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361 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1905. 



THE HISTORY Of COAL MINING. 

 Annals of Coal Mining and the Coal Trade. Second 

 Series. Bv R. L. Galloway. -Pp. xvi + 40c). 

 (London: Colliery Guardian Co., Ltd., 1904.) 



IN a former volume (noticed in Nature, vol. lix. 

 P- 337) the author carried his annals of coal 

 mining down to the period of the Select Committee 

 of the House of- Commons on Accidents in Mines in 

 1834. He now continues the subject to the passing 

 of the Coal Mines Inspection Act of 1850, and to the 

 establishment of the Royal School of Mines. This 

 volume, like its predecessor, is comprehensive and 

 accurate, and a monument of industry and of thorough 

 technical knowledge. 



The period of fifteen years reviewed is one of much 

 interest. .\fter ten years of stagnation came a re- 

 markable increase of activity in the coal and iron 

 industries. The chief causes that imparted the impetus 

 were the rapid extension of steam navigation and the 

 mania for constructing railways. Fresh life had been 

 given to the manufacture of iron by the introduction 

 of hot blast, and, owing to its increasing cheapness, 

 the metal was being more largely used in collieries. 

 Steel, however, was still a scarce commodity. The 

 chief seat of mining operations at this period was in 

 the \\'ear and South Durham district. In South 

 Wales a considerable development of the steam-coal 

 district took place, owing largely to the opening of 

 the West Bute Dock at Cardiff in 1839. In York- 

 shire the greatest depth attained in 1841 was at 

 Barnsley, where the coal lay 594 feet below the surface. 

 In Lancashire two pits were begun in 1838 at Pendle- 

 ton, which reached the coal at 1392 feet, whilst at 

 Apedale, in North Staffordshire, there was a mine 

 with the exceptional depth of 2177 feet. Frequent 

 instances of spontaneous issues of fire-damp are re- 

 corded. Full details of the various explosions are 

 given by the author, and the gradual improvements 

 in mining operations are traced. The author's records 

 show that the men who did most to advance mining 

 progress at this period were John Buddie, of Wallsend 

 (1773-1843), Dr. W. R. Clanny (1776-1850), Sir Henry 

 De la Beche (1796-1855), Michael Faraday (1791-1867), 

 Sir Goldsworthy Gurney (1793-1875), Lord Playfair 

 (1818-189S), Sir Warington Smyth (1817-1S90), and 

 James Young, of Bathgate (1811-1883). the founder 

 of the Scotch mineral oil industry. 



Incidentally, Mr. Galloway gives interesting etymo- 

 logical details of some local terms the origin of which 

 is uncertain. Thus, in South Staffordshire and Scot- 

 land the word " butty " signifies a comrade or 

 associate, .\ssuming neighbourhood to have been the 

 original idea, a root for the word is suggested by 

 the author in the term " but " as used in the expression 

 " but and ben," applied to a divided house shared by 

 two occupants. Again, what appear to be traces of 

 a primitive state of servitude existed in Staffordshire, 

 where the labourers employed in the haulage of coal 

 continued to be known as " bondsmen " — a name prob- 

 NO. 1842, VOL. 71] 



ably coming down from a remote period ; a supposition 

 which receives support from a peculiar service required 

 of them, known as "buildases. " This consisted in 

 working at times in the morning without receiving 

 any payment beyond a drink of ale. This custom of 

 exacting labour without pay is supposed to represent 

 some ancient service required from their tenants by 

 the monks of the Abbey of Buildwas, in Shropshire, 

 whence the name was derived, .\nother etymology 

 would have buildas, a contraction of build-house, be- 

 cause the monev obtained by means of this unpaid 

 labour enabled the butties to build rows of cottages. 

 Another curious term was that applied to the small 

 stools which in the north of England formed a 

 regular part of the collier's accoutrements. This stool 

 was known as a " cracket," a word which appears to 

 be a variety of cricket. 



In reviewing the history of this interesting period 

 it is surprising to find what a large number of recent 

 inventions had been anticipated. For example, the 

 pneumatic system of haulage, successfully applied by 

 Blanchet at Epinac, in France, in 1877, was patented 

 in 1845 by Knowles and Woodcock in Lancashire. 

 The use of reciprocating rods to raise vessels contain- 

 ing coal adopted on the Continent by Mehu, and sub- 

 sequently by Guibal, was made the subject of a patent 

 bv Slade in 1836. The process of raising mineral in 

 successive stages, proposed for working the deep- 

 level mines of the Witwatersrand, appears to have been 

 not uncommon during the first half of the nineteenth 

 century. Winding by endless chain, as proposed by 

 O. C. von V^rbo in a book published a few months 

 ago, was patented as early as 1789; and in 1839 an 

 automatic arrangement for cutting off the steam and 

 applying the brake, invented by John Wild, was in 

 operation in Lancashire. The well known ventilator 

 patented by \Y. P. Struv^ was identical in principle 

 with the hydraulic air-pump used in the Hartz mines 

 since the Middle Ages. Iron props, adopted in France 

 in 1880, were used in Derbyshire collieries in 181 1, as 

 were also pieces of timber built up two and two cross- 

 wise so as to form a square pillar. This so-called 

 pig-sty timbering was introduced as a novelty by the 

 Australian miners at the Day Dawn mine, in Queens- 

 land, ten years ago. 



In one respect the work is open to criticism. The 

 title " Anfials of Coal Mining " should more properly 

 have been " Annals of British Coal Mining," inasmuch 

 as Continental and American practice is barely men- 

 tioned. This is to be regretted, as during the period 

 under review several events happened abroad to which 

 reference might usefully have been made. Thus, the 

 first Belgian railway was opened in May, 1835, the 

 first German railway in December, 1835, the first 

 French railway in 1837, and the first Austrian railway 

 in 1838. The first railways made in the L'nited States 

 were coal roads to the mines. In 1835 Thomas and 

 Laurens suggested heating boilers with blast-furnace 

 gas. In 1835 Kind improved the methods of deep 

 boring. In 1846 Schonbein discovered gun cotton, 

 and nitroglycerin was invented in the following year. 

 In 1830 the modern mine-theodolite was invented by 

 F. W. Breithaupt, of Cassel, and in 1845, in France, 



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