206 Mr. William Henry Preece [Feb. 10, 



1. We commence with a map of Great Britain, showing in shaded 

 lines the distribution of the various coal-fields. 



2. A view on the surface of the pit's mouth, showing the engine- 

 house, the pulleys, frames and ropes, with their motion up and down 

 their respective shafts, the banking shed for tipping the raised coal 

 into railway waggons and carts, the waggons laden with coal, the 

 trucks laden with wood for "cogging," and timber for treeing, 

 supporting, and strengthening. This particular pit raises about 

 1000 tons in eight hours, and it employs from 500 to 600 men. 



3. This is the top of the shaft, with the cage in position ready to 

 descend with an empty tub. Every pit has two shafts, the up-cast 

 and the down-cast, for working and ventilation. They vary from 

 10 feet to 20 feet in diameter. This particular pit is 360 feet deep, 

 but there are several in England over 2000 feet. The rate of descent 

 is 18 feet per second, or about 20 miles an hour. 



4. This is the bottom of the shaft ; the tub, laden with coal, just 

 brouf^ht from the w^orking face, the man in the act of running it on to 

 the cage, and his hand in the act of signalling to the surface. 



5. An overman's cabin hewn out of the coal, the underviewer 

 making his report of the condition of the mine after his morning 

 inspection. 



6. The engine-plane or level, which is 2000 yards long. A 

 hewer, pike in hand, meets the underviewer with his " Clanny," and 

 learns the state of the mine. The truck is worked by an endless 

 TO-pe, it has a double way, the laden tubs drawn towards the shaft, 

 and the empty tubs towards the workings. It will be seen that 

 the roof is strengthened by iron bars instead of the timbers generally 

 used. 



7. Clipping a tube to the rope by means of a shackle and 

 coupling. The ordinary cross timbers or bars are here shown sup- 

 porting the roof. 



8. A level branch off the engine-plane. Horses or ponies now 

 take up the work and draw the empty tub through a " gob " road — a 

 road through the whole working — to the working face or long wall. 

 Though a horse in the pit does scarcely one-half of the work of a 

 horse on the surface, it lives as long. There are horses that have 

 never seen daylight for 16 years. 



9. A road near the face ; men resting from their work — taking 

 their lunch or "jack bit." 



10. The end of the road, the tub taken off the rails and dragged 

 to the face. 



11 and 12. The working face. Undercutting ; taking away the 

 hard under-clay preparatory to blowing or wedging down the super- 

 incumbent coal. 



13. Punching a hole for blasting with powder. The mode of 

 supporting a "gob" road by cogging is very well shown in this 

 slide. 



14. A way end, showing the result of a blast. 



