Main Mining Glossary.

[John]

Please don't add to this thread, I'll move all your contributions from the other Mining Glossary thread to this one in alphabetical order. Thanks.. Admin.

To help, as time goes on I'll place links to pictures/sketches of various items to help the reader to understand what the item looks like.

[John]

Adit. Entrance to a mine, usually on a horizontal plane.


Afterdamp. See mine gasses.


Air Crossing Where intake and return airways cross, they have to be kept separate by taking one, usually the return, over, (like a bridge) or under, (like a tunnel), the other.



Anderton Power Loader. Commonly called shearers. These are the mainstay coal cutting power loading machines used on longwall coal faces today. They comprise of a conveyor mounted machine with usually two cutting heads that shear the coal with rotary drums with picks mouted in a spiral around it's perifery and a cowl to direct the coal onto the conveyor.. Very high production rates can be acheived with these machines.



Auxilliary Fan A fan used to ventilate blind
headings and roadways being
driven. They can be used as
extracting or blowing.


Back Shift. The afternoon shift, sometimes used to mean either afternoon or night shift.


Bank. Pit bank, top of the shaft, pit top.
Also the coal face in Nottinghamshire pits.


Banksman. The man in charge of the top of a
shaft.


Barrier. A solid pillar of coal left usually to prevent migration of water or gas from old workings.


Bins, storage.In seam bins are used as bunkers, some as deep as 100 feet and holding as much as 1000 tonnes of mineral. They are fed by conveyors at the top, and feed via a vibrating chute onto a belt at the bottom.



Blackdamp. See mine gasses.


Blower. A violent discharge of firedamp or other gas.


Brattice. Material, can be treated cloth or plastic used to direct air or control ventilation.


Bunker. As aside from in seam bins. Large steel storage bins, used for regulation of mineral feed rates to trunk belts. When the outbye belts stop, the bunker is used to store mineral to keep the inbye districts running. Bunkers can be of the Butterly type, which are plate belts with side plates as high as eight feet, and almost any length, up to the power rating of the power pack. Or the rope hauled rail mounted type, which resemble rail cars bolted together.



Cable Belt. A type of conveyor that has a flat profile with moulded sides that rides on two steel wire ropes either side, which do the hauling.



Cap. See lids.


Capel. The metal termination of a wire rope.


Cap Lamp. The miners modern light, it usually comprises a lead acid battery that fits on the miners belt, has about three feet of a special heavy duty cable, and the head piece that clips to a bracket on the helmet. They designed to give around 13 hours of use from one charge.


Cardox Trade name for an explosive device used principally in the coal mining industry.


Cardox Plant Operator. In bituminous coal mining, one who recharges steel shells, (tubes), known by the trade name, Cardox, with metal shearing disks, electrical firing elements and liquid carbon dioxide to prepare them for blasting coal.


Cardox Shell Steel shell used in carbon dioxide blasting.





Chair. Miners slang for a cage.


Coal seam. Bed of coal ranging from less than an inch in thickness,
to many feet in thickness. It can spread over many
square miles in area, or a few, depending on the
geology of the area.


Corporal. A man in charge of a haulage and haulage hands, a chargehand on supplies.


Deputy. Junior under official in British and Australian coal mines. His
prime duties are safety and sometimes production. Usually
holds a third class certificate of competency.


Detaching Hook. Also known as a King Safety Device. A device by which an overwound cage is detached from the rope and is held firmly in the headgear.



Downcast shaft. Denotes the fresh air shaft of a mine.


Dowty Prop. A hydraulic prop not too dissimilar to a car bottle jack in operation. These props are set on the floor and hand jacked to the roof with a key, they have a yield valve set to yield when the roof pressure on them reaches a pre determined weight, say 25 or 50 tons.
They were used to replace wood and steel props on faces before modern powered hydraulic chocks were available. Later they became common at the gate ends to support the ripping lips and stable holes.


Draw. miners slang for a ride in the shaft, ie "first draw" first ride out from pit bottom at the end of the shift.



Drift. Entrance to a mine, usually on an incline, also denotes an
inclined road to another seam.


Electrical Engineer In Charge. The most senior member of the electrical engineering staff. He is legally responsible for the electrical equipment and electrical staff of a mine.



Firedamp. See mine gasses.


Flame Safety Lamp. A flame lamp with the flame safely inside a double gauze to prevent ignition of methane outside the lamp. Obsolete these days due to modern gas detectors and methanometers.
More commonly known as a miners lamp, there were two main types in use, a relightable type, issued to officials of the mine, and a none relightable type for workmen.

Gate. Road leading to a longwall face, as in maingate/mother-
-gate, tailgate/supplygate.


Gate End Box. A piece of switchgear that
controls electrical apparatus, like a pump,
coal face equipment etc. It can be joined
up with other gate end boxes, (GEB), to
form a switchbank.


Goaf/Gob/Waste The area behind a longwall face that has been allowed to collapse. Can also be used for a pillar face where the pillars are extracted and the roof allowed to cave in.


Headstocks. The wooden or steel and sometimes concrete tower over the shaft of a mine, used to house the sheave wheels for the winding ropes and the guide rope termination points.


Inbye. Indicating inwards of pit bottom, ie 100 yards inbye of 1's conveyor drivehead, means 100 yards passed the drivehead going into the workings..


Koepe Winder. See Multi Rope Friction Winders.





Lids A piece of wood used over the top of a wooden prop, twice the diameter of the prop in size to prevent the prop from crushing or pushing into the roof. It's purpose was to increase the surface area of the top of the prop.


Long wall. Type of mineral mining method, commonly used in coal mining. Two methods are in use at the present time, advancing and retreating. In Advancing, two roads are usualy driven a short distance, parallel to each other approx 200 yards or more apart, then a road is driven at the hieght of the seam between these two roads, called gates, this road is then installed with self advancing hydraulic roof supports, an armoured flexible conveyor and a power loader. The face then cuts coal as it advances.
The other method, Retreat long wall, is where the two gate roads are driven to the boundary, usually over a Kilometre, then the face driven between the two gate roads, and the face cuts back towards the main road.
There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods.


Manager. Most senior official at a mine. Holder of a 1st class certificate of competency, he is responsible for the day to day running of a mine, the safety of the mine and everyone who works under him.


Man Rider/Paddy Train. A rope hauled or locomotive hauled train to take the men from areas close to pit bottom to the inbye workings of a mine. Rope haulages are of the "endless rope" type and both are track mounted. There is a third type suspended from the roof, these are called monorails, and to can be either rope hauled of diesel loco hauled.



Mechanical Engineer In Charge. Sometimes called "The Wheelwright" Most senior member of the mechanical engineering staff responsible to the Manager for carrying out the the duties of supervising the mechanical staff and maintenance of the mechanical equipment at a colliery.


Mine Gasses. A mine atmoshphere is about the same as that on the surface, 78.1% Nitrogen, 20.93% Oxygen, and the rest other gases. Gases that are also found, sometimes in excess are Methane, more commonly known as "FIREDAMP" in mixed proportions of air, it is being released from the coal seam all the time, but diluted by the normal ventilation flow. The limits of flamibility are between 5.25% to 14%, mixtures between 9 and 10% are the most explosive!. Chemical symbol is CH4

Carbon Monoxide CO, commonly known as afterdamp, produced by incomplete burning, as in goaf/gob fires or after a fire or explosion. Extremely poisonous, can kill in very low amounts.

Black damp, not really a gas, but combination of Carbon Dioxide, CO2 and Nitrogen, usually stated as "lack of oxygen". Caused by oxidation of the coal and timbers and in so doing "burns" the oxygen in the atmosphere up. As there is usually low to no oxygen in the air where it's found, it is extremely dangerous.

Stink Damp, hydrogen sulphide, very poisonous gas, produced by acid water on iron oxides or pyrites. (H2S)


Multi Rope Friction Winders. A type of winder that doesn't have "dead laps" of rope on the winding drum, but relies on friction of the several ropes on friction pad inserts on the drum itself.


NCB National Coal Board, the organisation set up to administer the nationalized UK coal industry in the 1947 Nationalization of the coal industry act. All but a few mines too small to bother with were brought into public ownership in 1948.
Compensation was paid to the coal owners.


Onsetter. Man in charge of shaft bottom.


Ostler. OR Hostler, man appointed to look
after the horses underground.


Overcast. A road crossing another road, usually
sealed to prevent air leakage
between the two roads.


Overman. An underofficial senior to a Deputy,
holder of a Deputies certificate.
Usually in charge of production.


Rings. RSJ's (I beams) bent to the shape of an arch or circle, used as roadway permanent supports. Usually in sections, crown, (top section) and two legs. These are fastened together with fishplates and bolts with spacers between the adjacent rings called struts.


Self Rescuer. A safety device a miner carries on his belt. It's purpose is to chemically change carbon monoxide gas into carbon dioxide. In the event of a fire or explosion, the miner breaks the seal on the canister, pulls the unit out, places the mouthpiece in his mouth, headbands over the head and the nose clip over his nose. He then breathes safe air, it will sustain life as long as there is enough oxygen in the air. It's drawback is, as the levels of CO rise, the air he breathes gets very hot, and the mouthpiece gets very uncomfortable. A small price if it saves lives!



Senior Overman. An under official, above an
Overman, but under an
Under Manager, usually in
charge of the underground
workings of a colliery.


Sheave Wheel. Usually denotes the wheel/s on the top of a headstocks/tower that the winding ropes go over.



Smallman Clip. A device to clip sets of tubs, mine cars etc to wire ropes used in haulages underground.


Stink damp See mine gasses.


Sump. A collecting point for water, bottoms of the shafts, large covered hole with a pump close by.


Trepanner. A type of coal cutting/loading machine that "cores" the coal face, squares it off and loads in one operation. It was a bi-directional machine, ie it cut both directions.


Tubbing. Linings, installed in mine shafts where the shaft goes through high pressure water bearing strata. Usually made from cast iron sections machined for a tight fit and sealed with lead cauking.



Under Manager Senior Official of a colliery, responsible for the statutary running of the underground workings or part of the underground workings. Holder of a 2nd class certificate of competency.



Upcast shaft. Denotes the return air shaft to a mine.



Whitedamp. See mine gasses.