1900 - Coalmininghistorypa.org

cxx MINING LAWS OF PENNSYLVANIA. Off. Doc.
Section 6. After January first, one thousand eight hundred and
ninety-four, the use of the common Davy safety lamp for general
work on any bituminous coal mine is hereby prohibited, neither shall
the Clanny lamp be so used unless its gauze is thoroughly protected
by a metallic shield, but this act does not prohibit the use of the
Davy and Clanny lamps by the mine officials for the purpose of examining
the workings for gas.
Section 7.
All safety lamps used for examining mines or for working
therein shall be the property of the operator, and shall be in the
care of the mine foreman, his assistant or fire boss, or other competent
person, who shall clean, fill, trim, examine and deliver the
same, locked, in a safe condition to the men when entering the mine
before each shift, and shall receive the same from the men at the end
of each shift, for which service a charge not exceeding cost of labor
and material may be made by the operator. A sufficient number of
safety lamps, but not less than twenty-five per centum of those in
use, shall be kept at each mine where gas has at any time been generated
in sufficient quantities to be detected by an ordinary safety
lamp, for use in case of emergency. It shall be the duty of every
person who knows his safety lamp to be injured or defective, to
promptly report such fact to the party authorized herein to receive
and care for said lamps, and it shall be the duty of that party to
promptly report such fact to the mine foreman.
ARTICLE VI.
Mine Foreman and His Duties.
Section 1. In order to better secure the proper ventilation of the
bituminous coal mines and promote the health and safety of the
persons employed therein,
the operator or superintendent shall employ
a competent and practical inside overseer for each and every
mine, to be called mine foreman; said mine foreman shall have
passed an examination and obtained a certificate of competency or
of service as required by this act and shall be a citizen of the United
States and an experienced cqal miner, and said mine foreman shall
devote the whole of his time ft> his duties at the mine when in operation,
or in case of his necessary absence, an assistant, chosen by him
and shall keep a careful watch over the ventilating apparatus, and
the air ways, traveling ways, pump and pump timbers and drainage,
and shall often instruct, and as far as possible, see that as the
miners advance their excavations all dangerous coal, slate and rock
overhead are taken down or carefully secured against falling therein,
or on the traveling and hauling ways, and that sufficient props, caps
and timbers of suitable size are sent into the mine when required,
and all props shall be cut square at both ends, and as near as prae-