a man who has the immediate inspection of the workings and workmen during the back-shift.

The back-overman superintends the management of the pit from the time the overman leaves until four o'clock in the evening, when the pit is said to "loose" or stop work.

Foreman of the pit during the "back shift," or afternoon shift, in the absence of the overman

Foreman or overman

Labourer (loader) working with a band of men

those who, at the bank or top of the pit, unhook and empty the laden corves into the carts or waggons, from a frame or stage.

a man who draws the full tubs from the cages at the surface, when wound up by the 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.

Person who controls the unloading and loading of the cage at the pit top, and signals the descent of the workmen

(see Banksman)

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.

Person employed to attend to bottom of shaft

those who are employed to work the steam-engine, or other machinery used in raising the coal from the mine.

The engineman who attends to the winding engine.

a) Person employed to cut or blast the roof or floor of a roadway and so give more height

b) Person who gets the mineral down by blasting in the working face after it has been "holed"

Miner who gets coal off at a "long-wall" face

Underground labourer

Person in charge

Foreman in charge of men driving a tunnel

Contractor for working a pit or part of a pit

A viewer employed by the lessor to see that the provisions of the lease are duly observed.

The weigher employed by the workmen.

Unskilled labourer who clears away the rubbish etc.

Man in charge of a certain district under the deputy

those who make the corves, strong osier baskets in which the coals are conveyed from the hewers to the bank.

The corves were made and kept in repair by contractors, named Corvers, who were paid by the score of coals drawn, according to the circumstances of the colliery as to depth, wetness, upcast, downcast, &c., sixpence to one shilling per score, or from 1d. to 2d. per ton.

A boy who couples or connects, by means of the coupling chains, the tubs of coal in order to form a set or train.

stout lads employed in raising the corves of coals by the power of a crane, from the trams, upon a higher carriage, called a Rolly or Waggon.

A lad 16 or 18 years of age, whose business it was to hoist the corves of coals on to the rolleys with the crane. On the introduction of tubs and flats, a younger description of lads was sufficient, say 15 or 16 years of age ; these were named flat-lads ; a name which at the stations they still retain. Under whatever name, the crane-man or flat-lad proportions the work, or "places the work," or quantity of coals to be put by the barrow-men among them ; so that each may know to which places he is to go for coals, and the quantity he has to put from each place.

A man who drives cruts or stone drifts

Underground workman paid by the day

One paid by the day, not by contract

A set of men employed in setting timber for the safety of the workmen ; also in putting in brattice and brattice stoppings. They also draw the props in the workings from places where they are no longer required for further use. There cannot be any fixed rule for the number of deputies to be employed in a pit, this depending altogether upon the nature of the roof and consequent quantity of timber required to be set for its support, also on the greater or less quantity of fire-damp produced by the coal. Upon an average the number of deputies may be stated at 1 for every 7 or 8 scores of 6 tons each.

The deputies go to work two hours before the hewers. Each deputy, during the absence of the back-overman, is responsible for the management of the district of the pit over which he is appointed. Their work also includes that of supporting the roof with props or wood, removing props from old workings, changing the air currents when necessary, and clearing away any sudden eruption of gas or fall of stone that might impede the work of the hewer, or in delegating these duties to others.

Man engaged at the top of an incline roadway

A person who sends waggons up an inclined roadway and travels with them

A waggoner or person who pushes underground tubs

Man employed in driving in rock other than coal

boys employed to drive the horses, that draw the sledges, rollies and wagons, from the crane to the shaft.

A boy employed in driving the horses on the main road underground. He is usually 14 or 15 years of age.

Engine man

who attend to the ventilating furnace

Person riding upon, and in charge of a train of underground waggons

boys employed to drive the horses in the gin or engine used in raising coals from pits of moderate depth.

A boy who greases the tub axles at bank. A machine, in passing over which the axles are greased automatically.

Person who pushes mine waggons. See Putter

Person employed in driving in rock other than coal

A lad not strong enough to put alone, but able to do so with the assistance of a little boy, who performs his part by pulling the tub by a couple of ropes or traces attached thereto, called soams. The little boy is called a foal. He sometimes assists the headsman by pushing the tub beside him. When the boys are of the same age or strength they are equally paid and are called half-marrows.

A lad employed to assist the barrow-man out of a dip place.

persons that hew or cut the coal from its natural situation.

A man who works coals. His age ranges from 21 to 70. His usual wages (1849) are from 3s. 9d. to 4s. 3d. per day of 8 hours working, and his average employment 4 or 5 days in the week. He also has, as part of his wages, a house containing two or three rooms, according to the number in his family, and a garden, of which the average size may be 6 or 8 perches ; also a fother of small coals each fortnight, for the leading of which he pays sixpence.

The hewer is the actual coal-digger. Whether the seam be so thin that he can hardly creep into it on hands and knees, or whether it be thick enough for him to stand upright, he is the responsible workman who loosens the coal from the bed. The hewers are divided into "fore-shift" and "back-shift" men. The former usually work from four in the morning till ten, and the latter from ten till four. Each man works one week in the fore-shift and one week in the back-shift, alternately. Every man in the fore-shift marks "3" on his door. This is the sign for the "caller" to wake him at that hour. When roused by that important functionary he gets up and dresses in his pit clothes, which consist of a loose jacket, vest, and knee breeches, all made of thick white flannel; long stockings, strong shoes, and a close fitting, thick leather cap. He then takes a piece of bread and water, or a cup of coffee, but never a full meal. Many prefer to go to work fasting. With a tin bottle full of cold water or tea, a piece of bread, which is called his bait, his Davy lamp, and "baccy-box," he says good-bye to his wife and speeds off to work. Placing himself in the cage, he is lowered to the bottom of the shaft, where he lights his lamp and proceeds "in by," to a place appointed to meet the deputy. This official examines each man's lamp, and, if found safe, returns it locked to the owner. Each man then finding from the deputy that his place is right, proceeds onwards to his cavel†, his picks in one hand, and his lamp in the other. He travels thus a distance varying from 100 to 600 yards. Sometimes the roof under which he has to pass is not more than three feet high. To progress in this space the feet are kept wide apart, the body is bent at right angles with the hips, the head is held well down, and the face is turned forward. Arrived at his place he undresses and begins by hewing out about fifteen inches of the lower part of the coal. He thus undermines it, and the process is called kirving. The same is done up the sides. This is called nicking. The coal thus hewn is called small coal, and that remaining between the kirve and the nicks is the jud or top, which is either displaced by driving in wedges, or is blasted down with gunpowder. It then becomes the roundy. The hewer fills his tubs, and continues thus alternately hewing and filling.

a) Person putting waggons into the cage

b) Chief attendant at pit bottom

Conveyor of coal to mine waggons in the working place

Ostler

who attends to the horses in the pit

Person attending to work on an inclined plane

A man employed at the surface to attend to the cleaning and skreening of the coals. His wages are usually 3s. per day, or 18s. per weeks, with his house and firing free. (1849.)

An underground inspector is required to attend to the working of the coals, and to see that proper pains are taken to make them large and good. He is also required to attend to the straight driving or holing of the places, and to set on compass marks for the purpose. The back over-man, where a colliery is not overcharges with fire-damp, and his time and attention not sufficiently engaged in attending to the safety of the mine, performs the above duties during his shift. The wages of an inspector are 21s. or 22s. per week, with house and firing free. (1849.)

Person who attends the brake of a self-acting incline or jig

an inspector of the hewers, wailers etc.

who has charge of the Davies

Person who lowers waggons down an inclined plane

A partner.

Mate or partner

The person in charge of the shifters. (see Shifters)

The person who has charge of the wastemen. (see Wastemen)

Person who takes the roof down to give more height

Workman not paid by the day

those who hook the laden and unhook the empty corves at the bottom of the shaft.

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.

Person who pushes full mine waggons on to the cage at the shaft bottom and takes the empties out

one who inspects the state of the mine every morning before the men go to work. He also keeps a daily account of the men's labour.

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 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 graduations 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.

The duties of the overman consist in visiting the workings every morning, receiving the reports from the deputies, making observations on the air currents, and general management of the underground work. To his office is sent an account of all the work done in the pit, and on the Wednesday before the "pay" he "reckons" with the men - i.e., he compares the account received of their work with that kept by themselves.

Underground foreman subordinate to the manager

Person who builds "packs"

Workman using a pick

Driver of a pony drawing a mine waggon

those who fill the corves (strong osier baskets in which the coals are conveyed) and lead them from the hewers, on four-wheeled carriages called Trams, to the crane or shaft. The barrowman pulls before, and the putter putts or thrusts behind. In high seams, horses are used instead of men.

The putters used to be divided into trams, headsmen, foals, and half-marrows. These were all boys or youths. Their employment consisted in pushing or dragging the coal from the workings to the passages in which horses could be employed. Formerly the coal was conveyed by the putter in corves or tubs. Now small waggons called trams are generally employed. When a boy dragged or put a load by himself he also was designated a tram. When two boys of unequal age and strength assisted each other, the elder was called a headsman and the younger a foal. The former usually received two-thirds of the amount earned jointly by the two. When two boys of about equal age and strength aided each other they were called half-marrows, and their earnings were equally divided. The introduction of metal plates and waggons in place of corves, however, has almost done away with joint labours of this kind. Formerly the labour of the putter was of the most arduous description. Wilson describes it as having been "the most distressing slavery." "It was," he says, "generally performed by boys, in nine cases out of ten too weak for the purpose, if even the materials had been better than they were over which the trams then passed. What must it have been when a beech-board was a godsend? And, more frequently, they had to drag their load over a fir-deal or the bare thill [the natural floor of the mine], the former too often split from constant wear, and the latter too soft to bear the load passing over it. Now the whole way is laid with metal plates, even up to the face of the workings, so that a man or lad may run the tram before him both out and in, the plates being so formed as to keep the tram in a right direction." It was customary at one time to employ girls and young women as putters. This disgraceful and demoralising practice, which continued in Scotland and some parts of England until it was prohibited by law in 1843, was abandoned in the county of Durham about the year 1790. Even before that date the custom was more prevalent in the Wear collieries than in those of the Tyne.

Person who pushes mine waggons from the working place to a horse road or mechanical haulage road

Person who rakes or rids coal down a steep working

Attendant on an inclined plane

Slate getter : a skilled workman who excavates or "gets" the blocks of rock, which are split and dressed into slates

A man whose business it is to attend to the rolley-way and keep it in order. It is also his duty to keep away the work, and see that no time is lost in getting the full waggons to the shaft and the empty ones in-bye again. His wages are about 2s. 9d. for 8 hours, or 3s. 4d. if he stands 12 hours (1849).

The rolley-way is a road or path sufficiently high for a horse to walk along it with the rolley, and is kept in repair by the rolley-waymen. The driver has charge of the horse. The onsetter transfers the tubs to the cage in which they are raised to bank, where the coal is weighed, screened, and sorted.

Person who repairs the horse roads underground

Pusher of mine waggons

Person who puts waggons into the cage at the bottom of the pit

See see Runner in

those who take the small coal from beneath a screen of iron, over which the coals, as they come from the hewers, are poured into the waggons or carts.

Men who pass the coals over the skreens into the waggons, and clean them from stones, slates, brasses, &c. They should be paid in proportion to the quantity of dirt picked out from among the coals. Their wages are about 2s. 6d. to 2s. 8d. per day of 12 hours (1849).

Person who couples waggons

Shaft sinker

men who repair the horse-ways and other passages in the mine, and keep them free from obstructions.

Repairer

A lad employed to put small coals to a stowboard.

Person employed in breaking up waste rock

Sub-contractor in charge of a "stall" or working place

Person who makes excavation in "stone" i.e. hard strata other than coal

who attend the switches or passing places on the underground railways

Person who unhooks waggons at self-acting inclines

Person whose work is to remove timber props

boys of the youngest class, employed to open and shut the doors, which keep the ventilation in the workings regular.

A little boy whose employment consists in opening and shutting a trap-door when required : his wages are 9d. or 10d. per day of 12 hours (1849). At present 1s. to 1s. 2d. per day of 8 hours. (1888).

They are the youngest boys employed in the mine. They are stationed at traps or doors in various parts of the pit, which they have to open when trams of coal pass through and immediately to close again, as a means of directing the current of air for ventilation to follow certain prescribed channels. It was formerly the practice to send boys of not more than six years to work in the mine as trappers. They remained in the pit for eighteen hours every day, and received fivepence a day each as wages. He was in solitude and total darkness the whole time he was in the mine, except when a tram was passing. He went to his labour at two o'clock in the morning, so that during the greater part of the year it was literally true that he did not see daylight from one Sunday till the Saturday following.

Boy attending to a ventilating door

Youth working with a tributer or contractor who receives a share of the value of the ore he excavates

When coals from the waggons are dropped or spouted into the hold of a vessel they produce a conical heap which, unless provided against, would soon block up the hatchway. To prevent this, sheets of iron are laid upon the cone as it rises which cause the coals to slide off in all directions ; these are placed by a set of men, called trimmers, who with shovels and rakes still further distribute the coal, or trim the cargo.

The responsible manager of a colliery in the absence of the viewer.

the person who gives directions as to the method of working and ventilating the mine. In large collieries he has a person under him called the Under-Viewer. From the viewers, overmen receive their instructions.

The manager of a colliery ; one who has the charge of all underground, and generally of all surface, arrangements.

boys employed to pick out slate, pyrites, and other foul admixtures from the coal.

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

Man in charge of waggonway under the deputy

persons that daily examine the state of the workings, and see that they be properly ventilated.

Generally old men, who are employed in building pillars for the support of the roof in the waste, and in keeping the airways open and 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).

remove water from the horse-ways and other places

who cleanse the rails of the mine from time to time, removing obstructions of coal-dust, etc.

Boy who works in wind roads

who carry props to parts of the mine where they are needed