GLOSSARY. 405 



Floor. The rock below a coal seam. 

 Free-burning coal. See "Cherry coal." 



Fork-filled. Coal filled into skips with a fork, having the tinrs 

 about IJiii. apart. This separates the bulk of the slack from the 

 round coal, which should liot have more than 10 per cent, of its weight 

 of slack left in it. 



Front and back shift. A system sometimes used, in which one of a 

 pair of mates comes to work two hours before the other, while the 

 other remains two hours after the first has gone home; the object 

 being to keep the wheelers going, who work 10 hours, against the 

 miners' eight hours. 



Gannon, ganning, or going bord. Bords used for wheeling pur- 

 poses. A travelling-way going in the direction of a bord. 



(in rid nd. See "Water ring." 



Gas coal. Bituminous coal containing a large quantity of volatile 

 hydrocarbons. 



Gassing. The effect of inhaling noxious gases on the animal system. 



Gateiray. A road kept through the goaf in longwall working. 



Gcordie turn-out. A turn-out from a heading to a, bord made of 

 iron bars of square cross-section instead of ordinary T rails, so that 

 the same turn-outs can be used to the right or loft by simply reversing 

 them. 



Gob, goaf, or goave. That part of a mine from which the coal has 

 been extracted, and the roof allowed to fall in, or the space stowed 

 with refuse. 



Gob-road. A roadway built through the gob. 



Gob-stink. The smell of incompletely binning coal given off by an 

 underground fire. 



Gravity plane. A tramline laid at such an angle that full skips 

 running down hill will pull up the empties. 



Greaser. An apparatus over which 'skips pass, say, every mile, 

 which greases the axles. 



Green coal. Freshly milled coal. 



Grey -back. A local name at Lambton B. for minor cleats that 

 cross the main cleat. 



Grey -heads. Joints in the rolling country of the Southern Coal- 

 field of N.S.W., which run parallel with the longer axis of a roll; these 

 joints are generally coated with a whitish substance. 



Grunching. Shooting-fast, i.e., shooting in the solid. This 

 makes more slack than when the seam is holed ; but with the consoli- 

 dated rate the slack is weighed as well as the round coal. 



Guides. Wooden rods, steel rails or ropes, arranged in a shaft, 

 on which cages run, so as to keep them in their own particular path. 



Hanging deal. Planks used to suspend a lower curb from the one 

 above it, in cases where backing deals are necessary. 



Hard coal. Another term for anthracite. 



Heading. A passage driven with the facing of the coal, or head on. 



Head frame. The structure above a shaft, on the top of which 

 are fixed the pit head pulleys. 



Hearjstead. The entire surface plant about a shaft. 



Heave. The displacement of a rock sideways by faulting. 



Helper-up. An assistant to a wheeler when the roads are bad. 



Heu'er. The collier who mines the coal. 



Hewing rate. The rate of pay given miners for hewing coal. 



Holding-down curb. See Curb. 



Holing. (1) A horizontal cutting in or below a seam of coal made 

 preparatory to breaking down the coal above it. (2) A connection 

 made between two or more roads underground. 



Hopper. A bin for storing coal. 



Hopper-truck. Trucks made with a smaller area on the bottom 



