ADDLE, ADLE. — To earn.

ADDLINGS, ADLINGS. — Earnings.

ADIT. — A drift commonly waterlevel, driven into a mine from a hillside, a grove.

A-FORCE. — To hole a board into an adjoining board unintentionally. (See Pillar).

AFTER-DAMP. — (See Choke-damp).

AGREEMENT. — (See Bond).

AIR. — The current of air circulating through and ventilating a mine.

AIR-BOX. — A square wooden tube used to convey air into the face of a single drift, or shaft in sinking. It ought not to be less, if required of considerable length, than one foot square inside, and may be made larger with advantage.

AIRWAY. — A passage along which the current of air travels.

AMAIN. — "Waggons or tubs are said to run amain, if they get by accident over an incline bank head, without the rope being attached; or through the rope becoming detached or broken." (W. E. Nicholson, Glossary, &c.)

APPARATUS. — Machinery at the surface for separating the small coals, skreened out from the round, into nuts and duff. The small coals which have passed through the skreen, are drawn by the winding engine (whilst winding in the shaft) either vertically or up an inclined framing, in a tub called an apparatus tub, which teems itself at the top of the frame; they are then passed over a second skreen, the nuts to the waggons for sale, and the dead small, or duff which falls through the skreen, if of no value, to the waste heap.

ARLES, EARLES. — Earnest money formerly given to men and boys, when hired at the bindings.

"Previous to 1804, a custom of giving two or three guineas per hewer, as binding or bounty money, had crept into the trade: but in 1804, so great were the fears of procuring the necessary supply of men, that from twelve to fourteen guineas per man were given upon the Tyne, and eighteen guineas upon the Wear; and progressive exorbitant bounties were paid to putters, drivers, and irregular workmen. Drink was lavished in the utmost profusion, and every sort of extravagance perpetrated.

"The evil effects of the system of binding-money produced a re-action, so that it was very soon after discontinued; and for many years the only expense has been two shillings to men, and one shilling to boys." (Dunn, View of the Coal Trade, 1844.)

Since the pitmen's strike in 1844, the "Arles" have been altogether discontinued.

AVERAGE WEIGHT. — The mean weight of a tub of coals, at a colliery for any fortnight, upon which the hewers' and putters' wages are calculated: a fixed price being paid for a standard weight, anything above which is called overweight or overplus.

The average weight is usually obtained by weighing two tubs in each score: the average tubs being fixed upon by the weighers, whilst they are being drawn in the shaft to the surface. There are generally two weighers, one appointed and paid by the colliery, and the other by the workmen (1849). At the present time each tub is usually weighed, the average weight of a number of empty tubs, being taken from time to time as the tare; each tub is identified by having a token, or tally, which is a piece of stamped tin or leather, attached to it.