WAGGON WAY. — Railway, rolleyway.

WALL. — The holing or communication at the end of a pillar between two boards ; several walls in a line form a headways course.

WAILERS. — Boys employed in waggons, to pick out any stones or pyrites which have escaped the observation of the skreenmen.

WASH. — An ancient river bed, since silted up, and very difficult to sink through. Washes are sometimes of great depth, as in the valley of the Team, at Marley Hill, and elsewhere.

WASTE. — The old workings and airways.

WASTEMEN. — Generally old men, who are employed in building pillars for the support of the roof in the waste, and in keeping the airways open arid in good order. Their wages are about 2s. 4d. per day. A master wasteman has (under the viewer or underviewer) the charge of the waste, and should be a steady and careful man, and have some skill in ventilation. His wages are about 21s. per week (1849.)

WATER-BLAST. — A sudden eruption of compressed gas from the rise workings of a colliery in which all communications between such workings and the external atmosphere have been cut off by water. The continued issue of gas eventually overcoming the pressure of the water, forces its way out and produces the blast.

WATERFALL. — A circulation of air through a mine produced by allowing water to fall down one of the shafts.

WAY. — A working district underground.

WAYLEAVE RENT. — (See Rent.)

WEDGE. — For wedging tubbing, &c., made from Memel plank, 4½ inches long, 1½ inch broad, and inch thick at the top, tapered a little at the sides towards the thin end. For wedging down coal juds or stone, made of iron or steel 6 or 8 inches long, flattened towards and pointed at the end.

WEDGING CRIB. — (See Tubbing.)

WEIZE. — "A flat iron ring covered with flannel for making pipe joints watertight. Rings of spunyarn, India rubber or lead are also used for the same purpose." (Nicholson.) The flannel wrapped round the iron should be well saturated with Stockholm tar; and when made of lead, it should be carefully caulked with a flat edged chisel.

WET SPEARS. — (See Spears.)

WHIN. — Basalt, trap.

WHIN DYKE. — (See Dyke.)

WHOLE COAL. — A district of coal entirely intact.

WIDE BOARD. — (See Board.)

WIMBLE. — (See Bore.)

WINDBORE. — The bottom pump in a set. (See Snoreholes.)

WINNING. — A pillar of coal with its board; also a recovery of coal, by sinking, or drifting in coal or stone.

WIRE-DRAWN. — An engine is wire-drawn when there are not a sufficient number of holes in the wind-bore left open for waterway.

WORKING. — The crackling of roof stone previous to falling.

WORKING BARREL. — The portion of a pump in which the bucket works (see Lifting Set). An easy rule for calculating the quantity of water drawn at a single stroke in a working barrel of a given diameter, is as follows : — Square the diameter in inches, and divide by 10 for the gallons in a 3 feet stroke.

WORKINGS. — The excavations of a colliery.