HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 173 



dering argillaceous schistus, of no value, which falls into a slack- 

 coloured powder ; No. 4, and the other stratum of iron-stone, 

 as may easily be conceived, will not pay for getting, unless in- 

 cumbent or appendant to some other useful strata which are got 

 for use ; the rocks, No. 9 and 31, are of no particular value, except 

 to mend roads, and for burr walls ; No. 20, brooch coal, is useful, 

 and sometimes got j the thicker strata, No. 15, 16, 17, 24, 25, 

 26, 27, 28, 29, are got so far as they will pay for getting ; No. 30, 

 peldon, contains nodules of hard, basaltic, durable stone, too hard 

 to cut, and of no use except for rough walls, or to mend roads, or 

 for pavements. 



Of the Coal Stratum. The white coal is very good, either for 

 shops or other use ; the tow coal and brazils are good furnace coal, 

 and the other strata are characterized further on. 



In working these mines, the coal is generally raised up the shafts 

 in skiffs or skips, by the force of a small steam-engine called a 

 whimsey : these skiffs, when loaded, weigh from half a ton to fifteen 

 hundred weight each, more or less. The shaft is sunk through the 

 different strata, and to the bottom of the main coal. The opening, 

 called the gateway, is the first work of the miners after sinking the 

 shaft : it is made in the under-stratum of coal, from 8 to 10 feet 

 in height, 9 feet wide, and is carried through the whole extent of 

 the work : excavations, called stalls, are then opened from the 

 gateway, from whence the coal is got for use, leaving sufficient 

 pillars between the stalls to support the roof. The skiffs are loaded 

 in the stalls, and drawn to the shafts by horses, which are let down 

 the shafts and kept in the mines for that purpose ; the under- 

 stratum of coal is got first, after which the incumbent strata are 

 let down more easily in large blocks, and afterwards broken smaller 

 by pikes or wedges : long iron prongs are used to force down the 

 upper coal when it cannot safely be come at with the pick, and 

 scaffolds are raised to bring the workmen in contact with the 

 upper coal. 



The thickness of coal here, including the brooch coal, exceed* 

 10 yards, and a cubic yard of coal weighs about a ton, so that this 

 mine contains, in its perfect parts, 10 tons of coal to each square 

 yard of surface on the earth, which would be upwards of 48,000 tons 

 per acre ; about one-third is left in pillars, and a good deal lost in 

 rubbish, besides which there are often faults, and defective parts, 

 containing extraneous matter, so that it is reckoned very good 

 work if 20,000 tons are raised for use from an acre, which is supposed. 



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