34 Messrs. Faraday and Lyell on Explosions in Coal Mines. 



men ; but we have been encouraged to proceed by the hope of 

 being useful ; and have endeavoured to write this report, not 

 in technical phrase, but in plain and simple language, which, 

 if useful in its suggestions, may be comprehended by all. 



In conclusion, we cannot but express a hope that some step 

 may be taken without delay, witli a view to afford a better 

 education to the persons engaged in working in collieries. 

 When attending the late inquest, we were much struck with 

 the fact that more than half of the pitmen who gave evidence, 

 some of them persons of great intelligence, and one master 

 wasteman, were unable to write, or even to sign their names 

 as witnesses. The best-conducted and well-informed from 

 amongst the pitmen are occasionally promoted to some of the 

 subordinate offices of charge in the mines ; and it would be in 

 the highest degree useful, if greater facilities were given to the 

 underviewers, overmen, wastemen and deputies, to learn the 

 elementary knowledge more immediately bearing upon their 

 business. They might be taught, for example, such simple 

 parts of chemistry and pneumatics as relate to the nature of 

 gases and air; the first principles of hydrostatics and of geo- 

 logy, as far as concerns the position and dislocation of strata, 

 the intrusion of trappean or volcanic rocks, and other points. 



In countries such as France and Germany, where a far less 

 amount of capital is embarked in mining enterprises, there are 

 large schools of mines and scientific establishments, in which 

 professional men, of different grades, are carefully instructed 

 in those branches of knowledge which are closely connected 

 with the art of mining. We are aware that, notwithstanding 

 the want of such institutions, viewers in this country combine 

 a large amount of scientific information with great practical 

 experience. But such qualifications are enjoyed by a com- 

 paratively small proportion of those engaged in the superin- 

 tendence of coal pits, especially of that class to whom the sub- 

 ordinate offices are intrusted*. If peculiar difficulties attend 

 the organization of schools for the mining population, owing 

 to its migratory habits, and because the workpeople are often 

 congregated suddenly at places far distant from towns and 

 villages, and do not remain permanently resident at fixed 



* In the present state of science it is unworthy of the viewers and other 

 mining agents that the nomenclature employed hy them in the description 

 of rocks should neither be intelligible to the geologist nor uniform in neigh- 

 bouring mining districts. Such terms as post, metal, tv/iin, splint coal, mild 

 and strong, thill, scares, girdles, and others used in the original of the sec- 

 tion copied for this re[)ort, are illustrations of the strange phraseology 

 which prevails, and which cannot easily be interpreted, even where the 

 miner attaches a definite meaning to the terms he uses. 



