means of a steel chisel fastened into wooden rods, which were screwed
together. The boring tool one day became broken at the bottom of the
hole. All kinds of grappling implements were lowered to take hold of
it, but none of them succeeded. The chisel seemed to be firmly lodged
at the bottom, and resisted every attempt to withdraw it. After six
months of effort the work was abandoned. One of the parties interested
offered to subscribe half a million francs to be given to any one who
would invent an instrument that could withdraw the chisel.
Several days after the abandonment of the enterprise, the foreman
of the work mounted the staging and made another effort to raise
the broken tool. The whole power of the steam engine was exerted in
pulling the ends of the rods, when suddenly the rope gave way. The
man’s hand was caught and crushed between the rod and one of the
planks through which it passed. He stood there and shouted to the man
to saw off the rod in order to release him. Then holding the remains
of the ruined hand in the uninjured one, he walked to Creuzot, three
miles away, and without uttering a word of complaint, underwent
amputation at the wrist.
[Sidenote: TUBBING A SHAFT.]
After the coal is discovered, whether through surface indications or
by borings, the preliminary working begins by means of a shaft and
levels. Generally the first step is to sink a shaft or pit. When the
ground is soft, the pit must be walled with brick, stone, or timber,
as fast as the descent is made. When the pit is sunk through limestone
and sandstone, the progress is slow, but the walls sustain themselves,
and do not require either masonry or timbering. A great inconvenience
in sinking a shaft arises from springs and small streams of water. In
many places where this inconvenience occurs, the shaft is fitted with
a wooden lining, or tubbing, as it is called, which is made of thick
staves somewhat resembling those of casks, the joints being carefully
fitted, in order to keep out all water, and to withstand great
pressure. Sometimes this tubbing is made of iron, wrought or cast.
Where the ground is loose, or composed of sand and water, the tubbing
is forced down from the top, or sinks by its own weight. When this
tubbing consists of masonry, it is built in a circle at the surface,
and as fast as the earth is removed the masonry sinks. A fresh circle
is added at the surface, and thus the work goes on. It was in this way
that Brunel constructed the shafts which formed the descent into the
Thames Tunnel. Sometimes shafts are sunk under water, and in such case
they are lowered in a perpendicular position until the ends strike
the bottom, and then the water is pumped out. An ingenious apparatus
raises the mud from the bottom, and a pump is kept at work to remove
the water.
Sometimes, in sinking a shaft through quicksand, the water runs in
faster than any ordinary mode of drainage will remove it. M. Triger,
an ingenious Frenchman, invented a machine by which the water could be
pumped out. The cylinders of iron were five or six feet in diameter,
and he divided them into three compartments, as nearly air-tight as
possible. He forced compressed air into the lower one, and enclosed
the workman inside. The man was thus in a sort of diving-bell.
The compressed air, being forced against the bottom of the shaft,
prevented the great mass of water from filtering through the sand. The
small quantity which filtered in was, by the force of the compressed
air, driven through the sand pipe communicating with the surface.
“Imagine an army of mice,” the inventor graphically said to M.
Simonin, “and a cat suddenly to make her appearance, and you would
have the picture of water reaching the bottom of our shafts through a
thousand holes in the ground, if the presence of the air is lowered,
and returning suddenly to the surface as soon as the air recovers its
tension.”
The rubbish and running sands are removed in buckets by hand, or by
means of a rope passing through a pulley. Trapdoors communicate from
one stage to the other, by means of which the buckets are removed
without any serious loss of the compressed air. Shafts may be sunk
through quicksands in this way to a depth of eighty or one hundred
feet without difficulty. The laborers who pass their time in the
compressed air work as easily as in the open atmosphere. Some of them,
however, cannot remain there long, especially if they have the drum
of the ear very delicate, or are in the habit of drinking to excess.
The pressure of air in the chambers rarely exceeds three or four
atmospheres.
[Sidenote: AN INGENIOUS APPARATUS.]
This apparatus is frequently used for laying the foundation of bridges
in the beds of rivers, where there are deep quicksands. The famous
bridge of Kehl, near Strasbourg, was constructed in this way, and the
engineers say that without some such apparatus the construction of the
bridge would have been impossible.
If a shaft has been sunk and properly supported,—that is to say,
timbered or walled,—it is generally divided into compartments. The
shafts are generally from fifteen to twenty feet in diameter, and
consequently there is plenty of space for dividing them. One of the
compartments will serve for the tubs, cages, or buckets, in which
the coal is raised. Another is for pumps to draw off the water, and
sometimes where the miners go up and down by ladders a compartment is
made especially for them.
[Sidenote: LEGAL NECESSITIES.]
In all cases one compartment in the shaft serves as an air-way or
chimney, whether the draft is free or not. In some countries the law
requires that there shall be more than one shaft, or opening, to
every mine, while in other countries no such law exists. Many of the
owners of mines are abandoning the single shaft system, and gradually
supplying their mines with more than one entrance. Many terrible
accidents, accompanied by a great loss of life, might have been
avoided had the mines been constructed with more than one entrance
or shaft. A striking example of this is in the terrible calamity at
Avondale, a few years ago. The most approved arrangement of shafts for
a large mine where there is explosive gas, and where water is to be
pumped, is to sink one shaft for the pumps, another for raising coals,
and a third for ventilation. At the bottom of the third one a large
furnace is always kept burning.
In some of the mines there may be half a dozen shafts. Those through
which the coal is drawn are called the winding pits, those where the
pumps are fitted are called pumping pits, those where the men go up
and down, are called labor shafts, and those for the passage of air
are known as air shafts.
In many mining regions there is a class of pits that have been
abandoned in consequence of the coal beneath being worked out.
Sometimes these pits are made use of for purposes of ventilation.
Proper care is not always taken of these abandoned holes, and they
form dangerous precipices, through which a careless person may easily
fall and be killed. Strangers strolling in the vicinity of mines
occasionally step into these shafts and disappear, to be seen no more
alive.
IV.
ACCIDENTS IN SHAFTS.
ADVENTURE OF THE AUTHOR DESCENDING A SHAFT.—A MINUTE OF
PERIL.—LIFTED THROUGH A SHAFT BY ONE LEG.—A COLLISION IN
MID-AIR.—SENSATIONS OF THE DESCENT.—A MINER’S VIEWS OF
DANGER.—PICTURESQUE SCENE AT A DESCENT.—OFFERING PRAYERS.—SCENE
AT A RUSSIAN MINE.—SAFETY CAGES.—THEIR CONSTRUCTION.—A LUDICROUS
INCIDENT.—HOW A MAN FAILED TO KEEP AN ENGAGEMENT.—DOWN IN THE SALT
MINES OF POLAND.—A PERILOUS DESCENT.—“PLENTY MORE MEN.”—ACCIDENT
NEAR SCRANTON.—“PUTTERS.”—HOW GIRLS WERE USED IN SCOTLAND.—MAN
ENGINES.—THE LEVELS.—AN ACCIDENT CAUSED BY RATS.—THRILLING AND
FATAL ADVENTURE OF TWO PENNSYLVANIA MINERS.—A FEARFUL FALL OF
ROOF.—CARRYING A DYING COMRADE TOWARD THE LIGHT OF DAY.—EIGHT
HOURS OF MORTAL AGONY.
My first journey down the shaft of a mine had of course a novelty
about it, and also partook of the sensational.
It was not a coal mine into which I descended, but a copper mine. We
stepped into a basket suspended by a hempen rope, and our conductor
gave the signal to start. The engineer slacked away the rope somehow,
and we descended rapidly. It seemed to me very much like falling out
of a balloon.
I never have fallen out of a balloon, and therefore cannot say
positively whether the sensation was like it or not. I have been up in
a balloon, and the sensation of going rapidly upward through the air
is very much like that of going rapidly downward into the earth.
Down, down, down we went; and though the time was short, it seemed to
me pretty long. I had heard that there was generally at the bottom of
the shaft of a mine a pool of water, which is called, in technical
language, a “sump.”
I had a suspicion that we might be plunged into it, and asked our
conductor if there was any danger.
“O, no danger at all!” he replied. “All that can happen to you is,
that if you get into the sump you will get drenched; and then, if you
do not like it, you can be drawn to the surface so rapidly, that every
thread on you will be dried out again.”
This proposed process of wetting and drying did not please me, and I
intimated an emphatic hope that the engineer knew his business, and
would stop at the proper time.
The descent was not quite eight hundred feet, but it seemed to me at
least eight thousand. Every little while we passed a hole, through
which the light glimmered, and we could see, though only for the
instant, into the various portions of the mine. In one place, a miner
was standing at the end of a level, and standing, too, very carelessly
on the edge, and we narrowly escaped brushing him off. Had we brushed
against him, and thrown him from his perch to the bottom, he would not
have been worth three cents a pound after being picked up.
When we reached the bottom, the basket was in a sort of basin, with a
flooring of plank just even with its edge. Miners were standing there
with lanterns in their hands, or with candles stuck into their hats,
and they assisted us to scramble off.
[Sidenote: HOISTED BY A LEG.]
We had sufficient time to get out—or seemed to have; but one of the
party, who had crouched to the bottom of the basket, was a long time
gathering his limbs together, and picking himself up. He did not pick
up fast enough. The engineer waited what he thought was a proper time
for us to get out, and then the basket began to move upward just as
the dilatory man was putting a leg over its side. As the basket moved
up, he was partly in and partly outside, and there was a prospect of
witnessing a very pretty accident on his account.
He was a distinguished stranger, and it would never do to have a
person of his prominence killed there. Our conductor seized the
signal-rope and gave it a violent pull, which caused the engineer to
send the basket back again, and wait until everything was ready. The
dilatory visitor scrambled out of the basket, and gave a sigh of
relief when he stood upon the planking.
[Sidenote: IN THE SHAFT OF A MINE.]
The shaft of a mine is a very good place for accidents. Many of
these occur from the carelessness of the miner, or the engineers,
and sometimes from their incompetency. By the old system, baskets or
buckets were raised or lowered by the winding or unwinding of a rope.
Of late years, a cage, travelling in guides, is used, which is much
safer than the old system. The miners are careless in consequence of
their long acquaintance with the mines. Familiarity breeds contempt,
with dangers as with everything else.
The first descent into a mine generally raises the pulse, and very
often seriously alarms the visitor. The miners will stand carelessly
on the edge of a bucket; but the strangers generally seat themselves
at the bottom, and it is sometimes necessary to turn the bucket upside
down on reaching the floor of the mine before they can be induced to
come out.
The shaft always appears smaller than it really is on account of the
darkness. It is never well lighted, and very often the glimmer of the
lamps is just sufficient to make darkness visible.
Visitors are always subjects of merriment to the miners. They show
more or less fear in all their movements, especially in ascending
and descending; but the miners go up and down the shaft laughing and
talking, just as the soldier goes under fire and faces the storms of
bullets.
The sight of the miners going down is a curious one. The men stand
ready around the mouth of the shaft, and at the sound of the bell they
crowd into the tubs or cages, or go down the ladders. Their voices can
be heard a moment, and then they gradually become fainter and fainter,
till lost in the distance. In some mines on the continent of Europe,
prayers are offered by the miners before going down; in most mines,
however, this is neglected, but many of the men cross themselves on
leaving the upper air, and breathe a short prayer to St. Barbe, the
great patron saint of the miners.
It is interesting to note the sudden pause in the conversation, to see
the hands making the sign of the cross, the lips of the hardy miners
moving, and then, a moment after, to hear them break forth again, and
talking as merrily as ever.
I remember, on one occasion, visiting a mine in Russia, where the
men gathered at the mouth of the pit seemed engaged in some sort of
a dispute. Their voices were loud, and many of the tones were angry.
Suddenly a bell was sounded, and in an instant every cap was removed,
and every man went through the Russian ceremonial of crossing himself.
This ceremony over, caps were restored to the heads of the owners, and
the conversation was resumed as loudly and excitedly as ever.
I have seen a soldier standing at his post, as a sentry, when the bell
sounded, or the gun was fired, telling the hour of sunset. As the flag
descended from the staff, the soldier supported his musket with his
left arm, while with his right hand he performed the ceremonial which
had been taught him by the church.
The shaft is frequently called the miners’ tomb; and it is said that
the Belgians have intentionally named it The Grave (_La Fosse_).
In some mines, so many accidents have occurred in the shaft, that the
men never enter it without fear. Great improvements have been made
in the mode of ascending or descending, and at the present day the
apparatus is considered nearly perfect.
The first improvement for the protection of men ascending and
descending, was to cover the tubs with a roof, or bonnet, so that
falling materials would injure nobody. Besides this, the heads of
the men are shielded by hats made of sheet iron or stout leather.
An indicator is kept in front of the engine man, so that he knows
precisely the position of the tub; and if there are two tubs in the
shaft, one ascending and the other descending, he may know when
they pass on their way. In some coal mines the tubs or cages are
double-decked, and some of them have four tiers or decks.
[Illustration: MINERS DESCENDING A SHAFT.]
[Sidenote: SAFETY CAGES.]
The greatest improvement is in the use of safety cages. These consist
literally of cages with a strong top to protect the persons inside
against the stone or other falling substances, and with wooden guides
at the side with which the roller wheels of the cages come in contact.
If anything falls, the top of the cage protects the men. If the rope
breaks, a spring above the cage is set free, and catches in the guide,
bringing the cage to a stand-still suddenly. A great many accidents
have been prevented by this contrivance.
Some of the safety cages, instead of wooden guides at the sides, are
provided with long, stout strips of cast or wrought iron. If the rope
breaks, a spring at the top is suddenly thrown out, and catches in
one of these notches. Safety cages of an improved pattern are in use
in many of the principal hotels of America, as well as in mines. They
have been manufactured comparatively but a few years. Soon after the
Gould and Curry mine, in Nevada, was opened, one of these cages was
placed in the principal shaft. The owners of the mine were doubtful of
its powers, and the owner of the machine set about convincing them.
When everything was ready, he loaded the cage with a ton of stone,
then stepped on its top, and standing there suspended several hundred
feet above the bottom, he deliberately cut the rope. A shudder ran
through the crowd of spectators who were standing around; but their
terror was of short duration. The stout springs were thrown out, and
the cage did not descend six inches, after the severance of the rope,
before it came to a stop.
Ludicrous incidents sometimes occur in these hoisting machines. In
one of the hotels in New York, not many months ago, the machinery
one day became deranged while the elevator was in use. It was full
of passengers, and was between two floors in such a way that nobody
could get in or out. It required an hour and a half to arrange the
machinery, and in this hour and a half a dozen persons were closely
confined in the cage. Such a combination of growls was never before
heard in so small a space at one time in that hotel.
It was about half past two o’clock in the afternoon when the elevator
stopped. One man had a note to pay before three o’clock. He did not
pay it. One lady in the elevator had left a friend in the parlor,
and promised to be down again in five minutes, “as soon as she could
arrange her bonnet.” She did not keep her promise with her friend.
Another man was very thirsty, and was on his way to his room to
order up a drink. His thirst continued. And so through all the dozen
persons who were detained in the elevator. Every one had an important
engagement, or a special reason for being in a hurry, when hurrying
was of no earthly use.
In some of the mines of Europe there are neither safety cages, tubs,
nor baskets. At the salt mines of Wieliczka, in Austrian Poland, the
miners go down at the end of a long rope, to which several loops are
fastened. Each loop has a band across it to support the back. The
miner seats himself in one of these loops, leans against the band to
support his back, clings to the rope with one hand, and holds his
candle in the other. Half a dozen men form a bunch in this way, and
sometimes there is another bunch above them. At a little distance the
groups very much resemble a living chandelier. Not only miners, but
visitors, are lowered in this way, and the descent is very trying to a
nervous person.
[Sidenote: “PLENTY OF MEN.”]
A traveller who went into the Wieliczka mines in this way says he
asked if men did not sometimes fall out of the loops. “O, yes,”
replied the person addressed; “but this is of no consequence. Men are
abundant about here, and when one is killed there is always somebody
ready to take his place.”
[Sidenote: FALLING DOWN A SHAFT.]
Until quite recently,—that is, until the introduction of the safety
cages,—accidents from collisions were quite common. Sometimes two tubs
of coal are fastened to a rope, not one above the other, but side by
side. One day, at a Belgian mine, where they were accustomed to send
up the coal in this way, as two men were going down the shaft in a
bucket, they came in collision with the ascending coal. Both men were
standing, one of them holding the lamp and the other clinging to the
chains. The shock of the collision unhooked their tub, and they were
left, three hundred feet from the bottom, holding on to the rope. This
shock caused the ascending coal buckets to tilt, and large blocks of
coal were thrown out and fell down the shaft. They clung convulsively
to the rope, and by a marvellous piece of good fortune, neither of
them was injured. They reached the termination of their journey, and
the instant that they touched the bottom of the shaft both of them
fainted.
Just as one of the same men, at another time, was getting ready to
go up the shaft, the engineer started the rope too suddenly. The tub
was partly overturned, and the man, with one leg hanging in the tub
and with his head downwards, was hoisted nearly a hundred feet up the
shaft. By this time an alarm was raised, and they managed to stop the
engine and bring the miner back again.
In mines where there are several shafts, there is generally a positive
rule against the miners ascending through the pits where the coal is
raised. The rule, however, is frequently disregarded, and sometimes
the disobedience of the men leads to their death. Occasionally, when
the miner is ascending in this way, a lump of coal falls upon and
seriously injures or kills him.
At one of the mines near Scranton, not long ago, two miners were
ascending in this way, and a block of stone fell from the wall,
killing one of them, and injuring the other so that he lived but a
few days. In some of the English mines they used to have a system of
descent something like the Polish one. Two men were side by side, each
of them passing a leg through an iron chain, which was fastened to a
rope, and formed a seat. Accidents in this mode of descent frequently
occurred, sometimes from carelessness, and sometimes from a man coming
in contact with some unexpected obstacle. This mode is never used at
the present day, excepting in very shallow pits. Frequently the man
would be thrown to the bottom of the shaft and dashed to pieces, full
in the sight of his terrified companions, who could not render the
least assistance.
In old times coal was taken out of the mines, not by means of hoisting
apparatus, but by bearers. Carrying a staff, and with their feet bare,
they were obliged every day to carry a certain number of loads up the
inclined road leading to the surface, supporting their burdens on the
staff while stopping to rest. The roads were slippery and rough, and
the employment was very dangerous.
In some English and Scotch mines, and also in some of the French
mines, where the seams of coal are thin, boys, who are called
“putters,” are employed to draw small carts along a railway. They
fasten themselves to the cart with belts around their waists, and draw
it along, going sometimes on their hands and feet where the road is
wet and rough. Sometimes one of them pulls the cart while the other
pushes it. In some of the Scotch mines girls formerly performed this
work; but of late the laws do not allow women to work under ground.
[Sidenote: GIRLS IN SCOTCH MINES.]
Girls used to carry on their backs a basket fastened to a leather
strap which passed around their foreheads. A lamp was attached to
the strap, and in this way they carried their loads up the long
ladders and through the inclines, sometimes a distance of several
hundred feet. If a strap broke, a block of coal fell, or a bearer
missed her footing, those below were seriously hurt, and many fatal
accidents occurred. This primitive mode of raising coal was abolished
by law. The owners of the mines had become so careless in regard to
the management of their laborers that the government was obliged to
interfere.
[Illustration: COAL SEAMS
A CREEP AND THURST
WOMAN DRAGGING COAL
THE TRAPPER BOY
OLD WOMEN AT WORK
CHILDREN PICKING UP
MINER AT WORK
MINER AT WORK
THE STABLE
PUTTERS AT WORK
SECTIONS OF AN ENGLISH COAL MINE.]
For the past forty or fifty years movable ladders have been used in
many mines both in Europe and America, though less extensively in this
country than in the former. In England they are called “man-engines,”
and are constructed on a principle of reciprocal motion of two
parallel rods. The rods are placed about fifteen inches apart, and
steps and handles are so arranged as to be at about the ordinary
height of a man. By the action of the steam engine one of the rods is
raised to a certain height, while the other is lowered for the same
distance. During the movement of the crank over its turning point,
the miner goes from the step on which he stands to the opposite step.
Another stroke of the engine is made, and the rod moves in the
opposite direction, and is followed by a fresh movement of the miner.
Whether he goes up or down, the man rises or descends without any
fatigue, and the journey is made in a very short time.
Many of these engines have been abandoned for the safety cage. The
rate at which the men were lifted by them was seventy-two feet a
minute, or a little less time than would be required for ascending by
the rope. Another machine in use in Belgium and France is a single
rod, and in place of the steps there are fixed platforms holding two
men each. The length of stroke of the machine is about nine feet, and
it will make twelve or fifteen strokes a minute.
[Sidenote: MOVABLE LADDER.]