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Post by whiskeyriver1776 on Oct 20, 2014 12:09:18 GMT -5
Are you a miner who's life's mission is to help struggling writers? If so, have I got a deal for you! ;-) I'm working on a novel which takes the events, ideas and people of the American Revolution and places them into the context of a modern-day coal mining town. I just have a few questions right now, it's important to me that I be accurate in my storytelling. I've put up a list of seven questions I have right now on my website ( www.theshiningcityexperiment.com/coal-mining-questions) I'm sure I'll be adding to the list as I write. If you have any advice you'd like to offer, please check out that page or just shoot me an email, Timothy@TheShiningCityExperiment.com. I really appreciate any assistance. Take care. Tim |
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Post by John on Oct 20, 2014 12:40:31 GMT -5
Are you a miner who's life's mission is to help struggling writers? If so, have I got a deal for you! ;-) I'm working on a novel which takes the events, ideas and people of the American Revolution and places them into the context of a modern-day coal mining town. I just have a few questions right now, it's important to me that I be accurate in my storytelling. I've put up a list of seven questions I have right now on my website ( www.theshiningcityexperiment.com/coal-mining-questions) I'm sure I'll be adding to the list as I write. If you have any advice you'd like to offer, please check out that page or just shoot me an email, Timothy@TheShiningCityExperiment.com. I really appreciate any assistance. Take care. Tim
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Post by whiskeyriver1776 on Oct 20, 2014 14:55:38 GMT -5
I see, I've posted to a couple other forums, hopefully I got the right country on those, I'll have to go check. Thank you for the quick response, I really appreciate it.
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Post by John on Oct 20, 2014 15:42:00 GMT -5
I see, I've posted to a couple other forums, hopefully I got the right country on those, I'll have to go check. Thank you for the quick response, I really appreciate it. |
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Post by tygwyn on Oct 20, 2014 17:14:45 GMT -5
To be honest,i`m not one for reading novels,
But an historical Mining book based on the period of the American Revolution,with all the facts,how the Revolution itself bared on the Mines in the area,namely Virginia at the time,did the Colonists keep control or did them followers of King George take them over,that would be worth reading.
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Post by colly0410 on Oct 20, 2014 17:56:13 GMT -5
I don't usually read a lot of fiction but I might give this a try if I can find it, good luck with it W.R. 1776..
I usually read scientific (I'm a bit of a nerd) books or historical/military biographies & of course any books on mining..
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Post by whiskeyriver1776 on Oct 21, 2014 14:43:29 GMT -5
Thanks for the replies. I'm a new writer so the odds are this thing will never see the light of day anyway. I'm treating it as a learning experience, if something productive comes from it, that would be a bonus.
It's funny you mention science and history books, that's about all I read as well. It's been a long time since I've read fiction, which is making this effort a little more difficult. What I'm hoping to pull off is to make the book read like non-fiction, sort of like a fictional memoir. I don't know if I can pull it off, but it's my goal. Also, one of the personalities I'm using as a reference for a character is Richard Feynman, my favorite scientist, if you will. He'll be playing the role of a modern day Ben Franklin, I love the combination of brilliance without ego. I don't know if anyone will ever read it, but I'm having fun trying to make it.
Thanks again, I'll keep checking back, I want to be as accurate as possible and to avoid any stereotypes so I'm trying to reduce my ignorance about coal mining.
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Post by colly0410 on Oct 22, 2014 4:34:17 GMT -5
Things you wouldn't know if you've never been down a mine:
When the cage (lift) go's down the shaft your stomach churns like on a fairground ride.
When you go from an intake roadway (tunnel that carries fresh air, usually cold) to a return roadway (not so fresh air, usually smells a bit, warm & humid) you go through air doors (an air lock) & your ears pop (due to pressure difference) like when you go on a plane.
Some parts of the mine are well lit: Pit bottom, main roads. Some parts are not lit at all & are darker than you could ever imagine, that's when you need your helmet-lamp. The weight of the helmet & lamp gives you a headache till you get used to it. (well it did me)
All machinery underground is built like a tank as miners seem to mistreat mechanical things. Also all machinery seems to make a lot of noise for some reason.
British miners swear a lot. When girls go on underground visits the men are warned of dire retribution if they swear in front of them.
Can't think of anymore at the moment, if I do I'll post..
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Post by John on Oct 22, 2014 5:57:23 GMT -5
As Steve said, it can be noisy, everything in confined spaces makes a lot of noise, and yet when you're away from machinery, the silence can "hurt your ears", then there are the natural noises as the strata settles, lagging boards between steel arches, (rings), cracking, bumps, very large ones, where strata is sandstone as the strata cracks beneath the seam. On the face, longwall faces that is, it can be unnerving for the new starter when the waste, (goaf, gob) collapses as the hydraulic roof supports are lowered and advanced one by one. Or in bord and pillar, where the pillars are extracted, props cracking, not a place for a person why is prone to panic.
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Post by whiskeyriver1776 on Oct 22, 2014 7:54:54 GMT -5
These things are exactly the kinds of things I was looking for, I really appreciate it.
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Post by John on Oct 22, 2014 11:30:15 GMT -5
Then there's the smell of the diesel exhaust from the loco hauling the manriding train inbye, smells seem to be stronger underground, no idea why, but at "snap time/crib time/bait time/meal time, whatever the part of the world you live in, someone peeling an orange up wind of you...ahhh that strong smell off an orange being peeled, or an onion on cheese sandwiches....
Then there are the smokers, I used to be one many years ago, last ciggie before going to "bank" (shaft top), seven plus hours before the next nicotine fix, ding, ding, ding goes the Banksmans bell, manriding, hand over the square brass disk to the Banksman as we get on the cage, gate closed, ding, ding, rings the Banksman, ding, signals the Onsetter at the bottom of the shaft, and off we plunge into the darkness, all quiet, everyone on the cage is pondering what sort of shift we are going to be in for. Cage slowing down, pit bottom lights can be seen coming up at us, until the cage stops, Onsetter lets us out and off we go, inby to the manrider for the long ride inbye to the faces.
Walking up the main gate or tail gate in line, not a lot anyone is saying, "Owd up" you hear, so you watch out for an obstacle, was a common term in UK mines, a warning there was something to trip over, each man would shout "owd up" as he came to the obstacle.
An old movie, "The Price of Coal" is on Youtube, although the author was not a coalminer, he caught the humour perfectly, it's a two part movie, "The Visit" and the second part is called "Back To Reality" Written by Barry Hines who was born and brought up around coal mining in Yorkshire..Might help you to get a feel on "pit humour".
Having worked in mines in both the UK and Australia, I found miners were miners, so I'd hazard a guess US coal miners had the same sense of humour as the rest of us.
Another good movie that portrays UK coalminers is "Brassed Off"
There is an old movie, but it is "too fairy tale" in my opinion "How Green Is My Valley" set in Wales in the 1800's. A book that was made into a TV series is "When The Stars Look Down" by AJ Cronin. Although a work of fiction, it is set around an actual mining disaster at a North East UK colliery, where they had a large inrush of water, again set in the 1800's.
Back to where I left off, end of shift, we jumped on the belt or "magic carpet" where I was brought up, and road to the top of the gate, sometimes a mile and a half or more, with as many as three conveyors in tandem, get off at the top of the gate road and walk down to the manrider, or if no manrider, continue riding the conveyor belts to pit bottom...
Now the nicotine urge is starting to come on... By the time we reach pit top on the cage, we smokers were dying for a ciggie, gasping by the time we alight from the cage!!! I used to lock mine in my tool cupboard in the electrical workshops, ten leaps at two hundred miles an hour, hand shaking with a key trying to open my cupboard lock, ahhhh the pure pleasure of that first ciggie after over seven hours...
It's odd though, never even thought of ciggies while underground working!!
Finsihed the first ciggie, down to the showers, get out of pitrags, a hot shower to get the coaldust off, dried and into street clothes, outside light up another ciggie on the way home..
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Post by whiskeyriver1776 on Oct 22, 2014 13:55:48 GMT -5
If you guys were in the US, and you were good looking women, I'd kiss you. Thanks again.
It's funny you mention cigarettes, one of my strongest memories of being in the Navy when I was younger was how much better cigarettes tasted on land after being at sea for a month. I still don't know why, something with the land air I guess.
Time to go watch coal mining YouTube videos.
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Post by tygwyn on Oct 22, 2014 16:15:39 GMT -5
There are plenty of US Mining videos on You Tube and plenty of good US historical Mining sites including US Miners strikes showing how the government there put them down in the older days.
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Post by colly0410 on Oct 22, 2014 16:19:28 GMT -5
I've never smoked so don't know the ciggie pleasure. A lot of miners took snuff (a powdered tobacco that you sniffed up your nose as a replacement for ciggies) I was persuaded to try some, I thought I'd never stop sneezing, I never touched it again. There was chewing tobacco as well, horrible smelling stuff, at the training centre I saw an arrogant young lad try it & he vomited for ages, oh how we laughed. (Miners can have a cruel sence of humour  ) I was alone on a quite roadway (no machines were running) when I heard voices, I stopped & I looked both ways but couldn't see any helmet lights only darkness, I could still hear the voices, the hairs on my neck stood up & I was scared. Suddenly I heard a phone ringing, then a siren sounded, then I heard a stage loader (a coal loading machine) start up. The sound was coming through the rocks from a parallel roadway. When I realised what was happening I listened for a while, I even recognised some of the voices. |
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Post by John on Oct 22, 2014 16:52:04 GMT -5
If you guys were in the US, and you were good looking women, I'd kiss you. Thanks again. It's funny you mention cigarettes, one of my strongest memories of being in the Navy when I was younger was how much better cigarettes tasted on land after being at sea for a month. I still don't know why, something with the land air I guess. Time to go watch coal mining YouTube videos. |
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