BACK. — A diagonal parting in coal; a description of hitch where the strata are not dislocated. At a back there is frequently a glossy parting, and sometimes a little sooty, dirty coal. When, on approaching a back, it is observed to form an acute angle with the thill of the seam, it is called an East back when it forms an obtuse angle, it is called a West back. Thus the same back will be an East or West back, according to the direction from which it is mined through. As there is rarely anything to indicate a back, and as there is little or no cohesion between its faces, the coal often and unexpectedly falls away and causes accident.

BACK-END. — In working a four or five yard board, an excavation or kirving is made in the bottom part of the coal, half of the width of the board, and as far as the hewer is able to make it with his pick. This is followed by a vertical cutting, equally far in, next to the side of the place. A bole is then drilled near the roof, and fast side of the coal undermined, and in it gunpowder is placed, and the coal blown down. This is called the sump. The remaining half of the place is called the back-end, and is similarly undermined and shot down.

BACK-HEADWAYS. — (See Headways.)

BACKING-DEALS. — Deals placed behind cribs, for the support of the walls of a pit, where the stone is bad. They are generally, when only temporarily required, made of 1½ inch Scotch deals, and are used in sinking, being replaced by walling, after a foundation has been obtained.

BACK-OVERMAN. — A man who has the immediate inspection of the workings and workmen during the back-shift. His wages are about 21s. per week. (1849.)

BACK-SHAFT. — (See Engine Pit).

BACK-SHIFT. — The second shift of hewers in each day. It commences four hours after the pit begins to draw coals.

BACK-SKIN. — A large leather covering for the back and shoulders; it is fastened in front with crossed straps; it is used in sinking and shaft work, as a protection from the falling water. Old, but sound, gig aprons make good backskins.

BADGER. — (See Brat).

BAFF-END. — A piece of wood, 15 or 18 inches long, 5 or 6 inches broad, and from 1 to 2 inches thick, used for driving behind cribs or tubbing to bring them to their proper position in a pit. A quantity of these are used in sinking, where much tubbing is required to be put in.

BAFF-WEEK. — Every alternate week. The week succeeding the pay week.

BAG OF GAS. — "A cavity found occasionally in fiery seams of coal, containing highly condensed gas; whether in a gaseous or fluid (or solidified) form has not yet been ascertained. On the coal being worked away until it is no longer equal to resist the elastic force of the compressed gas, the gas escapes with a sort of explosion, displacing the coal, filling the adjoining workings, and firing at the first unprotected lights it meets with, after being brought down to the firing point by a due admixture of atmospheric air. (Buddle, Account of Explosion at Jarrow Colliery.)

BAIT. — Provision taken by a pitman to his work.

BAIT-POKE. — The bag in which the bait is carried.

BALANCE-WEIGHT. — (See Staple).

BALK. — A species of hitch. The roof of the seam coming down into the coal without any corresponding depression of the thill, thus causing a nip. Balks are most frequent when the roof of the coal is a stratum of sandstone or post. Also a piece of strong timber, usually used in rolley-ways or permanent passages to support the roof, each of its ends being supported by a prop, or by being notched into the wall side.

BALN-STONE. — Roof stone.

BAND. — An interstratification of stone or shale with coal.

BANK. — Above ground.

BANK-OUT. — To teem the coals into a heap as they are drawn, instead of into the waggons.

BANKSMAN. — A man who draws the full tubs from the cages at the surface, when wound up by the winding engine, and replaces them with empty ones ; he also puts the full tubs to the weighing machine, and thence to the skreens, upon which he teems the coals. It is also his duty to keep an account of the quantity of coals and stones drawn each day. The banksman's wages are about 4s. per day of 12 hours (1849). He is usually paid by the quantity drawn.

BARGAIN-WORK. — Work such as stone or coal drifting, rolley-way making, &c., let by proposal, amongst the workmen at a colliery, to the lowest offer.

BARRIER. — A breadth of coal left against an adjoining royalty for security against casualty arising from water or foul air. Barriers are left of various thicknesses, frequently 20 yards, but varying according to supposed necessity from 10 to 50, or even 100 yards.

BARROWMAN. — A Putter. One who puts the tubs of coals from the working places to the cranes, flats, or stations, whence they are taken by horses or machinery along the main or rolley-ways to the shaft. Before the application of tramways underground, coals used to be conveyed underground on sledges, and afterwards on barrows, whence the name.

The average day's work of a barrowman, who when putting alone, is a young man from 17 to 20 or 21 years of age, is equal, on level road laid with bridge rails, and with tubs having flanched wheels 10 inches in diameter in the trod, to —

	lbs.
1 empty tub=3 cwt. pushed 8,280 yards or .7057 tons pushed 1 mile, or	8,346,240 pushed 1 foot.
1 full tub=10 cwt. pushed 8,280 yards, or 2.3523 tons pushed 1 mile, or	27,820,800 pushed 1 foot.
Total days work 3.0580 tons pushed a distance of 1 mile, or	36,167,040 pushed 1 foot.

And taking the friction at 1-65th part on account of the imperfect nature of the way, and the small diameter of the tub wheels, and being also the mean of six experiments, the mean permanent force exercised by the barrowman for 12 hours is equal to 556,416 lbs. raised 1 foot in 12 hours, or 6.44 lbs. raised 2 feet per second, which is equivalent to 7.728 lbs. raised 2 feet per second for 10 hours, or about one-fourth part of the mean relative, or permanent force of a man, as estimated by Mr. Tredgold.

Barrowmen are usually paid from 11d. to 15d. per score of 6 tons, put an average distance of 80 yards with 1d. extra per score for every additional 20 yards (1849). Small ponies were first used for putting about the year 1842, and have since been, and now are, where convenient, largely substituted for putters.

BARROW-WAY. — The way along which the barrowmen put the corves or tubs of coals. It is either laid with tram plates or bridge plates; but the latter are preferable. Twenty-four inches between the rails is a good gauge, being suitable for both barrow-way and horse-road.

BASTARD WHIN. — Very hard post or sandstone, but not so flinty as to be called whin.

BATEWORK. — (See Short Work.)

BEANS. — A description of small coals, so called from their size, produced by further skreening the duff.

BEARING, or BEARING-IN DOOR. — (See Door.)

BEATER. — An iron rod, used for stemming or tamping a hole, preparatory to blasting (1849), but must not be used upon the first tamping (Mines' Act, 1872). Iron and Steel prohibited (Mines' Act, 1887).

BEAT-HAND. — (Built?) A hand which, from being vesicated or blistered with hard work, has festered.

BECHE (called by the workman Bitch). — (See Bore.)

BEETLE. — "A small locomotive engine driven by compressed air, the invention of Messrs. Lishman and Young, and employed on the rolley-ways at Newbottle Collieries." (Nicholson.)

BELL CRANK. — A double crank placed between the ends of a shaft.

BELL PIT. — This is a pit sunk where the mine lies very near the surface: it is commenced of small size, and when the coal or mine ground has been bottomed, it is worked away in every direction round the bottom as far as the workman can cast the mineral with his shovel. The general form arrived at is that of a bell, inverted, whence the name.

BEND. — Yorkshire, or engine bend, is a leather used in grathing buckets and clacks with side leathers, or leather jackets ; this leather is moderately stout, and is studded with brass or wood muds.

BEND-AWAY. — The order given by the person in charge for the cage to be drawn to bank.

BEND-UP, or BEND-UP A BIT. — An order given by the person in charge to raise the cage slowly, so that it may be instantly stopped on the order "Hold!" being given.

BIND. — To hire.

BINDING. — Up to 1810, the binding took place on the Saturday nearest to fourteen days previous to October 10th, but after this year until 1844, on the Saturday nearest to fourteen days previous to the 5th April ; the engagement being from October 10th and April 5th respectively for twelve months. Since 1844, the usual agreement has been to hire for one month; either party being at liberty to terminate the engagement at the expiration of a month's notice (1849); the notice at present is usually 14 days.

BLACK-DAMP. — (See Stythe).

BLAST. — An explosion of fire-damp extending over a great part of the workings of a colliery; also to blow down stone or coal with gunpowder or other explosive.

BLEED. — Coal is said to bleed when water oozes in drops from its pores.

BLOW-DOWN. — To bring down coal or stone with gunpowder.

BLOWER. — A sudden and violent discharge of gas from the roof, seam of coal, or floor. (See Bag of Gas).

BLOWN-OUT SHOT. (See Standing Bobby).

BLUE-METAL. — Indurated argillaceous shale, of a blueish purple colour, resembling that of blue slates.

BOARD (WIDE). — An excavation, a pillar in length, and four or five yards in width, usually driven at right angles to the cleavage of the coal; sometimes, however, when the coal is very flaky and works tender, it is advantageous, the coals being produced in better condition, to drive the boards in the direction of the cleat, when they are called headways boards.

BOARD (NARROW). — An excavation of the same length as a wide board, but driven two yards wide.

BOARDWAY'S COURSE. — The direction at right angles to the line of cleavage or cleat of the coal.

BOLL. — A coal measure. The coal boll contains 9676.8 cubic inches, or 34.899 imperial gallons. (H. Taylor, Esq., Evid. before Select Committee of House of Lords, 1829).

BOND. — The agreement to hire between coal owners and workmen. Now an obsolete word: the term agreement being substituted.

BORE. — To ascertain the nature of strata, by means of bore-rods and apparatus connected therewith, which consist of —

1st. Common Rods. — They are made of the best iron, 7/8 or 1 inch square, in lengths of 3 or 6 feet, with a male screw at one end, and a female screw at the other end of each length, for the purpose of joining them together as required. There are also short pieces of the length of 6, 12, and 18 inches for the purpose of adjustment. The bottom rod of all has a female screw at each end, the chisel being screwed into it. It is called a box-rod. The common rods weigh about 22 lbs. per fathom.

2nd. Chisels are made 18 inches in length, and 2¼ inches broad at the cutting edge, and tapering upwards to the screw joint, which is a male screw. The chisel weighs 4½ lbs.

3rd. Wimbles. — In boring through shales, the borings adhere sufficiently to the chisel to allow them to be drawn out of the hole; that is to say, when the hole is damp enough to work the borings in shale into clay. In a dry hole, or in boring through posts or sandstones the case is different, and another implement is required to be introduced on withdrawing the chisel. It consists of a cylinder, 24 inches long, open at the bottom and also at the top, about 12 inches below the joint; it has also a partial covering at the bottom, like an auger, for the purpose of retaining the core with which it fills when worked round the hole. Wimbles are also used in boring near the surface through clay. Their external diameter must be such as to admit of their following the chisel. A wimble weighs about 12 lbs.

4th. Sludgers differ from wimbles in having a clack near the bottom of the cylinder, and are used when a borehole is so wet that the borings would, unless retained by a clack or some such contrivance, be washed out of the cylinder in being drawn to the surface. The sludger is also useful in boring through a seam of coal, in bringing up samples of coal when cut by the chisel

5th. Beche. — An instrument having some resemblance to the extinguisher of a candle; it is 25 inches long, and weighs 6 lbs. The hollow part extends 16 inches up into the tool, and is 1½ inch diameter at the lower end, and tapers to 5/8 inch at the upper. It is used for the purpose of extracting the bottom portion of a broken set of rods from the hole.

6th. Rounder, resembles a beche externally. It is, however, solid and well steeled at the bottom, and is used for breaking or cutting off any projection which may have occurred in the hole.

7th. Bracehead. — A piece of tough ash or oak, 36 inches long, passed through an eye in a short piece of iron, at the other end of which is a male screw to connect with the rods. There are both single and double braceheads; in this case there are two eyes; with the former, two men, and with the latter, four men may be applied; and without other assistance a borehole may be put down 20 fathoms. For a greater depth —

8th. A Brake becomes necessary. It consists of a lever from 8 to 12 feet long; the axis or fulcrum being placed 18 inches or 2 feet from the end above the borehole. To this end a hook is fixed upon which the rods are suspended by a chain attached to a piece of doubled rope which is passed under a bracehead screwed into the top of the rods. When all is ready the lever is weighed down by one or more men, according to the depth of the hole and weight of the rods, which occasions the rods to be raised; they are then allowed to drop freely back into the hole, the chisel cutting the stratum as it descends. The master of the shift of borers is stationed at the bracehead, by means of which he moves the rods a little in a forward direction at each stroke, so as to keep the hole perfectly circular. He can also distinguish by the touch the nature of the stratum through which the chisel is passing. The rods should be drawn, and the hole cleaned every 6 inches. There are besides other tools such as keys, &c., which are constantly required for unscrewing the rods, when drawing or lowering, and small braceheads called topits to which to attach the rope by a runner, for drawing the rods by means of a jack roll. They are drawn by a rope and block, or set of blocks suspended from a triangle or set of shear legs, placed over the hole. The triangle should not for a deep hole be less than 35 or 40 feet high. In a deep hole it is desirable that the rods should be changed in long lengths; and it is therefore very advantageous to have the top of the borehole lowered a few fathoms by means of a staple. The cost of boring increases with great depth at a very rapid rate, and, as an experienced borer once reminded me, "a few fathoms at the top means a few fathoms at the bottom."

Boreholes are necessary in the faces of drifts in coal or stone for the purpose of exploration in approaching old workings; those straightforward are called front, and those at an angle, flank-holes.

BOTTOM-BOARD. — The bottom of a waggon or truck, which is unfastened when the waggon is required to be discharged into a vessel, or deposit underneath by knocking off a catch.

BOTTOM-ROD. — An iron rod attached at one end to the bottom of the pumping spears, and at the other by an offtake joint to the bucket sword.

BOWK. — A report made by the cracking of the strata owing to the extraction of the coal beneath. (See Thud.) Also the noise made by the escape of gas under pressure.

BOX-ROD. — (See Bore.)

BRACE-HEAD. — (See Bore.)

BRAKE. — (See Bore.) Also a band of iron, sometimes faced with wood or flat hemp rope, caused by a lever to press upon a sheave or wheel to check its motion; also a wooden breast applied to the wheel of a waggon or truck, by means of a lever.

BRAKESMAN. — The engineman who attends to the winding engine.

BRANCHES. — The sidings required at a colliery for the convenient separation and loading into waggons of the various descriptions of coal produced; also for the marshalling of trains of waggons, and for other purposes.

BRASSES. — Iron pyrites (sulphide of iron) found in coal; they require careful extraction; they often explode in the fire with a loud report; they can he utilized for the manufacture of copperas. Copper pyrites (sulphide of copper) is occasionally, but rarely, found in coal; it is yellower in colour, and can be scratched with a knife.

BRAT. — A thin stratum of a coarse mixture of coal and carbonate of lime or pyrites, frequently found lying at the roof of a seam of coal.

BRATTICE. — "A partition, generally of deal, placed in a pit, or in a drift, or other working of a colliery for the purpose of ventilation. The former is called a shaft brattice; the latter, the drift, headways, board, &c., brattice, according to the situation in which it is placed. Its use is, to divide the place in which it is fixed into two avenues, the current of air entering by the one, and returning by the other." (Buddle: First Report of the Society for preventing accidents in Coal Mines).

Shaft or main brattice is usually made of 11 in. by 3 in. Memel plank; the joints being so dressed that the planks placed edgeways upon each other, may be perfectly close together, and as nearly as possible air tight. There should also be a dowell, or iron bolt, 6 inches long, and ¾ inch diameter, for every five feet in length of the brattice planks, passing 3 inches into the adjoining planks for the purpose of stiffening the whole.

Common brattice is made of 9½ inch American deal, cut up into sheets, or leaves, of a size convenient for the height of the seam for which it is required, battened at the back. It is nailed to props set for the purpose (called brattice props), when the roof does not require propping; but if it does, the ordinary timber will do.

Brattice cloth is now, and has for some years, been most generally used for underground work instead of brattice deals. It consists of strong canvas coated with or steeped in tar or other substance to keep it air-tight. (See Stopping).

BREAKER. — In working against a goaf there is usually at the distance of a few feet from it, a crack and slight settlement of the roof which has received the above name.

BRIDGE RAILS. — Malleable iron rails, the upper part of which is hollow, with flanches on each side at the bottom, and weighing about 5½ lbs. per foot. They are now much used in barrow-ways instead of tram-plates; the tubs being fitted with flanched wheels (1849). Steel is now very generally used for this purpose.

BROKEN. — Pillar working. The partial working of pillars in fiery collieries was commenced in the Tyne collieries below Bridge, in 1795, the first experiment being made by Mr. Thomas Barnes, in the High Main Seam, in 1795. Before this plan was adopted, only 40 per cent. of the coal could be obtained under a depth of 100 fathoms, 60 per cent. being lost in pillars. After its adoption, 55 per cent, was obtained and 45 per cent, was lost. (Buddle, Evidence before Select Committee of House of Lords, 1829).

The process was called "robbing the pillars." Further improvements were made by Mr. Buddle, at Percy Main colliery in 1810, by which from 80 to 90 per cent. were obtained, but an increased quantity of small coals made. (Buddle). During the present time, very little coal need, by proper management, be lost in pillar working. No rule can be laid down as to how pillars should be taken off; so much depending upon situation and the nature of the roof, and thill, and coal. The principal thing to be attended to is getting the pillars as quickly off as possible, and to be very careful in getting all the coal practicable, together with all timber, so as by enabling the roof to fall freely, to remove pressure from adjoining pillars, and avoid creep.

BROW. — "The face or escarpment of a trouble or dyke in a coal mine." (Brockett, Glossary of North Country Words, 1846.) The front of the depressed roof at a dip hitch.

BUCKET. — "The part of a pump supplied with a fall or lid; as the bucket descends the water rushes through the fall (the column being supported by the clack below), and on the bucket being raised, the fall drops and retains the water which is brought up and" (eventually) "delivered into the landry box." (Nicholson.)

BUCKET DOOR PIECE. — The portion of a set of pumps immediately above the working barrel, having a removable door through which the bucket is changed; the bucket door is secured to the bucket door piece by bolts.

BUCKET SWORD. — An iron rod secured to the bucket by being passed through it and cottered; its upper end being connected with the bottom rod of the spears by an off-take joint.

BULL. — To bull a drill hole, consists in filling the hole when in wet stone with strong clay, and then driving a round iron rod with an eye at one end for the purpose of extraction (called a bull), and nearly the size of the hole, to its far end, previous to putting in the powder; the object being to keep back the water from oozing out of the sides of the hole, which by wetting the powder, would prevent it from exploding. Also a carriage attached to the front of a set of tubs descending an underground inclined plane, which supports a movable fork so balanced as to strike into the roof in case of the breaking of the rope.

BUNTONS. — Transverse pieces of wood placed in shafts to which the guides for the cages are attached. (See Standing Set.)