OFF-PUTTERS. — (See Staith.)

OFF-TAKE, OFF-TAKE DRIFT. — (See Delivery drift.)

ONSETTERS. — Men who put the full tubs in and take the empty tubs out of the cage at the shaft bottom, or at any other landing or stopping place. They are usually paid by the score or ton, their average wages amounting (1849) to about 4s. per day of twelve hours.

OPENCAST. — A cutting in stone, coal, &c., usually in the bottom of a place where a ridge has been passed over, and where it is less expensive to cut down the whole of the ridge to make a uniform roadway or rolleyway than to drive a stone drift through it.

OUTBURST, OUTCROP. — The rising out of a stratum to the surface, or its appearance at the surface in consequence of the denudation of the latter, or in a cliff.

OUTBYE. — Towards the shaft.

OUTBYE-SIDE. — Nearer to the shaft than any other place with which it is compared.

OUTSET. — "An artificial elevation of the ground or an erection of timber or stone round the mouth of a sinking pit to facilitate the disposal of the debris produced in sinking." (Nicholson.) To outset water is to put in a column of tubbing, behind which a feeder of water will rise to its level, and require no further dealing with.

OUTSTROKE. — (See Instroke, Rent)

OVERCAST, OVERGATE. — (See Crossing.)

OVERLAP. — A reversed hitch. When the bade of a slip makes an acute angle with the floor of the place that has reached it, the hitch is almost invariably a down-throw. In some districts, as in Somersetshire, there are a great number of instances where the contrary is largely the case. In Northumberland and Durham this exception has been found, but it is very rare. In such cases the seam is "overlapped" or doubled.

OVERMAN. — The person who, beneath the viewer, has the charge of the workings of a colliery where there is no under-viewer. He sets the pit to work each morning, and attends to all the detail of arranging the work, and getting the coals each man works to the shaft bottom. It is also his duty to see that each working place is properly ventilated and in a safe state. He also keeps a daily account of the work wrought, and of the whole of the underground expenses and wages, and gives into the colliery office a fortnightly account of the same, the bill containing the amount earned by each man, or set of men if in partnership, and boy during that time. There is one overman to a pit, so that if there are two or three pits at a colliery, there are two or three overmen. An overman is almost invariably a man who has passed through all the gradations of pit work, from the trapper upwards, and who has been raised to his situation on account of his ability and steadiness. His wages in 1849 were 26s. to 28s. per week, with house, garden, and coals gratis.

OVERWORKINGS. — (See Rent.)