1873 - Old Forge Coal Mines

48 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE
excavations that all loose coal, slate or rock overhead is carefully secured
against falling over the arrangements for signaling from the bottom to the
top, and from the top to the bottom of the shaft or slope, over the metal
tubes from the top to the bottom of the shaft or slope, for the purpose of
talking through, and all things connected with and appertaining to the
safety of the men at work in the mine. He or his assistants shall examine
carefully the workings of all mines generating explosive gases every morning
before the miners enter the coal mine or colliery, and shall ascertain
that the mine is free from danger, and the workmen shall not enter the
mine until such examination has been made and reported, and the cause of
danger, if any exist, be removed ;
and he and his assistants shall also, every
evening, when the workmen leave the mine or colliery, go over the mine
and see that the doors of the passageways are all properly closed, and that
all the air-ways are free and unobstructed to the passage of air through
them ; and it shall be the duty of the mine boss to measure the ventilation
at least once per week, at the inlet and outlet, at or hear the face of all
gangways, and all measurements to be reported to the inspector once per
month.
Section 9. All and every of the safety lamps used in the coal mines or
collieries shall be the property of the owner thereof, and shall be under the
charge of a suitable person under direction of the mining boss, who shall
keep them clean and in good order ; and the mining boss shall provide that
all doors assisting or effecting the ventilation of the mine shall be so hung
and adjusted so that they will close of their own accord and cannot stand
open, and the main doors on the traveling roads shall be double, and an
extra door shall be fixed to be closed only in the event of an accident to
one of the others, and the sides and top of such door shall be built with
stones and mortar in mines in which the inspector shall deem it necessary,
and shall so oider, and all main doors shall be provided with an attendant,
whose constant duty shall be to guard them and prevent their being left
open ; and every mine having explosive gas in every part of such a mine
or mines shall be divided into two, four or more panels or districts, each
ventilated by a separate spit or current of air, and fifty persons shall be
the greatest number of persons that shall work in any one panel or district
at the same time ; and bore holes shall be kept twenty feet in advance
of the face of each and every place, and if necessary, on both sides, when
the same is driven towards or approaching an abandoned mine or part of a
mine suspected to contain inflammable gasses or which is inundated with
water.
Section 10. The owner or agent of every coal mine or colliery, opened
or operated by shaft or slope, shall provide and maintain a metal tube from
top to bottom of such slope or shaft, suitably calculated and adopted to
the free passage of sound therein, through which conversation may be held
by and between persons at the bottom and the top of the shaft or slope
and also the ordinary means of signaling to and from the top of the shaft
from the bottom ; and also provide an improved safety catch and a sufficient
cover overhead on every carriage used for lowering or hoisting persons
;
and they shall provide and arrange that flanges or horns of sufficient
dimensions are attached to the sides of the drum of every machine that is
used for lowering or hoisting in or out of any mine ; an adequate break
shall be attached to every drum or machine worked by steam or water
power that is or will be used for lowering or raising persons into or out of
any of said mines, and the main link attached to the swivel of the wire rope
shall be made of the best quality of iron and tested by weights or otherwise
satisfactorily to the inspector, and bridle chains shall be attached to