1900 - Coalmininghistorypa.org

No. 11. MINING LAWS OF PENNSYLVANIA. cxv
kept in a safe and available condition and free from steam and
dangerous gases, and all other obstructions, and if such opening is
a shaft it shall be fitted with safe and convenient stairs with steps of
an average tread of ten inches and nine inches rise, not less than two
feet wide and to not exceed an angle of sixty degrees descent with
landings of not less than eighteen inches wide and four feet long,
at easy and convenient distances: Provided, That the requirements
of this section shall not be applicable to stairways in use prior to
June thirtieth, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-five, when
in the judgment of the mine inspector, they are sufficiently safe and
convenient. And water coming from the surface or out of the strata
in the shaft shall be conducted away by rings, casing or otherwise
and be prevented from falling upon persons who are ascending or
descending the stairway of
the shaft.
Section 6. Where any mine is operated by a shaft which exceeds
seventy-five feet in vertical depth, the persons employed in said mine
shall be lowered into and raised from said mine by means of machinery,
and in any such mine the shaft, other than the main shaft,
shall be supplied with safe and suitable machinery for hoisting and
lowering persons, or with safe and convenient stairs for use in cases
of emergency by persons employed in said mine: Provided, That any
mine operated by two shafts, and where safe and suitable machinery
is provided at both shafts for hoisting coal or persons, shall have
sufficiently complied with the requirements of this section.
Section 7. At any mine, where one of the two openings required
hereinbefore is a slope and is used as a traveling way, it shall not
have a greater angle of descent than twenty degrees and may be of
any depth.
Section 8. The machinery used for lowering or raising the employes
into or out of the mine and the stairs used for ingress or
egress, shall be kept in a safe condition, and inspected once each
twenty-four hours by a competent person employed for that purpose.
And such machinery and the method of its inspection shall be approved
by the mine inspector of the district in which the mine is
situated.
ARTICLE III.
Hcisling Machinery, Safety Catches, Signaling Apparatus, Et Cetera.
Section 1.
The operator or superintendent shall provide and maintain,
from (he top to bottom of every shaft where persons are raised
or lowered, a metal tube suitably adapted to the free passage of
sound through which conversation may be held between persons at
tin' top and bottom of said shaft, and also a means of signaling from
the top to the bottom thereof, and shall provide every cage or gear
carriage used for hoisting or lowering persons with a sufficient over-