1909] on Bleans of Saving Life in Coal Mines. 471 



(for notMng is so cleaiisiug' as perspiration), and the other is. that 

 miners very rarely die of gout. 



The workinof model here illustrates the method. 



[Working model.] 



From this we see that in long-wall working, the operation is as 

 though an army of ants marched forward in line, eating the meat out 

 of a sandwich and letting the upper layer of bread fall down upon 

 the lower layer behind them. 



All this time the ventilation is steadily carrying away the foul 

 air from the face, for of course, where the new surfaces of coal are 

 exposed, there most of the gas exudes. Firemen constantly examine 

 the roof and face for gas, in a manner which I will presently describe. 



Here, too, most of the deaths occur. Urged by a desire to get 

 their work done, some of the men are not always careful to set sprags 

 and props, and from time to time masses of loosened coal fall on an 

 unfortunate miner. Great experience is necessary to watch the 

 splitting coal, and the bending roof, whose weight often crushes the 

 timbers and cracks them into match-wood. I here show some 

 photographs of the workings and of men at work. 



[Twelve photographs.] 



In former days women and children assisted under ground in the 

 mines. The work was hard and rough. I do not know that their 

 lives can be described as wretched. They were strong and healthy, 

 but the labour was unsexing and quite unsuitable for them, and we 

 may now feel glad that no women or children are allowed to be below 

 ground. The six slides are taken from the Report of the Royal 

 Commission on the labour of women and children. They show the 

 former laborious methods of srettino- the coal. 



[Six photographs of women, etc.] 



Now machinery is taking the place of human labour in mines as 

 elsewhere, and coal-cutters are beginning to be employed, driven 

 either by compressed air or by electricity. They consist of large 

 wheels armed with teeth, that rotate, and, like a huge circular saw, 

 held horizontally, hole out the coal. Sometimes they consist of bars 

 of metal armed with teeth. There are, in fact, various forms by 

 which the bottom of the seam is scratched out, so as to allow the 



Vol. XIX. (No. 103) 2 i 



