the first five fathoms 7s. 6d. per fathom. 
 second 15s. Qd. 
 third . 1 2s. 6d. 
 
 and so on ; irrespective of charges for carriage, fixing 
 apparatus, and boring through rocks of unusual hard- 
 ness, as whin, &c. For deeper bore-holes, i.e., from 
 1,000 to 2,000 feet, it is difficult to give an approxi- 
 mate idea of the expense ; but thousands of pounds 
 are soon involved, and cases might be quoted of such 
 operations in this country where the cost has been 
 at the end no less than 9 and even 12 per foot ! 
 
 A patent was taken out in 1844 by Beart, and a 
 similar plan practised by Fauvelle in France, for 
 hastening the work by employing a tube as the boring- 
 rod. Down this tube a stream of water was made to 
 flow, in sufficient volume to carry off and bring up, 
 round the circumference of the bore-hole, the debris 
 made by the cutting-tool. Holes of moderate depth, 
 in. easy ground, were put down by this means with 
 unexampled rapidity. 
 
 A great advantage which boring possesses over the 
 ordinary sinking of a shaft is that the operation can be 
 carried on without the necessity of pumping out the 
 water, and the more rapidly indeed the greater the influx 
 of water. In order to combine this source of economy 
 with the mode of gaining personal access to the coal, 
 shafts of from 3 to 15 feet diameter have in Westphalia 
 
SINKING OF SHAFTS. 109 
 
 been sunk by gigantic boring apparatus ; successfully, 
 so far as related to the total cost, and forming a process 
 applicable with great advantage if only a suitable lining 
 or tubbing can be inserted, and a water-tight junction 
 effected below the points of influx of water. 
 
 The shafts by which all collieries are opened and 
 worked, except the few which, in hilly districts have 
 the advantage of free drainage, are generally circular 
 in England, though many elliptical and a few rectangular 
 ones may be seen in South Wales, and the latter form 
 is common on the Continent. In Belgium a polygon 
 of 10, 12, or even 16 sides is a frequent form, and 
 is adopted, like our circular ones, for the better resist- 
 ance, by aid of the special kind of lining employed, 
 to the pressure exerted upon it from the rock around, 
 
 A very few only can now be seen of the little old 
 pits, like draw-wells, of 4^- feet in diameter; and 
 whilst for ordinary purposes they are now commonly 
 8 or 10 feet diameter in the clear, they attain, when 
 intended for an important upcast, or for a large get of 
 coal, to as much as 16 feet diameter.* 
 
 The actual sinking, when in ordinary coal-measures, 
 is effected by the heavy pick, called a hack, by hammers 
 and wedges, and by blasting with powder ; whilst the 
 broken ground is raised to the surface at first by a 
 common windlass or jack-roll ; then, as the work gets 
 deeper, by a gin or horse- whim, and afterwards by a 
 steam-engine, often a temporary one only, to be re- 
 placed, when the pit is down, by the regular winding- 
 engine. 
 
 But when the measures are covered by other and 
 
 * Elliptical pits have been sunk in South Wales and at Chatelinaux, 
 in Belgium, as much as 18 and 20 feet in length. 
 
110 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 more absorbent strata, saturated with water, the win- 
 ning of a colliery becomes a most serious undertaking, 
 tasking the energies* of the best men, and sometimes 
 collapsing after a ruinous outlay. 
 
 Examples of these difficulties are afforded by surface 
 beds of sand and gravel, by the well-known red sand 
 under the magnesian limestone, through which so 
 many of the North-country pits have been sunk, and 
 by the terrains marts encountered by the colliers of 
 Mons and Valenciennes. 
 
 As long as the coal seams are accessible at small 
 depths, managers are liberal in the use of shafts ; 
 indeed there are districts where the great number of 
 old shallow pits are a positive nuisance to the modern 
 workers. But as expenses increase with depth, it 
 becomes an object to work a larger area from one 
 establishment of pits, and for this purpose it is worth 
 while to improve ventilation and the underground 
 carriage, so that shafts at frequent intervals shall not 
 be needed. Even when flying along in a railway train 
 you may remark the difference; how in parts of 
 Staffordshire you will see the ground riddled with 
 crowds of pits, whilst in Durham and Northumberland 
 a single "plant" of pits and engines will work the 
 ground for a mile or two on each side. 
 
 The cost in extreme cases being some 60,000 for a 
 pit of near upon 300 fathoms in depth, and being stated 
 once or twice to have amounted to near 100,000, 
 there is a great temptation to make this one suffice ; 
 and by means of brattices or divisions (of wood, or brick, 
 or stone), wonderfully good mining has been done in 
 the Northern coalfield with a single shaft. But since 
 the sad catastrophe at Hartley, which resulted from a 
 
LINING OF SHAFTS. Ill 
 
 concatenation of omissions and misfortunes, an Act of 
 Parliament requires that where there is no second outlet 
 another shaft shall within a limited period be sunk. 
 Many of the larger works, however, are able to apply 
 a special shaft to the ventilation as an upcast, whilst at 
 others coal will be drawn, and at one of them the 
 pumps worked. 
 
 When the measures through which the pit is sunk 
 consist of stony rock, they are often allowed to stand 
 open, but when shales preponderate, and in all cases 
 where much traffic is carried on, the pit would become 
 a dangerous thoroughfare, and has to be walled with 
 brick or stone, to which in some cases, as against 
 the influx of water, wood or cast iron may be preferred. 
 
 In fragile ground the commencement is to secure the 
 shaft by temporary timber. Curbs or cribs, rings formed 
 of segments of wood, are prepared, to fit the dimensions 
 of the shaft ; and, having their joints in the direction 
 of the radii of the circle, will when 4, 5, or 6 inches 
 square, resist a heavy pressure from the sides. They 
 are supported at intervals generally of about 3 feet, 
 by a few upright props, and are, as it were, hung to- 
 gether by thin planks, termed stringing deals, which are 
 nailed against them, whilst the whole structure may 
 be temporarily suspended, if need be, by attaching 
 it to a couple of stout balks laid across the top of 
 the shaft. Behind the cribs a backing is formed by 
 driving down planks of some 6 feet long, close together 
 in bad ground, or at small intervals in favourable rock. 
 When a firm foundation of stone or bind has been 
 reached, a bed is prepared with hacks or chisels to 
 receive a broader curb of either wood or cast iron, and on 
 this a wall of brick-work is built up to the surface, or 
 
112 
 
 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 above it when tip-room is required. The pit is then 
 recommenced, of smaller diameter at first, afterwards 
 
 opened to its former dimen- 
 sions, and at a suitable place 
 a fresh length of walling is 
 begun, and carried upwards 
 till by careful adjustment it 
 is made to coincide with the 
 upper length and to join up 
 to its curb. In some few 
 cases, where soft material 
 has to be passed through, 
 the walling has been built 
 at the surface, held together 
 with tie-rods or clamping 
 bars, and gradually sunk 
 downwards by cautiously re- 
 moving the ground from 
 beneath the curbs upon which 
 it is constructed. But where 
 actual quicksand occupies 
 the surface, various other 
 contrivances have to be em- 
 ployed. The method of piling 
 is to drive down iron-shod 
 3 -inch battens of 12 or 14 feet 
 in length, supported by curbs, and forming a circle as 
 much larger than the ultimate size of the shaft as to 
 leave room for successive inner circles of piles down 
 to the depth at which solid ground is expected to be 
 found. The sand is of course excavated in proportion 
 as it is practicable to drive down the piles; and at 
 length, when a firm foundation is reached, a broad 
 
 Fig. 12. 
 Scale, 1 inch to 10 feet. 
 
 aJ>,cd. Curbs of the timbering. 
 
 a c, b d. Punch props. 
 
 a e. Backing planks, shown in section, 
 
 but otherwise omitted for clearness. 
 
 / ff. Stringing deal. 
 h k. Curb for the walling, 
 
LINING OF SHAFTS. 113 
 
 curb is laid, and the walling built up in the midst, 
 whilst the space around it is carefully filled up and 
 packed closely. 
 
 To obviate the expense and delays of this system 
 iron cylinders have been in some cases sunk by 
 pressure ; but this again, from the difficulty of keeping 
 them vertical, and (if they be intended as the 
 permanent lining of the shaft) from the obstacles to 
 making a water-tight joint with the solid ground at 
 the bottom, is a very troublesome process. In order to 
 accomplish the latter object, M. Triger, in the year 
 1845, introduced in France the ingenious idea of 
 keeping out the water by forcing down compressed air. 
 He formed, by means of a flooring in the tube, a lower 
 air-tight compartment, in which he found it feasible to 
 work under a pressure of as much as 3J atmospheres, 
 obtained by air-pumps driven by a steam engine, and 
 by this means succeeded in establishing his water-tight 
 joint at depths of 60 and even 82 feet. For the more 
 convenient working of this method a second chamber 
 was formed above his lower working one, which had 
 a trap-door communicating with the shaft above, and 
 another opening into the chamber below ; and one of 
 these doors being always closed whilst the other was 
 opened, the excavated material could be drawn up 
 without any serious loss of the compressed air. A 
 stand-pipe, passing from the surface down into the 
 bottom of the working, afforded a ready means for the 
 water to rise in a constant stream. Triger's method 
 has been applied with success in several shafts in the 
 valley of the Loire, and more recently at some difficult 
 sinkings in Belgium and Westphalia. 
 
 One of the most important benefits conferred or 
 I 
 
114 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 coal mining has been the introduction of tubbing of 
 shafts (cuvelage, Fr.) largely practised in the North of 
 England, and on a, somewhat different method in 
 Belgium, Northern France, and Westphalia. When- 
 ever large springs or feeders of water occur in the 
 sinking of the pit, and a series of water-tight measures 
 intervenes between the watery beds above and the seam 
 of coal beneath, it is possible by this means to keep 
 out the whole or nearly all of the water, and thus to 
 relieve the mine of a constant and sometimes ruinous 
 water-charge. 
 
 Towards the close of the last century several of the 
 shafts near Newcastle were thus fitted with plank- 
 tubbing. At a small distance below the watery strata, 
 a bed was carefully cut and dressed to receive a wedging- 
 curb of oak, between the segments of which thin deals 
 were placed edge-ways ; the joints were then wedged 
 with wedges of seasoned fir introduced by means of a 
 flat chisel, and the space between the curb and the 
 stone at the back was similarly driven full of wedges. 
 Lighter rings of wood, the spiking curbs, were then 
 placed at intervals of 18 inches to 3 feet, according to 
 the pressure, and to these were fixed by iron spikes 
 planks of 2J or 3 inches thick, bevelled to suit the 
 sweep of the shaft, and the whole structure was thus 
 carried up to a point above the watery strata, and there 
 capped by another well-wedged curb. Thus the water 
 was prevented from entering the pit, and a pressure of 
 as much as 100 Ibs. to the square inch could be resisted. 
 
 The corrosion of the spikes, and the consequent 
 serious leakages, have caused the abandonment of 
 this first method. 
 
 Soon afterwards the solid wood tubbing was tried, 
 
TUBBING OF SHAFTS. 115 
 
 which is now largely practised in the polygonal pits of 
 the Belgian and French collieries. A wedging curb, 
 trousse picotee, is, as before, placed on a carefully 
 smoothed bed, and sometimes superposed on a narrower 
 one called the trousse cottetee; thin slit deals are placed 
 between all the joints, moss or oakum is packed in at 
 the back, and by wedging, as long as a chisel can be 
 made to enter, all the joints are made tight, and the 
 space at the back crammed full with thousands of 
 wedges at first of a broad flat shape, and afterwards 
 narrow pointed ones. The tubbing itself consists of 
 blocks of good oak or elm, with the joints well planed 
 to fit, and lined with sheeting deal for farther wedging. 
 In the polygonal pits the vertical joints are made to 
 coincide, the horizontal ones are irregular. As before 
 described, the length of tubbing is carried up past the 
 watery ground, and capped by another wedging curb, 
 or joined to an upper length of similar work. A 
 tubbing of this kind has the advantage of resisting 
 the action of corrosive water, and when well executed, 
 withstands a pressure of two or three hundred pounds 
 to the inch. At Carling, in the Department of the 
 Moselle, a pit has lately been sunk by M. Pougnet, to 
 work seams at 230 and 280 metres depth, and it has 
 been tubbed in the manner above described, for a 
 length of no less than 160 metres, or 524 English feet. 
 The forcing down of cast iron cylinders has in many 
 cases been successful ; but when the diameter is large, 
 and the tubbing needed at some depth in the shaft, 
 they have been cast in segments, having flanges towards 
 the inside of the pit by which they were bolted together. 
 This variety has now become almost obsolete since the 
 introduction of the modern method, but is nevertheless 
 
 i2 
 
116 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 capable of doing good service, especially in going 
 down through alluvial matter at the surface. My 
 friend, Mr. Fletcher, F.K.S., has lately by this means 
 carried a shaft successfully through sixty feet of coarse 
 gravel and boulders, full of water, in the valley of the 
 Derwent, between Workington and Cockermouth. This 
 shaft is 12 feet diameter in the clear ; the lower ring 
 of 18 inches high was sharp-edged below, and above 
 this only the vertical joints were bolted, the horizontal 
 ones left free to a little play. The exterior of this 
 tubbing is of course flush, to facilitate its passage 
 downwards, and the joints lined with sheeting deal to 
 make them tight. 
 
 The great facility of dealing with cast iron, or metal 
 in any desired pattern, has led to the special advance- 
 ment of this variety of tubbing in England. The 
 commencement is very similar to what has already been 
 described. One, two, or three wedging curbs, according 
 to the pressure expected, in segments of cast iron, are 
 laid and wedged with the greatest care, since perfect 
 tightness here is of the utmost importance. Upon the 
 upper one the plates or segments of tubbing are built 
 up, sheathing of pitch pine, f or \ inch thick, being 
 inserted between all the contact surfaces, and the 
 vertical joints broken, as in stone work. The plates 
 are from f to 1 inches thick, and between 3 feet and 
 12 inches in height, according to the amount of 
 pressure to which they will be exposed. They are 
 smooth towards the inside of the shaft, but strengthened 
 on the outside by flanges and cross-ribs, supported by 
 brackets. Before being placed, they should be tested 
 for soundness by being smartly struck all over with a 
 moderately heavy hammer. Every segment has a 
 
TUBBING OF SHAFTS. 
 
 117 
 
 hole in the middle, through which the water may escape 
 until the whole structure is prepared. The vertical 
 joints are meantime wedged, but the horizontal ones, 
 for fear of lifting the plates, wait until a sufficient 
 height of segments has been built up, and is surmounted 
 by another wedging curb. Then, beginning at the 
 
 O i 2 3 A 5 6 7 8 9 10 FEET 
 
 Fig. 13. Cast-iron tubbing resting on two wedging curbs, the upper one hollow 
 cast iron, the lower one of wood. 
 
 bottom, oaken plugs are driven into the centre holes 
 as the water rises behind the plates, and the wedging 
 of the joints is completed. The air or gas must be 
 allowed to escape freely above the water, and caution 
 
118 
 
 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 therefore is exercised in not plugging too rapidly. 
 Should any aeriform fluid thus be imprisoned it will 
 be apt to burst a plate or blow out the sheathing ; and 
 
 1! 
 
 iQDr 
 
 u 
 
 11 
 
 JllGL 
 
 111 
 
 H 
 
 JLlDL 
 
 111 
 
 
 
 
 Fig. 14. Cast-iron tubbing plate, elevation and cross section. 
 
 in order to relieve the pressure, a pipe is sometimes 
 fixed from the upper ring of plates to the next length 
 of tubbing above, and again from that to a higher 
 part of the pit. 
 
 One of the most remarkable instances of tubbing is 
 that of the Shireoaks Colliery, recently opened by the 
 late Duke of Newcastle. The pits are 515 yards deep 
 to the " top hard " seam, 12 feet diameter, and the tub- 
 bing in 11 lengths, extends for a total depth of 170 
 yards, and weighs about 600 tons in each pit. My friend, 
 Mr. C. Tylden Wright, under whose supervision it was 
 completed, informs me that the pressure at the bottom 
 was about 196 Ibs. per square inch, and that the cost of 
 the lower and stronger part was as follows, per yard : 
 
 s. 
 
 126 cwts. of cast iron at 7*. . 44 2 
 Fixing ditto . . . . . . 30 
 
 Wedging, about 30 
 
 Laying rings (about 10 yards apart) . . 10 
 
 60 2 
 
CHAUDRON S TUBBING. 119 
 
 In order to give a vent to air and gas, taps and pipes 
 are applied, communicating from behind the tubbing 
 to the surface, through which a large volume of water 
 is now discharged; and by the final completion 
 of the work in 1858, heavy feeders, of water, which 
 during the sinking yielded as much as 500 gallons or 
 2J tons of water per minute in the two pits, have been 
 thoroughly excluded. 
 
 Cast iron is so subject to destruction by the corroding 
 action of the water, and of the smoke and gases from 
 the ventilating furnaces, that many schemes have been 
 tried for its preservation ; a close lining of brick answers 
 well, but makes it difficult to get at and wedge up a 
 leak or replace a faulty plate ; a coating of paint or 
 tar, and a lining with wood (3-inch birch-wood at 
 Shireoak) are more or less efficacious. 
 
 M. Chaudron, a Belgian, has succeeded in tubbing 
 pits by a method which promises to have the advantage 
 of great economy. The shaft is bored by Kind's 
 apparatus, and the cast-iron tubbing lowered as the 
 boring advances. The bottom ring of the tubbing has 
 a sliding case, in which is placed a quantity of moss or 
 oakum, which when the whole length of the tubbing 
 comes to rest on the water-tight bed cut for it by the 
 borer (under water) gets so packed as to form a tight 
 joint. The water is then pumped out, and the pit is 
 ready for wedging and completion. At the colliery of 
 Peronnes, where the watery strata extended from 141 
 to 344 feet deep, the pit was tubbed at one-fourth the 
 usual cost. 
 
 In Westphalia much attention has been given to 
 tubbing with stone set in hydraulic cement, but although 
 applicable in some cases, this method is comparatively 
 
120 COAL AND COAL-MINING 
 
 clumsy when a heavy pressure has to be met, and the 
 cement is liable to destruction in furnace shafts. The 
 first outlay for a substantial tubbing, whatever be the 
 material, is no doubt very serious, but the great 
 advantages to be, gained when it can be suitably applied 
 are such as to make it desirable to extend the practice 
 more generally. It is not only a benefit to the mine 
 in relieving it of a heavy and constant charge, and.oi 
 the interruptions and accidents inseparable from the 
 use of large pumping apparatus, but it is an advantage 
 to all the dwellers round, and may thus interest the 
 general public, as retaining the waters in their natural 
 channels, and thus obviating that destruction of springs, 
 which is often charged upon the miner as a heinous 
 offence by other members of the community. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 DRIVING OF LEVELS AND CUTTING THE COAL. 
 
 THE preparatory work of a colliery is far from being 
 completed when the shaft has reached the bottom of 
 the seam. It would be ruin, especially in deep work- 
 ings, to attempt at once to extract coal in any quantity, 
 for the weakening of the ground by its removal would 
 not only tend to bring in or destroy the pit, but would 
 crush the roads which should remain open as thorough- 
 fares for the working of the distant parts of the 
 "royalty" or field of operations. 
 
 In the first place, then, a large mass of coal should 
 be left unwrought around the pit as a shaft-pillar. 
 
DRIVING OF LEVELS. 
 
 121 
 
 having only the narrow drifts cut through it, which 
 are to he employed as roads and as channels for air 
 and water. Next, the levels or drifts for these purposes 
 are to be driven out in the directions required by the 
 lie or position of the strata. Where the beds have a 
 definite dip in one direction, the working pits are 
 usually placed as far towards the deep as it is con- 
 venient to go, so that, underground, the coal may be 
 brought down hill to the pit-bottom. But as the 
 workings advance, it may after a time be convenient, 
 instead of sinking fresh pits farther to the deep, to 
 sink the existing pits deeper, and drive out cross-cuts, 
 or to work down-hill and bring the coal upwards by 
 engine power. 
 
 The annexed figure represents in section the valuable 
 upper seams of the Flintshire coalfield, where they dip 
 
 Top Hill. 
 
 Smithy 
 Pit. 
 
 Marsh. 
 
 River 
 Dee. 
 
 Fig. 15. Section of coal seams at Bagillt 160 yards to the inch. 
 2, 5, and 3 are the two, five, and three-yard coals respectively. 
 D and 4 F are the Durbog and four-foot seams. 
 
 beneath the estuary ot tne Dee. The pits at Top Hill 
 have cross-cuts driven through the measures ; the pits 
 
122 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 nearer to the marshes have down-mil drifts carried in 
 the inclination of the seams. 
 
 Should the strata* lie in a trough^ the pits may 
 advantageously be placed in its middle line, so as to 
 command the coal on both sides. 
 
 In those few districts where coal still remains to be 
 got by " free drainage," the workings will be started 
 much the same as from the pit-bottom, the levels being 
 driven at once into the hill-side ; but the arrangement 
 is usually a defective one for quantity, as not allowing 
 so readily of extension in each direction. 
 
 One of the most serious questions to be solved by 
 the coal-viewer in the very outset is the system by 
 which he means to work his mineral ; and in order to 
 form a judgment upon this head, it is important that 
 he should not only be acquainted with the various 
 modes in use elsewhere, but should have acquired a 
 knowledge of the peculiarities of the seams in his own 
 district. The first step must be nearly the same in all 
 cases, although it may be so much the simpler as the 
 colliery is shallower, smaller, and not required to stand 
 open for so many years. This step is the opening for- 
 ward of the levels, drifts, or way-gates, which are the 
 pioneers of the excavations, and must precede, at least 
 to some extent, the removal of coal on any large scale. 
 They are, in fact, generally characterised as narrow, or 
 dead work, in contradistinction to the wider working 
 places which follow, and which alone are expected to be 
 remunerative. 
 
 Is the proprietary well provided with capital, the 
 extent of area not very great, and the ground firm, the 
 levels may be driven to the boundary of the royalty, 
 and the coal worked back towards the shaft, leaving 
 
DRIVING OF LEVELS. 123 
 
 the dangerous spaces from which the coal is extracted 
 (the waste or goaf) behind, entirely done with. But if 
 the opposite conditions hold good, coal must be got as 
 soon as the levels have advanced sufficiently far beyond 
 the shaft-pillar. 
 
 If the water is to be mechanically raised from the 
 workings, the pit will have to be sunk to some little 
 depth beneath the seam, for a sump, in which the 
 drainage may collect; and it is well, in addition, to 
 open out, on the deep of the intended roads, sufficient 
 excavation to serve as a pound, or standage, for water, 
 where it may accumulate for a few days in case of 
 breakage of machinery. 
 
 A level cannot be driven singly, unless divided into 
 two parts for the in -going and out-coming currents of 
 air ; and hence it is usual to prefer to drive two parallel 
 ways, with a rib of from 6 to 10 yards thickness between 
 them, cut through at intervals as required for the ven- 
 tilation. The lower of these is the drain, or water-gate ; 
 the upper, the main road, rolley-way, or way-gate; 
 whilst in extensive collieries a third is usually added, 
 for more efficient ventilating arrangements. 
 
 In coal seams of moderate thickness, these leading 
 drifts will be carried between the floor and roof of the 
 seam, and of such a width as is most consistent with 
 their security, commonly from 5 to 10 feet. If the 
 seam be thicker than 6 or 8 feet, it is usual to leave 
 a part of it overhead as roof ; if, on the other hand, it 
 be too low for convenience as a horse-road, either some 
 of the roof must be ripped down, or a sufficient depth 
 dug up from the thill or floor. Few of the roads, 
 however, comparatively speaking, will stand long 
 exposed to the pressure from all sides, and to the 
 
124 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 oxidising action of the air, without being artificially 
 secured. The most usual method of effecting this im- 
 portant end is with timber placed in sets of three, at 
 intervals of 3 or 4 feet. Two of them, commonly larch 
 poles, or sometimes oak, 4 to 8 or 10 inches thick, are 
 placed as uprights, legs, or stanchions against the sides, 
 and the third laid crosswise upon 
 the heads of the others as a cap 
 or head-piece. When the roof 
 is apt to crack off, it is addition- 
 ally protected by planks laid upon 
 the cap-pieces from one set to the 
 other. Or better still, and in 
 
 Fig. 16. 
 
 some cases absolutely necessary, 
 
 is the arching of the main roads with brick or stone, 
 now and then when the floor is very soft resting on 
 an invert flat arch below. Especially near the pit 
 bottom, where more room than usual is wanted for two 
 trains of waggons, and wherever a pass-by is required, 
 it is needful either to construct a good wide arching, 
 or to have the wooden caps so long, that they should 
 receive the support of an additional prop in the middle. 
 It is obvious, although sometimes neglected, that 
 in order to obtain the full advantage from the timber, 
 the direction of the main pressure should be duly 
 considered, and that no unnecessary cuts should be made 
 in the pieces which may weaken their full resistance ; 
 also that the caps should be so fitted as not to act like 
 wedges in splitting the uprights as soon as the weight 
 presses ; and again, that in inclined seams, the props 
 should be placed at right angles to the floor and roof, 
 so as to prevent their being forced out of position by 
 the weight from above. 
 
DRIVING OF LEVELS. 125 
 
 Instances might be cited where, as soon as the main 
 roads have to be maintained near extensive workings, 
 it is found to be the better course to remove all the 
 coal, and to trust to pack-walls, built up of debris to 
 sustain the roof, rather than to leave a rib of coal. 
 
 Although commonly called levels, and carried theo- 
 retically in a horizontal line, at right angles to the 
 main dip of the bed, these drifts cannot be carried 
 perfectly level, or the water would not flow back towards 
 the mouth or the pit-bottom. Add to which a certain 
 moderate amount of inclination is needed in order to 
 facilitate the bringing out of the loaded trains or 
 waggons. A rise of 1 in 130 appears to give the 
 maximum of effect to horse-power in drawing the full 
 waggons down, and the empty ones back, but 1 in 200 
 is often adopted, especially where it is an object to gain 
 the greatest possible area of coal from a given winning. 
 In certain districts, as in Dean Forest, a colliery may 
 be limited on the deep side, by a level to be driven 
 from a certain point, in which case the utmost endeavour 
 will be applied to drive it as nearly horizontal as prac- 
 ticable. The men occupied in driving will often be 
 found to swerve upwards with the floor of their drift, 
 and constant attention is therefore needed to keep it in 
 its true direction ; and when intended for a traffic road, 
 to make it as straight and regular as possible. In 
 former days all the little rolls and inequalities of the 
 beds were closely followed ; but at present, when the 
 cheap conveyance of large quantities is a more 
 prominent object, they are, when it is feasible, 
 neglected, and the levels cut boldly through coal or 
 stone, as the case may be. When troubles or dis- 
 locations occur, their magnitude must determine 
 
126 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 how far this regularity may be carried out, or whether 
 the level will have to be swerved from its direction in 
 order to catch, at the Dearest distance, the coal on the 
 farther side of the line of fault. 
 
 In certain modes of working, the removal of the 
 coal will begin at once from the rise side of these main 
 levels, but in others, upper pairs of levels will be driven 
 parallel to the first, and connected with them by rise 
 drifts, or cross-headings at certain intervals. In other 
 modes again, the chief working places will be started 
 from pairs of up-hill drifts (lord-gates) carried up the 
 rise of seam. 
 
 The expense of this narrow work is to a great extent 
 got rid of, when, as in certain varieties of long -work , 
 to be presently described, the levels themselves can be 
 included in a broad face of excavation, which is simply 
 pushed forward in advance of the remainder of the 
 colliery. 
 
 We may here glance at the cutting or hewing of the 
 coal, which in the levels has to be effected by much the 
 same means as in the larger workings, although the 
 greater amount of labour which in the former must be 
 expended on a given quantity of coal, and the smaller 
 size into which it is cut and broken, renders it necessary 
 in general to pay the men by so much per yard on their 
 progress, instead of by the ton or tram. 
 
 The pick (pike, slitter, or mandril) is the special 
 tool of the collier, much varied in different districts, 
 even for cutting coal; and of different weight and 
 strength in the same pit, according as it is intended for 
 under-cutting (horizontally), for shearing, or cutting 
 vertically, or for working in shale or stone. The handle 
 (shaft, or hilt) is from 27 to 33 inches long, and the 
 
CUTTING THE COAL. 
 
 127 
 
 double-pointed head from 18 to 20 inches ; sometimes 
 straight or nearly so as in central England, and in some 
 varieties of the Belgian rivelaine, frequently a little 
 
 Fig. 17. Scale, f-inch to 1 foot. 
 
 A. North Staffordshire holing pick. 
 
 B. Anchored pick, Durham. 
 
 C. Rivelaine, Belgium. 
 
 Fig. 17. Scale inch to 1 foot. 
 1. Coal-pick, Landshipping, Pembroke. 
 2 Do. Westphalia. 
 3. Do. (Haveresse) Liege. 
 
 curved, and sometimes in the North mucn " anchored." 
 The points are steeled and sharpened four-square, with 
 a very narrow cutting edge.* 
 
 In breaking down or getting the coal, the first opera- 
 tion is to bench, kirve, or hole it along the bottom of the 
 seam, or in other words, to cut a groove to the depth of 
 two or three feet either in the lowest part of the coal, 
 or in the clay that underlies it. If the clay be tough 
 and hard, it often follows that great waste is caused by 
 holing hi the coal, for as the groove advances in depth, 
 
 * Coal picks with single point are rarely to be seen in these islands ; 
 in Pembrokeshire they have been used for the anthracite ; but on the 
 Continent they are common. 
 
128 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 it must also be cut higher at its commencement, and 
 the whole of the material is chipped so small as to be 
 useless. Some coals are so strong as to require no 
 support during this operation ; others, which are tender, 
 or divided by frequent planes of cleat, backs, &c., re- 
 quire to be propped or spragged, especially when, in 
 very deep holing, the hewer has to place himself almost 
 beneath the seam which he is detaching. For thus 
 holing at the bottom of the seam, the collier lies on his 
 side, and in this apparently constrained attitude swings 
 the pick almost horizontally, and delivers a number 
 of smart and well-pointed blows before he proceeds to 
 remove the debris. In certain seams there may be an 
 
 Fig. 18. Colliers holing Coleford high-delf seam, Forest of Dean. 
 
 advantage in holing in the middle, or even at the top, 
 according as partings of soft shale or friable coal may 
 occur ; and in one and the same colliery you may 
 sometimes see two or three methods of holing in 
 practice. 
 
DRIVING OF LEVELS AND CUTTING THE COAL. 329 
 
 When the coal to be cut away is a short block, as in 
 the driving of levels, it will generally need shearing 
 or vertical cutting to free it at the sides, and even in 
 wider workings this operation is sometimes required ; 
 then at length the final breaking down or "falling" of 
 the seam thus partially freed is completed by applying 
 taper wedges at some few feet apart, and driving them 
 with heavy hammers ; or in the case of a more resisting 
 material, by blasting with gunpowder. The operation 
 of boring a hole and firing the shot for this lattei 
 purpose is very rapid and easy as compared with the 
 blasting in hard ground. A drill, with broad and 
 sharp bit, is quickly driven forward by hand in the soft 
 and brittle coal ; the hole is usually dry ; plenty of safe 
 tamping is at hand ; risk there is none in using an iron 
 needle (except of course in stone) ; and danger is only 
 to be apprehended where fire-damp is apt to be present, 
 and where the anomaly exists of using safety lamps 
 and yet firing charges of powder. 
 
 This state of things has in fact caused frequent acci- 
 dents, which can only be guarded against either by 
 allowing the practice under the careful supervision of 
 officers, or by forbidding it and giving the men a so 
 much better price for their work as will be needed to 
 make up for the smaller amount they can get by wedg- 
 ing as compared with blasting.* \ 
 
 Some seams there are which will not bear this 
 systematic mode of work, where the coal will not stand 
 
 * It is probable that much manual labour \vill be spared by the 
 introduction of coal-cutters, worked by steam, compressed air, or water. 
 Several ingenious machines have already been put to practical work, 
 among which we may cite those of Messrs. Firth and Donnisthorpe, 
 of Messrs. Levick, and the hydraulic slotting machine of Garrett, 
 Marshall, and Co. ; but it would be premature to express an opinion 
 on their general applicability. 
 
 K 
 
130 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 to be holed, and must be picked down in irregular 
 pieces. In collieries in the South of France I have 
 seen this operate as a drawback to cheap " getting " 
 and to obtaining a due proportion of large coal. But 
 a magnificent example to the contrary is the pure 
 " spiry " four- foot seam of Aberdare, where, at Mr. 
 Nixon's Navigation Pit, a pick seems to be hardly 
 needed ; one smith suffices to sharpen for 300 men, and 
 the coal in the face comes down so readily that a man 
 has only to show it the point of a bar, and in a few 
 minutes has spread before him masses enough to fill a 
 tram! 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 POST-AND-STALL, AND LONG WORK. 
 
 Is the general form in which the colliery is to be laid 
 out determined on, the position of the shafts, main 
 levels, and direction of the working faces settled by 
 local conditions, we have next to solve the question of 
 the best mode of the working away (exploitation) of 
 the coal. 
 
 The most simple and natural method would appear 
 to be, to open ranges of working-places, each as wide 
 as the nature of the floor and roof will admit of with 
 safety, and each divided from its neighbour by masses 
 of coal broad enough to sustain the pressure from above. 
 This is in fact the rudimentary idea of the system of 
 post-and-stall, or bord-and-pillar, (stoop -and-room of 
 Scotland). In fullest opposition to this method is that 
 of removing the whole breadth of coal over a long 
 
POST-AND-STALL WORK. 131 
 
 continuous face, supporting the roof at the immediate 
 " face " by temporary props, and allowing the super- 
 incumbent strata to break down bodily at a few feet 
 distance behind the workmen long-wall or long-work. 
 Other modifications there are, which partake more or 
 less of the character of one or other of the above two 
 systems, and which are in vogue in special districts. 
 
 The post-and-stall work is most largely practised in 
 the Northern collieries ; but in one form or another is 
 met with in most coal districts, and is sometimes called 
 for by particular conditions, such as thickness of seam, 
 tenderness of coal, or position of workings beneath 
 sea, rivers, or other surface which must not be 
 disturbed. 
 
 In the earlier stages of coal mining, it is apt to be 
 the case that the working-spaces (stalls or lords) 
 driven across the grain or cleat of the coal are made 
 as wide as possible, and that the pillars between them 
 are left as thin as is required for immediate security. 
 Thus, towards the outcrop of the Durham coalfields 
 extensive areas have in former days been worked where 
 the bords were from 3 to 5 yards in width, and the 
 pillars between them 1 to 3 or 4 yards. As the 
 bords advanced it was necessary to communicate be- 
 tween them for ventilation, and cross-drifts, called 
 headways, were carried about 2 yards wide, in the 
 direction of the cleat, or on the ends, and at 28 or 30 
 yards apart. Where the pillars were only 3 or 4 feet 
 thick, it is obvious that they would soon be so crushed 
 as to be utterly useless, and thus a third or a fourth 
 part of the coal would at once be wasted by this means 
 alone. When the pillars came to be laid out of 4, 8, 
 or 12 yards to the wall, or in breadth, and it was 
 
 K2 
 
132 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 found towards the end of last century, that they might 
 be robbed^ or have a great deal of coal taken from them 
 after the first opening of the bords, it became a matter 
 of moment to adopt the proportions which would be 
 most favourable to the full utilisation of the seam. 
 Two great evils have to be avoided, evils on so large a 
 scale that tens of thousands of acres have been rendered 
 useless to the community by the neglect of proper 
 dimensions. One of these is the thrust, which when 
 pillars are too slight, and when the floor is hard, cracks 
 the pillars, forces off large slabs of coal, and at last 
 crushes the whole into slack. The second is the creep, 
 a disorder more uncertain and insidious in its approach, 
 and which in spite of all attempted remedies, will some- 
 times destroy a valuable colliery. It arises when the 
 thill or underclay is soft, and the proportion of pillars 
 to bords such that after a time a downward movement 
 takes place; the pillars then force the clay to rise 
 upward in the bords, the road-ways are injured and 
 have to be constantly repaired, the air-ways are partially 
 choked, and the pillars crack. The mischief has perhaps 
 taken its rise only at some unusually weak place, against 
 a trouble ; but as it spreads from bord to bord, and infects 
 an entire district, the floor bursts asunder, the roof, 
 unequally supported, breaks down, the workings are 
 closely filled with rubbish, and there remain the isolated 
 crept pillars, only accessible by fresh and dangerous 
 workings, and generally so crushed as to be nearly 
 worthless. 
 
 The experience of the Newcastle miners has led them, 
 especially in their deeper pits, to increase more and 
 more the dimensions of their pillars, employing them 
 no longer as mere supports, but taking out in the 
 preliminary stage of working in the whole coal, only 
 \ 
 
POST-AND-STALL WORK. 
 
 133 
 
 from Jth to th of the coal, and leaving the pillars for 
 subsequent entire removal, when operations are com- 
 menced in the broken. Hence, in the deep collieries 
 the pillars are left of 24 or 30 yards long, by 16, 18, 
 or 24 yards wide, and even 30 yards by 40. 
 
 In the earlier days of pillar working it was usual 
 to open out in bords and headways drifts extensive 
 areas, amounting often to many hundreds of acres, 
 and to begin the thinning or removal of the pillars 
 
 
 
 
 SO 10 20O 
 
 Fig. 19. Post-and-stall work. 
 
 D. Downcast shaft. 
 
 U. Upcast shaft. 
 
 F. Furnace for ventilation. 
 
 B. Eegulator for ventilation. 
 
 C. Crossings for ditto. 
 D D. Doors for ditto. 
 
 The arrows indicate the direction of the air currents. 
 
 only after they had stood for a long time. Sundry 
 disadvantages arise from this course the deterioration 
 
134 COAL 4ND COAL-MINING. 
 
 of the exposed surfaces, the difficulty of ventilation, 
 and - the tendency of creep or of the results of 
 explosion to spread through the entire colliery. Mr. 
 Buddie introduced a great improvement when he laid 
 out the workings in panels or compartments of moderate 
 acreage, divided from one another by ribs of coal 40 ? 
 50, or 60 yards wide ; and when he followed up this divi- 
 sion of the colliery by making pillar working follow very 
 closely after the opening of the bords in the whole coal. 
 
 This arrangement is shown in the plan Fig. 19, 
 where the unwrought coal is left black, and the goaf 
 or portion from which the pillars have been removed, 
 and into which the roof has fallen, is lightly shaded. 
 
 The actual getting of the pillars is managed in 
 various forms by driving a bord through its midst, 
 by taking off slices parallel to its longer face, or by 
 paring it off in a succession of steps, each farther 
 pillar being a grade more reduced in bulk. Some of 
 these operations may thus be assimilated a good deal 
 to the long-reall method ; and need, for the due protec- 
 tion of the men, that the faces of work be protected by 
 rows of props, or by pack- walls so placed as to regulate 
 the fall of the roof. 
 
 The Lancashire post-and-stall system is somewhat 
 different, partly in consequence of a generally steep 
 inclination, and partly from the softness of the floor. 
 The seams, like those of the Tyne and Wear, are 
 generally between 3 and 6 feet in thickness ; but the 
 working places cannot be carried so wide as in the 
 former district. The working drifts, or bays, like the 
 above mentioned bords, having to be directed at right 
 angles to the cleat or divisional planes, it happens that 
 with the varying undulations of the coal-measures, 
 
POST-AND-STALL WORK. 135 
 
 the direction of cleat remaining constant, they may 
 have to be arranged very differently in starting from 
 the main roads or water-level drifts. Thus if the level 
 course happen to be parallel with the cleat, the bays 
 will be opened up the rise, and again joined with one 
 another by drifts carried on the end, generally ten 
 yards apart. If the direction of the level course be at 
 right angles to the cleat, it will be thus also that the 
 bays must be opened, and they will be connected with 
 the main roads by pairs of drifts (up-brows) carried 
 up the rise of the seam ; or sometimes if working to 
 the dip of the main road, by down-brows, whence the 
 coal has to be pulled up by engine power. 
 
 The pillars are thus left ten yards on the rise, by 
 20, 30, or 40 yards the other way, and are intended to 
 be robbed as soon as a sufficient tract has been opened. 
 This last operation, as in the Northern fields, in contact 
 with the goaf, and exposed not only to the successive 
 falls of the roof but to the invasion of fire-damp 
 loosed from the disturbed measures, needs every caution 
 in its practice, and makes it often necessary to admit 
 safety-lamps alone, whilst the other parts of the same 
 colliery may be securely worked with candles. 
 
 There are still many coal-mines in which the stalls 
 or wickets and the cross-headings or thirls are driven as 
 wide as they will stand, say 5 yards, and pillars of 
 only 2, 3, or 4 yards square are left ; or where again, 
 the stalls are driven of this full width, and long pillars 
 of a few feet thick left standing between them. In 
 either case a considerable waste of coal must occur, and 
 the irregular openings left as goaf are fraught with 
 danger when fire-damp is present. The method most 
 usual in South Wales is of this latter kind ; cross- 
 
136 
 
 COAL AND COAL-MINIXG. 
 
 headings are driven out from the main level at such an 
 angle of obliquity as to be convenient for horse-roads, 
 whilst from the latter the working stalls are opened, 
 narrow at the entrance (to protect the roads), and 
 wider inside. The pillars between them are left so 
 narrow that they are sure to be much crushed ; and 
 though some portions of them may be robbed, a large 
 amount is wasted. The ventilation becomes irregular 
 and difficult, and many accidents arise. 
 
 A last variety remains to be mentioned, viz., the 
 " square work," employed for the getting of the magni- 
 ficent seam, varying from 25 to 36 feet thick, called the 
 Dudley Thick or 10-yard coal. The shafts are sunk to 
 the bottom of the seam, and a main way, the gate-road^ 
 is carried forward in its lower coals, ventilated by means 
 of a separate air-head or drift of very small dimensions 
 opened in the coal also, at a few feet on one side of, or 
 above the gate-road. 
 
 From this latter the main workings, called sides of 
 work, are opened in the form of a square or parallelo- 
 
 Fig. 20. Square work, South Staffordshire. Scale, 2 chains to the inch. 
 A, bolt-hole ; B B, pillars. 
 
 gram, 50 yards in the side, or more, and shut off by a 
 rib of coal 7 or 8 yards thick, at the least, from all 
 
POST-AND-STALL WORK. 137 
 
 other workings, except at the entrance, a narrow bolt- 
 hole. Driving out in the lower coals, and gradually 
 rising to the higher ones, the colliers open stalls of 5 
 to 8 or 10 yards wide, forward and across, so as to 
 leave square pillars, generally 9 or 10 yards in the 
 side, and whenever the unsoundness of coal or roof 
 appears to require it, sparing additional supports of 
 coal in men-of-war 3 or 4 yards square. 
 
 The men get at the upper divisions of the seam by 
 standing on the slack and coal already cut, or on light 
 scaffolding. No ordinary timbering can be used to 
 support so high a roof, nor can the eye in these vast 
 and murky chambers easily detect where special danger 
 threatens overhead; but the sense of hearing comes 
 valuably into play, and a sharp ear often catches the 
 preliminary cracking which indicates the approach of 
 a fall. Nevertheless, the work is the most dangerous 
 in which the collier can be engaged ; and no mode of 
 getting this coal with a less serious destruction of life 
 by " faljs " has been devised, except that of working 
 it in two " lifts," by the long-wall method, which, in 
 despite of much opposition, appears, at a few works, to 
 have stood successfully the result of many years' 
 practice. 
 
 The pillars in the " square work " are often in con- 
 clusion thinned to a smaller size, and when at length 
 the roof begins to break in, the side of work is 
 abandoned, a dam put into the bolt-hole, and thus the 
 air is excluded from the heaps of waste small coal, 
 and the crush prevented by the ribs from extending 
 to other parts of the pit. 
 
 It scarcely needs to be added, that although after 
 this first working, operations may be set on foot for 
 
138 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 getting ribs and pillars, much, of the coal is so crushed 
 or " frenzied" as to be of little use. The waste of 
 "some thousands of tons of coal per acre, and the great 
 acrifice of human life in the process, lead one to con- 
 template with no pride or satisfaction our mid-English 
 working of the finest seam of coal in Europe.* 
 
 Some of the coal seams of central France, although 
 more broken up than the last, are much thicker, and 
 have led to many varieties of working, in order to find 
 out the safest and best. In the Department of the 
 Seine et Loire, I learnt on a recent visit that every other 
 mode has given place to the working by remblais, i.e., 
 taking a horizontal slice of 2 metres in height across 
 the seam, and filling up the space with stone and 
 earth brought down from the surface. At Montceau, 
 near Blanzy, I found the seam to be no less than 78 
 feet thick, inclined at about 20 degrees. The works 
 are carried forward horizontally from floor to roof, 
 6 feet 6 inches high, alternating with " middlings " of 
 coal of the same height ; and within a few months of 
 the working and stowage of one horizon, fresh openings 
 are made in the range below, and the remblais or 
 stowage is found to be so closely packed as to form a 
 very good roof for driving under assuming the use of 
 plenty of timber. The plan of the working is in pillars 
 of 10 metres wide, which are sliced off as in long-wall 
 working. 
 The LONG-WALL method may be applied, either by 
 
 * The daily and hourly risk to which the men are subject in this 
 district from falls of roof and coal alone may be inferred from the 
 results of the inspector's inquiries. 
 
 Deaths from "falls" in South Staffordshire and East Worcester- 
 shire : 1856, 88 ; 1857, 81 ; 1858, 97 ; 1859, 92 ; 1860, 75 ; 1861, 78 ; 
 1862,79; 1863,55. 
 
LONG WORK. 
 
 139 
 
 driving out roads in the solid coal to the extremities, 
 and then working back, leaving nothing but goaf or gob 
 
 SCALE I INCH TO 100 YARDS 
 
 Fig. 21. Long-wall workings. 
 
 The portion A represents advancing stalls, or tooth-work, taking the face of the coal ; 
 the side B works in the end of the coal, whilst the part C D is carried in a straight line 
 irrespective of the cleat. The double edge of the gob-roads represents the pack- walls. 
 
 behind, or, by commencing at once near the shaft, to 
 work away the mineral, maintaining means of access to 
 its fresh face by roads, artificially supported, through 
 the waste. Beyond this, great differences occur, 
 according as to whether the faces of work need to be 
 straight, following the lines of cleat, or are divided 
 into " stalls," or may be set off in several directions 
 at once. The working faces are for the most part so 
 arranged as to advance against the planes of cleat ; but 
 there are certain tender coals in which it will be found 
 that when the pit is deep, they are upon this system 
 
140 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 much broken up by the pressure, and that a far better 
 proportion of round coal will be obtained by working 
 on. the end, i.e., in the direction of such cleat. The 
 most regularly laid out varieties of long- wall are those 
 of Shropshire, Leicestershire, and Derbyshire; but 
 others, more or less modified to suit local requirements, 
 may be seen in Lancashire, Somersetshire, Dean Forest, 
 South Wales, Scotland, Belgium, and Saxony. 
 
 Without exceeding the limits of a book like the pre- 
 sent, it would be impossible to dwell upon the details 
 of the various kinds of long-work, but the diagram, 
 Fig. 21, may show some of the chief features of several 
 plans of arrangement diverging from one pair of pits. 
 
 In some instances it will be seen that a great length 
 of face may be opened in a single line, as much indeed 
 as 100 to 400 yards ; in others 30, 40, or 50 yards of 
 straight face form a stall, and one such is followed up 
 closely by another. In many instances again, the face 
 forms on the large scale a curvilinear working, which 
 may be adopted when the coal is not so divided by 
 cleat or backs as to cut more freely one way than 
 another. 
 
 Let us now turn our attention to the " face " or front 
 of the working, which, as it is but a few feet or yards 
 away from the waste, where the roof has " come down," 
 requires to be carefully protected. The usual way is 
 to plant a double row of props (sometimes three rows 
 are needed) arranged alternately, and at right angles to 
 the roof and floor. Each prop takes a good bearing on 
 the roof, by carrying a piece of wood, the lid or tymp, 
 12 or 15 inches long, which first receives the pressure, 
 and is soon squeezed or broken. Cast iron has been 
 occasionally employed for the purpose, but the props 
 
LONG WORK. 
 
 141 
 
 are usually of larch, or, in low seams, of oak, and 
 whilst with unsound roofs they have to be set thickly, 
 in the common way they may be many feet apart. 
 Where the heaviest roof-pressure is expected, nogs or 
 chocks are employed instead of single props ; these are 
 pieces of timber 2J to 3 feet long, built up, two and 
 two, cross-wise, thus giving a broad base and summit, 
 and the advantage of being easily knocked asunder for 
 removal. Suppose the coal now holed to a sufficient 
 depth all along the face, the pressure of the overlying 
 mass will tend to force it down, and in some cases 
 actually saves the collier the labour of falling the coal 
 by itself performing that office in the course of a few 
 hours. Otherwise, by wedging, or blasting, the coal is 
 brought down, then broken up and removed. And now, 
 
 Fig. 22. Cross section of long- wall face. 
 
 all slack, unsaleable coal and rubbish being thrown 
 behind the men into the gob or waste, the back row of 
 props is pulled out, and they are set up again in front 
 of the fresh face of coal, when the whole operation 
 starts for the succeeding day de novo. Meanwhile the 
 removal of the coal from the face towards the shaft is 
 a care of the first magnitude. If the roof be excellent, 
 the coal strong, and tho out-put important, iron rails 
 
142 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 (to be moved from day to day) may be laid along the 
 face, on which the trams or tubs will be cheaply 
 conveyed. But when, as most frequently happens , this 
 advantage cannot be had, the coal has to be dragged 
 or putted in sledges along the uneven floor in front of 
 the fae>e to the nearest outlet, and it hence becomes 
 necessary to have roads opening on the face at frequent 
 intervals. If we are working back from the extremities, 
 no more need be said than that the roads, as the work 
 advances, are constantly being shortened, and that the 
 expense of their maintenance is thus diminishing ; but 
 if we follow the usual method, the gob-roads, as they 
 are called, are daily increased in length, and the charges 
 of keeping them in order become a very heavy item. 
 Tnere is then one evil to be balanced against another ; 
 on the one hand the expense of numerous gob-roads, 
 on the other the cost of putting the coal a great distance 
 to^get to the road. A working stall is for this reason 
 commonly from 24 to 50 yards in breadth, so that the 
 broken mineral need not be conveyed more than 12 to 
 25 yards to be placed on a good road. If the coal be 
 a thin seam (and as little as 1 1 inches of coal is thus 
 worked in the Radstock district) the roads must, for 
 efficient conveyance, be cut higher, for which purpose 
 either the floor or roof must have a foot or two taken 
 off, whilst the material or debris so broken, will help, 
 like " partings," " dirt-bands," and other rubbish 
 from the seam, to fill up the waste or gob, and assist 
 in letting the roof down gently. Such stone, and what 
 breaks from the roof, is often built up in packs, or 
 masses of dry rubble walling ; and the roads which pass 
 through the gob have thus to be protected by a pack 
 wall of some feet thick on either side. Management 
 
LONG WORK. H3 
 
 will do a great deal in regulating this apparently 
 dangerous work, for each kind of roof needs to be 
 studied, that it may be brought down in the safest 
 manner. Some kinds will break short, so that you 
 are insecure a single foot behind the back props nay, 
 in bad cases will smash props and everything up to the 
 face of the coal ; others will bend gently down to the 
 refuse or gobbin, and press the whole firmly together ; 
 whilst certain rock roofs will hold up for a long distance 
 unpropped, but are apt to break suddenly with a crash 
 which will blow out all the lights far and near, and if 
 there be fire-damp about, may force it dangerously into 
 the roadways. 
 
 The gob-roads meanwhile stand the pressure vari- 
 ously ; in some the floor rises, and has to be frequently 
 repaired. To this end, men occupied in reading work 
 during the night, whilst the pit is otherwise clear. 
 Or the pack walls gradually squeeze down, and the 
 roof requires to be hacked or shot away to give height, 
 and, after a time, the road will be found to be almost 
 entirely cut in the roof-stone. In certain districts it 
 is attempted to protect the roads by leaving a thin rib 
 of un worked coal on each side ; but an unequal resist- 
 ance is in this way offered, which generally entails a 
 greater expense in the long run. 
 
 In some of the Welsh and Forest of Dean collieries 
 an economical method is adopted for working by the 
 long- wall, and forming their main-level roads by the 
 same process. Instead of driving a pair of narrow 
 levels as usual, a bold face of work, 20 to 50 yards in 
 breadth, is pushed bodily forward, the requisite roads 
 are packed on both sides, and additionally fortified, 
 when needed, by timber, whilst the space behind them, 
 
144 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 partly filled with refuse, forms a portion of tlie general 
 waste or gob. 
 
 The great advantages of the " long- work " method 
 are simplicity of plan (and consequently of ventilation) 
 and the entire removal of all the coal ; added to which, 
 under most circumstances, are greater safety to the 
 men, and a larger proportion of round coal in com- 
 parison to small or slack, a matter which, considering 
 the prices, is of vital importance in the selection of the 
 mode of working. It has been mostly practised where 
 the seams are thin, or where they contain a band of 
 refuse ; but neither condition is indispensable : for, on 
 the one hand, coals of 6, 8, or 9 feet thick are at the 
 present moment worked advantageously in this manner ; 
 and on the other, we have seen bind, or stone debris, 
 carried from one seam to another, or even taken down 
 from the surface to assist in the packing where it was 
 needful. Nor is it necessary that the roof be good, 
 although the expense will be very different according 
 to its fragility; but if the operations be carried on 
 with sufficient smartness to push the working-place 
 daily under a fresh or "green " roof, it may be managed 
 upon this system, even when composed of mere fire- 
 clay with slippery joints. Only a few years have passed 
 since the long- wall was much decried, except in a few 
 localities ; but its manifest economy is gradually intro- 
 ducing it elsewhere ; and even in some of the deepest 
 Durham collieries it is successfully applied to the 
 working off of their gigantic pillars ; whilst in a few 
 of the pits near Dudley it has been employed for re- 
 moving bodily first the upper and afterwards the lower 
 half of the 10-yard coal, with greatly increased yield 
 of coal and security to life. 
 
FOST-ANU-STALL AND LONG WORK. 145 
 
 In Yorkshire and in some of the North- Welsh col- 
 lieries, methods have for a long time been practised 
 which unite some of the characters of the pillar system 
 with a certain amount of long-wall. 
 
 From the main levels, which are protected by suffi- 
 ciently massive ribs of coal, bord-gates (generally in 
 pairs) are driven up the rise of the seam in advance of 
 the main workings, and between them banks are opened 
 in the form of bords of 20, 30, or 40 yards wide, and, 
 like the bord-gates, worked across the grain of the 
 coal. The roof of course falls behind the men, so that 
 the face has to be protected by a double row of props, 
 and sometimes by leaving small pillars, which are 
 mostly lost. If the ground is bad, pack-walls are also 
 built. here and there, to prevent the falls being too 
 sudden; and by similar walls an air- way is carried 
 along part of the side of the bank, so that the venti- 
 lating current shall pass along its upper end. But 
 the roof here does not settle in the same uninterrupted 
 manner as in the regular long- wall work; and the 
 establishment of a number of separate goafs in prox- 
 imity to, and generally below, the places where the 
 colliers are working, renders outbursts of gas extremely 
 dangerous, and has led to the fearful explosions of the 
 Ardsley Oaks, Darley Main, Warren Vale, and Lund- 
 hill collieries. 
 
 Indeed, so fraught with danger has been this plan of 
 working even where other requirements had been duly 
 attended to that some of the collieries of the Yorkshire 
 district have been recently changed into long -wall 
 workings, and apparently with very advantageous re- 
 Bults. And under this head we must remember that, 
 Bince the distribution and quantity of the ventilating 
 
146 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 air will depend upon the arrangement of the workings, 
 a very serious responsibility attaches to the selection 
 of the method most suitable to the character of the 
 strata and to the expected magnitude of a nascent 
 colliery. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CONVEYANCE UNDERGROUND. 
 
 WHEN, in the early periods of coal-mining, the works 
 extended but a short distance from the bhaf cs, and only 
 small quantities of mineral were extracted, it used as 
 in many small works of the present day to be con- 
 veyed by dragging in sleds, or sledges, along the some- 
 what slippery floor of the seam. 
 
 In some districts the ruder method of carrying in 
 baskets was practised, as even now in Spain and South 
 America, and this toilsome work ceased to be per- 
 formed by women " bearers " in Scotland only in 
 1843. In other pits barrows were employ bd, the 
 wheel running upon a plank called the barrow-way. 
 
 The sledges have to be still commonly used in put- 
 ting the coal along the face of the workings to the 
 better roads : but in all large pits the conveyance along 
 the main ways has for a century past been conducted 
 on constantly improving methods. 
 
 The Germans were ahead of us in the introduction of 
 wooden rails underground ; for in 1550 as described 
 and figured by George Agricola, in his folio " De re 
 Metallica" we find a rectangular iron-bound waggon, 
 with four small wheels beneath it, and a projecting 
 
CONVEYANCE UNDERGROUND. 147 
 
 pin to run between the rails and thus guide the move- 
 ment. It is still called the hund, or dog, and is 
 in common use in parts of Prussia, Saxony, and 
 Austria. 
 
 About 1630, " one Master Beaumont, a gentleman 
 of great ingenuity and rare parts/' went to the New- 
 castle district for the purpose of introducing various 
 mechanical improvements, among which were wooden 
 rails for the running of wheeled waggons ; and although 
 he failed as a speculator, these rails appear to have 
 been a good deal applied within the following century, 
 both in these collieries, those of Whitehaven, and in 
 the lead mines of Alston Moor. They are described by 
 M. Jars, in 1765, as in use, with flanged wheels, both 
 in the pits and for conveyance to the shipping places. 
 
 Mr. John Curr, of Sheffield, in his " Coal Viewer 
 and Engine-Builder's Practical Companion," 1797, 
 states 'that twenty-one years before that time he had 
 introduced at the Sheffield Colliery the use of railroads 
 and corves. At that period, u till of late," the prevail- 
 ing practice in the Newcastle collieries was to draw a 
 single corf on a sled from the workings to the shaft ; 
 but lately the viewers have " introduced wooden rails, 
 or waggon-ways, underground (Newcastle roads), and 
 fixed a frame upon wheels, capable of receiving two or 
 three of their basket corves, then drawn by one horse." 
 But Curr laid cast-iron tram-plates % inch thick, and 
 employed waggons, or tubs, with 10-inch wheels, and 
 carrying 5J cwts. of coal. A horse generally, he states, 
 takes twelve of these " corves " at a draught, and for a 
 moderate day's work conveys the quantity of 150 tons 
 the distance of 220 yards. 
 
 The wooden rails and Curr's tram-plates, besides 
 L2 
 
148 COAL IND COAL-MINING. 
 
 performing useful service underground, were largely 
 employed for the transit of coal at the surface, and it 
 was thus that the miners of the North laid the founda- 
 tion of the modern railway system, which in the last 
 half century has been brought to its present perfection 
 and world-wide usefulness chiefly by the agency of the 
 same class of men. A railway was constructed in 
 1789, at Loughborough, by Mr. William Jessop, of 
 Derbyshire, with cast-iron edge rails, intended for a 
 flange on the waggon-wheel; and rails of wrought- 
 iron were at length invented in 1820, by Mr. Birken- 
 shaw, and were rolled at Bedlington, near Newcastle. 
 
 My esteemed friend, the late Mr. Nicholas Wood, 
 after a long series of experiments made in conjunction 
 with his associate Mr. George Stephenson, published 
 in 1825 a practical work on "The Establishment and 
 Economy of Railways; " and more recently, in 1855, 
 prepared a most valuable treatise on the conveyance 
 of coals underground in coal mines. To this excellent 
 paper, published in the Transactions of the Northern 
 Institute of Mining Engineers, and based on a vast 
 number of examples and experiments, I must refer 
 the reader for farther details on this important 
 subject. 
 
 The conditions under which the roadways of a mine 
 are placed, their frequent sinuosity and unevenness, 
 the confined space, and the tendency to disturbance 
 both in the roof and floor, render it impossible to com- 
 pete in economy with railways laid upon the surface. 
 Moreover, certain requirements, in connection with 
 the raising of the mineral in the shafts, have to be 
 kept in view, and necessitate the use of particular 
 kinds of waggon. 
 
CONVEYANCE UNDERGROUND. 149 
 
 Until within a few years past the northern method 
 was to fill the coals, at or near the face, into a large 
 basket (corve) of wicker, having an iron bow, and to 
 drag it on a small carriage, or tram, generally by a 
 pony, to the crane-place on the main road, where it 
 was lifted, and placed with several others, on a rolley, 
 or larger waggon, on which they were then drawn by a 
 horse to the pit bottom, whence they were raised to the 
 surface, whilst the rolley returned with a load of empty 
 corves. 
 
 In the central districts the principle remains even 
 now much the same; instead of the corve a skip, 
 having a strong bow of wrought-iron for raising it, is 
 placed on a trolley, and loaded with coal, by having 
 several broad iron rings placed loosely over it, within 
 which the lumps are stacked up. It is then wheeled 
 away to the shaft, where it is hooked on to the rope or 
 chain by the bow. 
 
 In Somersetshire and in Belgium the method 
 generally in use, until very lately, was to convey the 
 coal in waggons to the shaft, where it was capsized 
 into a great iron bucket, holding about a ton, called 
 the kudge (cuffat, Belg.), which was then drawn up the 
 shaft, and had to be again unloaded at the bank. 
 
 It is unnecessary to follow up the variations in these 
 modes, which are applied to the conveyance of the 
 mineral in different coalfields, but we may usefully 
 glance at the steps which, within the last quarter of a 
 century, have totally revolutionised the methods of all 
 our larger British collieries. When the cast metal 
 tram-plates came into vogue, the old broad wheels of 
 the waggons, or rolleys, were superseded by cast 
 wheels, fined off very sharply at the periphery, iu 
 
150 
 
 COAL A,ND COAL-MINING. 
 
 order to diminish the friction ; and these are still 
 extensively retained at many works of importance, 
 partly from want of appreciation of the newer methods, 
 partly from the desire to fully utilise the materials of 
 an old-established plant. 
 
 As the scale of operations increased, the expenses 
 attaching to the use of corves were found to be so 
 serious as to lead to the resumption of small wooden 
 waggons or tubs, with wheels of 8 to 15 inches 
 diameter, which are run from the face of the coal to 
 the pit bottom, without the delay and cost of lifting a 
 smaller into a larger carriage, and without involving 
 the other great objection of unloading and loading, to 
 which some of the methods are open. It appears, at 
 first sight, undesirable to have to raise in the shaft the 
 weight of the rolling apparatus, the wheels, axles, 
 coupling-chains, &c. ; but the preponderating advan- 
 tage of running the same waggons throughout, and 
 the facility of raising them at high velocity through 
 the pit by the application of cages and guides, have 
 been universally established as a successful innovation, 
 in the Northern and many of the larger works of other 
 coal districts. 
 
 When the seam is thick and roof good, the tubs 
 may, as above stated, be taken close up to the face of 
 work ; but the more the actual present workings are 
 hampered by lowness and want of room, the higher 
 will be the expenses of putting, &c., in addition to 
 carriage along the main ways. This work used to be car- 
 ried on almost exclusively by boys, but in the Northern 
 collieries great numbers of Shetland and other ponies, 
 of 3^ to 4 feet high, driven by younger boys, are 
 employed for bringing the coal from the face to the 
 
CONVEYANCE UNDERGROUND. 161 
 
 horse-roads or the engine-planes. Where very thin 
 seams are worked, as in the Somerset coalfield, the 
 cost of " carting," as it is called, becomes very onerous. 
 The height of the coals, averaging between 1 3 and 28 
 inches, scarcely leaves room in the lower places to go 
 on all fours, and renders the work so laborious that, 
 although the distances are not very great, it costs 
 from Sd. to Is. $d. on the ton to cart the coal from the 
 face through the tramways and branch roads to the 
 main level. 
 
 The movement of the carriages on the roads is 
 retarded by three kinds of resistance : 1st, the friction 
 of the periphery of the wheels on the plates or rails ; 
 2nd, the attrition on the axles ; and 3rd, the rubbing, 
 by oscillation of the waggon, of the face of the wheels 
 against the flange of the tram-plate, or the flange of 
 the wheel against the upright rail. The first is dimi- 
 nished either by narrowing the edge of the wheels, or 
 by running broad wheels on edge rails, and by increas- 
 ing the diameter of the wheels ; the second, by careful 
 make, using steel axles and efficient lubrication ; the 
 third, by making the wheels fast to the axle, instead 
 of having them loose upon it, by straightening the 
 road, and by adopting a suitable form either of bridge 
 or -headed rail. 
 
 In thin seams the tubs, or waggons, must neces- 
 sarily be low, and the wheels small, but even in seams 
 of ordinary height, the convenience of keeping the 
 total weight so moderate that the putter can readily 
 place his tub on the rails when it gets displaced, and 
 that the onsetter and banksmen can easily handle and 
 run the tubs on the iron plates at the bottom and top 
 of the shaft, give the preference in Northern practice to 
 
152 
 
 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 tubs weighing not more than 3 or 4 cwt., and carrying 
 from 6 to 9 cwt. of coal. At Seaton Delaval and 
 neighbouring pits, the tubs weigh 3J cwt. each, and 
 hold 11 to 12 cwt., but these require exceptionally 
 strong men to handle them with the requisite rapidity. 
 In the South, carts, or trams, of much greater weight, 
 sometimes of iron, are often employed, carrying a 
 weight of a ton ; but, in such cases, the number is 
 smaller, or conveyance and winding in the shaft are 
 generally slower, and long delays are caused by getting 
 off the rails. 
 
 The tub most generally used has an oak framing 
 below, on which the bottom and sides, of f men or inch 
 
 Fig. 23. Collierj' tubs : 1 inch to 4 feet. 
 
 oak, or other strong wood, are attached, with corner 
 pieces of iron to strengthen them, and a light bar of 
 iron passing from end to end upon the Naming, with ?i 
 hook at one extremity and coupling chain at the other. 
 
CONVEYANCE UNDERGROUND. 
 
 153 
 
 When the box part has vertical sides, the wheels are 
 placed below, and are only 8 to 12 inches diameter ; but 
 when it is narrowed below, the wheels may be set 
 outside, and are 15 to 18 inches diameter. They are 
 generally fixed to the axle, but sometimes are, as well 
 as the axle, made to turn. The form, in fact, must 
 depend partly on the roads, and partly on the varieties 
 of coal to be conveyed ; but it would be manifestly 
 inconvenient, in a colliery where a large traffic exists, 
 to have carriages of diiferent sizes and shapes. 
 
 For the purpose of bringing the weight low, and at 
 the same time employing large wheels, M. Cabany, the 
 
 Fig. 24. 
 
 ingenious director of the great collieries of Anzin, lias 
 constructed the modification of elbow-axle, shown in 
 Fig. 24, which, he states, can be repaired at half the 
 cost of the common elbow-axle. The mode of attach- 
 ment of the wheel is shown in the figure, and the 
 waggon is made to belly out above it, to increase the 
 capacity on a narrow gauge. 
 
154 
 
 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 The main levels of a mine are generally carried too 
 horizontally to allow the loaded waggons in one direc- 
 tion, and the empties in the other, to be drawn by a 
 perfectly equal force. In order to have the resistance 
 equal in both directions, the empty tub being 3 cwt., 
 and the loaded one 12 cwt, and the friction -g^th of the 
 weight, the inclination would have to be 1 in 133, and 
 if the friction be -gV^h, would be 1 in 160. 
 
 Mr. Wood found in his experiments that a horse 
 dragging a carriage on a level railroad at surface will 
 give a useful performance of 6i? tons for 20 miles, or 
 133 tons for one mile per day, which forms a conve- 
 nient maximum standard for judging of this the most 
 general means of conveyance, as carried out in various 
 mines. Actual practical trials in several pits gave the 
 following results : 
 
 Locality. 
 
 Diameter 
 of wheel. 
 
 Inches. 
 
 Inclination 
 of road. 
 
 Weight of tram. 
 
 Number 
 of trams 
 at once. 
 
 Tons per 
 mile per 
 horse. 
 
 Loaded. 
 Cwt. 
 
 Empty. 
 Cwt. 
 
 1. Elemore Colliery 
 
 12 
 
 1 in 130 
 
 12-5 
 
 4 
 
 14 
 
 29-75 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 12 
 
 1 in 202 
 
 12-5 
 
 4 
 
 14 
 
 51-23 
 
 2. Hetton . . . 
 
 8 
 
 1 in 130 
 
 12-5 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 30-6 
 
 3. Andrew's House 
 
 10-25 
 
 1 in 222 
 
 13 
 
 5-3 
 
 11 
 
 54-15 
 
 4. Marley Hill . . 
 
 10 
 
 J n 144 
 
 13 
 
 5 
 
 
 31-6 
 
 5. Springwell . . 
 
 10 
 
 Level. 
 
 11-5 
 
 3-5 
 
 6 
 
 15-26 
 
 Similar trials made in South Wales, where the work 
 was done by drawing 3 to 7 larger trams, weighing 
 when loaded 25 to 32 cwt. each, with wheels from 17 to 
 21 inches diameter, principally along water-levels, but 
 in part along inclined headings, gave results of from 
 10 to 17*8 tons per mile as the day's work of a horse. 
 
 These surprisingly different amounts of useful effect 
 depend in great part on the arrangements as well as 
 
CONVEYANCE UNDERGROUND. 155 
 
 the condition of the roads. If only a single line of rails, 
 with passing places, be employed, much delay ensues ; 
 and if the distances travelled are short, and the 
 stoppages at the termini more frequent, there must be 
 a similar disadvantage. 
 
 In the 2nd and 4th examples above cited, the horses 
 were particularly strong and in good condition, and yet 
 the result falls so strangely short of what can be 
 accomplished at the surface, as to give great weight 
 to Mr. Wood's corollary, that it becomes daily more 
 important to substitute, as at the surface so also 
 underground, engine-power for the costly stable of 60 
 or 80 horses, which otherwise has to be maintained in 
 the larger collieries. 
 
 When the coal, as usual, is worked from the main- 
 ways up the rise of the seam, if the inclination be as 
 much as 1 in 30, inclined planes (jinny roads, or jig- 
 brows) come into use, where by aid of a drum or sheave 
 at the upper end, regulated by a brake, the loaded tubs 
 run down by their own weight, and pull up the empty 
 ones. Or the descent may be checked, and the ascent 
 assisted, by the use of a counterbalance tub suitably 
 loaded. The sheave for this purpose may, according to 
 the nature of the work, be so fixed, by the aid of 
 wooden props, as to be easily removed forward as the 
 workings advance. This is, of course, a very inex- 
 pensive mode of conveying the coals, and is sometimes 
 applicable for very long distances ; although, for the 
 avoidance of accidents, it is needful then to establish a 
 very strict discipline as to signalling when the train of 
 tubs is to be set running, and also to have side stalls 
 cut out here and there for the safety of those men who 
 
156 COAL AJfD COAL-MIKING. 
 
 may happen to be travelling the plane at the time. In 
 the rudest of such inclines, a boy goes down with the 
 sled, digging his heels into the floor by way of a drag ; 
 whilst in large and well-laid-out collieries, a regular 
 series of such inclines, fitted with substantial brake 
 drums, wire ropes, and friction rollers for them to run 
 upon, vie with the best of inclined planes to be seen at 
 the surface. 
 
 A contrivance of great ingenuity, Fowler's clip- 
 pulley, has been most successfully used by the Messrs. 
 Pease at the Upleatham mines for two years past, and 
 appears to be capable of extended application in the 
 working of inclines and engine planes in collieries also. 
 Its advantages are that the rope need only to be passed 
 simply over the periphery of the wheel, instead of 
 being coiled or lapped round it as on a drum; that it 
 then holds the rope more equably and advantageously 
 without flattening the wires or grinding them against 
 one another, and that it prevents a surging movement. 
 The movable clips on the circumference, which em- 
 brace the rope, clutch it so tightly, that on a double 
 incline, one set of tubs may be thrown off as by the 
 breakage of the rope and yet it is capable of sustain- 
 ing the other. 
 
 When, however, the coal has to be brought up by 
 "down-hills," or roads driven below level, the labour 
 thrown upon men at windlasses, or upon horses drag- 
 ging carriages, is so great as to be inconsistent with 
 extensive working ; and, under these circumstances, it 
 is usual to employ engine-power, either through the 
 instrumentality of a rope passed from the surface down 
 the pit (as at Monkwearmouth), or by fixed under- 
 
CONVEYANCE UNDERGROUND. 157 
 
 ground engines worked by steam transmitted from the 
 surface (as at Killirigworth), or generated in boilers 
 near them,* or worked by compressed air. 
 
 If the inclination of a down-brow be not less than 1 
 in 28, the empty tubs, in running down, will drag out 
 with them the rope from the drum of a fixed engine ; 
 but if it be less, they must be provided with a tail-rope 
 passing round a sheave at the bottom of the incline, by 
 which they will be hauled down again. These arrange- 
 ments have long been practised, but not many years 
 have elapsed since the last method came into use 
 instead of horse power, for hauling the coals along the 
 main ways which approximate to the horizontal. It 
 is still only in the larger collieries, and those in which 
 due care has been bestowed on the straightness and 
 regularity of the roads, that this improvement has been 
 introduced; but its value may be inferred from the 
 fact that, in certain instances, as many as 70 or 80 
 horses, with their drivers, stablemen, &c., are dispensed 
 with, and that a small fixed engine actually hauls 
 along a nearly level plane of a mile and a half in length, 
 trains of from 50 to 100 tubs at a time, at an average 
 speed of 9 miles an hour. The employment of a tail- 
 rope (usually of i to | the circumference of the main 
 rope) enables the train to be pulled over the undula- 
 tions of gradient which cannot but generally occur even 
 
 * I owe to Mr. C. Tylden "Wright the following example from a 
 part of Shireoak colliery : Inclined plane of 800 yards long below pit 
 bottom, gradient 1 in 50 ; train of 25 tubs at a time, drawn at speed of 
 8 to 10 miles per hour by a f-ineh steel wire-rope, stretched by a 4-foot 
 Fowler's clip-drum, and worked by two 12-inch cylinders, 2 feet stroke. 
 Average cost, calculated from 30,000 tons conveyed in six months, 
 one penny per ton, including wear and tear of rope and all labour. 
 
158 COAL AUD COAL-MINING. 
 
 in the best underground roadways. Where these 
 inequalities, and where curves interfere, they must be 
 met by a sufficiency of rollers and of sheaves to protect 
 the ropes from injury. 
 
 In certain works the engine-road has been fitted with 
 an endless rope, passing, of course, round sheaves at the 
 extremities, and to which the trains of tubs are hitched 
 or clamped at intervals. The comparison of this with 
 the other method is still the subject of discussion ; but, 
 although very serviceable as contrasted with horse- 
 work, it has not been shown to attain to the amount of 
 efficiency and economy exhibited by the engine " planes " 
 of such collieries as Hetton, Seaton Delaval, Pel ton, 
 Black Boy, &c. 
 
 Regularity of action and compactness being two main 
 essentials, the favourite engines for this purpose have 
 two horizontal cylinders resting on bed-plates, and a 
 heavy fly-wheel. But the form of the engine is hardly so 
 important as the question of the mode of supply of 
 steam, for the boiler-fires are in some situations a source 
 of intolerable heat and of certain risk. It has been, 
 however, shown in practice, that where it is incon- 
 venient to place the boilers near the engine, they may be 
 at surface ; and if 8 or 10-inch pipes, properly clothed, 
 are used to transmit it, there will be no substantial 
 diminution in the elasticity of the steam in the receiver 
 for the cylinders at the pit-bottom. In some instances 
 the steam has been transmitted for above 1,000 yards, 
 with a good result depending much on the sufficient 
 diameter of the pipes ; in others, compressed air has 
 been forced for a distance of several hundred yards with 
 a very trifling loss of pressure. And thus, by one means 
 or the other, engine power becomes available to all 
 
RAISING THE MINERAL IN THE SHAFTS. 159 
 
 those who, instead of dealing, as in the old time, with a 
 few score of corves, have to run several hundred tons of 
 coal, or in other words some 1,500 or 2,000 waggons, 
 u-day, to the bottom of their shaft. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 RAISING THE MINERAL IN THE SHAFTS. 
 
 A FEW steps only, and of a simple kind, appear to 
 intervene between the modes of slowly winding up 
 small quantities of coal in the pits three centuries ago, 
 and the vehement, yet well-disciplined extraction of 
 the present day. But although the improvements have 
 not been marked by any startling inventions, they 
 have only been rendered possible by the simultaneous 
 advancement of the other mechanical arts. And even 
 now, it is solely under favourable conditions that the 
 greatest eminence is attained, and we need but to travel 
 a few miles into the hills from some of the noble col- 
 lieries of Durham or of Lancashire to see, near the 
 outcrops of the seams, little works carried on for local 
 or land sale, where the apparatus, if not the ways and 
 language of the people, will recall the days of a pristine 
 simplicity. 
 
 As long as manual labour is employed for the raising, 
 it may be of a few tons of coal per diem, the windlass 
 and a round hempen rope are the means commonly 
 used. In the hills of the West Riding of Yorkshire, 
 a pinion on the crank axle works a toothed wheel on 
 the barrel axle ; and thus, by giving a slower motion, 
 
160 COAL Altl) COAL-MINING. 
 
 enables a man or two at the surface to raise a greater 
 weight at once, and thus to keep even with several who 
 .are working below. With a depth of 30 or 40 ynrdp, a 
 more economical power has to be brought into play. 
 
 For horse work the invariable arrangement is to erect 
 the " wheel-and-axle" kind of machine called a horse- 
 gin, or whim, and consisting of a rope-drum built round 
 a vertical axis, the foot of which turns on a stone or 
 iron casting, and the head pivot of which is supported 
 by a long " span-beam," resting at the extremities 
 upon inclined legs. The horses are attached to one or 
 both ends (according as power may be needed) of a 
 strong horizontal beam, generally 30 to 36 feet long, 
 which embraces the vertical axis close beneath the 
 drum, which is 12 to 16 feet diameter. The ropes, 
 passing off from opposite sides of the drum, are con- 
 ducted over little gmde-pullQjs jackanapes to the 
 sheaves set in the shaft-frame overhanging the pit. 
 
 Although very largely employed in metalliferous 
 mines, the horse-gin is now seen in colliery districts 
 only during the sinking of pits, or permanently em- 
 ployed at shallow works doing a very small trade. In 
 the last century, before the introduction of the Boulton- 
 and-Watt engine, it was in very abundant use in the 
 English and Scotch coalfields, and we have, in the 
 travels of M. Jars, an account of a powerful horse 
 machine newly completed in 1765, for raising the coal 
 at Walker Colliery, 100 fathoms deep. It was put in 
 motion by eight horses kept at a sharp trot, and by 
 means of a large horizontal toothed wheel giving a 
 greater velocity to the rope-drum, lifted a corve of 
 coals in two minutes : but, unfortunately for the result, 
 the corve held only 6 cwt. ! The simple gin, therefore, 
 
RAISING THE MINERAL IN THE SHAFTS. 161 
 
 worked by two or four horses, remained the commoD 
 machine for small depths. 
 
 It is only in districts more hilly than most of our 
 coalfields that the streams flow with a sufficient fall to 
 give a useful amount of water-power ; but the conve- 
 nient way in which the drum could be built upon the 
 prolonged axis of a water-wheel led to that arrangement 
 being commonly adopted by the middle of the eighteenth 
 century, even where the supply of water had to be raised 
 by a special Newcomen or atmospheric steam-engine. 
 Many attempts were made to convert the alternating 
 jerky action of this engine into the rotatory motion 
 needed for winding, but to very little purpose. Smeaton 
 meanwhile lessened the consumption of water, and 
 thus reduced the expense. The wheels had been made 
 with a double row of buckets, each row opening oppo- 
 sitely to the other, so that when motion had to be 
 reversed, the supply of water was cut off by a valve and 
 laid on the other way, and thus the wheel turned in the 
 opposite direction. Smeaton applied reversing gear of 
 strong toothed wheels to the drum, so that the wheel 
 could always revolve in the same direction, and the 
 turning of the drum only be reversed. 
 
 In "Wales, another mode of employing water-power 
 came into use, which is still to be seen at many of the 
 collieries, as well as some of the slate quarries, where 
 this cheap power is abundant. A large sheave fitted 
 with a powerful brake is fixed above the pit-top, and 
 has a rope or chain passing round it, to one end of 
 which is attached an empty cistern carrying over it a 
 waggon of coal, to the other a cistern which, when 
 filled with water, is heavier than the loaded waggon 
 and empty cistern together. Suppose now the former 
 
 M 
 
162 COAL ANf) COAL- MINING. 
 
 is at bank, the latter at the pit-bottom ; the cistern is 
 filled from a tank placed close by, and is regulated in 
 its descent by the brake ; when it reaches the bottom a 
 self-acting valve is opened, which lets the water flow 
 out, either to escape by the adit or to be raised by the 
 pumping-engine : meanwhile the loaded waggon is 
 taken off the empty cistern, and by the time the latter 
 is filled with water from the same tank, the cistern at 
 the bottom has been emptied and a waggon of coal 
 placed upon it ; and thus the action is reversed, and a 
 cheap, although slowly-working machine, kept in reci- 
 procating movement. 
 
 The chief forward step was made when Watt's 
 double-acting engine, having the steam applied al- 
 ternately on both sides of the piston, rendered it 
 feasible to apply a rapid rotatory motion. In the 
 smaller engines, and such, in fact, as are in work at 
 the great majority of the collieries of our central and 
 western districts, the motion is communicated from 
 the main crank-shaft, through the intervention of 
 toothed wheels, to a drum-shaft placed also horizontally, 
 and to which a lower velocity is given. The ropes, or 
 chains, wound in opposite directions on the drum, are 
 carried over pulleys either down a single pit, or to 
 two different pits, and thus, with their respective 
 cages or skips, exercise a counterbalancing effect upon 
 one another. This arrangement is particularly suitable 
 to the slow winding of our midland districts, where the 
 weight drawn at once is considerable, and where from 
 its hanging free in the shaft, a great velocity would be 
 dangerous. 
 
 But in the larger collieries, where rapidity is essential, 
 two different forms of engine have for some years been 
 
RAISING THE MINERAL IN THE SHAFTS. 163 
 
 in use. First, a large vertical cylinder, from which the 
 piston rod acts direct upon the drum shaft, and the 
 drum, being often 16, 18, or even 20 feet in diameter 
 at the first lap of the rope, communicates to the load a 
 velocity of from 10 to 20 feet in a second. The second 
 is the engine of two cylinders placed horizontally, 
 acting also it may be, directly on the drum, and 
 from their reciprocating action on the crank, intro- 
 ducing great regularity of motion. 
 
 As examples of some of the more powerful engines 
 employed for these purposes at British works, may be 
 mentioned, 
 
 Monkwearmouth ; vertical cylinder, 65 inches diameter, 
 7 feet stroke ; depth, 286 fathoms, or 1,716 feet ; 
 wire flat rope ; useful load, 4 tubs, with 9 cwt. of 
 coal each; time of raising, \\ minute. 
 
 Dukinfieldj Cheshire; No. 1 pit; vertical cylinder, 60 
 inches diameter ; stroke, 7 feet ; low pressure ; 
 flat wire rope ; load, 4 tubs, with 8 cwt. of coal 
 each. No. 2 ; cylinder, 48 inches diameter ; stroke, 
 6 feet ; high pressure ; drawing depth, 678 yards, 
 or 2,034 feet ; time, 70 to 90 seconds. 
 
 North Seaton; vertical cylinder, 60 inches diameter; 
 stroke, 7 feet ; depth, 124 fathoms ; flat wire rope; 
 load, 4 tubs, with 50 cwt. ; weight of steel cage, 
 25 cwt. ; time, 35 seconds. 
 
 CinderAill, Notts. (1852); vertical cylinder, 32 inches 
 diameter ; 5 feet stroke ; depth, 250 yards, or 750 
 feet ; flat hemp rope (wire in upcast) : load, 12 
 cwt. of coal ; time of drawing, 40 seconds. 
 
 Kirkless Hall (California pit), Wigan ; two coupled 
 24-inch cylinders, vertical, 5-feet stroke; round 
 
 M3 
 
164 COAL ANB COAL-MINING. 
 
 eteel rope; conical drum; depth, 345 yards, or 
 1,035 feet , two-decked cage, with 4 tubs, carrying 
 24 cwt. of coal; time in shaft 40 seconds. 
 
 Seaton DelavaZ; two horizontal cylinders of 36 inches 
 diameter ; 6 feet stroke ; high pressure ; depth, 
 112 fathoms, or 672 feet; flat, 5 inch wire rope; 
 load, 4 tubs, with. 11 to 12 cwt. each ; weight of iron 
 cage, with its chains, 3 tons ; time, 30 seconds. 
 
 Navigation Pit, Aberdare ; two oscillating cylinders, 
 43 inches diameter ; 6 feet 2 inches stroke ; depth, 
 365 yards, or 1,095 feet ; round wire rope, 2 
 inches diameter, on conical drum ; load, 2 large 
 tubs, IT cwt., with 47 cwt. of coal ; cage and bridle 
 chains, 2 tons, 3 cwts. ; total weight, with rope, at 
 bottom of pit, 9 tons ; time in shaft, 46 seconds. 
 
 The high velocities which are thus attained in shaft- 
 work, by means of which from 500 to 1 ,000 tons of 
 coal are drawn from a single pit in a day, have been 
 rendered possible only by the use of guides or con- 
 ductors, which insure smoothness of movement and 
 prevent collisions. Mr. Curr, of Sheffield, already 
 mentioned for his valuable innovations, introduced at 
 the end of the last century wood conductors for guiding 
 the corves, by aid of which he asserted that he could 
 draw from 140 yards depth in half a minute. Yet for 
 years he found but little response ; they were applied 
 at a few of the midland pits, and about 1827 by the 
 late Mr. Holwey, at Welton Hill, near Midsomer 
 Norton. In the north they began to make their way 
 between 1835 and 1840, and are now universally 
 employed, as essential to economy and to the safety of 
 the men. 
 
RAISING THE MINERAL IN THE SHAFTS. 165 
 
 The conductors in general use are of wood (Memel 
 pine) about 4 inches by 3, attached to bunions, or cross- 
 pieces, fixed across the pit at intervals, and are com- 
 monly only two in number, one on each side of the 
 cage, and costing, with labour, 10s. to 14s. per fathom. 
 In some instances a pair of vertical bridge-rails are 
 employed ; in others, lengths of angle-iron, similarly 
 attached to buntons. In Lancashire many pits have 
 been fitted with a continuous round bar of iron, fixed 
 at the pit-bottom, and screwed up to the head-frame, 
 the cross-bar of the cage having a ring at each end, 
 which runs upon the rods. An inferior plan is 
 that of similarly stretching down the pit a wire rope, 
 or a single-link chain, where the undulations, and, 
 in the latter, the rattling vibration, are neither 
 agreeable to the traveller nor safe against accident. 
 
 One of the important shaft-fittings, upon this method, 
 is the cage, or chair, for the reception of the tubs or 
 trams, which simply traverses up and down the pit. It 
 is almost invariably constructed of malleable iron, and, 
 since lightness is highly desirable, as small as possible 
 for the weight it is destined to carry. For a single tub 
 a cage of 5 or 6 cwt. will suffice ; for two, whether to 
 be placed side by side or one over the other (a 2-decker), 
 9 to 10 cwt. At Monkwearmouth the 4-tub-cages 
 weigh as much as 24 cwt. ; others no less than 3 tons, 
 including their tackling-chains. Cages of combined 
 strength and lightness have of late been advantageously 
 made of steel. 
 
 The slide parts of the cage, of thin wrought iron, which 
 loosely fit to three sides of the wooden conductor, are 
 applied both at the upper and lower bar of the framing, 
 and are a little bell-mouthed upward and downward 
 
166 
 
 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 to allow them to slip more freely over inequalities. In 
 order also to keep the tubs from shifting during their 
 transit, a simply contrived latch is always applied 
 either on the floor of the cage or at the ends of a rod 
 passing through its upper har. And when the weight 
 
 Fig. 26. Single-deck iron cage, Newsham, for rolled iron guides. 
 
 reaches the surface, duly signalled on its approach by 
 a bell ringing in the engine-house, and by some visible 
 mark attached to the rope, the cage is lifted with its 
 floor a little above the plane of the bank at which it is 
 intended to rest, and then allowed to drop on to the 
 keeps. These latter are the heads of an arrange- 
 ment of counterbalanced levers, which offer no ob- 
 stacle to the ascent of the cage, but by a single 
 movement of the hand or foot of the lander are made to 
 
RAISING THE MINERAL IN THE SHAFTS. 167 
 
 protrude and catch it in its descent. The moment that, 
 at a lively pit-mouth, the cage bottom touches the 
 keeps, the landers have already got hold of the full 
 
 Scale affect 
 
 Fig. 27. Steel cage, North Seaton, with four tubf\. Elevations and plan. 
 
 tubs to pull them on to terra fama, or are forcing them 
 out with the empty ones which they are pushing in to 
 take their places. On the iron-plates with which the 
 staging about the pit-top is floored, the waggons are 
 hauled off, up goes the cage with a jerk a few feet, and 
 anon plunges down again into the gloom ; whilst the 
 
168 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 men are rushing forward with the empty tubs prepared 
 J.OY the fellow-cage, which in a few seconds flies up by 
 the other side of the pit. 
 
 When the cage is two-decked, or, as sometimes in 
 Belgium, has three or four compartments one above 
 the other, the landing process has to be repeated at the 
 same level, or, for the purpose of saving time, may be 
 carried on at two different levels on the staging, whikt 
 the loading is similarly performed at the bottom. It 
 is in this way that a very neat system is adopted for 
 running in and out the eight tubs which form the load 
 of the great 4-decked cage of the Grand Hornu 
 Colliery, near Mons, a cage weighing itself, with its 
 protecting cover, about 2,692 Ibs. English. 
 
 The single-link chains, and the round hempen ropes 
 of former days, survive only at rude and petty works. 
 Elsewhere they are succeeded by flat ropes of hemp 
 (bands), by the ponderous flat chains of three links 
 used for slow drawing in the Staffordshire district, or 
 by wire-rope, either flat or round. Iron wire was 
 applied to mining purposes in the Hartz mountains, 
 and then in Hungary and Saxony, before it was tried in 
 England, and its cheapness and lightness, as compared 
 with hemp rope of equal strength, obtained for it 
 a great, but by no means exclusive success. The 
 desirable quality of lightness has been pushed still 
 further by employing ropes of steel wire, but not 
 hitherto to any great extent, although Mr. Tylden 
 Wright informs me that his flat iron wire ropes, 
 weighing 27 Ibs. per fathom, have been replaced by flat 
 steel of 16 Ibs., and (in the upcast pit) by round 
 steel rope of 13 Ibs. to the fathom, the weight of coal 
 in each case being 28 to 30 cwt. ; and that the round 
 
RAISING THE MINERAL IN THE SHAFTS. 
 
 169 
 
 ropes have been working for two years, whilst the flat 
 iron and steel ropes seldom admit of more than 14 
 months wear. 
 
 The flat ropes have been largely employed, in conse- 
 quence of their easing the engine by coiling one lap 
 over the other, and thus forming a counterbalance as 
 the cage ascends or descends, giving the fullest lever- 
 age to the engine at the time that the maximum 
 weight is being lifted, i.e., when the loaded cage starts 
 from the bottom of the pit. But the greater wear and 
 tear has given rise within the last few 
 years to the introduction of round 
 wire-ropes, coiled some upon cylin- 
 drical, others upon conical drums. In 
 the instance just quoted, the drum 
 runs from 16 feet at the small end up 
 to 20 feet diameter ; and if due care be 
 taken to wind the rope on at first very 
 tightly, and to give such an inclina- 
 tion as shall guard the coils against 
 slipping, these drums are found to 
 work admirably. 
 
 In the deeper Belgian collieries, conical drlfmTn section, 
 flat ropes made of the aloe fibre (much Scale ' 1 inch to 10 feet 
 employed for the same purposes in Mexico) are pre- 
 ferred. The disadvantage of this material would appear 
 to be the great weight, since with about 15 per cent, 
 of tar, the ropes used at the Grand Hornu weigh from 
 12 to 19 Ibs. per metre of 3*28 feet English. They are 
 stated, however, to be extremely strong, trustworthy, 
 and durable. As a further means of counterbalancing 
 the 'great weight of rope to be lifted with the full cage, 
 there is, in most of the Northern collieri & a counter- 
 
170 
 
 COAL 
 
 COAL-MINING. 
 
 balance chain attached to the drum shaft, which passes 
 in the reverse direction to the rope over a pulley, anc 
 has, appended to the end of it, a quantity of excess- 
 ively heavy links of iron, which repose at the bottom o: 
 a pit, 30 or 40 yards deep, when not required to be ir 
 action. When, however, the descending rope begins tc 
 preponderate, they are gradually lifted into the air, 
 and thus, when the full cage begins to be lifted, aid 
 with their great weight,- the effort of the engine ir 
 accomplishing the heavier portion of its work. 
 
 The pulley-frames, or head-stocks, intended for the 
 
 Fig. 29. Drawing-engine placed between two pits. Scale, 1 inch to 50 feet. 
 
 Fig. 30. Engine on one side of a priir of pits. Scale. 1 inch to 50 feet. 
 
 working of a single band clown a pit, and thus oftei 
 
RAISING THE MINERAL IN THE SHAFTS. 17J 
 
 placed one on each side of the engine, as commonly 
 arranged in the midland districts, are a comparatively 
 simple framing in a triangular form, composed of two 
 uprights and two back-legs, supporting a sheave or 
 pulley of cast iron, 6 to 9 feet diameter, at the height 
 of from 20 to 30 feet above the ground. When intended 
 for rapid winding, these latter are generally replaced 
 by pulleys of greater diameter, from 10 to as much as 
 20 feet, and having the spokes made of light wrought 
 iron rod and only the socket and rim of cast iron. When 
 two bands are to be worked, the pair of pulleys are 
 set upon a framing of greater breadth, which often 
 has a general rectangular form, steadied by back-legs 
 strutted either against the ground or against the 
 engine-house. But the varieties in 
 form are so numerous that it would 
 carry us beyond our limits to do 
 more than refer generally to them. 
 A noteworthy, but expensive, 
 modification is that at Seaton 
 Delaval, where the timber framing 
 is replaced by beams of f-ths inch 
 wrought iron, riveted at the corners 
 
 Fig. 31. Plan of iron 
 
 with angle-iron. Cast iron has upright*. 
 
 been employed in Staffordshire for small frames, but it 
 is not to be relied upon. 
 
 With all the precautions taken to secure good en- 
 gines, careful men, and trustworthy ropes, two kinds 
 of accidents occasionally occur, which, as in this 
 country the men are invariably lowered and raised by 
 the same machinery, give rise to a peculiarly harrowing 
 loss of life. One of these is the overrrinding, which 
 brings the cage violently up against the pulleys over- 
 
172 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 head, and thus breaks the rope. And, as with the 
 large drums now in use, a single stroke of the engine 
 raises the cage 60 or 70 feet, it will be seen how 
 needful it is to have a careful engine-man, and ma- 
 chinery under perfect control. Overwinding is guarded 
 against partly by having the pulley-frame high (from 
 30 to 60 feet), partly by the signals which tell the man 
 when to moderate his speed, and partly by efficient 
 brakes ; and of late steam brakes have often been added 
 to the engines, which in some cases are self-acting, 
 and come into play by admission of steam into a 
 special cylinder as soon as the cage passes a certain 
 point in the guides. 
 
 The second class of accident is from the simple 
 breakage of the rope, and whilst, in most cases, it is 
 guarded against only by keeping in employ the best 
 materials, and carefully overhauling the rope, it has 
 been the subject of a number of inventions, to which 
 the name of safety-cage, in French parachute, has been 
 applied. As early as 1846, Mr. Fourdrinier had 
 practically tested in North Staffordshire an ingenious 
 arrangement by which, on the breakage of the rope, a 
 wedge was, by the action of a spring, inserted between 
 the wooden guide and a part of the cage, so as to bring 
 the latter immediately to a stand-still. In 1850 and 
 1851, I saw a number of them applied by sundry 
 colliery viewers, who, two or three years later, had, after 
 fair trial, unshipped them all, mainly for the reason 
 that they were apt, in quick winding, when the rope 
 surged or slacked, to come into play when not wanted, 
 and thus to introduce a new source of delay and danger. 
 In fact, to the present day, this same objection holds 
 good, more or less, to all the varieties that have since 
 
RAISING THE MINERAL IN THE SHAFTS. 
 
 173 
 
 been proposed ; ami, a'ong with the common dislike of 
 trusting to a spring for setting it in action, militates 
 against their general adoption by the coal trade. 
 
 Two varieties, it is true, were shown at the Exhibition 
 oi 1862, which dispensed with springs, Paull's and one 
 of Nyst's, of Belgium ; but neither of them was 
 thought satisfactory by the Jury. 
 
 The remainder of the safety-cages are chiefly divisible 
 into those where two levers are 
 made to thrust outwards against 
 the conductors, and those where 
 clutches embrace the two sides 
 of the guide rods. Of the former 
 kind is that of Fontaine, which 
 has been successfully applied in 
 the great collieries of Anzin. Of 
 the latter, we can only mention 
 White and Grant's, largely em- 
 ployed in Scotland ; Aytoun's, 
 Nyst's (fitted to trapezoidal 
 guides), Jordan's, which grips 
 firmly without the use of sharp 
 teeth; and Owen's, Fig. 33, which 
 has been applied in many of the 
 Lancashire pits, and has actually 
 saved numerous lives. 
 
 The apparatus of Mr. Calow, of 
 Derbyshire, Fig. 34, is noticeable 
 for the ingenious manner in which 
 he brings a single spring to bear 
 on the clutches, not when the 
 rope is merely slacked, so as to 
 run out faster than usual, but only when the cage 
 
 E 
 
 Fig. 32. Fontaine's parachute 
 as it appeared at the col- 
 liery of Boussu, when the 
 flat wire-rope broke "ritb 
 a weight of 2 tous. 
 
174 
 
 COAL AND COAL- MINING. 
 
 begins to descend at the velocity of falling. The spiral 
 spring, held in a state of compression between a 
 
 Fig, #3. Owen's safety cage. 
 
 A the conductor rods. 
 
 B 0, the toothed levers connected by the rods 
 
 D D with the rope. 
 B E, the spring which, if the rope breaks. 
 
 forces down the upper end of the lever. 
 
 Fig. 34. Calow's safety cage. 
 
 weighted cap above it, and the part of the cage below 
 it, from which the cap is separable, no sooner finds 
 its foundation gone by the commencement of fall, than 
 it flies into action, lifting its cap and pulling the levers 
 which close the clutches.* 
 
 The question of the advisability of employing any 
 form of safety-clutch yet invented, is by no means 
 
 * Models of a great number of the safety-cages which have "been in 
 practical operation are open to inspection in the Museum of Practical 
 Geology, Jermyn Street. 
 
RAISING THE MINERAL IN THE SHAFTS. 175 
 
 settled. Many of the most experienced colliery viewers, 
 both at home and abroad, hold to the opinion that they 
 substitute one danger for another ; and that, what with 
 the inconvenience of their operating when not required, 
 the danger of trusting to springs amid the dust and 
 wet and rust of a shaft, and the tendency to induce 
 neglect of the proper condition of the rope, it is safer 
 to trust to careful engine-men, the best materials, and 
 caution in not running a rope too long, or omitting to 
 have it frequently examined. 
 
 Many of the above inventions are coupled with an 
 apparatus for disengaging the cage if overwound, and 
 thus bringing it to a standstill against the guides ; and 
 these form, doubtless, a very useful adjunct. 
 
 A cover, or bonnet of sheet iron, is now very generally 
 added to the cage, to protect the men against falling 
 materials ; and with the addition of sliding gates at 
 the shaft-top, which are lifted when the cage comes up, 
 but guard the brink of the pit when the cage is down, 
 are safeguards against many of the accidents so rife in 
 connection with shafts. 
 
 Those who are connected with metalliferous mines 
 would like to see one of the pits of every coal -work 
 lilted with a ladder-way, to give egress to the men in 
 case of accident to the winding machinery ; but though 
 commonly employed on the Continent, ladders are 
 quite unusual at our British collieries. 
 
 The safest and most economical mode of putting the 
 men up and down the shafts is the Fahrkunst, or man- 
 engine, a reciprocating rod or pair of rods, fitted with 
 steps, by which the traveller is lifted from 8 to 14 feet 
 at a stroke, and by which an entire pit's crew of 400 or 
 500 men may be conveyed in little more than an hour. 
 
176 COAL A*T> COAL-MINING. 
 
 In Belgium and Westphalia, as in our Cornish mines, 
 they are in common use ; and, from a long experience, I 
 can testify to their comfort and security ; but in OUT 
 coal districts, a strong feeling in favour of the rope 
 prevails, by which, although one party of men passes 
 through the shaft more rapidly, the passage of the 
 whole complement occupies the engine much longer ; 
 whilst the annals of colliery working supply us with 
 too many sad instances of the dangers which attach to 
 this system. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 DRAINAGE AND PUMPING. 
 
 IN no respect do collieries differ more from each other 
 than in the quantities of water which they encounter, 
 either in the winning, or in the subsequent working 
 of their mineral. In one case, a retentive clay cover 
 may prevent the access of surface water, which in 
 another may pass in abundance through a sandy or 
 a gravel alluvium. In certain districts, water-bearing 
 measures of an almost fluid consistency must be passed 
 through, whilst in others, the comparatively tight coal 
 measures may at once be entered. Frequently the 
 strata above and below the coal are so compact as to 
 render the workings actually too dusty and dry ; but 
 instances are common enough in which water makes 
 its way through the roof stone, or through the coal 
 itself, and adds difficulties and expense to the whole of 
 the operations. In a former chapter, we have seen that 
 by the process of tubbing, the water met with in the 
 
DRAINAGE AND PUMPING. 177 
 
 shaft may be so effectually excluded, as even to admit 
 of a mine being worked dry beneath heavy feeders ; 
 but it too often happens that either from the conditions 
 of the place being unfavourable to the process, or from 
 its not having been attempted, a costly system of 
 pumping has to be unremittingly maintained. 
 
 Up to the beginning of the present century there 
 were many districts in which comparatively shallow 
 collieries were drained by means of adit-levels, or 
 soughs, often driven for a long distance from lower 
 ground. But, in proportion as these superficial work- 
 ings have been exhausted, it has become necessary to 
 follow the seams to greater depths, and there are but 
 a few hilly regions left, such as South Wales and Dean 
 Forest, where some of the works still enjoy the ad- 
 vantage of free drainage. 
 
 Before the practical introduction of Newcomen's 
 steam-engine, the modes of removing the water from 
 under-level excavations were by the application of horse 
 power or of water-wheels to an endless chain with 
 buckets, to drawing-pumps, to the rag-and-chain, or 
 to winding of the water in barrels or ox-skins. Agri- 
 cola gives UE, in 1550, an accurate description, with 
 drawings, of many varieties of apparatus worked by 
 tread- wheels, by horse-gins, or by water-wheels of 15 
 to 30 feet diameter, which show that very little advance 
 was made between the period of his observations and 
 the commencement of the 18th century. Nay, it is 
 clear that until of late years, many of our mines still 
 laboured under the same disadvantage as of old in their 
 pump-work, viz., that it was supposed to be necessary 
 to restrict the height of a lift of pumps to the 32 feet 
 through which water can be raised by atmospheric 
 
 N 
 
178 COAL, A*,D COAL-MINING. 
 
 pressure. The several contrivances above mentioned 
 answered their purpose as long as the pits were very 
 shallow, but their difficulties increased rapidly with 
 depth (a condition of mining work often overlooked by 
 inventors), repairs were constantly needed, and, " when 
 a joint-pin gave way, the whole set of chains and 
 buckets fell to the bottom with a most tremendous 
 crash, and every bucket was splintered to pieces. " * 
 
 When pumps were employed, of which the one 
 raised water, about 30 feet only, to the next lift above, 
 the moving parts had to be so multiplied, that things 
 were unnecessarily crowded in the shaft; first-cost and 
 subsequent maintenance were needlessly heavy, and all 
 the difficulties were greatly augmented with the increase 
 in the volume of water to be lifted. 
 
 These common drawing or " suction " pumps had to 
 be converted into the more useful drawing or bucket- 
 lifts of mines, by the simple expedient of increasing 
 the height of the collar above the piston, or in other 
 words, making the bucket-rod work inside a column 
 of pumps, or trees (as they are often termed, from 
 being originally of wood), and lift the water above 
 it. Applied in this manner, the length of the 
 lift becomes only a question of strength of materials, 
 and it is commonly extended to 50, 60, or 80 yards. 
 
 The woodcut, No. 35, will show, in section, the 
 bucket in its working barrel, the rod extending upwards 
 with the column, or trees; below it is the clack, or 
 
 * Fossil Fuel, p. 196. A singular pumping-machine recalling this 
 old apparatus was still, in 1857, to be seen at the little colliery of Coal 
 Barton, near Frome, where 50 fathoms length of 8-inch pumps were 
 worked by a fall of water passing 26 yards down a pit, and utilised 
 upon a chain with buckets of sheet iron lapping over wheels above 
 and below. 
 
fig. 35. Bucket, or drawing lift. 
 
 Yip. 36. Plunger lift. 
 
180 COAL A?)D GOAL-MINING. 
 
 valve-piece, resting in its seat, and capable of being 
 removed either through the clack door , or sometimes, 
 in case of accident, by being fished up with a hook 
 passed down through the column on removal of the 
 bucket-rod. The lowermost portion is the so-called 
 wind-bore, or snore-piece, where the holes in the bottom, 
 generally covered by the water of the cistern or the 
 sump, are of such size as to prevent the entry of chips or 
 stones. The joints of the various lengths, and that be- 
 tween the door and the clack door-piece, are made tight 
 by the intervention of a thin layer of some soft material, 
 as tarred flannel, caoutchouc, &c., and screw bolts and 
 nuts. The action of this pump is easy to follow : at 
 every up-stroke of the rod, the water will rise through 
 the clack, and the column of it standing above the 
 bucket will be so raised as to deliver, at the top of 
 the life, a quantity measurable by the diameter of the 
 working-barrel and length of the stroke. Should the 
 pumps be going " in fork," or the water have 
 receded below some of the holes of the windbore, the 
 ebullition -of the water will show that air is being 
 drawn, and that the full quantum of water is not being 
 raised. 
 
 A few specialities of the bucket-lift may be noticed. 
 When the water is saline or acidulous, and corrodes 
 <the iron, the working-barrel, ordinarily of cast iron 
 duly bored, is sometimes made of brass or gun metal 
 (as, indeed, it very often was in earlier days) ; or, as in 
 some of the copper mines in Cornwall, the whole of the 
 pump-work may -need to be lined with staves of wood, 
 carefully fitted like an internal cask, to prevent the 
 rapid destruction which otherwise ensues. During the 
 sinking of pits, and where sand finds its way to the 
 
DRAINAGE AND PUMPING. 181 
 
 sump, the leather with which the bucket is geared is 
 rapidly cut to pieces, and the water ceasing to be pro- 
 perly lifted, the bucket has to be changed. In very 
 bad cases this may take place, not merely several times 
 a week, but even every few hours, and the time and 
 cost expended in the operation are very serious. Me- 
 tallic and gutta percha packing have been largely tried, 
 but without establishing a general superiority. 
 
 The clack is much more slowly worn, but it is never- 
 theless often a subject of trouble if the water be quick 
 and rises above the clack-door before the change be 
 made. When in such case it refuses to act, and sticks 
 fast in its seat, it must either be drawn out by main 
 force, or a second clack may be dropped upon it, and 
 the water thus lowered. In recent instances, very im- 
 portant services have been rendered by professional 
 divers, employed to put to rights a lost lift. At Messrs. 
 Fletcher's Clifton pits, Workington, and in South 
 Wales, the work has been thus satisfactorily done by aid 
 of the diving apparatus, under 30 or 40 feet of water. 
 
 To return to the action of the pumps. At every up- 
 stroke it will be seen that the engine has to raise the 
 rods, or spears, and their connections, as well as the 
 entire column of water contained in the lifts ; and in 
 order to obviate the enormous strain thus occasioned, 
 it was early found desirable, in the deep mines of Corn- 
 wall, to substitute for the buckets a forcing arrange- 
 ment in all but the bottom lift. This was perfected by 
 Captain Lean, in 1801, by the introduction of the plunger 
 pole, or ram, working through a stuffing-box into a 
 plunger case of bored cast-iron, and forcing at every 
 down-stroke the water upwards through an upper clack, 
 and the clear column of pipes above it. The working 
 
182 COAL AN> COAL-MINING 
 
 of this method will be evident from the sectional wood- 
 cut, No. 36. 
 
 The great advantage hence derived over and above 
 the much smaller degree of wear and tear, is, that the 
 engine has simply at each stroke to lift the rods and 
 plunger poles. These, then, in the down-stroke, by 
 their own weight, descend and force the water before 
 them. And inasmuch as the weight of the rods is far 
 more than sufficient in a deep mine for this purpose, 
 they are in part counterbalanced by beams (balance- 
 bobs) placed some at surface and some at intervals in 
 the shaft, each laden with 15 to 20 tons of old iron. 
 
 Thus, in the mine of Tresavean, at a shaft 348 fathoms 
 deep from surface, the 86-inch cylinder engine raised a 
 weight of rods, plungers, and sets-off, for nine lifts, of 
 67 tons, 3 cwt. The main beam, with its gudgeons, 
 connections, &c., 50 tons ; four balance-bobs, 60 tons ; 
 the four loaded balance boxes, 80 tons ; or, altogether, 
 besides the weight of water in the drawing lifts, about 
 260 tons, to be set in motion at every stroke of the 
 engine. 
 
 The arrangement in Cornwall is universally the same. 
 From the end of the main-beam, projecting over the 
 engine shaft, a single rod passes all the way down to 
 the bottom or bucket-lift. Employed in its maximum 
 strength at the surface, where it has the full weight to 
 sustain, it is then tapered or diminished downward 
 according to the diminution of the strain by which it is 
 affected.* At the requisite intervals the plunger poles 
 are attached to it by sets-off , bound to it by strong 
 
 * Thus, in a deep mine, a main rod of 290 fathoms long is made, 
 for the first 120 fathoms of two 12-inch square Riga balk, and after- 
 wards one of 15-inch balk, decreasing to 14-inch and 12-inch. 
 
DRAINAGE AND PUMPING. 183 
 
 staples of iron. The several lengths of rod, generally 
 from 40 to 70 feet in length, are connected by the aid 
 of strapping plates of hammered iron from 9 to 12 feet 
 long, on opposite sides of the rod, bolted through it 
 with screw bolts. At moderate distances apart, stays 
 are placed across the shaft, which guide the motion of 
 the rod, and iron rollers are added where it deviates 
 from the perpendicular. At intervals, too, very strong 
 beams are fixed in the shaft as catches, to prevent the 
 fall of the rods downwards, as well as indoor catches, to 
 prevent damage to the engine in case of the rod break- 
 ing at a shallow point, and thus being suddenly relieved 
 of its great weight. In this manner the gigantic pumps 
 employed in some of the mines are worked with such 
 perfect ease and smoothness of action that you may 
 stand near them in the shaft and not be aware, except 
 by seeing 1 , that they are in motion. 
 
 I have thus dwelt especially on the Cornish methods, 
 because the necessity for economy and the competition 
 between the engineers in that district have brought 
 the pit-work to a higher degree of perfection than is to 
 be seen elsewhere. When tested by the work done for 
 a given sum of money, it contrasts remarkably with 
 the rattle and concussion, the heavy cross-heads, and 
 the greater complication of rods that are often notice- 
 able in other mining regions, even though the excellent 
 invention of the plunger may have been adopted. 
 
 We have now to examine into the mode of applying 
 the power which is to keep the pumps in action. I 
 niaj omit to describe the means of setting water power 
 to work pumps of the above description, for although 
 often employed with advantage for metalliferous mines, 
 it seldom comes into play in collieries. Both in the 
 
184 
 
 COAL ANJ) COAL-MINING. 
 
 commencement of operations at a difficult sinking, and 
 afterwards as a permanency at small or lightly -watered 
 pits, the double-acting rotary engine is commonly used. 
 If the water is to be drawn at times when coal is not 
 to be raised, the usual ropes or chains have attached to 
 them water-barrels, cowls, or ringes, which will carry 
 from 10 cwt. to a ton of water, and are emptied on 
 
 SCALE OF FEET. 
 
 Fig. 37. Engine and apparatus for winding and pumping, Cambois, Northumberland. 
 
 reaching the surface by means of a self-acting valve 
 placed in their bottom, or by being capsized by the 
 lander. When pumps are to be worked, it is usually by 
 sweep-rods passing from the crank on the main shaft 
 to quadrants or bell-cranks at the shaft mouth. En- 
 gines of this class, whether worked by high or low 
 pressure steam, are suitable enough for temporary or 
 auxiliary purposes, but must be superseded in deep or 
 
DRAINAGE AND PUMPING. 185 
 
 heavily watered mines by special pumping engines. 
 In some few instances the combination of drawing and 
 pumping may be seen on a large scale, as in Fig. 37, 
 representing an engine of 65-inch cylinder and 7- 
 feet stroke, Cambois, Northumberland, which, though 
 ultimately intended for drawing alone, is at present, 
 during the sinking of the shaft, working the pump rod 
 by the intervention of, first, a built wrought-iron beam, 
 and, secondly, a beam of cast metal. 
 
 The engines intended for serious pumping form a 
 subject of the highest importance in mining, and as the 
 value of the best kinds is still but imperfectly under- 
 stood, it is desirable to take an accurate view of the 
 results which have been obtained from them. 
 
 We have already, in Chap. I., followed the improve- 
 ments of the steam-engine with reference to the employ- 
 ment of coal as a motive power, and have seen that 
 Newcomen's atmospheric engine (of which a very few 
 specimens are still left) was succeeded, soon after 
 Watt's patent of 1769, for the separate condenser, by 
 various improved forms. The comparison between 
 different constructions -which then became needful, was 
 made by calculating the duty^ or number of pounds of 
 water raised one foot high by a bushel of coal. When 
 Smeaton commenced his modification of the atmospheric 
 engine, the average duty about Newcastle was 5,590,000 
 Ibs. ; in 1772 he erected one at Wheal Busy, which 
 attained 9,450,000. The same great engineer acknow- 
 l^dged that Watt's engines, which came out between 
 1776 and 1779, would perform double the duty of his 
 own, and some of them were tested to do nearly 
 19,000,000. The average, however, of Watt's engines 
 in Cornwall gave a duty of 17,000,000, and when 
 
186 COAL AMD COAL-MINING. 
 
 20,000,000 had been attained in the engine at Herland, 
 that shrewd philosopher pronounced the work perfect, 
 and stated that further improvement could not be 
 expected. Left, however, to themselves, by the expi- 
 ration of Watt's patents, and the withdrawal of his 
 agents from the county, the Cornishmen after a few 
 years organized, in 1811, a system of monthly reporting 
 the engines, with their conditions of work, and the duty 
 accomplished. Within a space of some twenty-five years 
 marvellous results were produced by the emulation thus 
 aroused among mine-captains in the arrangement of 
 their pit-work, and among engineers in the devising of 
 improvements in boiler and engines. 
 
 As some of the modifications to be specially cited 
 are, (1) Trevithick's tubular boiler for generating high 
 pressure steam, where the fire is applied at the large 
 end of the tube, and the heated air made to pass through 
 it, then beneath the boiler or outer tube, and afterwards 
 along its sides ; 2ndly, the expansion in the cylinder of 
 the high-pressure steam by closing the inlet valve at 
 , ird, ith, or even ith of the stroke, whereby from 41 
 to 60 per cent, of the fuel is saved; and 3rdly, the 
 addition of a steam jacket or outer case to the cylinder, 
 so protected by a brick wall, casing of sawdust, or other 
 clothing, that the internal space is occupied by steam of 
 a temperature but little below that in the cylinder. 
 
 From an average duty of 17,000,000 performed in 
 Watt's time, the Reports published by Lean show an 
 amount of 28,000,000 attained in 1823, and of no less 
 than 60,000,000 in 1843, whilst the best engine then 
 tested had actually given an average duty of above 
 96,000,000 ! The most remarkable case on record is that 
 of Austen's engine of 80 inches diameter, erected by 
 
DRAINAGE AND PUMPING. 187 
 
 Mr. William West, at Fowey Consols Mines, and which, 
 on being reported in 1834 to give a duty of nearly 
 98,000,000, was the occasion of a searching investigation 
 and of a practical experiment, conducted by other an- 
 gineers and mine agents, formed into a committee.* 
 The shaft was at that time 131 fathoms below the efflux 
 point of the water, the lifts of 15 inches diameter for 
 the three upper, and 10 J inches for the two lower ones ; 
 the length of stroke 9 feet 3 inches, the pressure at the 
 boiler 36^ to 45 Ibs. per square inch. The astonishing 
 result was, a declared duty for the twenty-four hours of 
 experiment, of 125,000,000 ! 
 
 On taking the average duty all through the year 
 at 91,672,210, we find that, as burnt in this way, 
 one ton of coal will do the work of five tons in Watt's 
 engines, and will raise for 100 fathoms in height as 
 much as 367,000 gallons, or 1,638 tons of water; 
 whence, taking coal in Cornwall at an average price of 
 15s. per ton, the fuel costs one farthing to raise 2 tons 
 of water 100 fathoms. The coal consumed for the long 
 single-tube boilers of the Cornish engine is Welsh, 
 shipped from Llanelly and Swansea, mostly small, and 
 weighing 94 Ibs. to the bushel. The combustion is very 
 slow, but so perfectly effected, that a few years ago 
 scarcely a puff of smoke was to be seen between one 
 end of the county and the other. Of late it is true that 
 a black pennant is occasionally visible, and the blame 
 is laid upon inferior coals. But, at the same time, it 
 is observable, that a very small number of the engines 
 
 * Similar experiments by a committee had shown, in December, 
 1827, that Woolf's engine, at the Consolidated Mines, gave 63,663,473 
 Ibs. duty, and Grose's engine, at Wheal Towan, St. Agnes, in 1828 
 8 7,209,662 Ibs. 
 
188 COAL 4ND COAL-M1N1TXG. 
 
 are reported, and the average duty has deteriorated ; 
 and thus, whilst the shareholders grudge the guinea 
 or two per month for engineer's or reporter's fee, they 
 pay heavily in increased coal-bills. 
 
 Among the most experienced of our mine-engineers 
 in Cornwall, may be mentioned Captain Grose, Messrs. 
 Harvey and Co., of Hayle, Messrs. Hocking and Loam, 
 and Mr. West, of St. Blazey. Engines on a similar 
 construction have been built elsewhere, at Messrs. Fair- 
 bairn's and many other works, both at home and abroad. 
 But there has been wanting a fair system of reporting 
 the results obtained ; and when we see the great strides 
 which accompanied the recording and publishing of the 
 details in our western counties, it appears most de- 
 sirable that such reports should become more general, 
 and should include coal districts, in which we too often 
 have to witness miserable exhibitions of neglect, extra- 
 vagant use of fuel, and great wear and tear of materials. 
 To compare a bad case with a good one, I have watched 
 a large pumping engine in the north, which raises water 
 frv)m 105 fathoms deep, in 12-inch lifts, at 7J strokes 
 per minute, with a consumption of 20 to 25 tons of 
 slack per day. A similar amount of work is done by 
 an average Cornish engine with from 2 to 2| tons. 
 The coal is, doubtless, in the former instance inferior, 
 but the result shows that there are engines in the 
 country consuming upwards of ten times the quantity 
 of coal that is needed for the work accomplished ! 
 
 At the beginning of the century, it was proposed by 
 Bull, to omit the heavy beam, or bob, which constitutes 
 a great part of the dead weight of the common pumping 
 engine, to place the cylinder over the shaft, and connect 
 the piston-rod, working through the bottom, directly 
 
DRAINAGE AND PUMPING. 189 
 
 with the main rod of the pumps. The Bull-engines 
 have been erected at many mines, but have failed to 
 compete with the others. Of late years, several have 
 been established at collieries in this country and abroad, 
 but their effective performance is doubtful. Another 
 modification is just now in fashion in the coal districts, 
 although condemned, after long experience, in Cornwall, 
 viz., that of inverting the cylinder and placing the 
 beam below it. But the piston-rod can hardly upon this 
 system be so well lubricated, nor the stuffing-box kept 
 in equally good condition, and the asserted saving in 
 the building of the engine-house seems at best to be a 
 very questionable piece of economy. 
 
 The fearful loss of life occasioned by the fracture of 
 the main beam at the Hartley Colliery, has been the 
 cause of further attention paid to that part of the engine; 
 and several methods of substituting wrought for cast 
 iron have been applied. At Clay Cross, the beam of 
 the new 84 -inch engine is formed of two slabs of rolled 
 iron 36 feet long, 7 feet deep in the centre, and 2 inches 
 thick, the two braced by strong cast-iron distance- 
 pieces bolted between them, the whole beam weighing 
 32 tons. At North Seaton and Cambois, near New- 
 castle, and at East Caradon, and other mines in the west, 
 beams have been variously built of boiler plate and 
 angle-iron ; but it yet remains to be seen, what mode 
 of construction will best ensure that rigidity which 
 cast iron, with all its faults, must be acknowledged in 
 a high degree to possess. 
 
190 COAL IND COAL-MINING 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 LIGHTING OF THE WORKINGS. 
 
 THE collier, in descending to his work, seldom needs to 
 carry a light through the shaft. A few seconds, when 
 the machinery is good, or minutes where it lacks power, 
 are sufficient to land him at the bottom, either in the 
 dense gloom of a pit eye, rendered barely visible by a 
 candle, or a safety-lamp, or, according to the circum- 
 stances of the colliery, in a busy scene of activity, well 
 lighted by oil lamps or even by gas. Here, or at some 
 station not far in-bye, he will light up, and, after a 
 little delay, in order to accustom the eye to the darkness, 
 proceed on his inward way. 
 
 The lamps of the well-known classical form, of which 
 the Romans have left us numerous examples in bronze 
 and terra cotta, survive in many of our modern under- 
 ground workings, but especially in the metal mines of 
 the Continent. In the collieries more generally their 
 form has been changed to one with a globular, cylin- 
 drical, or conical oil-holder, and with a much smaller 
 wick than would be used in the Roman lamp. The 
 Scotch and some of the Saxons employ a little metal 
 oil-lamp, with a hook on one side, by which it may be 
 attached to their cap when travelling in low places on 
 hands and feet, or when climbing ladders. In pits 
 about Mons, in Belgium, an oblate form is preferred, 
 resting upon a strong iron spike, by which it may be 
 fixed into wood, or into the coal itself, at the required 
 point of work. Lamps of this kind may be constructed 
 to give a very tolerable light with vegetable oils, at the 
 
LIGHTING OF THE WORKINGS. 191 
 
 cost of" from three farthings to one penny for eight 
 hours. Within the last two years, lamps for burning 
 petroleum and paraffine oil have been proposed, and a 
 splendid light has been obtained, but coupled, in the 
 examples which I have tested, with a disagreeable 
 odour very objectionable in narrow excavations. 
 
 Our English colliers (as also some of those in Saxony, 
 &c.) have more commonly been lighted at their work 
 by tallow candles, which, for ordinary work, are from 
 twenty to twenty-five to the pound, but for fiery col- 
 lieries, used to be so thin as to weigh thirty and even 
 forty to the pound. The candle is either fixed in a 
 holder, with a spike at the end, or is attached by soft 
 clay to the place whence it best throws a light on the 
 work ; if it be used in a draught of air, a shield of wood 
 is placed behind it to prevent its " swealing." Before 
 the successful introduction of the safety-lamp, it was 
 the regular practice to test the presence of fire-damp in 
 the working stalls and in the wastes by the appearances 
 of the flame of a candle ; and skilful, steady -handed 
 pitmen acquired such a readiness in thus trying the 
 gas, that they would sometimes almost play with it 
 when standing within a hair's-breadth of destruction. 
 The slim candle is for this purpose neatly trimmed, and 
 then held out, shaded by one hand, so that the top of 
 the flame can be more clearly watched. On being ad- 
 vanced gradually upward in a place where fire-damp is 
 lodged, the flame is seen to elongate, and to assume a 
 blue colour, more or less pure, according to the nature 
 of the gases present; sometimes, indeed, if the car- 
 buretted hydrogen be much mingled with carbonic 
 acid, nitrogen, &c., the " cap " of the flame will exhibit 
 u grey or brown tint ; and such variations will be fre- 
 
192 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 quent in the mingled impurities of the " return " air- 
 courses. As some varieties of fiery gas are " quick" 
 in comparison with others, it needs a cool head and 
 unswerving hand to lower the candle again with the 
 requisite stillness, when once it had shown too dan- 
 gerous a cap. It seldom happens that the candle is 
 now used for this purpose, unless to test the presence 
 of the enemy in places canable of storing only a small 
 quantity. 
 
 Towards the end of the last century, when it was 
 attempted more and more to work in places infested 
 with fire-damp, various substitutes for the old method 
 of lighting were tried. The reflection of the sun's rays 
 from a mirror was capable of throwing a sufficient light 
 forward for some little distance from the shaft for the 
 accomplishment of certain work about the pit-eye, but 
 was inadequate to penetrate far into the workings. A 
 premium attached to those men who could work best 
 in the dark, for driving some dangerous place into 
 which no candle could be taken. The steel-mill was 
 then invented by Spedding, of Whitehaven, and ac- 
 quired a considerable popularity. In this instrument a 
 disc, with periphery of steel, is made to rotate rapidly 
 by means of cog-wheels and a handle, whilst a sharp 
 flint is held against the steel edge, and a succession of 
 sparks is given off, which }ield a feeble irregular radi- 
 ance. One person had to turn the mill, whilst another 
 plied the pick ; and yet, in spite of its costliness, its 
 miserable glimmer of a light, and its having distinctly 
 caused several explosions, no other means of illumina- 
 tion could be employed ; and it made so many friends, 
 that even in 1822 it is described by a pitman as " an 
 excellent instrument to travel dead waste with, because, 
 
LIGHTING OF THE WORKINGS. 193 
 
 when in the hands of a judge, it discovers, by its various 
 shades of light, where gas is, and where it is not." * 
 
 The occurrence of very serious explosions in the 
 county of Durham in the year 1812, led to the establish- 
 ment of a Society for the Prevention of Accidents in 
 Coal Mines, at whose meetings in Sunderland, in 1813, 
 Dr. Clanny, of Newcastle, exhibited his first lamp, in- 
 tended to give light in an explosive atmosphere, and of 
 which a description was published in the Philosophical 
 Transactions. In October and November, 1815, his 
 lamp was tried in a fiery pit, whilst that of Sir 
 Humphrey Davy is stated to have been first tested in 
 practice only on the 1st January, 1816. But although 
 thus early in the field, Dr. Clanny afterwards judiciously 
 modified his lamp by applying to a part of it the 
 invention of Davy. 
 
 This great philosopher first visited some of the col- 
 lieries in 1815, and, after an elaborate series of investi- 
 gations, during that year and 1816, perfected the lamp 
 which was to be so great a boon to the mining com- 
 munity. It would be out of place here to refer at length 
 to the successive steps of the inquiry which established 
 the fact, that flame cannot be passed, except under 
 pressure, through a wire gauze containing six, seven, 
 or eight hundred holes to the square inch, and that 
 hence the explosive mixture might ignite inside a gauze 
 cylinder without communicating the flame to the gas 
 outside it. The standard which was fixed on the safe 
 limit was a gauze with 28 iron wires to the linear inch, 
 or 784 apertures to the square inch. A lamp of 1| inches 
 to If inches diameter was at once found to be safe in 
 the most inflammable air of the pits, so long as atten- 
 
 * " The Pitman's Infallible Guide." Newcastle : 1822. 
 
 
194 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 tion was paid to the caution which he inculcated, that 
 it must not be exposed to a rapid current, or allowed 
 to become red-hot from the combustion of the gas 
 within it. Mr. Buddie showed that it thus became 
 unsafe if exposed to a current of more than 3 or 4 feet 
 per second, and Dr. Pereira proved that flame could be 
 passed through the gauze, if the lamp were subjected 
 to a sudden jerk. It is hence manifest, that, as stated 
 by Davy himself, this is an instrument of perfect se- 
 curity only in careful hands, and that it should be 
 guarded by a shield when exposed to a rapid current of 
 explosive air. 
 
 In the long series of years that have elapsed since 
 the first safety lamps were sent down to the northern 
 coalfields, a very small number of accidents has been 
 traced to the lamp itself, and many of the alleged cases 
 are doubtful. Its thorough efficacy has been daily 
 tested, not only where it is employed for inspecting the 
 working-places the first thing in the morning, or for 
 travelling-places of known risk, but in many instances 
 for the working of a large portion of, or even the entire 
 area of a pit. And, indeed, it is like an effect of magic 
 to pass, with the safety-lamp in hand, into a fiery stall 
 or along the edge of a goaf, and to walk unscathed in 
 the midst of an explosive compound, whose deadly 
 power would dash you to pieces if there were but a wire 
 awry in the gauze. Abundance of warning is given by 
 it ; and as the quantity of gas increases, the flame, at 
 first elongated by a blue cap, flashes into an explosion 
 within the lamp, more or less fierce according to the 
 mixed nature of the air. When the carburetted hy- 
 drogen is mixed with common air in the ratios of from 
 1 to 4 parts, to 1 to 12 parts, it is highly explosive; 
 
LIGHTING OF THE WORKINGS. 195 
 
 whilst below and above that proportion it burns quietly. 
 But if the fire-damp burn in it until the gauze becomes 
 red-hot, it is time to withdraw the lamp steadily from 
 the place, or to extinguish it either by dipping it gently 
 into water, or by drawing down the wick with the 
 trimming wire. 
 
 The chief objection to the Davy lamp consists in its 
 small amount of light, which leads the colliers, who are 
 paid by the quantity of coal which they cut, to substi- 
 tute, when they imagine they are safe, the open light 
 of a candle, or of the lamp, with the gauze removed. 
 So many serious accidents have arisen from this cause, 
 that a vast number of modifications of the original 
 lamp have been brought forward, some for the purpose 
 of obtaining a fuller light, others with the object of so 
 locking the gauze to the lamp, that the colliers shall 
 be unable to take them asunder, or shall only do so 
 with the certainty of putting out their light, or of being 
 detected. 
 
 It would occupy too much space to describe the 
 various contrivances which have been proposed for these 
 purposes, but it is essential to notice a few of the safety- 
 lamps which have come into extensive use. 
 
 1. The ordinary Davy-lamp, as most commonly em- 
 ployed in this country, A, Fig 38. The cylinder of iron 
 wire gauze is fixed to a brass ring, which screws on to 
 the oil-vessel. Its upper portion is double, in order to 
 guard against the effect of the heated gases passing off 
 from the combustion. It is guarded externally by three 
 strong wires, or rods, attached at the top to a metal 
 roof, above which the loop is placed for carrying or 
 suspending the lamp. A thin wire, for trimming the 
 wick, passes up through a close-fitting tube from the 
 
196 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 bottom of the oil- vessel. It is commonly locked by a 
 bolt, turned by a simple key, till its head is sunk even 
 with, or below, the surface of the metal where it is 
 inserted. A part of the circumference is sometimes 
 protected by a curved shade of tin or horn, made to 
 slide upon the protecting bars. The usual cost is 6s. d. 
 to 7s. 6<, and the weight about 1 Ib. 6 ozs. 
 
 2. Clanny's lamp. The lower part of the gauze is 
 replaced by a cylinder of thick glass, well protected by 
 vertical bars. The feed air has to enter the lamp 
 through the gauze above the glass ; hence, what with 
 the imperfect combustion, and the thickness of the 
 glass, the light given off is not much greater than that 
 of the common Davy, whilst the weight is double ; and 
 the risk alleged to attend the use of the glass, has 
 added to the objections made to its common employment. 
 
 3. Lamp by Dubrulle, of Lille. This is a Davy, pro- 
 vided with a locking-bolt, so connected with an arm 
 which lays hold of the wick, that if the oil-vessel be 
 unscrewed from the gauze cylinder, the effect is to draw 
 down the wick and extinguish the light. This and 
 other analogous contrivances would be efficacious if the 
 men could be prevented from taking with them lucifer 
 matches ; but as long as it is in their power to strike a 
 light at will, the only real detection which has been 
 applied seems to be a Belgian method of locking with 
 a pin of lead, which, when put in its place by the lamp 
 trimmer, has a device punched upon it. The lamp 
 cannot then be opened without breaking the pin. 
 
 4. Stephenson's lamp, B, Fig. 38. The " Geordie," as 
 it is called after its inventor, George Stephenson the en- 
 gineer, is made of rather larger diameter than the Davy, 
 but has the additional safeguard of a glass cylinder, 
 
LIGHTING OF THE WORKINGS. 
 
 197 
 
 surmounted by a cap of perforated copper within the 
 wire gauze. The feed air enters by a series of small 
 orifices below the cylinders ; and, in order that the 
 light may burn well, it is important to hold the lamp, 
 or suspend it, when at work, in a perpendicular position, 
 
 Fig. 38. Safety lamps. Scale, one-third true size. 
 
 A, Davy's, in elevation. B, Stephenson's, in section. C, Mueseler's. 
 
 In the sections the dotted lines are wire-gauze, the parts shaded with oblique lines are 
 glass, the strong black lines sheet metal. The arrows represent the direct 
 the air-currents. 
 
 and to guard against these small feed-holes being 
 clogged with oil and coal-dust. The glass is a preserva- 
 tive to the wire-gauze, and even should it be broken, 
 leaves the lamp still safe. It is moreover free from the 
 risk of overheating, since, when the air becomes highly 
 
198 
 
 COAL AICD COAL-MINING. 
 
 explosive, the light goes out. A good many of these 
 lamps are employed in certain British collieries, and 
 when carefully treated and watched, give good results, 
 
 Fig. 39. Safety lamps. Scale, one-third true size. 
 D, Boty's. E, Eloin's. F, Eloin's Mueseler. 
 
 The dotted lines are wire-gauze, the parts shaded with oblique lines are glass, the 
 strong black lines sheet metal. 
 
 which compensate for the extra weight and cost as 
 compared with the Davy. 
 
 5. Boty's lamp, D, Fig. 39. A royal commission, ap- 
 pointed in Belgium to take into consideration the means 
 of lighting fiery collieries, recommended, in addition to 
 the simple Davy, this and the three following. In Boty's 
 a good light is given through a short glass cylinder, 
 
LIGHTING OF THE WORKINGS. 199 
 
 surmounted by a wire-gauze chimney, the feed air being 
 admitted through a series of minute perforations a little 
 below the level of the flame. The same precautions 
 must be taken with regard to these minute orifices, as 
 in the Stephenson. I have seen these lamps in use 
 near Charleroi, where the agents expressed themselves 
 well satisfied of their security, if the cylinder be made 
 of properly annealed glass. 
 
 6. Mueseler's lamp, c, Fig. 38. This consists also of a 
 glass cylinder below, and wire-gauze above ; but, by the 
 insertion of a central metal chimney opening a short 
 distance above the flame, so strong an upward draught 
 is produced by the heated gases, that the feed air is 
 drawn briskly down from the wire gauze, and passes by 
 the inside of the glass to the wick, thus keeping the 
 glass cool, arid insuring a superior combustion. Up- 
 wards of 20,000 of these lamps are said to be in daily 
 use in Belgium, and I am assured by M. De Vaux, en- 
 gineer-in-chief, that no accident has been traceable to 
 their failure, although they have now been introduced 
 for many years. The glass is of course subject to frac- 
 ture, and its average life is eighteen months. The full 
 light which they give, removing, as it does, the temp- 
 tation of opening the safety lamps, is a strong point in 
 their favour ; and they have been employed with success 
 by Mr. Lancaster, at collieries in Lancashire, and by 
 Mr. Tylden Wright, at Shireoaks in Nottinghamshire. 
 At the latter colliery, where they have been introduced 
 for nearly five years, and are charged 5s. 3d. each, I 
 learn that for six months 383 Mueselers had been in 
 daily use, and consumed 1 gallon of refined rape each. 
 In that period 69 glasses had been broken. A great 
 convenience is, their not being affected by an amount 
 
200 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 of draught sufficiently strong to blow out the common 
 Davy ; and some viewers hold it to be an advantage, 
 whilst others object, that it goes out when the air be- 
 comes highly explosive. 
 
 7. Eloin's lamp, E, Fig. 39. This arrangement, pro- 
 posed by M. Eloin, of Narnur, about 1850, admits the air 
 through a ring of wire gauze under an argand cap, 
 surrounding the wick. Above this, the light is given off 
 through a glass cylinder, formed in such a curve exter- 
 nally as to diffuse the rays. The upper part of the lamp 
 surmounting the glass is a brass tube, covered at the top 
 with wire gauze. A brass reflector slides up and down 
 the protector bars, serving both to throw the light 
 downward when needed, and to guard the glass against 
 dropping water. An admirable light is given by the 
 Eloin, but it requires to be carried in careful hands, 
 since it is very apt, in rapid movement, to be suddenly 
 extinguished. 
 
 8. Mueseler's lamp, modified by Eloin, r, Fig. 39. 
 The combination of the principles of the two above 
 lamps is clearly seen in the section. 
 
 With regard to the employment of safety lamps, 
 there can be but one opinion of their value in testing 
 the condition of the working-places before the men are 
 admitted to them of a morning, and in the examination 
 of those parts of a colliery not visited by the ordinary 
 collier, where fire-damp may be expected to be present.* 
 
 * Although it is not as yet used in practice, I would draw attention 
 to the ingenious "fire-damp indicator" of Mr. Ansell, of the Eoyal 
 Mint, in which the diffusion of gases is made to point out hy an index 
 hand on a dial the proportion of fire-damp in the air. One form of 
 instrument is contrived to release a detent and ricg a hell ; another 
 intended, like an aneroid, for the pocket, is capahle of detecting I'd 
 per cent, of gas. The Davy lamp detects the presence of about 3 per 
 coat. 
 
SAFETY LAMPS. 201 
 
 But, as respects their introduction throughout the 
 workings of a pit, the question is somewhat complex. 
 It is apt to be the case, that if one precautionary 
 measure be fully installed, another is neglected, that 
 when safety lamps are adopted for the entire operations 
 of a mine, the ventilation is no longer a subject of the 
 same attention ; and unless there exist good local reason 
 for it, it is obvious that the protection by wire gauze 
 against present fire-damp is a less desirable kind of 
 security than that of drowning the enemy in a full ven- 
 tilating current, and sweeping him bodily away. Where 
 the gas, however, is not merely given off continuously 
 from the surfaces of freshly-cut coal, but bursts out 
 from time to time in sudden blowers, the general use 
 of safety lamps is imperative; and on such occasions, 
 when for a short time the best ventilated workings may 
 be " fouled,*' or rendered explosive, the lives of all in 
 the pit will depend on the proper condition of the 
 lamps, and on the obedience to discipline of those men 
 who are interposed between the point of outburst and 
 the exit to the surface. Similarly, in the working of 
 pillars, where, with the movement of the ground, fire- 
 damp may exude either from the roof or floor, or may 
 be forced by a fall from the magazine in which it has 
 been collecting, safety lamps are indispensable. It 
 commonly occurs, that although such may be the case 
 in portions of a colliery, other parts, and especially the 
 ordinary narrow work in whole coal, may be safely con- 
 ducted with open lights. Here it will be necessary to 
 fix on certain limits within which safety lamps alone 
 are to be employed, and to make it a stringent rule 
 that no naked light be allowed to pass beyond a definite 
 point in the roads. In Fig. 19, the bords, on the north, 
 
202 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 are worked with candles, the pillars, adjoining the goaf, 
 with safety lamps ; a special door is fixed upon as the 
 place, beyond which no open light is allowed to be car- 
 ried; and the course of the ventilating current, led 
 backward and forward three times, as seen by the 
 arrows in the figure, is so contrived as to guard against 
 any communication of gas from the dangerous por- 
 tions to the bords. 
 
 In no department of mining is a strict discipline and 
 attention to orders so momentous as in this, the ques- 
 tion of lighting. The misplaced confidence, which is 
 the result either of ignorance, of hardihood, or of long 
 impunity, has led to the sacrifice of thousands of colliers, 
 the innocent often suffering with the guilty ; and among 
 the most useful of the innovations of the governmental 
 inspection is, that of giving authority to the code of 
 rules to be established for every pit, and thus of pro- 
 tecting the majority of the men, the steadier workers, 
 against the few reckless ones, who, choosing to act 
 for themselves, steal in secret the luxury of their pipe, 
 or some extra light, at the risk of their own and their 
 comrades' lives. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 VENTILATION. 
 
 IT needs no argument to impress on those who know 
 the necessity of ventilating our public and private 
 rooms, that it is in a high degree essential to take 
 thought for the replacement of vitiated by fresh air in 
 the low and often-complicated chambers of coal mines, 
 
VENTILATION. 203 
 
 where many men and horses are engaged in hard work, 
 and where numerous lights, with gunpowder smoke 
 and dust, aid in contaminating the atmosphere. But, 
 in the workings of a colliery, additional causes come 
 into play ; a slow, yet constant change takes place in 
 the surface of the substances exposed to the air, and 
 the general result is, the absorption of oxygen ; a large 
 amount of watery vapour requires removal ; the poison- 
 ous gas, carbonic acid, is frequently given off; and, 
 more commonly, the insidious fire-damp, or carburetted 
 hydrogen, exudes from the surfaces of the bared coal, 
 or sometimes bursts from it in violent jets. The amount 
 of air required for the health and safety of the men 
 will therefore vary much in different localities, according 
 to these unequal conditions ; and whilst, in some cases, 
 the slightest movement of air may suffice to keep a 
 small colliery salubrious, in fiery coals worked over a 
 large area an actual whirlwind must be forced through 
 the principal passages in order to sweep away the 
 noxious exhalations. 
 
 Notwithstanding the undoubted phenomena of the 
 diffusion of gases, their intermingling in the chambers 
 and drifts of mines is only partial, and the specific 
 gravity of the gaseous bodies is practically a very im- 
 portant guide in testing their presence, and enabling 
 them to be dealt with. Thus, carbonic acid (C0 2 ), 
 with a specific gravity, as compared with air of 1*524, 
 tends to occupy the deeper parts of excavations, and 
 renders it unsafe, when they have been disused, to 
 enter them without precaution. Sulphuretted hydro- 
 gen (HS) here and there evolved continuously, very 
 poisonous, but readily detected by its offensive smell, 
 is also slightly heavier than air ; carbonic oxide (CO), 
 
204 JOAL M.ND COAL-MINING. 
 
 most deadly, but occurring rarely from natural causes, 
 is 0*970. Fire-damp, or light carburetted hydrogen 
 (CH 4 ), the grisou of the French miners, has a specific 
 gravity of 0'555, and is therefore commonly found to 
 float along the upper portion of levels, to escape of 
 itself from workings carried downhill, and to lodge in 
 hollows or the higher parts of excavations. If mingled 
 with air in the proportion of -g^-th to -A-th, it may be 
 detected by the " cap " on the flame of a candle or 
 lamp. If in larger proportions, it becomes explosive, 
 and is most violent when it forms ith or -Jth of the 
 mixture. The presence of carbonic acid greatly re- 
 duces the explosive property. When there is as much 
 as th of the gas, it burns without explosion, and a still 
 larger proportion causes suffocation. In fiery seams it 
 may be observed exuding from the freshly-broken sur- 
 faces with a hissing sound ; and if in large quantity, 
 as with " blowers," or sometimes near faults, with a 
 rushing noise, like the steam from a high-pressure 
 boiler. Under these last circumstances it will rise 
 tnrough a column many yards high of water, and 
 numerous accidents have occurred through a forgetful- 
 ness of this property. Some of these blowers will be 
 exhausted in a few minutes, others will last for years, 
 like that at Wallsend, which gave off 120 feet of gas 
 per minute and may be then piped off and burned at 
 the pit bottom. The evolution of the gases from the 
 coal is greatly affected by the pressure of the atmo- 
 sphere, a notably larger amount being emitted when 
 the barometer is low; and hence that instrument 
 becomes a useful adjunct in judging of the amount of 
 ventilation needed at different times. 
 
 For the due ventilation of a colliery, it is therefore 
 
VENTILATION. 205 
 
 not sufficient to supply air enough for the breathing 
 of men and horses and the burning of lights ; but we 
 must provide for the sweeping away of the products of 
 breathing and combustion, for the removal of the 
 gaseous results of blasting and of the decomposition 
 of vegetable and animal matter; for the cooling of the 
 excavations where the temperature is high partly from 
 depth and partly from chemical change ; and, lastly, 
 for the dilution of the gases exuding from the coaJ. 
 
 In round numbers, 100 cubic feet of air per minute 
 may be required for the health and comfort of each 
 person underground, or for 100 men 10,000 cubic feet; 
 but if fire-damp be given off say at the rate of 200 
 cubic feet per minute we should need at the very 
 least thirty times that amount of fresh air to dilute it, 
 or 6,000 cubic feet in addition. Increase the number 
 of men and liability to gas, and 40,000 or 60,000 cubic 
 feet of air may be indispensable for safety. Hence, we 
 may point out once for all that no system of pipes- can 
 ventilate a mine, and that the large volumes of air re- 
 quired must be introduced through the drifts or work- 
 ings themselves. 
 
 The subject now divides itself into two parts first, 
 the production of a current or " draught ; " secondly, 
 the distribution through the workings of the current so 
 produced. 
 
 A spontaneous ventilation is produced by natural 
 causes, which may always greatly assist, and, in some 
 cases, may be sufficient for all purposes. To account 
 for this on the simplest principles, let us observe what 
 happens in summer and in winter with a diagrammatic 
 working connecting two shafts of different depths. 
 
 The temperature of the rock is found, as we descend, 
 
206 
 
 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 to increase 1 Fahr. for about 60 feet of depth. Hence 
 the air in workings of moderate depth will be in sum- 
 mer cooler, and in winter warmer, than the air at the 
 surface. And as air expands in warming and we 
 know by Marietta's law that the pressures of the gases 
 are in an inverse ratio to their volumes the colder 
 
 column will press upon 
 and displace the warmer. 
 If, then, we compare the 
 two cases, we shall find 
 that in summer (Fig. 40) 
 the deep shaft A c com- 
 pared with a column, B E, 
 of equal height in and 
 above the shallower shaft 
 will be the cooler and 
 heavier of the two, and 
 will establish a current 
 in the direction of the 
 arrows. In winter the 
 effect will be reversed, 
 and the warmer air will 
 be expelled from the top 
 of the deeper shaft. 
 
 But at certain seasons 
 and especially if the 
 shafts are not very dif- 
 ferent in depth there will be equilibrium between the 
 two, or, in other words, the ventilation will be checked 
 or cease. 
 
 Under these circumstances we may artificially in- 
 crease the difference of temperature which is in fact 
 the measure of the ventilating power either by build- 
 
 rig. 40. 
 
VENTILATION. 207 
 
 ing a tower to lengthen the column of one of the shafts, 
 or by lighting a fire in it for the purpose of expanding 
 and lightening the air. 
 
 In early days it was usual to build a stack over the 
 pit, and to attach to it a furnace accessible at the sur- 
 face through doors ; and in small pits, either this mode, 
 or that of suspending a fire-lamp in the shaft, may 
 perform useful service ; but if a really large volume of 
 air be required, we must heat the full height of the 
 column in the upcast shaft, and by good brick lining, 
 and prevention of the dropping of water, obtain a 
 maximum effect in the greatest possible difference of 
 temperature between the upcast and downcast shafts. 
 Under favourable circumstances, spontaneous ventila- 
 tion may be made to pass many thousands of cubic feet 
 of air per minute through a colliery; but where the 
 pits are deep and in good order, the quantity may be 
 enormously increased by the application of a furnace at 
 the bottom, or, if it be needed, by two, or even three, 
 ventilating fires playing into the same shaft. For this 
 purpose a furnace is usually placed in the plane of the 
 seam, from 5 to 10 feet in width, and with fire-bars 
 about 6 feet in length ; the arch is built in fire-brick, 
 and well isolated from the coal, the height above the 
 bars being 3 to 5 feet, and below them 3 to 4 feet. 
 
 From the furnace to the shaft a gently-inclined 
 passage the furnace drift leads the flame and heated 
 air upwards ; whilst if the return air be apt to befoul, 
 it may be led through a higher passage the dumb 
 drifl into the shaft at such a height above the mouth 
 of the furnace drift as to secure the gas from firing, 
 and the furnace will then be fed either with a safe 
 portion of the returns, or with a " scale " (a small 
 
208 
 
 COAL 4FD COAL-MINING. 
 
 current) of fresh air from the downcast shaft. For 
 perfect combustion, the coal should be thrown on fre- 
 quently, and should form a thin fire; and thus an 
 average temperature of 140 to 160 Fahr. maybe ob- 
 
 Fig. 41. Ventilating furnace, in longitudinal and cross section. Scale, f-inch to 1 foot. 
 
 tained in the upcast shaft, which, if we take an average 
 of 60 in the downcast, will give a difference of 60 or 
 80 Fahr., on which the ventilating power may be 
 calculated. 
 
 The quantity of small coal consumed in such furnaces 
 var.es from 2 to 5 tons per twenty-four hours ; and 
 the volume of air passed which may be from 15,000 
 to 150,000 cubic feet per minute depends in a great 
 measure on the diminution of the resistance offered by 
 friction in the workings. 
 
 In order to obviate some of the short-comings of the 
 common furnace, such as the difficulty of increasing its 
 power when circumstances demand it, and the inter- 
 ruption of its work caused by cleaning, new furnaces 
 have been erected at Hetton, at the suggestion of the 
 late Mr. Wales, which are 26 feet in length, so as to 
 allow either the shifting of the place of the fire, or its 
 increase ; whilst by a series of doors, the admission of 
 
VENTILATION. 209 
 
 Hie air may be regulated according to conditions, either 
 above or below the fire-bars. The enormous volumes of 
 air actually circulated by these means, and the facility 
 and certainty of its action, have obtained for the 
 furnace a decided preference in all our deep British pits. 
 
 A vast number of mechanical contrivances have been 
 employed in mines sometimes for forcing in air, but 
 more commonly for drawing it out from the workings, 
 and thus establishing a constant current. It would 
 need a volume fairly to describe them, and we can here 
 only glance at a few of those which have been most 
 largely applied in practice. 
 
 The WATERFALL, formed by turning a special stream 
 into the downcast shaft, or by allowing the pump- 
 cisterns to run over, is a useful auxiliary, especially 
 for driving in air after an accident. 
 
 The AIR-PUMP employed at a very early period in 
 the mines of the Hartz has been, on a magnified 
 scale, adopted at many collieries, especially in Bel- 
 gium. It has generally had pistons working in cylin- 
 ders of from 6 to 10 feet in diameter, placed some- 
 times vertically, sometimes horizontally. The valves 
 have had to be complicated from being very nume- 
 rous, and from being fitted with counterbalances, 
 attached by light levers, in order to diminish the 
 resistance. A great diminution in friction has been 
 obtained by making the piston in the form of a 
 gasometer, plunging with its sides in a ring of water. 
 This latter plan has been carried out on the largest 
 scale in Mr. Struve's ventilator, now working at many 
 collieries in South Wales. His piston is a close-topped 
 wrought-iron bell, of 12 to 22 feet in diameter, work- 
 ing up and down in water ; and by means of ranges of 
 
 p 
 
210 
 
 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 valves above it and below, placed in the walls of the 
 piston-chamber drawing in, and forcing out, air at 
 each up and each down stroke. The action will readily 
 be seen from the adjoining figure, in which the piston 
 is making its down stroke. These machines are usually 
 composed of two such pumps, worked by a steam- 
 engine, and are capable of giving a theoretical amount 
 
 
 ~ 
 
 Tig. 42. Struve's vcntUator. Scale, 1-inch to 10 feet. 
 
 of 20,000 to 100,000 cubic feet of air per minute. Their 
 cost is about 200 per calculated 10,000 cubic feet. 
 Horizontally-working pistons in prismatic chambers 
 were erected in 1828 by M. Brisco, near Charleroi, and 
 on a larger scale by M. Mahaux in 1861. One applied 
 to the colliery of Monceau Fontaine, by Scohy, in 1861, 
 was capable of extracting 45,000 cubic feet per minute. 
 These are all greatly exceeded by Nixon's ventilator. 
 
VENTILATION. 
 
 211 
 
 now working at the Navigation Pit, near Aberdare. 
 Its sheet-iron pistons 30 feet by 22 feet, or no less 
 than 660 feet area each are supported on wheels 
 traversing on rails a stroke of ? feet. The chambers 
 are fitted, as in Struve's machine, with flap valves 
 16 inches by 24 inches, and 672 in number. At nine 
 
 Fig. 43. Nixon's ventilator, Aberdare. Scale, f-inch to 10 feet. 
 
 strokes per minute, the theoretical quantity of air ex- 
 pelled would be 166,000 cubic feet per minute ; but a 
 large reduction has to be allowed for leakage. 
 
 FANS. These instruments, with straight radial vanes, 
 were abundantly used in the German mines in Agri- 
 cola's time, about 1550. Similar machines on a larger 
 scale, 8 to 22 feet in diameter, vertical or horizontal, 
 have been applied at several collieries ; but from their 
 leakage, and the considerable velocity needed, have not 
 given very good results. 
 
 M. G-uibal, of Belgium, has, within the last five 
 years, devised and erected several examples of an im- 
 
212 
 
 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 proved fan of from 20 to 28 feet in diameter, and 6 to 
 10 feet wide. The figure shows its form and the great 
 improvement of casing it in, and providing a slide 
 valve to a part of the casing to meet the varying con- 
 
 Fig. 44. Guibal's fan. Scale, 1 inch to 20 feet. 
 
 ditions of a mine. The stack, expanding outwards, is 
 stated to counteract to a great extent the loss due to 
 the high velocity given to the air by the vanes ; and 
 experiments made on the machines erected at Bully- 
 G-renay, near Bethune, and Montceau-Fontaine, near 
 Charleroi, have shown a useful effect of 30 to 50 per 
 cent, from the steam in the cylinder, and 60 to 70 per 
 cent, of the force transmitted to the axle.* 
 
 * Several Guibal fans are now at work near Newcastle (1866). 
 
VENTILATION. 
 
 213 
 
 M. Lemielle has devised a very ingenious ventilator, 
 now at work in many Belgian and French pits, and at 
 Ashton Yale, near Bristol, where it has acted satis- 
 factorily for above ten years with very little necessity 
 for repairs. Within a large cylinder of brick, wood, or 
 sheet-iron, a smaller drum is placed excentrically, and 
 
 'Jig. 45. Lemielle's ventilator. 
 
 made to revolve. On the surface of this drum are two 
 or more valves or shutters, which, by means of iron 
 rods moving freely round an elbowed axis in the centre 
 of the large cylinder, lie close to the drum in one part 
 of the revolution, and open out in another. The section 
 shows by the arrows how the air will thus be expelled 
 by the shutters as they approach the point of outlet. 
 
 Fabry's machine is another on the fan principle 
 much approved on the Continent. Two axes, each 
 fitted with three very broad blades (6 to 10 feet), 
 revolve in opposite directions, and each blade is formed 
 with a cross arm, so curved as to give close contact 
 during revolution, and thus prevent communication 
 
214 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 from within to the external air. Above half of the 
 circumference of these fans fits closely within a casing 
 of brick or wood, and the foul air, when the machine is 
 employed for exhaustion, is taken by the blades on 
 approaching the lower part of their circle of revolution, 
 is carried on each side outward, and ejected on passing 
 the upper limit of the curved casing. The moderate 
 velocity at which it may be driven, and its durability, 
 have obtained this machine a good name. 
 
 Little more than a dozen years have elapsed since a 
 vigorous attempt was made, under the impulse of a 
 most injudicious parliamentary committee, to substitute 
 for the furnace the mechanical action of steam jets. 
 The subject was elaborately tested in practice by Messrs. 
 T. E. Forster, Nicholas Wood, and others, and it was 
 clearly shown that high-pressure steam, generated 
 either at surface or underground, and allowed to escape 
 from a series of small jets say thirty to forty in num- 
 ber, and from T \th to -|th of an inch in diameter was 
 capable of doing good service, especially as an auxiliary 
 at times of accident ; but was utterly unable to compete 
 in economy with the furnace. 
 
 In selecting our ventilating power, it must be remem- 
 bered that the great object is to obtain a large volume 
 of air at moderate velocity, and that on this account 
 most of the simple fans, and certain other classes of 
 machine which have to force the air through insufficient 
 valve room, give it an unnecessary velocity, which, in 
 other words, means increased resistance, or diminished 
 ventilation. 
 
 Furthermore, that whilst the furnace exerts its fullest 
 advantages in deep and dry upcasts, to which the air 
 travels through roomy windways, the mechanical ven- 
 
VENTILATION. 
 
 215 
 
 tilators may be most properly applied at pits where 
 these conditions are reversed. 
 
 Let us now consider the distribution of the air 
 through the workings, remembering that without due 
 attention to its details we may have a storm of ven- 
 tilating wind in the shafts, and yet a deadly stagnation 
 in the interior; or one portion of the pit safe and whole- 
 some, another foul, and verging on explosion. 
 
 First of all, the means of carrying the air current up 
 to or near the place where the men are employed, con- 
 sists in cutting a drift or windway across from one 
 working spot to another, and as w6 
 advance, closing the old openings 
 by doors, or stoppings, so as to force 
 the air through the required pas- 
 sage only. To take a simple case : 
 Fig. 46 represents a pair of levels 
 driven a short way out from a shaft 
 divided by brattice into D and u, 
 the downcast and upcast portions. 
 The pillar between the levels is 
 holed through by a " thirl" at A, 
 when the drift- ends are advanced 
 but little beyond that point. Sub- 
 sequently, when B has been thirled, 
 a stopping is put into A either by 
 brick and mortar, or stowed rub- 
 bish, or both ; and similarly when 
 c has been opened, B will be closed. ^ ^ 
 
 If, however, a thoroughfare for the scale i inch to so feet 
 men be required, so that a stopping is inadmissible, a 
 door, or where the ventilation is important two 
 doors, or even three, are put up, so far apart that a 
 
216 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 horse and trams can pass the one and have it closed 
 after them before the second is opened. Thus, loss 
 of air is avoided, and the tendency of the current to 
 take the shortest way tc the upcast is checked. In- 
 deed, a watchful eye must always be kept on the in- 
 take current D o, which constantly presses upon the 
 barriers which divide it from the return E u, and leaks 
 through- all available openings, to the diminution of 
 the ventilation in the inner workings. Doors and 
 stoppages, therefore, require constant attention, or by 
 a trifling leakage at each of them, a ventilating current 
 powerful enough at the beginning of its run, may lose 
 all its force ere it reaches at half a mile or a mile or two 
 distance, the locality where it is really needed. If, 
 meanwhile, the coal should be so fiery as to render it 
 dangerous to proceed above four or five yards without 
 extra precaution, bratticing is employed as a temporary 
 measure until the next thirl is holed. Thus, supposing 
 in the Fig. 46 the end E alone is dangerous, a range of 
 upright posts is erected between roof and floor, from 
 the side of the pillar B c to within a short distance of 
 the face at E, and brattice boards are nailed to them, 
 dividing the level into two parts, and making the 
 current travel as represented by the arrows.* A light 
 door is generally added for the passage of the men or 
 horses and trams. These features are shown in the 
 section of the working of a 7-foot seam, Fig. 47, where 
 the air passes up close to the man on the left, and then 
 turns behind the brattice. 
 
 A single current may thus be carried to the various 
 working places, and brought back to the same or to 
 
 * For temporary purposes a useful brattice-c&rt/i is largely manu- 
 factured by Mr. Darcy Lever, of Bolton. 
 
VENTILATION. 
 
 217 
 
 another shaft ; whilst if the power be great, the air- 
 ways roomy, and the doors and stoppings in good order, 
 it will be maintained for a length of several miles 
 without serious loss. If the form of the works be such 
 as that shown in Fig. 21, as a variety ol " long- wall," 
 a stream of air starting each way from the downcast 
 
 Fig. 47. 
 
 shaft will simply and effectually ventilate the mine. 
 But the same method, generally applied as it used to 
 be, years ago, to more complicated workings, is highly 
 objectionable : it would leave the mass of the openings 
 inside of the working "bords" dead or stagnant; it 
 would needlessly carry fire-damp from dangerous to 
 otherwise safe places, and the body of air which in 
 the morning went down into the pit fresh and pure 
 would take till night to drag itself along some twenty 
 or thirty miles of drifc, and would visit all its later 
 scenes of work overheated, clogged with dust and 
 smoke, and laden with impurities. 
 
 Spedding, about 1760, introduced the coursing of 
 the air by twos or threes through the whole of the 
 opened passages, and soon afterwards all the chief 
 northern viewers recognised the importance of shorten- 
 ing the runs, and obtaining larger volumes. For this 
 it would be needful either to have more shafts, and 
 work, as it were, several separate mines, or what is 
 more suitable when the shafts are ample enough to 
 split the air. This latter plan, by which a number of 
 separate currents are obtained, is perhaps the greatest 
 
218 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 improvement effected in the airing of pits, and when 
 combined with the division of the area into panels or 
 districts, has the advantage of confining danger, or the 
 results of accident, within narrow limits. Take the case 
 of a colliery having 12 -feet shafts, and air- ways of 4 feet 
 by 5 feet, or 20 feet area ; the shaft having 113 feet area 
 will be fully adequate to pass the air required, not for 
 one or two such air-ways, but for at least five. Each 
 may then ventilate a different district, and they may 
 be brought together again either at the upcast shaft, or 
 into certain roomy return air- ways approaching it. As 
 we increase the area or number or power of the shafts, 
 so the number of the splits may be increased, and since 
 the resistance varies directly with the length of the 
 road which the air current has to travel, and inversely 
 as the sectional area of the passage, it is manifest that 
 if the runs are shortened, and the air- ways increased in 
 size, the same ventilating power will pass a larger 
 volume of air. Reference to Fig. 19 will show this 
 arrangement in a portion of the working of a large 
 colliery. But the balancing of these splits requires nice 
 management, or the air would tend to desert the longer 
 for the shorter runs, and where inequalities in the 
 length exist, it is necessary to put in regulators, which, 
 checking the entry of the air into the shorter, may 
 force it into the longer runs. It is upon such principles 
 that some of the northern collieries succeed in passing 
 through their workings the enormous volumes of from 
 150,000 to 300,000 cubic feet per minute. 
 
 When the workings assume this complicated form, 
 the number of doors to be tended by trappers is never- 
 theless greatly diminished ; but frequent crossings have 
 to be made where one air-current is carried across the 
 
VENTILATION. 219 
 
 course of another (see Fig. 19, c). Thus, the " returns " 
 are generally made to mount over the intake drifts, and 
 are divided from them either by timber or brick arch- 
 ing, or boiler-plate (as at Kirkless Hall), or occasionally 
 for extra security by being carried up to some 
 height in the solid measures, so as, in the event of 
 explosion, to prevent the risk of one passage being 
 blown open into the other. 
 
 Fig. 48. Air-crossiKg. 
 
 It is observable that in the more serious accidents 
 from explosion a great majority of the sufferers lose 
 their lives, not from the actual violence or fire of the 
 blast, but from suffocation by the deadly after-damp 
 consisting of the products of combustion. Most fear- 
 ful is this when dependence has been placed on a 
 bratticed shaft, the brattice is shattered, and the air 
 passing down one portion and up the other, leaves the 
 workings dead or without air, and the poor fellows who 
 may have escaped the force of the actual explosion fall 
 victims to suffocation. But independently of bratticed 
 shafts, the same evil occurs in a modified form in every 
 colliery, and due attention has very rarely been shown 
 to so laying out the works, that in case of a blast suf- 
 ficiently heavy to blow out the doors and shake down 
 the lighter class of stoppings, there may still remain 
 between the downcast and upcast shafts a sufficiently 
 long course of unbroken air-current to afford a better 
 chance of escape to the colliers, who can flee thus far 
 
220 COAL AND COAL-MINIKG. 
 
 from their working places. In Fig. 46 (p. 215), it may 
 be seen how, if the stopping at A or the doors at B are 
 blown out by explosion, the air would take that shorter 
 course, and the inner workings be laid dead ; and an 
 examination of Fig. 19 will show the same result more 
 forcibly. The further the two important shafts can be 
 separated, the longer will be such independent air- 
 course to which the men may escape. An upcast pit 
 to the rise may often come in usefully in this way ; but 
 no general rule can be laid down, because a shaft so 
 situate may often be so much shallower than the other 
 as to form a less efficient furnace-shaft ; and in cases 
 of this kind if the depth of the rise pit be too small 
 for good ventilation by this means it becomes a 
 question whether a mechanical method would not be 
 preferable. 
 
 The quantity of air which passes is measured by 
 taking the sectional area of a drift, and multiplying it 
 by the velocity in feet per minute, to obtain the 
 number of cubic feet circulating in that time. The 
 velocity is obtained either by observing the rate at 
 which a puff of powder or tobacco smoke travels along 
 a measured distance, or by an anemometer. The 
 instrument most frequently used in collieries is that of 
 Biram, made in two sizes, 6 inches and 12 inches 
 diameter, by Davis, of Derby, which by wheel work and 
 index hands registers the number of feet of air in tens, 
 hundreds, and thousands, which have passed through 
 it in a given time. M. Combes, and within the last 
 year, Mr. Casella, of Hatton Garden, have devised for 
 this purpose a smaller and more delicate instrument, 
 depending for its results, like the former, on the revolu- 
 tion of a wheel fitted with light vanes. 
 
COLLIERY ACCIDENTS AND THEIR PREVENTION. 221 
 
 , In order to test the different densities of the currents 
 on opposite sides of a brattice, a door, or stopping, a 
 manometer or water-gauge is employed. This, although 
 it gives no criterion of the amount of ventilation, is 
 very useful for comparisons, as giving a measure of the 
 resistances, or of what is technically called the drag of 
 the mine, and distinctly pointing out any unusual 
 obstruction such as mav be caused by a fall of roof in 
 the air-ways. 
 
 The above brief sketch, although not pretending to 
 go into the details of exceptional circumstances, may, 
 I trust, be sufficient in a general way to set forth the 
 principles and practice upon which the ventilation of 
 our larger collieries has been brought into so high a 
 position of effectiveness by the skill and perseverance 
 of the leading coal-viewers. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 COLLIERY ACCIDENTS AND THEIR PREVENTION. 
 
 THE melancholy fact that from 900 to 1,100 persons are 
 every year killed in our British coal mines, forcibly 
 attracts attention to the inquiry, what proportion of 
 these numerous accidents are due to preventible causes, 
 and how far a part of them are inseparable from the 
 dangerous nature of the collier's occupation. When a 
 catastrophe of unusual magnitude occurs, public feeling 
 is aroused, newspaper articles are written, and parlia- 
 mentary inquiries are set on foot ; but the majority of 
 the accidents are little noticed, except in the immediate 
 vicinity, and they take place at points so remote and 
 
222 COAL AN>D COAL-MINING. 
 
 so widely distributed, as to show that the main diffi- 
 culty in dealing with them rests in the necessity of 
 keeping up an unceasing watchfulness among many 
 thousands of men, workmen as well as managers. 
 
 It has resulted chiefly from the excitement caused 
 by the more destructive explosions, that several 
 volumes have been published, filled with important 
 evidence given before Committees of the Lords and 
 Commons in 1835, 1848, 1852, and 1854. Further- 
 more, since the Mine Inspection Act in 1850, .and the 
 appointment of inspectors under the Home Office, now 
 twelve in number, a vast amount of valuable informa- 
 tion is afforded in their published reports, especially in 
 the analysis of the chief accidents which have taken 
 place in the year. By this means not only are principles 
 and details of practice laid down and confirmed, but 
 many of what may be termed accidents from unforeseen 
 causes, are so set before us, that a diligent study of their 
 descriptions ought year by year to diminish their occur- 
 rence. It is sometimes objected to the Government 
 inspection that the number of casualties is not dimin- 
 ished ; but it should be borne in mind that the quantity 
 of coal annually extracted has been so largely on the 
 increase that, if with a nearly doubled production, and 
 of course with a much greater number of hands, the 
 sum total of deaths has not increased, the results of 
 the system cannot but be considered as successful. 
 
 The careful perusal of these documents is strongly 
 recommended to all who are interested in colliery ope- 
 rations, and from their detailed explanations it will be 
 seen that not a year passes without accidents arising 
 from an infraction, wilful or accidental, of rules which 
 have been laid down as being generally applicable. 
 
COLLIERY ACCIDENTS AND THEIR PREVENTION. 223 
 
 The following are the General Rules which it is the 
 duty of the inspectors to obtain compliance with : 
 
 1. An adequate amount of ventilation shall be constantly produced 
 in all coal mines or collieries, and ironstone mines, to dilute and 
 render harmless noxious gases to such an extent that the working 
 places of the pits, levels, and workings of every such colliery and 
 mine, and the travelling roads to and from such working places shall, 
 under ordinary circumstances, be in a fit state for working and passing 
 therein. 
 
 2. All entrances to any place not in actual course of working and 
 extension, and suspected to contain dangerous gas of any kind, shalJ 
 be properly fenced off so as to prevent access thereto. 
 
 3. Whenever safety lamps are required to be used, they shall be 
 first examined and securely locked by a person or persons duly autho- 
 rised for this purpose. 
 
 4. Every shaft or pit which is out of use, or used only as an air-pit, 
 shall be securely fenced. 
 
 5. Every working and pumping pit or shaft shall be properly fenced 
 when operations shall have ceased or been suspended. 
 
 6. Every working or pumping pit or shaft, where the natural strata, 
 under ordinary circumstances, are not safe, shall be securely cased or 
 lined, or otherwise made secure. 
 
 7. Every working pit or shaft shall be provided with some proper 
 means of communicating distinct and definite signals from the bottom 
 of the shaft to the surface, and from the surface to the bottom of the 
 shaft. 
 
 8. All underground self-acting and engine planes on which persons 
 travel are to be provided with some proper means of signalling 
 between the stopping-places and the ends of the planes, and with 
 sufficient places of refuge at the sides of such planes at intervals of not 
 more than twenty yards. 
 
 9. A sufficient cover overhead shall be used when lowering or 
 raising persons in every working pit or shaft where required by the 
 inspectors. 
 
 10. No single-linked chain shall be used for lowering or raising 
 persons in any working pit or shaft, except the short coupling chain 
 attached to the cage or load. 
 
 11. Flanges or horns of sufficient length or diameter shall be 
 attached to the drum of every machine used for lowering or raising 
 persons. 
 
 12. A proper indicator, to show the position of the load in the pit 
 or shaft, and also an adequate break, shall be attached to every 
 
224 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 machine, worked by steam or water power, used for lowering or rais- 
 ing persons. 
 
 13. Every steam boiler sball be provided with a proper steam gauge, 
 water gauge, and safety valve. 
 
 14. The fly-wheel of every engine shall be securely fenced. 
 
 15. Sufficient bore-holes shall be kept in advance, and, if necessary, 
 on both sides, to prevent inundations in every working approaching a 
 place likely to contain a dangerous accumulation of water. 
 
 In addition to the above general rules, the following 
 regulations are provided : 
 
 That no boy under 12 years of age be employed in mines, with the 
 exception of boj T s between 10 and 12 who have certificates as to edu- 
 cation and school attendance, and that a penalty of not more than 10, 
 nor less than 5, be inflicted for every false certificate. 
 
 That steam engines in certain cases are not to be under the charge 
 of persons under 18 years of age. 
 
 That the Secretary of State have power to appoint inspectors of 
 mines, but that no land agent, or manager of mines, be allowed to act 
 as inspector. 
 
 That the inspector have power to inspect the different parts of the 
 mine at all reasonable hours. 
 
 That owners of mines produce maps or plans of mines to inspector ; 
 and, if owners do not produce maps, &c., the inspector may then 
 require them to be made. 
 
 That notice of accidents in mines be given, within twenty-four hours 
 after occurring, to the Secretary of State, under a penalty of 20. 
 
 TLat every coroner holding an inquest upon the body, give notice 
 to the inspector of the district in which such accident happened, so 
 that he may attend and watch the proceedings. 
 
 That notice be given to the inspector when any mine is abandoned, 
 or when a new working has commenced. 
 
 That owners or agents of collieries who may neglect to provide 
 general or special rules, or violate any of the special rules, shall be 
 subject to a fine not exceeding 5, or imprisoned, with or without 
 hard labour, for a period not exceeding three calendar months. 
 
 That every person obstructing the inspector in the execution of his 
 duty be liable to a penalty not exceeding 10. 
 
 That any person defacing notices, &c., be liable to a fine of 40s. ; 
 certified copies of special rules to be evidence. 
 
 That it be the duty of every inspector to make a report of his pro- 
 ceedings during the preceding year, on or before the first day of March 
 in every year, and transmit the same to one of her Majesty's principal 
 Secretaries of State. 
 
COLLIERY ACCIDENTS AND THEIR PREVENTION. 225 
 
 That wages be paid to persons employed in mines, or their represen- 
 tatives, in money, and that, -when payment of persons employed in 
 mines is by weight, &c., an account be kept. 
 
 The various districts are more or less subject to dif- 
 ferent kinds of accidents according to the nature of the 
 coal and its roof and floor, the method of working it, 
 and the general intelligence of the managers and men ; 
 and thus whilst certain tracts are found to sacrifice on 
 the average one life for every 60,000 tons of coal raised, 
 others more favoured in some of the above conditions, 
 lose only one for 150,000 or even 188,000 tons. 
 
 The following table, taken from the Official Reports, 
 will show the number of deaths from different causes 
 in the collieries of the several districts of the twelve 
 inspectors for the year 1864, with the gratifying fact, 
 in the absence of great explosions, of a decrease from 
 the numbers for 1863 and former years. 
 
 Name of district. 
 
 Explo- 
 sions. 
 
 Falls of 
 oof and 
 coal. 
 
 Deaths 
 in 
 shafts. 
 
 Miscel- 
 laneous, 
 under- 
 ground. 
 
 At sur- 
 face. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1. Northumberland, Cumber- 
 land, and North Durham ... 
 2. South Durham 
 3. North and East Lancashire 
 4. West Lancashire and North 
 Wales 
 
 7 
 3 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 30 
 30 
 33 
 
 43 
 
 9 
 16 
 13 
 
 28 
 
 11 
 
 24 
 10 
 
 19 
 
 12 
 16 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 69 
 
 89 
 64 
 
 110 
 
 5 Yorkshire 
 
 6 
 
 27 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 55 
 
 6. Derbyshire, Notts, Leicester- 
 shire, Warwickshire 
 7. North Staffordshire,Cheshire, 
 
 11 
 
 22 
 
 30 
 13 
 
 9 
 11 
 
 14 
 5 
 
 2 
 3 
 
 66 
 
 54 
 
 8. South Staffordshire and Wor- 
 
 12 
 
 51 
 
 16 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 119 
 
 9. Monmouthshire, Gloucester- 
 shire, Somersetshire 
 10 South Wales 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 33 
 67 
 
 13 
 
 6 
 
 12 
 18 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 67 
 105 
 
 11. Eastern Scotland 
 12. West cotland 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 23 
 15 
 
 6 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 34 
 35 
 
 Lives lost in coal-pits in 1864 ... 
 And in the ironstone mines of the 
 coal measures 
 
 94 
 
 7 
 
 395 
 43 
 
 184 
 28 
 
 125 
 14 
 
 69 
 4 
 
 867 
 
 90 
 
 Total lives lost in 1864 in the 
 mines under inspection 
 
 101 
 
 438 
 
 212 
 
 139 
 
 73 
 
 963 
 
226 COAL Alfo COAL-MINING 1 
 
 Let us pass to a review of the more prolific sources 
 of accident : 
 
 1. Falls of roof . These are occasioned especially in 
 high seams, by the removal of the upper portions of 
 the coal, more particularly when the whole thickness, 
 as for the most part in South Staffordshire, is taken at 
 one working. In other cases they arise from careless 
 holing or undercutting, without due attention to sprags 
 or props, or from the sudden detaching of bell-moulds, 
 or lumps of ironstone, or masses of shale from the 
 roof. In general these falls can only be guarded 
 against by limiting the size of the excavations, and 
 setting timber in sufficient quantity and in the most 
 judicious manner. When the ordinary colliers are not 
 practised or apt at this work, it is important that it 
 should be carried out by duly qualified deputies. In 
 some parts of the country an unfortunate system pre- 
 vails of employing butties, or contractors, who, intent 
 on getting the coal at a certain price, are prone to 
 neglect the precautions which cost money, and which 
 thus diminish their profits. In the long-wall work- 
 ings, where the fall of the roof has for a stranger a 
 most threatening appearance, nogs and pack-walls as 
 well as single punch-props aid in giving the men 
 security, but when the roof is treacherous, hourly 
 caution needs to be exercised by the managers and 
 supervisors ; and whilst in some cases the premature 
 removal of props may be dangerous, in others the 
 omission to remove some of them will cause an 
 irregular fracture often attended with serious results. 
 iWhatever the method of work, let there be no lack of 
 prop-wood ; and to prevent neglect caused by the 
 colliers' grudging the time which would have to be 
 
COLLIERY ACCIDENTS AND THEIR PREVENTION. 227 
 
 devoted to it, let such wood be cut for them in proper 
 lengths, and carried near to their places of work. It 
 is no less lamentable to note the great loss of life from 
 supineness and blind confidence with respect to the 
 roof, than it is wonderful to see what may be done, for 
 a limited time, by a few well-set sticks of timber in 
 the midst of crush and pressure that appear over- 
 whelming. 
 
 2. Explosions of fire-damp. According to the 
 abundance of gas, the form of the excavations, and the 
 efficiency of the ventilation, explosions may be either 
 quite harmless, or may injure only one man or a few 
 men in a single locality, or in the worse cases may 
 flash forth with such lightning speed and fury as to 
 leave not a man alive. 
 
 Certain coals, for example, are so fiery that when 
 the air-current is brisk enough to render the experiment 
 safe, you may with your candle, every now and then, 
 set the gas alight on the freshly cut surface, and it will 
 flash and flicker away for a few inches or feet in 
 length. But woe betide the experimenter if there be 
 any roof-cavity or unventilated corner near, in which a 
 quantity of the explosive " damp " may have accumu- 
 lated. If only there be plenty of air, such a bord or 
 end may often be safely worked with candles, but the 
 men should be provided with a wet cloth with which 
 they may dash out the fire; and at the famous Walls- 
 end pits small cannon have been used with advantage 
 for extinguishing the flame by concussion, in case of 
 its catching at the open lights and being more serious 
 than ordinary. The safety-lamp is, however, now 
 commonly used under such circumstances; and yet 
 even with this safeguard, when for economy's sake the 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 coal is got by blasting, there is great risk of a flame 
 being lighted which may communicate with other 
 places or set fire to the coal. Presence of mind a 
 virtue often wanting may in the outset extinguish a 
 flash of this kind, which if not instantly combated 
 may soon become very serious. A fire produced in 
 this manner, or by the spontaneous combustion which 
 arises in the small coal of certain seams, in a short 
 time produces such a smoke and " sty the " that it can 
 only be approached on the windward side, and fre- 
 quently makes it needful to retire to some distance 
 and bar off or isolate the district. In such cases dam- 
 doors, the frames of which have been prepared before- 
 hand at suitable spots in the main drifts, may perform 
 excellent service. Perhaps these are nowhere seen to 
 greater advantage or more practically useful than in 
 the great under-sea collieries of Whitehaven, where 
 the Earl of Lonsdale has judiciously had the lintels, &c., 
 of dam-doors prepared in the stone drifts between 
 faulted districts of coal.* 
 
 In the last chapter we have treated of the methods 
 of ventilation in practice where due attention is paid 
 to that vital subject ; but we have here two questions 
 to answer, viz., why is it, that with so many examples 
 of what can be well done, a large part of our collieries 
 should be in a condition far from satisfactory ? and 
 how does it come to pass that every now and then a 
 hecatomb of victims has been sacrificed in a pit sup- 
 posed to be a model of efficiency ? To these we may 
 reply: 1st, that thoughtlessness and opposition to 
 
 * In August, 1864, I had the opportunity of seeing how promptly 
 efficient dams were thus put in to isolate the workings of the new, or 
 Forster's district, where the gas had^fired in the dip drifts, 
 
COLLIERY ACCIDENTS AND THEIR PREVENTION. 229 
 
 discipline among the men, and ignorance of principles 
 and of good practice, with parsimoniousness, among 
 the masters and managers, are far too common ; and 
 2ndly, that the sources of accident are so numerous, 
 and often so obscure, that no amount of precaution 
 can be expected to obtain perfect security. Though 
 neither men nor owners are open to the sweeping 
 charges of recklessness often brought against them, 
 we must expect, as long as we find so commonly 
 among the pits' company careless, unsteady, or over- 
 daring rule-breakers, and collieries managed by a 
 shopkeeper or joiner, or half-educated young " gentle- 
 man," a nephew of the owner, 'that accidents will 
 occur, which would be certainly preventible under 
 better auspices. 
 
 My own experience on this latter head, obtained 
 from close inquiry for the Government into the causes 
 of several heavy explosions, before the system of 
 inspection was commenced, and from frequent visits to 
 collieries in most of our districts, is strongly confirmed 
 by the often-repeated statements of the inspectors, that 
 a great amount of good would be effected by local 
 schools having a technical aim. And yet, strange to 
 say, although it is a subject involving the health and 
 life of 300,000 persons directly employed in our coal 
 mines, no approach has been made, except at Bristol, 
 Wigan, and an abortive attempt at Glasgow, to supply 
 that kind of suitable knowledge on mechanics, the 
 nature of gases, &c., which, if it cannot be extended to 
 the mass of the colliers, is at all events so desirable for 
 the overmen and their deputies. 
 
 In what concerns the ventilation, a dangerous state 
 of the mine may arise as follows : 
 
230 COAL AND COAL-MINING, 
 
 
 
 1. Absence or deficiency of ventilating power in the 
 shafts. 
 
 2. Injudicious plan of workings, or inattention to 
 doors, stoppings, size of air-courses, &c., whereby an 
 abundant current at the shafts is lost before it gets to 
 the faces of work. 
 
 3. The insecure position of goafs, or wastes, or even 
 small lodgments for gas, with reference to the air- 
 currents which have to travel past men who are using 
 open lights. 
 
 4. The absence of sufficient bratticing in the bords 
 or drift ends. 
 
 5. Dependence on too many doors. 
 
 6. The occurrence of falls in the air- ways or working 
 drifts. 
 
 7. The interruption of the ventilating current, by 
 repairs in the shaft, by drawing water, or by the 
 furnace or wind-machine going wrong. 
 
 8. A sudden change of weather, especially a turn of 
 wind to the south-west, with lower barometer and higher 
 temperature. 
 
 9. The emission of gas by blowers, or by bursting in 
 from roof or floor, in such quantity as to overpower the 
 ventilation. 
 
 In this latter case the use of safety-lamps can alone 
 give security, and since their introduction brings into 
 play a new set of conditions, it is imperatively needful 
 to draw up special rules regarding them, and in the 
 interest of the owners and the bulk of the men to visit 
 severely all the infringements of regulations which close 
 surveillance can detect. 
 
 We cannot do better, in order to show what are the 
 requirements in connection with the use of safety lamps, 
 
COLLIERY ACCIDENTS AND THEIR PREVENTION. 231 
 
 than quote the Special Rules as laid down for the ex- 
 tensive colliery of Seaton Delaval, under the able 
 management of Mr. T. E. Forster. 
 
 1. In every part of the said colliery, where the pillar working or 
 broken is in operation, stations will be fixed upon by the viewer, where 
 each workman's safety lamp will be examined and securely locked. 
 
 From those stations no workman is to take a safety lamp for use in 
 the pillar working or broken, without its having been examined and 
 securely locked by the overman, inspector, or deputy. 
 
 The overman and inspector to have full power to direct the workmen 
 how to use their safety lamps during the time of working ; and it is 
 particularly enjoined that every workman strictly attend to such 
 directions. No lamp to be used on which there is not a tin shield. 
 None but the overman, or similar officer in authority, to be allowed to 
 carry a lamp key. 
 
 2. Should any accident happen to a lamp whilst in use, by which 
 the oil is spilt upon the gauze, or it be in any other way rendered 
 unsafe, the light to be immediately extinguished by drawing the wick 
 down within the tube with the pricker ; such lamp to be directly taken 
 out to the station where the lamps are examined, and not to be again 
 used until after having been properly examined by the overman, or 
 other responsible person, on the in-bye side of which station towards 
 the broken workings, no candles are to be taken. 
 
 3. Should any workman using a safety lamp detect, by the usual 
 indications, the appearance or presence of fire-damp, he is first to pull 
 down the wick with the pricker, as before-mentioned, and then to 
 retreat to the lamp station and give information of the same to the 
 nearest responsible person, it being strictly forbidden for any workman 
 to continue to work in a place> where such indications have been ob- 
 served by him ; and should the flame continue in the interior of the 
 lamp after the wick has been drawn down, the lamp then to be 
 cautiously removed, and no attempt whatever to extinguish the flame 
 by any other means to be adopted by the workman. 
 
 4. Every hewer, putter, or other person, to whom a safety lamp is 
 intrusted, is hereby strictly prohibited from interfering in any way 
 whatever with the lamp, beyond the necessary trimming of the wick 
 with the pricker. The lamp in no case to be hung upon the row of 
 props next the goaf or old work, and not to be nearer the swing of the 
 gear, on any occasion, than two feet. 
 
 5. Should any hewer, putter, or any other person whatever, in 
 charge of a safety lamp, in any case lose his light, he is to take it 
 himself to the station where the lamps are examined, to be relighted, 
 
232 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 examined, and locked by the overman, or some other responsible per- 
 son, before being again used. 
 
 6. It is expressly directed that any person witnessing any improper 
 treatment of the safety lamps by any one, shall give immediate infor- 
 mation to the overman in charge of the pit, so that a recurrence of 
 such conduct may be prevented by the offending party being brought 
 to justice. 
 
 7. Any person found smoking tobacco in any part of the said col- 
 liery where the safety lamp is used, or with a tobacco pipe found in his 
 possession, will be liable to be taken before a magistrate. No matches, 
 under any pretence whatever, to be taken down the pit. 
 
 8. No putter, pony-driver, helper-up, or other person, is, under any 
 pretext, to carry a lamp during his work, except in special cases, 
 where the parties have leave to do so from the viewer. Lamps will be 
 hung along the going-roads, to afford sufficient light for the perform- 
 ance of the work. 
 
 9. Every person using a safety lamp to receive the bottom part of 
 the same himself from the hands of the lamp keeper then in the pit. 
 The gauze to be taken home at the end of each shift, by the person 
 using it, for the purpose of having it properly cleaned before being 
 again used. 
 
 10. Any person acting contrary to the above instructions will be 
 liable to be taken before a magistrate, in order that the lives of the 
 workmen employed therein may be duly protected. And any person 
 informing against any offending party or parties will, in every case, 
 be handsomely rewarded. No riding on loaded cages except under 
 special arrangement. Signals, see Act of Parliament. 
 
 11. The hewer that keeps his safety lamp in the best order for a 
 quarter of a year, will be entitled to a premium of 5s. ; and for the 
 second best 2s. 6</. The putter to be entitled to 2s. 6d. for the same 
 length of time. 
 
 It is a moot point whether the men should take 
 home the lamp gauzes to clean, or whether it should 
 be done for them by the colliery. But we cannot fail 
 to reprobate the neglectful plan pursued in some mines 
 of throwing upon the colliers the burden of purchasing 
 their lamps, and thus exposing them to the temptation 
 of buying cheap and unsafe gauze. Nor can one think 
 without ire of the dirty, oily state of the battered Davy 
 that one has seen in some of the colliery offices of 
 
COLLIERY ACCIDENTS AND THEIR PREVENTION. 233 
 
 central districts, kept for a safeguard (?) in case of 
 fire-damp being feared as an occasional visitor. 
 
 3. Accidents in Shafts. The breakage of the rope or 
 chain takes place rarely from bad quality, more often 
 from too long wear and tear of the material. Some- 
 times a want of proper horns or arms to the drum, 
 or a settlement of the ground at the shaft top, may 
 throw the rope on to the axle, and thus sever it. Any 
 inequality in the surface of the rope-roll which makes 
 the rope lap irregularly, and thus communicates a 
 heavy jerk to the weight in the shaft, is dangerous, 
 especially with wire rope. So also is the adherence to 
 small-size drum and pulleys. Many lives, again, are 
 lost under the old system of raising the men in skips 
 or boxes hanging free, particularly if they be suspended 
 by two chains only. The introduction of cages and 
 guides in the northern districts has greatly lessened 
 the liability to this class of accident. Against the 
 falling of stone, bricks, &c., from the sides, a good 
 walling and occasionally overhauling and clearing from 
 rubbish, with a bonnet or cover over the cage, are effi- 
 cient protections. The numerous deaths from falling 
 into the shaft, either from surface or from mouthings 
 opening into upper seams, may be in great measure 
 prevented by the use of light railed doors or wickets 
 which guard the orifice until the cage comes up and 
 lifts them out of the way for the time only during 
 which access is needed. Overwinding, one of the 
 most frightful of accidents, where the cage with its 
 human freight is carried up violently against the pulleys 
 overhead, is to be avoided by the employment of only 
 the most trustworthy engine drivers, the use of the 
 steam-brake, a sufficient height of pulley-frame, and 
 
234 COAL AND COAL -MINING. 
 
 perhaps in some cases the use of the safety apparatus 
 described above, in Chap. XIV. It will be seen that most 
 of these casualties are preventible by the rooting out 
 of the neglect and slovenliness which are so common, 
 and by the employment of suitable and well-inspected 
 apparatus. 
 
 4. Holing into Old Works. A. great risk is incurred 
 in approaching old abandoned workings, sometimes 
 from their containing fire-damp or carbonic acid, but 
 more commonly from their having reservoirs of water 
 ready to escape under great pressure, and certain, if 
 incautiously tapped, to occasion a disastrous inundation. 
 The danger is often sadly magnified from the lament- 
 able and unbusiness-like absence of proper plans of the 
 old works. It is recognised on all hands that the only 
 prudent method of advancing under such circumstances 
 is with bore-holes in front and flank, kept five or six 
 yards a head of the working, and with tapered wooden 
 plugs ready to drive in as soon as water is tapped. The 
 subject of the registration of mine plans has often been 
 mooted, and by some of the highest authorities, as 
 essential for the preservation of life and property ; but 
 under the wretched notion of letting things alone, this 
 humane precaution has never been adopted as a public 
 measure. If such plans, drawn to the true meridian, 
 instead of the ever- varying magnetic line, were de- 
 posited in some accessible office, many a valuable life 
 would be saved. 
 
 5. Miscellaneous Accidents. The liability of men and 
 boys to be crushed and run over by trams and under- 
 ground trains, and especially on inclines, must be met 
 by strict discipline, and by providing separate travelling 
 roads, refuge places, and sufficient signals. Many 
 
COLLIERY ACCIDENTS AND THEIR PREVENTION. 235 
 
 accidents occur from people passing across the bottom 
 of the drawing shaft, which are simply avoided by 
 having a suitable passage at the side, and insisting on 
 its being used. As to the casualties which occur from 
 blasting, they ought to be entirely eliminated from 
 the list : the firing of a shot in the coal, apart from 
 the presence of fire-damp, entails no risk on careful 
 men ; and in sharp stone liable to strike fire, the use 
 of bronze-headed tamping-bars and the safety-fuze 
 should be generally adopted. The deaths caused by 
 carbonic acid and after-damp are too often due to the 
 want of thought or the ignorance of the sufferers them- 
 selves, and not unfrequently to the generous daring 
 with which they have rushed forward to succour others. 
 A better knowledge of the properties of the gases, 
 greater caution in entering unfrequented places, and 
 improved ventilation must be looked to for the reduc- 
 tion of this class of perils. 
 
 It may excite surprise that men should be found 
 willing to confront so many dangers, coupled with hard 
 work in cheerless gloom. But familiarity with subter- 
 raneous works shows a different side to the picture, and, 
 although plenty of bad cases might be cited, the larger, 
 well-managed collieries offer, as the life- statistics prove, 
 by no means unhealthy working places. The gaseous 
 enemies which invade them are invisible, and are 
 therefore even too readily forgotten ; and the work, 
 though heavy, is simple, and requires very little ex- 
 penditure of thought. Moreover, the wages are, in 
 spite of strikes and associations, as a rule, very good, 
 nay, in some cases exceedingly high, if men only choose 
 to work, and have acquired the degree of skill which 
 we find, even in coal-cutting, will greatly distinguish 
 
236 COAL ND COAL-MINING. 
 
 certain hewers above others. Our Cornish miners, 
 fagged by climbing, and by high temperature, contend- 
 ing with rocks of excessive hardness, and, after all, 
 earning rarely more than 3 10s. or 3 15s. per 
 month, offer a strange contrast to colliers of the North, 
 who can commonly make their 6s. per day, and have 
 often houses free of rent, and coals, and schooling for 
 their children at a nominal charge; and to the 
 Welsh colliers, who in a good stall of the rich Aberdare 
 coal will get their 8s., or even 10s., a day.* 
 
 Truly, as contrasted with other men, the colliers in 
 well-conducted pits have not so much to grumble over 
 as they are made by their interested friends to believe ; 
 nor do the methods so popular among them of strikes 
 and combinations, and proposals for interfering with 
 the management, appear suited to gain them enduring 
 safety and comfort. In and about the pits, especially, 
 it is plain that the spirit of insubordination, and oppo- 
 sition to the masters and their rules, are inconsistent 
 with the well-being of either party. And a ship in a 
 storm, with all the sailors commanding, would not be 
 in a more dangerous plight than a fiery colliery with 
 its discipline sapped, and no one in full authority. 
 
 * To quote a special instance, the highest wage made in March, 
 1866, at the Navigation Colliery, Mountain Ash, was no less than 
 12*. 8d. per day for twenty-three days. 
 
DURATION OF THE BRITISH CO/iLFIELDS. 237 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 DURATION OF THE BRITISH COALFIELDS. 
 
 THE astonishing increase in the consumption of coal 
 within the last half century has kept pace with the 
 advancement of various arts and sciences, and has 
 necessitated a constant improvement in the methods 
 and appliances used in its extraction. Our knowledge 
 of the mineral resources of this and other countries has 
 during the same time been placed on a footing so 
 much more definite than formerly, as to excite in the 
 reflecting mind, conversant with the heavy drain now 
 making on our coalfields, a reasonably-founded anxiety 
 as to their duration. 
 
 Contented security may in its ignorance of the facts 
 assume, and persons interested in maintaining their 
 own special trade, may represent that the coal-seams 
 are " practically inexhaustible," and may stigmatise as 
 "alarmists" those who would invite attention to the 
 bearings of a question so vital to our immediate pos- 
 terity; but a fair examination of the statistics above 
 set forth, and of the local conditions of our coal- 
 bearing districts, will show that at least the time for 
 prudent forethought has arrived. 
 
 In the last few years, accurate surveys have shown 
 the certain boundaries of most of our coalfields, formed 
 by the actual rise to the surface of the ground of the 
 foundation rocks, in and under which no coal at all is 
 contained. In some other instances they exhibit a sur- 
 face boundary, beyond which much may be hoped for, 
 
238 COAL AXD COAL-MINING. 
 
 but where in many cases the uncertainty and expense 
 will greatly reduce the value of the extended territory, 
 or, in other words, increase the average charge at which 
 the coals will be raised. * 
 
 Knowing, therefore, most of the edges, and pretty 
 nearly the depth of all our recognised stores of coal, 
 let us remember at what rate we are now digging 
 them out. The amount of coal raised in this country 
 in 1864 shows that, supposing 1,300 tons be obtained 
 per foot thick per acre, out of J ,600 which it actually 
 contains, there are now clearing out in every hour, day 
 and night, for every day in the year, 4 acres of coal of 
 2 feet thick 1 acre every quarter of an hour I There 
 can here be no reproduction, nothing to grow again ; 
 " we are drawing," as an able writer* has well put it, 
 " more and more upon a capital which yields no annual 
 interest, but once turned to light, and heat, and force, 
 is gone for ever into space." How fares it with some 
 of our best-known districts ? do they, or do they not, 
 show symptoms of a change ? In Shropshire the 
 workings have passed away from the exhausted western 
 side of the field to group themselves along the eastern : 
 in Staffordshire, the famous Dudley seam will in a few 
 years be as a tale that is told : in the great northern 
 coalfield almost every available " royalty " is taken up, 
 large tracts have been cleared out, and already projects 
 are afoot for leaving terra firma and working out under 
 the North Sea. 
 
 It must, then, be understood that the rapid exhaus- 
 tion of certain districts, and the calculation of what 
 coal remains, are not the speculations of theorists, but 
 the fair deductions from weights and measures, ascer- 
 
 * Mr. Jevons, " On the Coal Question." 
 
DURATION OF THE BRITISH COALFIELDS. 239 
 
 tained with a great amount of practical care and 
 discrimination. 
 
 I need not refer to the older estimates of the dura- 
 tion of our coalfields, for neither had the earlier writers 
 any idea of the enormous future increase of demand, 
 nor were they provided with the requisite data for 
 reasonable approximations. It was only in the clas- 
 sical coalfield of Durham and Northumberland that 
 the position and character of the seams were so well 
 known to the viewers as to admit, many years ago, of 
 approach to accuracy. 
 
 Mr. Greenwell, a colliery viewer thoroughly ac- 
 quainted with the district, taking the quantity pro- 
 ducible from each several seam, including what lies 
 below the magnesian limestone, as well as a width of 
 two miles under the sea, calculated in 1846 that 331 
 years would, at the then existing rate, exhaust the 
 whole area. At that time only 10,000,000 of tons per 
 annum of round coal were raised. In 1854, when the 
 amount had reached 14,000,000, and a larger propor- 
 tion of small coal came to be available, Mr. T. Y. 
 Hall, also a member of the Northern Institute of 
 Mining Engineers, estimated the duration at 365 years, 
 but stated that it would be reduced to 256 years if the 
 demand were to increase to 20,000,000. And now, since 
 the output has in 1864 reached upwards of 22,000,000 
 of tons, and there is every reason to expect a constant 
 increase of production, it is obvious that the time thus 
 estimated must be greatly abbreviated, and that Sir 
 William Armstrong, in calling attention to the rapid ex- 
 haustion of coal, in his address at Newcastle in 1863, 
 based his argument on no unsound foundation. 
 
 In 1859, Mr. Edward Hull attempted the more 
 
240 COAL AMD COAL-MINING. 
 
 ambitious task of making a similar calculation for the 
 whole of the British coalfields. As a laborious geolo- 
 gist on the Government survey, Mr. Hull had enjoyed 
 excellent opportunities of learning the structure of 
 several of the coal districts, but with respect to others 
 had to rely on data of various authority. In each case 
 he has measured the available area, has adopted from 
 the sections an average thickness of workable coal, and 
 deducted from the total quantity thus obtained an 
 allowance (no doubt difficult to agree upon) for the 
 denudation of the upper seams. A large fraction is 
 then allowed for quantity worked out, and loss in 
 future workings, leaving us a total amount in stock of 
 about 80,000,000,000 tons for the entire kingdom. All 
 the coal lying at a greater depth than 4,000 feet is 
 excluded from this estimate as being beyond reach, 
 but a very large area, amounting to an increase of one- 
 third, is added to the coalfields, for extension beneath 
 newer formations. 
 
 We may cavil at some of Mr. Hull's numbers, and 
 disagree with his notions about the limit of depth, but 
 his little book is a creditable summary of the chief 
 features of our coal resources, and his approximate 
 general estimate the only one which is so founded on 
 facts as to deserve attention ; whilst especially on the 
 subject of reaching coal beneath the Permian and 
 Trias formations, no previous author has approached it 
 with the same amount of practical knowledge. When 
 we pass from the descriptive part to the reasoning on the 
 coal supply, we find arguments of a more questionable 
 character, some of which have since been combated by 
 Mr. Jevons in his clear and forcible work, " On the 
 Coal Question," whilst others appear to have led to 
 
DURATION OF THE BRITISH COALFIELDS. 241 
 
 false conclusions as to the rate of progression of the 
 consumption. 
 
 It seems that in twenty years, ending 1860, the 
 quantity of coal raised in Great Britain was more than 
 doubled ; but are we thence justified in believing that 
 in the next following twenty years it will be again 
 doubled, and so on in geometrical progression ? On 
 this view of the subject, little more than a century 
 would see this country utterly deprived of the main- 
 spring of its mercantile greatness. Manufactories 
 without their motive power, iron-furnaces blown cut, 
 railway trains brought to a standstill, steamers re- 
 placed by sailing ships, our streets left to the gloom of 
 oil lamps, and our firegrates empty, such would be 
 the dismal prospect of a nearly approaching time, could 
 we give credit to such an inference ! 
 
 I think, however, that the assumption is based on a 
 fallacy, and that although the numbers for certain 
 years appeared to fit such a conclusion, the increase to 
 our production of from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 of tons 
 annually, serious as it undoubtedly is, will keep us 
 within comparatively moderate figures for a long time 
 to come, and at all events defer, as regards the country 
 at large, the evil day for two or three centuries.* But 
 
 * In France it has been observed, that the production of coal has 
 similarly been doubled after every period of twelve to fourteen years, 
 
 thus : 
 
 Year. Tons. 
 
 1789 250,000 
 
 1815 950,000 
 
 1830 1,800,000 
 
 1843 3,700,000 
 
 1857 7,900,000 
 
 1863 10,000,000 
 
 but the Comit6 des Houilleres Franchises think that the same rate of 
 increase cannot possibly be kept up. 
 
 R 
 
242 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 beyond this, it is a question whether even the present 
 rate of increase of production can long be continued, 
 and whether there are not causes at work which will 
 tend to raise the price and limit the consumption. 
 Our special position as the first manufacturing people 
 depends in great part upon the cheapness of our fuel, 
 and any considerable increase in price, as compared 
 with that of other countries, would soon be deeply 
 felt.* At present Belgium, France, and Westphalia 
 are unable fully to compete with us ; and English coal 
 takes possession of the seaboard of the Continent, and 
 in numerous cases ascends the rivers for long distances 
 towards the centres of coal production of those coun- 
 tries. And sundry reasons may account for the fact. 
 Nature has been bountiful to England not only in the 
 quantity, but in the comparative regularity of the coal 
 seams. In the best pits in France and Belgium the 
 large, or round, coal is seldom more than 45 per cent, 
 of the whole, and the general average is far less. The 
 disturbed position of the beds also renders them more 
 difficult to work, and involves an expense in the mere 
 item of prop-wood alone of 9<f. to Is. per ton, whilst in 
 many of our districts 2d. 7 in others 3d., on the ton may 
 be the average. 
 
 But if we are to be checked in the race, the mischief 
 is likely to proceed in great part from an internal 
 canker, from the irregularity and combativeness of the 
 men. What with the peculiar socialistic views so 
 common among them, and the facility with which their 
 organisation, under skilful delegates, enables them to 
 threaten their masters, the interferences, stoppages, 
 
 * For a masterly treatment of this important argument see Jevons's 
 " Coal Question." 
 
DURATION OF THE BRITISH COALFIELDS. 243 
 
 and interruptions to the working of collieries are 
 becoming an evil of such weight as to constitute an 
 additional charge on the ton of coal. It would be 
 quite out of place here to discuss the subject at any 
 length ; but it must obviously be taken into account 
 in forming an estimate of our power of production. It 
 might be supposed from the frequent recurrence of 
 strikes, that the colliers, as a class, are ill-paid ; but 
 when we find wages of from 5s. to 12s. a day the 
 rate for good hewers from Newcastle down to South 
 Wales, we cannot but see that there are other large 
 classes of working men in the kingdom, bringing equal 
 skill and labour to bear upon their task, with a much 
 less satisfactory result. The rate of payment is fairly 
 brought to the test of experiment, being in most dis- 
 tricts so much per tub or cart of known capacity; 
 in the north, so much per score or per ton, and each 
 pit having there a weighing machine, at which a 
 man is commonly stationed to watch the weighing 
 on behalf of the colliers. 
 
 If, therefore, with these inducements to steadiness 
 of work, a skilful collier nevertheless joins in the strikes 
 and agitation for short hours, weekly pays, with all 
 the concomitant idleness, limitation of quantity to be 
 got, exclusion from the pits of boys under a certain 
 age, and various other interferences which may be more 
 or less objectionable in different districts that man is 
 adding a weight against his own nation in the balance 
 between ourselves and the foreign coal producer. 
 
 In a discussion on the duration of coal, we should 
 bear in mind that it is one thing to obtain a certain 
 amount of fossil fuel tolerable in quality, but dear from 
 being wrought under difficulties, and another thing to 
 
 R2 
 
244 COAL AD COAL-MINING. 
 
 occupy our present position of raising the best qualities 
 at the lowest prices. Most of our best districts are 
 being stripped at a fearful rate : * the purest household 
 coal of the north, the " Wallsend " of the London 
 trade, the Dudley thick coal, the Wigan cannel, the 
 Aberdare steam-coal where will they be fifty years 
 hence ? And yet there is no help for this ; and all we 
 have to see to is that they are made away with to the 
 best advantage. But the question follows : when the 
 cream of our coalfields has thus been enjoyed, what 
 have we to fall back upon to maintain, at least, our large 
 production, even if we are unable to keep up a marked 
 lead? There will be the seams that are coarser in 
 quality, that are thinner or deeper, and those about 
 which there may be much uncertainty, as, for example, 
 where it may be required to sink through overlying 
 formations. A cloud of difficulties arises ; but there are 
 rays of light around it : " dirty " coals will be more com- 
 monly treated by washing processes thin seams now 
 neglected will turn out useful ; for if we can already 
 \\vrk 12 and 14-inch coals in Somersetshire, why should 
 2 feet be elsewhere called unworkable ? And then as to 
 depth, the improvement of both pumping and winding 
 engines is rendering that element of difficulty within 
 moderate limits a matter of no very great import. 
 
 Here, however, we arrive at a topic fraught with 
 much interest. In South Wales and Lancashire, in 
 the coal measures, and in certain districts where the 
 surface is occupied by the red sandstones of the Trias, 
 
 * In order rightly to appreciate the rate of exhaustion of the coal, 
 we must add to the 98 millions of tons returned for 1865, a further 
 amount for wasted slack, barriers, faulty coal, &c., of probably not less 
 than 30 millions of tons. 
 
DURATION OF THE BRITISH COALFIELDS. 245 
 
 we may have coal seams below us at 5,000, 8,000, or 
 10,000 feet deep. Some of the authors above quoted 
 think that the limit of accessible depth is 4,000 feet, 
 beyond which the increase of temperature would pre- 
 vent the possibility of working; but a considerable 
 experience of deep mines induces me to believe that 
 the difficulty of temperature may, by due appliances, 
 be overcome to a much greater depth. 
 
 It is sufficiently well known that experiments made 
 in the mines of various countries show that below a 
 certain point of invariable temperature generally reached 
 at 10 to 20 yards, the temperature of the rock and of 
 water contained in it increases at the rate of 1 Fahr. 
 for every 60 or 70 feet of descent.* The air which 
 travels down into the workings is soon heated ; but 
 passing off, and thus cooling the walls of the excava- 
 tions, and constantly replaced by fresh air from above, 
 it enables work to be done with comfort in our deepest 
 present mines. It must be admitted that the first 
 opening of the levels or drifts at a depth of 1,500 to 
 2,000 feet deep is a hot task ; but after finding the 
 thermometer in such cases at from 75 to 88 in a close 
 end, I have observed that when the air has once cir- 
 culated beyond such points for a period of a few weeks 
 or months, the temperature has sunk by so many de- 
 grees as to admit of further working with facility. 
 The most remarkable case of this rapid cooling, with 
 which I am acquainted, is at the Clifford Amalgamated 
 Mines in Cornwall, where, in the 230-fathom level 
 (1,650 feet from surface) the air (July, 1864) was 104 
 Fahr., and close to the issue of a hot spring of 122, 
 
 * The extreme variations of increment, except where thermal springs 
 are present, are 58 feet to 88 feet for one degree Fahr. 
 
246 COAL AND COAL-MINING. 
 
 even higher ; but where, in the 220-fathom ]evel (1,590 
 feet deep), it was only 83, although when first open- 
 ing, a year or two before, Jit had been at 100". 
 
 The late Mr. Rogers, at Abercarn colliery, in sinking 
 a shaft in 1851, supplied compressed air to within a 
 few feet of the men at work, which as I tested at the 
 time in its escape from the pipe, cooled the pit bottom 
 several degrees. No doubt, therefore, that what with 
 a good ventilating power, and occasionally, it may be, 
 by the aid of compressed air, the first winning works 
 may be quickly reduced below the normal temperature 
 due to the depth, and the subsequent workings be 
 rendered comparatively cool. 
 
 It is not commonly known that in the province of 
 Hainault, in Belgium, coal is working at the depth of 
 2,820 feet (860 metres), at the colliery des Viviers, at 
 Gilly, near Charleroy, and that one pit at the same 
 place has been sunk to the serious depth of 3,411 feet 
 (1,040 metres). * 
 
 With regard to other difficulties offered by great 
 depths, our present best methods of raising the water 
 and coal are, no doubt, capable of dealing with a 
 considerably greater depth than has yet been attained. 
 For still deeper pits it may be suggested either that a 
 plant of engines be established half way down, and the 
 work thus effected by two lifts, or that reciprocating 
 rods as in the Fahrkunst or Cornish man-engine may 
 be fitted, as proposed by M6hu, and by Guibal, to 
 bring up a constant succession of coal-tubs ; and 
 although such modes have not as yet been made 
 practically economical, we may rest assured that the 
 same art of mining, to which the public is mainly 
 
 * Prof. Trasenster, of Li6ge, MS. communication, 1866. 
 
DURATION OF THE BRITISH COALFIELDS. 247 
 
 indebted for the improvement of the steam-engine and 
 for the railway, will not rest without further develop- 
 ment of its appliances.* 
 
 If then, as we have reason to assert, our better and 
 more accessible coals are being so fast wrought out as 
 to threaten an early change of conditions, what, it may 
 be asked, can be done to prevent their exhaustion? 
 Our home consumption must increase, if we are as a 
 nation to advance in prosperity, and its only check will 
 be from an increase of the price at which it can be 
 delivered to the consumer. This, however, as compared 
 with the cost of production abroad, will be the turning 
 point in our progress. As regards our exports, which 
 have risen since 1841 from 1| to nearly 9 millions 
 of tons, constituting almost a tenth of our production, 
 it has often been suggested, and by grave authorities, 
 that a tax should act as a check ; but such an impost 
 would undoubtedly be open to serious objections. It 
 has been held by certain writers that the exports are 
 sure to diminish because other nations are developing 
 their own coalfields; but a little attention to the 
 statistics given above will show that during the very 
 period of the multiplication, -sixfold, of our exports, 
 France, Belgium, and Germany have been increasing 
 their output no less remarkably than ourselves. The 
 fact is, that all the active nations of the world are 
 every year requiring more coal than before, and a fair 
 inference is that what goes abroad as well as what is 
 consumed at home will be an increasing quantity, 
 until a higher price per ton operates as a check. 
 
 * An interesting inquiry into this subject, with suggestions for new 
 apparatus, will be found in Devillez, " De V Exploitation de la Houille d 
 laprofondeur d'au moins mille mitres" Lie'ge, 1859. 
 
248 COAL AND 'COAL-MINING. 
 
 But although we are thus carried away by the stream, 
 it behoves us to take every precaution to navigate our 
 craft in the best manner. * There are many things in 
 our individual and collective mode of treating coal 
 mines which should be better looked to in the interest of 
 those who follow us. We must admit that amid the 
 pressure of competition, it is hardly possible to do 
 otherwise than take out in the cheapest way whatever 
 pays best ; whence the strictures sometimes passed upon 
 our wasteful procedures are, however true as regards 
 the nation at large, scarcely just to individual workers.* 
 
 The great waste of small coal, although of late years 
 less flagitious than formerly, is still a lamentable extra- 
 vagance ; for it is not too much to say that millions of 
 tons of it are buried up annually, in gobs, stowage, 
 crushed pillars, &c. The remedies which we may hope 
 to see gradually applied, are as follows : 
 
 1. The best selected mode of laying out collieries, 
 both as regards freedom from crush and creep, avoid- 
 ance of an excess of narrow or strait openings, and 
 judicious direction of the bords or working faces. 
 
 2. The more general washing of smalls. 
 
 3. The extended use, partly by means of new forms 
 of furnace, of slack and the smaller varieties of screened 
 coal (pease and duff) for manufacturing purposes. 
 
 4. Employment of the best methods of coking. 
 
 * " II est impossible en voyant cela, de ne pas pressentir qu'on vs. 
 trouver a chaque pas les Anglais abusant des a vantages naturels qu'ils 
 rencontrent dans les gites houillers de leur pays." Extract from a 
 report. Burat, " Materiel des Houilleres." 1865. It is satisfactory to 
 be able to inform our French critic that, at the colliery which suggested 
 his remark, the state of things is already improved, simply in conse- 
 quence of the increasing demand for slack for manufactories. 
 
DURATION OF THE BRITISH COALFIELDS. 249 
 
 5. Improvement in the making of coal- bricks or 
 " patent fuel," * and 
 
 6. Last, but not least, the application of coal-cutting 
 machines, some of which appear to be verging close on 
 practical utility, will be the advent of a saving that may 
 give us years of prosperity. 
 
 A miserable sight it is too, to see a part of a seam, 
 the u roofs " or " benches," as the case may be, when a 
 parting becomes so thick, as to prevent the whole group 
 of beds from being conveniently worked together, aban- 
 doned and left uncared for, with the probability that 
 when the present generation has died out, there will be 
 no sign to show that there is still lying there, neglected, 
 a tract of what at some future day might offer a profit- 
 able working. And intolerable, again, it is to observe 
 corners and plots of ground sacrificed on account of the 
 inconvenient division of properties on the surface ; 
 when often the avarice or ineptness of some holder of 
 surface fields operates as a bar to the regular working 
 of colliery proprietors, and of course as an obstacle to 
 the development of the national store. 
 
 It appears hardly credible, when we consider how 
 easily these sources of sheer waste might be indicated 
 in the maps, and when we remember the uncertainty 
 and the danger to human life of approaching old 
 workings, that no arrangement has yet been made for 
 the registry and preservation of proper mining plans. 
 
 * The large proportion of small in the Belgian and French coal has led 
 the continental colliery proprietors and machinists to devote much at- 
 tention to the manufacture of briquettes or agglomeres, which, when well 
 made, meet with a large sale. Opinions at present vary as to the best 
 method of cementing the coal fragments, and much stress is laid on 
 the substitution, for pitch or tar, of farinaceous matter, as first, I 
 believe, practised at Fiinfkirchen in Hungary. 
 
250 COAL AND COAL MINING. 
 
 In no other country in Europe is there such a laxity in 
 a matter of vital importance to our successors. Under 
 the Inspection Act every colliery is bound to keep up 
 plans on a certain scale ; but how partial is the advan- 
 tage, when at the end of a lease the documents are sub- 
 ject to be lost or destroyed! And unless the Govern- 
 ment, on behalf of the nation, insists upon the deposi- 
 tion of duly guaranteed mining plans in a suitable 
 office, and lessors and lessees co-operate in rendering 
 available at a future day those tracts which the ex- 
 igencies of trade prevent us from turning to present 
 account, we remain open to the charge of an unworthy 
 stewardship of the riches which a bountiful Nature 
 has committed to our care. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Aberdare coals, rapid exhaustion of 
 the, 70 ; colliers' wages at, 236. 
 
 Accidents, from falls, 138, 226; hy 
 explosion, 145, 227 ; from breakage 
 of ropes, 172, 233 ; statistics of, 221. 
 
 America, coalfields of, 87. 
 
 Ansell, his fire-damp indicator, 200. 
 
 Anthracite, description of, 16. 
 
 Asia, coal in, 98. 
 
 Asterophyllites, description of, 3JJ. 
 
 Australia*, coalfields of, 101. 
 
 Austria, coal of, 84. 
 
 Belgium, coalfield of, 76 ; deep pits in, 
 
 246. 
 
 Bituminous coals, 17. 
 Blasting of coal, 129, 235. 
 Bord-gates, or up-hills, 126. 
 Bords, dimensions of, 131. 
 Boring, methods and expense of, 105. 
 Boty's safety-lamp, 198. 
 Brown coal, 19. 
 Buckei-lifts of pumps, 178. 
 Buddie, his improvements, 133. 
 
 Cages, for shafts, 162, 172. 
 Cafcing-coal, 17. 
 Calamite, description of, 32. 
 Calow's safety cage, 173. 
 Cambois pit, engine at, 184, 189. 
 Candles, pit-, 191. 
 
 Carboniferous limestone, 40, 68, 71. 
 
 Carriage, underground, 146. 
 
 Chaudron, his mode of tubbing, 119. 
 
 China, early use of coal in, 100. 
 
 Clanny's lamp, 193. 
 
 Cleat of coal, 25. 
 
 Coal, old meaning of the word, 1 
 employed by the Romans, 2; in 
 crease of consumption consequen 
 on use of hot-blast, 10 ; statistics o 
 Great Britain, 13; absence of re 
 
 ceived definition of, 15; varieties 
 of, 16 ; geological position of, 20 ; 
 cutting and getting of, 129; car- 
 riage of, underground, 146 ; dura- 
 tion of, in Britain, 237 ; great amount 
 wasted, 244, 248. 
 
 Coalfields, of Durham and Northum- 
 berland, 45 ; Cumberland, 49 ; Scot- 
 land, 52 ; Yorkshire and Derbyshire, 
 55 ; Lancashire, 56 ; North Stafford- 
 shire, 58; Shropshire, 60; South 
 Staffordshire, 61 ; Warwickshire, 62 ; 
 Leicestershire, 63 ; Bristol and 
 Bath, 64 ; Forest of Dean, 67 ; 
 South Wales, 68; Ireland, 71; 
 France, 72, 241; Belgium, 75; 
 Prussia, 78; Austria, 84; British 
 North America, 87; the United 
 States, 89 ; Asia, 98 ; Australia, 101. 
 Colliery workings of the North, 131 ; 
 Lancashire, 134; other districts, 
 135_U6. 
 
 Coniferse of the coal, 33. 
 Conveyance underground, 146. 
 Creep, destruction of coal by, 132. 
 Curr, of Sheffield, his improvements 
 
 in conveyance, &c., 147, 164. 
 Cutting of "coal, 127. 
 
 Darby, Abraham, succeeds in smelting 
 iron with coal, 7. 
 
 Davy, his invention of the safety- 
 lamp, 193. 
 
 De"gousee, his boring operations, 107. 
 
 Depth, of pits, at Dukinfield, 58 ; in 
 Belgium, 76, 246 ; of boreholes, 107. 
 
 Drawing of coal in shafts, 159 ; ex 
 amples of, 163. 
 
 Drum, for winding, 169 ; Fowler's, 15b. 
 
 Dubrulle's lamp, 196. 
 
 Dudley coal, getting of, 136. 
 
 Duration of the coalfields, 237. 
 
252 
 
 LNDEX. 
 
 Durham, coalfield of, 45; mode of 
 
 working in, 131. 
 Duty, of steam-engir.es, 185, 187. 
 
 Eloin's safety-lamps, 200. 
 
 Engine planes, 157. 
 
 Engines, for winding, 162; pumping 
 
 184. 
 
 England, coalfields of, 4567. 
 Exports of coal from Britain, 13. 
 
 Faces of coal, 25. 
 
 Fahrkunst, 175, 246. 
 
 Falls, fatal results of, 138, 226. 
 
 Faults, or troubles, 24; of the Northern 
 
 coalfield, 48. 
 
 Ferns of the coal measures, 34. 
 Fire-damp, 204, 227. 
 Flintshire, section of upper coals, 121. 
 Fontaine's safety-cage, 173. 
 Fourdrinier's safety-cage, 172. 
 Fowey Consols, duty of engine at, 187 
 Fowler's clip-drum, uses of, 156. 
 France, coalfields of, 72, 129, 138, 241. 
 Free-burning coal, 16, 70. 
 Furnace for ventilation, 207. 
 
 Ganister floor, 26. 
 
 Gas, introduction of, 8 ; early proposal 
 to utilise, 51 ; various kinds in coal- 
 pits, 203. 
 
 Gin, horse-, 160. 
 
 Grand Hornu colliery, 168, 169. 
 
 Greenwell, Mr., on the Durham coal 
 239. 
 
 Guibal's fans, 211. 
 
 Guides, or conductors, in shafts, 164. 
 
 Hall, Mr. T. Y., on the Northern coal- 
 field, 239. 
 Halonia, 32. 
 
 Head-stocks, 170; of iron, 171. 
 Hetton colliery, furnaces at, 208. 
 Holing the coal, 127. 
 Hot-blast, introduction of, 9. 
 Hull, Mr. E., on -coal resources, 240. 
 
 India, coalfield of, 99. 
 
 Inspection, the Government, 222, 249. 
 
 Jars, M., his account of the White- 
 haven collieries, 51. 
 
 Keene, Mr., statements on Australian 
 
 coals, 102. 
 Kind, Herr, his modes of boring, 107. 
 
 Lamps, 190 ; safety, 193. 
 
 Lancashire, coalfield of, 56 ; modes of 
 working in, 134. 
 
 Lemielle's ventilator, 213. 
 
 Lepidodendron, description of, 30. 
 
 Levels, driving of, 121 ; inclinat on 
 of, 125. 
 
 Lifting-pumps, 178. 
 
 Lignite, description of, 19; of Ger- 
 many and Hungary, 83, 85. 
 
 Llanelly, upper coals of, 69, 
 
 Long-wall working, 139. 
 
 Main beam of engines, 188. 
 
 Man-engine, 175, 246. 
 
 Marco Polo, his account of coal, 100. 
 
 Millstone grit, 40. 
 
 Mollusca of the coal measures, 39. 
 
 Monkwearmouth colliery, 46, 163, lt>5. 
 
 Montceau, working thick coal at, 138. 
 
 Mueseler's lamp, 199. 
 
 Murdock, early use of ga.s, 9 
 
 Mush^t, discoverer of black-bond, 11. 
 
 Navigation pit, Aberdare, 130, 164. 
 New Brunswick, coal of, 87, 
 Newcastle, early workings at, 2 ; coal- 
 field of, 45; its probable duration, 239. 
 Newcomer., his atmospheric engines, 
 
 Nixon's ventilator, 211. 
 Nova Scotia, coal of, 87. 
 Nyst's safety-cages, 173. 
 
 Drigin of coal, 41. 
 Dverwinding, accidents by, 171 
 Owen's safety-cage, 175, 176 
 
 Japin, inventor of the piston, 6. 
 3 arachutes, or safety-cages, 172. 
 3 ennsylvania, coal trade of, 92. 
 Pick, varieties of, 126. 
 Pillar working, 130, 133, 135, 137. 
 'ittsburg, fine seam of, 91. 
 'lanes, engine-, in collieries, 157. 
 Plans, neglect of registration of, 234, 
 
 lants of the coal-measures, 29, 
 Plunger pumps, 181. 
 ^ost and stall work, 130. 
 'otteries coalfield, 59. 
 'rice of coals high in Belgium, 78, 
 
 and in France, 75. 
 
 Russia, important coalfields of, 78, 82. 
 3 ulley-frames, 170. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 253 
 
 Putnping of water, 176 ; engines, 184. 
 
 Rails, first employed by the Germans, 
 
 14b ; improved bv Curr and others, 
 
 147. 
 
 Raising in shafts, 159. 
 Reporting of steam-engines, 186. 
 Reptiles of the coal period, 38. 
 Roads, underground, 125, 142, 147, 
 
 157. 
 Rogers, Prof., his account of American 
 
 coalfields, 89. 
 
 Roof of coals, 26 ; accidents from, 226. 
 Ropes, 168. 
 Russia, coal-measures of, 85. 
 
 Saarbriick, important coalfield of, 79. 
 
 Safety-cages, 172. 
 
 Safety-lamps, 193 ; where necessary, 
 201 ; rules for use of, 231. 
 
 Savery, his engine, 5, 
 
 Saxony, coal of, 83. 
 
 Scotland, coalfields of, 52. 
 
 Scottish iron trade, 11. 
 
 Seams, variation in thickness, 27, 67. 
 
 Seaton Delaval colliery, 161, 171, 231. 
 
 Shafts, form of, 109; difficulties of 
 sinking, 110; lining of, 111; tub- 
 bing, 114 ; drawing in, 159 ; deepest 
 now working, 246. 
 
 Shireoaks Colliery, tubbing at, 118 ; 
 winding, 168. 
 
 Sigillaria, description of, 29 ; forming 
 chief mass of certain coals, 83. 
 
 Silesia> coalfields of, 81. 
 
 South America, coal of, 103. 
 
 Spain, coal production of, 85. 
 
 Staffordshire coalfields, 58, 61 ; work- 
 ings in, 136. 
 
 Statistics of coal production in Britain, 
 13; of Northern coalfield, 49; of 
 coals of Scotland, 54 ; of the cen- 
 tral English fields, 63 ; of Prussia, 
 82.; United States, 95 ; Saxony, 84; 
 of accidents in coal mines, 221. 
 
 Steam-engines, invention of, 5 ; under- 
 ground, 158 ; for winding, 162. 
 
 Steam-jet for ventilation, 214. 
 
 Steel mill, of Spedding, 192. 
 
 Stephenson's safety-lamp, 196. 
 
 Sternbergia, 33. 
 
 Stigmaria, description of, 30. 
 
 Struve's ventilator, 209. 
 
 Temperature of upcast pits, 208; of 
 mines, 245. 
 
 Ten-yard coal of Dudley, 61. 
 
 Thick coal, of South Staffordshire, 61, 
 136 ; of central France, 74, 138. 
 
 Thickness of coal-measures in South 
 Wales, 69 ; in Saarbriick, 80. 
 
 Thill, or floor of coal-seams, 25. 
 
 Thin coals worked in Somersetshire, 
 65, 142. 
 
 Timbering of levels, &c., 124. 
 
 Tresavean, example of pit-work, 182. 
 
 Trevi thick, his improvements in boil- 
 ers, 186. 
 
 Triger, his mode of sinking in watery 
 ground, 113. 
 
 Tubbing of shafts, methods of, 114. 
 
 Tubs, or trams, in collieries, 152. 
 
 Turkey, coalfield in Asiatic, 98. 
 
 United States, coalfields of, 89; pro- 
 duction of, 95. 
 
 Ventilating-machines, 209. 
 Ventilation, 202, 228; spontaneous, 
 205; artificial, 206. 
 
 Wages, rate of colliers', 235, 243. 
 Wales, North, coalfield of, 121. 
 Wales, South, coalfield of, 68 ; modes 
 
 of working in, 135, 143. 
 Water-balance, for raising coal, 161. 
 Watt's engines, 185. 
 Wealden coal, in Germany, 81. 
 Westphalia, coalfield of, 79, 82 ; stone 
 
 tubbing in, 119. 
 Whitehaven collieries, 50 ; dam doors 
 
 in, 228. 
 
 Winding of coal, 159. 
 Windlass, raising of coal by, 159. 
 Winning of a colliery, 122. 
 Wood, Nicholas, on railways, 148, 154. 
 
 Yorkshire, method of working in, 145. 
 Zwickau, early workings at, 3. 
 
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 133. METALLURGY OF COPPER. By Dr. K. H. 
 
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