Report of the Bureau of Mines of the Department of Internal Affairs of ...

6 REPORT OF THE INSPECTORS OF MINES. Off. Doc.
It is seldom, however, that falls occiii' on gangways or breast
roads, except close to the faces, where work is progressing, and space
for properly securing the roof is not yet made.
In several cases during the year very careful miners were killed
while in the act of putting up timber to secure the roof. In such
cases it must be admitted that they had some knowledge of the conditions
of the roof, otherwise they would not have proceeded to
timber it. At the same time some conditions which they did not
suspect existed and thus they were led into an error of judgment
which cost them their lives.
Where 38 out of a total of 53 accidents occur from one cause, it
seems very reasonable to suppose that something must be radically
wrong, either with the methods of mining or the management, which
if remedied much fewer accidents would naturally follow.
This undoubtedly is a very natural conclusion, but a closer investigation
of each one will show how and where each once occurred and
convince anyone conversant with mining as to where the responsibility
lies.
As already stated, a glance at table four will show that the most
of them happened at or close to the working face, and from danger
that none but those working there can guard against.
The roof in a breast or gangway may be perfectly safe when the
miners enter in the morning, but with every shot tired, new ground is
uncovered, and slips and seams in top coal and roof exposed, to which
the miners, as a rule do not pay sufficient attention. Again, if the
vein is split into two or more benches, as is generally the case, the
"mining" as a rule is done in the ^'bottom" and requires but six or
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seven holes to take out a ''cut" clear across the face of the breast.
This I consider is all right and a very economical and practical
method Oif mining, and where proper care is exercised willi roof and
overhanging coal and rock, few accidents occur. But when the top
coal is "slippy" and the miner works too far under it without temporary
props to support it, and neglects to carefully examine it after
each shot is fired, and reaches under it to bar out some coal loosened
by a recently fired shot, when perhaps the same has spent most of its
fence on the now six or seven feet of undermined "top coal," it is
then that it falls and kills while "barring out the bottom bench."
Mine Foremen's Examinalions.
The annual examinntion of iipplicaiils for mine foremen and assistant
mine foremen certificates was held at Carbondale, Pa., on the
2 1st and 22d of July, 1897.
The board of examiners were the following:
Charles V. Ford. sui)erintendent, Marshwood.
James E. Morrison, miner, Carbondale.