Scenes And Incidents From The Life Of A Practical Miner
With A Treatise On The Ventilation Of Coal Mines

15 other two were only two yards wide, and were the air’s return passages, as thered dart and crossing, one stenting down, show, and the crossing over the mam horseway one pillar east of the engine. There is a barrier of coal left rorty or titty yards thick on the south side of the water level board, and nmnmg; parallel therewith the full extent of the mine to south and east, i aS 4.1 in^en^on °f the authorities to put these stoppings in the barrier e ow the water level board; and, on a day when the pit was off work (excep ie deputies and wastemen), the overmen set two of the deputies .°.J'nt °ut tiie ground work for the monster stopping in the centre amt. 1 had then no knowledge of this, but before the day was over Happened to go where the process was going on, and found the hands at work. 1 asked them what they were doing there ? They told me all icy knew. I then turned to the overman, and asked him if it was intended to stop off the goaf in that manner. He said, “I do not know Jiit 1 was ordered to set these men on, as you see them.” “ Well ” 1 ?? 1;!bour T1 vai1!’and y°u know it ought not to be done, and cannot be done ; I would not continue in a pit with a goaf barred off under any consideration.” The following day, in a conversation with the under-viewer, I discovered that my remarks had been taken hold of which gave us an opportunity to discuss the subject freely. I asked his permission to try the experiment, which he gave with a good grace. We then put a twenty meh stopping in the centre drift, as a necessity to its permanency, and the security of the goaf; but in the east headways we put only a ten inch stopping, at the same time making every other part safe against accident, &c. We now had this goaf stopped off, and it might continue to be so for months, it might be years. Yet still it was iraught with danger, as 1 will show you. (Consult the Plan.) A, is the wo iron doors, one on the top, the other in the side of the flues; B, the toiler and machinery; C, the chimney, or flues; D, the flue end: E, the main horseway, leading into the interior workings; F, the water level board; G, the two. crossings, marked red, for the returning air from the engine bank workings, one at one stenting down south, and the other at e pillar east of the engine; H, the end of the pipes, discharging the vatei into the water level ■ I, a man door in the water level board, between f æ“?'6. ard he^ws; J, two frame doors into the return board t° north, indicated by the red darts; K, a barrier of coal, from 40 to 50 yards thick; L the goaf. When the workings of this district were in full operation the machinery and all its requisites were in full play, sSrM90 1Cn U!eS; n0W tlie coal is a11 off underneath strata 190 yards thick, to the extent of about 100 acres area. The autho- rity commenced to work off the pillars to the north ■ by doing so, the |l-K 10ra nor^h goaf spread over several board rooms and • <. in pi ai s o coal, destroying the passages of the returning current of i, anc mjuimg the crossing arch over the main horseway to such a degree a we ia o take down the arch, build a twenty inch stopping on each side, and suspend a pipe from stopping to stopping, twelve feet'long and • ix me i( s lameter ■ we had also to build a twenty inch stopping across id ( æ engine stood, for stow boards, to enable us to keep a passage or the air. Now, these stoppings are put into the barrier, all is cleaned