Young Dick Kempson sat all by himself in the dark, with a rope in his
hand, at the end of a narrow passage, close to a thick, heavy door.
There was a tramway along the passage, for small wagons or cars to run
on. It was very low and narrow, and led to a long distance. Young Dick
did not like to think how far. It was not built with brick or stone,
like a passage in a house, but was cut out; not through rock, but what
think you? through coal.
Young Dick was down a coal mine, more than one thousand feet below the
green fields and trees and roads and houses--not that there were many
green fields, by the bye, about there. The way down to the mine was by
a shaft, like a round well sunk straight down into the earth to where
the coal was known to be. Coal is found by boring, with an iron rod,
one piece screwed on above another, with a place in the end to bring up
the different sorts of earth it passes through. This shaft was more
than a thousand feet deep; some are still deeper. Most people have
heard of Saint Paul's, the highest church in England; just place three
such buildings one on the top of the other, and we have the depth down
which young Dick had to go every day to his work. In the bottom of this
shaft, main passages and cross passages ran off for miles and miles to
the chambers or places where men were digging out the coal.
The door near which Dick sat was called a trap, and Dick was called a
"trapper." His business was to open the trap when the little wagons
loaded with coal came by; pushed, or put, by boys who are therefore
called "putters." They bring the coal from the place where the hewers
are at work to the main line, where it is hoisted up on the rolleys, or
wagons, to be carried to the foot of the shaft. Dick was eleven years
old, but he was small of his age, and he did not know much. How should
he? He had passed twelve hours of every six days in the week, for three
years of his short life, under ground, in total darkness. He had two
candles, but one lasted him only while he passed from the shaft to his
trap, and the other to go back again. He had begun to trap at seven
years old, and went on for two years, and then the good Lord Shaftesbury
got a law made that no little boys under ten years of age should work in
mines; and so he got a year above ground. During that time he went to a
school, but he did not learn much, as it was a very poor one.
When he was ten years old, he had to go into the mine again; he had now
been there every day for a year. He had heard talk of ghosts and
spirits; and some of the bigger boys had told him that there was a great
black creature, big enough to fill up all the passage, and that he had
carried off a good many of the little chaps, once upon a time, no one
knew where, only they had never come back again. Poor little Dick
thought that he too might be carried away some day.
Often while he sat there, all alone in the dark, he trembled from head
to foot, as he heard strange sounds, cries and groans it seemed. Was it
the spirits of the boys carried off, or was it the monster coming to
take him away? He dared not run away, he dared not even move. He had
been there nine hours, with a short time for meals, when his father had
come for him, and he would have to be three more, to earn his tenpence a
day. It was Saturday, no wonder that he was sleepy, and, in spite of
his fears of ghosts and hobgoblins, that he dropped asleep. He had been
dreaming of the black creature he had been told of. He thought he saw
him creeping, creeping towards him. He felt a heavy blow on his head.
He shrieked out, he thought that it was the long expected monster come
to carry him off. It was only Bill Hagger, the putter, with his corve,
or basket of coals. An oath came with the blow, and further abuse.
Poor little Dick dared not complain. He would only cry and pull open
his door, and shut it again directly Bill was through.
Bill Hagger was black enough, all covered with coal-dust; but still it
was better to have a cuff from him than to be carried off by the big
creature, he did not know where, still deeper down into the earth. So
he dried the tears which were dropping from his eyes and forming black
mud on his cheeks, and tried to keep awake till the next putter and his
loaded corve should come by, or Bill Hagger should return with his empty
one.
Bill had not far to go to reach the crane, where the corve would be
hoisted on the rolley, or wagon, to be dragged by a pony along the
rolley-way to the foot of the shaft. Dick wished that Bill had farther
to go, because he was pretty certain to give him a cuff or kick in
passing, just to remind him to look out sharp the next time. There was
another thing he wished, that it was time for "kenner," when his father
would come and take him home to his mother. What "kenner" means, we
shall know by-and-by.
I said that there were miles and miles of these rolley or main-tramways.
This one was two miles straight, right away from the shaft. As the air
in mines gets foul and close, and does not move, it is necessary to send
currents of wind into all the passages to blow it away. The first thing
is to get the wind to come down the shaft, and then to make it move
along certain passages and so up by another shaft. Only a small
quantity of wind can come down, and if that was let wander about at
pleasure, it would do no good. So these traps or doors are used to stop
it from going along some passages, and to make it go along others, till
the bad air is blown out of them. To help this, a large furnace is
placed at the bottom of the second shaft, called the up-cast shaft,
because the foul air is cast up it.
There are several ways of working mines. This one was worked in
squares, or on the panel system. The main roads are like the frame of a
window; the passages like the wood dividing the panes of glass; and the
masses of coal which remain at first like the panes themselves. These
masses are again cut into, till pillars only remain about twelve feet by
twenty-four. These pillars are at last removed, and props of wood
placed instead, so that the whole mine is worked-out.
The men who do the chief work in the mine, that is, cut out the coal
from the bed or seam, are the "hewers." Dick's father was a hewer.
They have only two tools--a short pick, and a round-bladed spade; with a
big basket, or "corve," into which they put the coal, and a gauze-wire
lantern. Suppose a passage first cut; then they hew out chambers on
either side, each about twelve feet wide. The roof of them is propped
up as the hewer works on, till all the coal likely to fall is hewn away.
The hewer's work is very hard; sometimes he kneels, sometimes sits, and
sometimes has to lie on his back or side, knocking away with his heavy
pick. Often he is bathed in wet from the heat, for it is very hot down
in that black chamber, as the wind cannot pass through it.
In some places, where there is no fear of bad gas, and open lights can
be used, the coal is blasted by gunpowder, as rock often is. This,
however, cannot often be done; as the bad gas, called fire-damp, may
come up any moment, and if set light to, go off like gunpowder or the
gas from coal, and blow the chambers and everybody near to pieces.
The cut shows the form of these chambers when the mouth is just being
finished. These chambers are in a very wide seam; but some seams are
only three feet thick, and the men can in no part stand upright. When
all the chambers and passages are cut out in a panel, the pillars of
coal are removed, and pillars of wood put in their stead to support the
roof. Some of the main passages run on straight ahead for two miles
from the foot of the shaft, and the coal has to be brought all this
distance on the rolleys, dragged by ponies or horses sometimes. It
might puzzle some people to say how the animals are got down and up
again. They are let down in a strong net of ropes, and once down, they
do not after see daylight. There are regular stables for them cut out
of the coal at the bottom of the mine, and they seem to like the life,
for they grow sleek and fat.
In Wallford mine, in which little Dick worked, there were employed 250
grown men, 75 lads, and 40 young boys. The hewer's dress is generally a
flannel shirt and drawers, and a pair of stout trousers, a coarse
flannel waistcoat and coat, the last long with pockets, a pair of
broggers (worsted stockings without feet), and a leathern cap. These at
once get as black as coal-dust can make them.
There are different cranes on the rolley-ways, near the side cuttings,
and each is under charge of a lad, called a crane-hoister, whose
business is to hoist the baskets brought to him by the putters on to the
rolleys, and to chalk down the number he cranes on a board. When the
train of rolleys reaches the shaft, the full corves are hoisted up, and
empty ones let down, which are placed on the rolleys, and carried back
for the hewers to fill.
No spirits are allowed in mines, but as the heat and the work makes the
people thirsty, tubs of water are placed at intervals, at which they can
drink. In their long journeys, the putters stop to "bait," and are well
supplied with bread and cheese, and bacon, and cold coffee or tea.
The miner has not only to fear choke or fire-damp, but sometimes water.
A mine has, therefore, to be drained. A well or tank is dug in the
lowest level, into which all the springs are made to run. A pump is
sunk down to it through a shaft with a steam engine above, by which all
the water is pumped out.
It may be seen that the working of a mine requires the very greatest
care. If this is not taken, the roof may fall in and crush the
labourers; or fire-damp may explode and blow them to pieces, and perhaps
set fire to the mine itself and destroy it; or black or choke-damp may
suffocate them, as the fumes of charcoal do; or water may rush in and
drown them. A lamp, invented by a very learned man, Sir Humphrey Davy,
is used when there is a risk of fire-damp. It is closely surrounded
with very fine wire-gauze, through which neither the flame of the candle
nor the gas can pass, yet the light can get out almost as well as
through the horn of a common lantern.
Before any workmen are allowed to go into the pit in the morning,
certain officers, called "over-men" and "deputies," go down through
every part that is being worked, to see that all is safe. If anything
is wrong, or doubtful, the inspecting deputy places a shovel across the
place, or chalks a warning on the blade and sticks it in the ground,
that it may be seen by the hewer. As soon as they have found the mine
safe, the hewers come down and begin their work; and when they have had
time to fill a corve or so, they are followed by the putters and other
labourers. Sometimes it is necessary to work all the twenty-four hours,
and then the people are divided into three gangs, who each work eight
hours; but the poor little trappers are divided only into two parties,
who have each to be down in the mine twelve hours together, sitting all
alone by the side of their traps, like poor little Dick, in the dark.