Epitome of evidence taken before the Commissioners appointed to enquire into the condition of all mines in Great Britain to which the provisions of the Act 23 & 24 Vict. cap. 155 do not apply, with reference to the health and safety of persons employed in such mines / presented to both houses of Paliament by command of Her Majesty.
- Great Britain. Royal Commission on Mines
- Date:
- 1864
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Epitome of evidence taken before the Commissioners appointed to enquire into the condition of all mines in Great Britain to which the provisions of the Act 23 & 24 Vict. cap. 155 do not apply, with reference to the health and safety of persons employed in such mines / presented to both houses of Paliament by command of Her Majesty. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![(B.)—MODE OF AO ,) Mode of bad no ore from the 140 fathoms down to the 212 fathoms, ccess and l)iit now wo fancy that wc arc riding on a course of ore gress. at the 212 fathoms, and therefore we are now resuming our operations there by sinking the shaft, driving the levels, and ])utting down a winze. 11.704. At the 110 fathoms, therefore, are your prin- ci])al workings ?—At this shaft, from the 60 to the 140 fathoms. 11.705. Is the power chiefly water power?—Yes; pumping by water power and hauling by steam ; four steam engines. 18,70(). In hauling do you use a wire rope ?—Yes, and steel for some. Wc have only lately introduced it, and we find that it answers very well. 18.737. Do the men ever go down by the kibbles ?— Not that we are aware of; that would be a fine. 18,708. Do you use the skip or the kibble in liauling? —Both. 18,700. Then it is by an incline ?—By a railway and guides. a.)Laddcr.. («.)-LADDEES. Mr. James Seccombe. 1352. [Chairman.) Do the men, when they come to surface, appear exluiustcd by their exertion ?—Yes, sometimes, if they hurry ap. Mr. James Nance. 2()46. [Mr. IloUaud.) About what time?—Perhaps half-an-hour sometimes, and sometimes three-quarters of an hour. They bore so mucli ground, and perhaps sometimes it is not ({uite so hard, and it is done more c|uickly at one time than at another. While in a state of ])ers]nration they get in a draughty place, and stop there till the bell rings in order to prevent any collision with the agent, and there they contract tlicir consump- tive habits ; I believe that to be the chief cause of the miners' com])laint. 2()47. (Chairman.) Do they ever .stand waiting on the ladders before coming up, l)ecauso if they came out before the time they would be fined ?—There is no doubt they do ; they stop in a draughty place ; I Ijelievo that the miners' complaint generally begins with a cold, and that a succession of colds produces it. A Miner, No. 1. 2831. {Mr. yl)(s«/».jBrace.) When you had260 fathoms to climb, how long did it take you?—About an hour and a half. 2832. AVhich was the hardest, that hour and a half or an hour and a half working ?—The hour and a half climbing. 2833. Do you think that it took out of you as much as two hours of Avork ?—Yes, as much as all the four of working, I shoiild think. 2834. Did you work fewer hours in consequence of the length that you had to climb ?—No. 2835. Your time ivas for eight hours all the time, was it?—Yes, we were obliged to work eight hours to get a living for our families. 2836. Did that tell upon your health ?—No, I cannot say that it did. 2837. You were working in a healthy place there ?— Yes, we were working in better air there. 2838. If you had had that climbing over and above a bad close end, what would have been the consequence ? —I should not have been able to do it at all; you feel it in your legs directly. 2839. Do you think that you could do the same day's work in eight hours when you had to climb 260 fathoms by a ladder?—Yes, we always do the same work. 2840. [Mr. Holland.) In fact you were working 10 hours ?—Yes. 2841. {Chairman.) Do you think that you were as well able to do the work ?—No, I do not think that I was so well able to do it at all. 2842. {Mr. Austin Bruce.) After doing that day's work, and climbing 260 fathoms, were you ever so tired as not to be able to sleep or to be thrown oS your feed ? —Yes, many a time ; I carried my parcel underground, and brought it home as I carried it, scores of times. 2843. And did you find others the same ?—Yes. 2844. You think that a man has a chance of a longer life who works in a pit where there is a man-engine ?— Yes, if it be a deep one. 2845. What do you think is the amount of climbing which a man can do over and above his work without c :;ess and egress. inju-y to his health ?—About 40 or 50 fathoms we do a-)-^'^'^' not tal-ce much account of, but if we be working in bad air we then feel it; when we climb 10 fathoms we feel ' it in our legs directly. 2846. {Chairman.) But in good air, what depth could you climb without injuiy to your health ?—In good air we do not take any notice of it. 2847. Fifty fathoms ?-Fifty or 60 fathoms. 2848. Would climbing 200 fathoms be fatiguing, even if the air was good; Avould you suffer from it ?—It would be a little fatiguing. A MiNEE, No. 2. 2906. {Mr. Austin Bruce.) As much as a quarter of a day's work?—Yes, I should think so. It would do more injury than a quarter of a day's work ; and in these mines here if a person is working at 140 or 150 fathoms, and is working very hard ground, generally speaking, wc have to carry all our tools, and sometimes we_ have a very heavy sling, perhaps 40 or 50 lbs. weight, upon our shoulders, to carry that distance. A MiNEK, No. 3. 2939. {Chairman.) Have you ever climbed any great depth of ladders ?—No, not lately ; not the last ten or dozen years. 2940. {Mr. A. Brvcc.) What was the greatest height which you had to climb ?—230 fathoms. 2941. By a ladder ?—Yes. 2942. How long did that take you ?—I am sure I do not know, it would take an hour or an hour and a half, I suppose, if you went along smart. 2943. An hour and a half coming up ?—Yes, I sup- pose so. 2944. And how much going down ?—Three-quarters of an hour, perhaps, or just like that; I cannot tell exactly to a quarter of an hour. 2945. Is an hour of climbing as bad as two hours of work ?—Yes, worse, I think, that is in an iipright shaft; a great many shafts in this country are under- lay, and that is not such hard work as when it is up- right. A MiNEE, No. 5. 3107. {Mr. A Bruce.) Only in the deep ones ?—Only in the deep ones, and in some a good deal of trouble would be required to put a man-engine. In the Phoenix mine, for instance, it might be a good deal of trouble, because in one shaft it is dowm-ight and on the lay, and in the other it is downright. In some mines again the footways are put in the same shaft where they wem all the stuff, making it very dangerous for a man to pass up and down. Mr. Cheistopiiee Guilds. 3128. {Chairman.) Ladder climbing not being, in your opinion, injurious in itself, if a man had been working in bad air, and then had to climb, would it not be injurious ? — I believe that it would be most inju- rious. I hear of no disease among the agents incident to that ladder climbing, and I think that, as a whole, if there has not been disease ■ before they have become agents by working in foul air as miners, a more healthy body of men you cannot find anywhere than they are. I arrive at the conclusion from that fact, that ladder climbing is not productive of disease. I admit that it aggravates disease very seriously in a diseased man. Mr. Andeew Kingston. 3288. {Chairman.) You have alluded to climbing; what is the effect iipon the miners of climbing ?—The act of climbing first of all produces a very violent action of the heart. Then they have to breathe more hur- riedly, and I believe that they get what is termed emphysema of the lungs, which I can explain. {The viitness made a sketch.) Supposing that to be a bron- chial tube, and these to be air cells influenced by the violent breathing of bad air for a series of years, these air cells, instead of being very small indeed, become large, so that the lungs are always full of air, but yet they do not get a projjer quantity of fresh air. We have a number of men in the mines from one time to another who come to us, and they are failing, and they look as if they Avere consumptive, and we examine them, and caimot find any trace of consumption at all. We 3](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2398482x_0023.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
