The 6, and weet je censerad, is scaled intyg, and as it has to 4. goff avons év The buy the che acced to revi to of preg te resalet iyag, and and fun me side in a very substract i some para teras. I tone ty jame ways: de veral cats are made Anude on the son of the tax off here, and resort the tors from either ade at puoting a free run a fas the fairs: Is com detached from above waton of the rat or the saga fe me neas erer of gunpowder or wedges. Girs revipera The men are id and paid by the guy per al the accus auffices of trappaz, sien; the tag filing fùng môing topping and occasicly Their works at scaled the myng of the res bara vars and forwards along the ge WIEL The seams many of the mones about Hain Me sumer arren ere at the 1 TOTT TH 14 notes in thickness, and rare! -far as to be filed; and was the bed b. The callers are obliged to work har to te naded or seres, the Im The Tide in ing the even foor, und or the mer supporting the heads upon a board or short crate When they are atue to stata ittle more space, they work sing upon one heel, balancing the persons or extenting the other. In these low, dark, beased and dismal chambers, they work perfectly naked The curves drawn by the hurriers veg from 2 to 5 ew: they are mounted on four cast-ra wheels, 5 inches in diameter, but not moving on rais These curves are dragged by children through passages in some cases not more than from 16 to 2. mehes in height: they buckle round their naked persons a broad leather strap, which is attached n fret to a ring and about 4 feet of chain, terminating the nade via a dy the men who then CUTTE When this is any Leia tigged wi Fig. 587. A HURRIER IS A HALIFAX COAL-FIT. In the Derbyshire coal-mines, the girdle and chain form what is called a dog-belt. In the pits about Brampton, the seams are so thin that several have only a two-, feet headway to all the workings. The pits are worked entirely by boys; the elder one lies on his side, and in that posture holes and gets the coal,! which is then loaded in a barrow or tub, and drawn along the bank to the pit-mouth by boys of from 8 to 12 years on all-fours with a dog-belt and chain, the passages being often an inch or two thick in black mud, and are neither ironed nor wooded. In the Coalbrook Dale district, the seams of coal are so thin as to afford a striking contrast to the depth of those of South Staffordshire. Boys are employed with the girdle and chain. In some of the mines of South Gloucestershire, the seams are so thin and the space for working so small, that young lads are employed in hewing coal whose size is suited to the contracted space. In the narrowest seams, the coal comes ont in blocks of regular thickness, requiring only the clearance of the clods above and below it, so that it is wrought with little labour, and the small stature of the cutters enables them to perform their task with comparative ease. The lads who hurry the coal wear a scull-cap a, Fig. 588, with a leathern band round it, in which Fig. 588. the candle-holder, b, is thrust. This holder is In Lancashire and Cheshire, the seams are very thin, and young children are employed. Fig. 5. represents three children hurrying a loaded wa of coals. The child in front is harnessed by the boys, by constantly pushing against the wagons | putting, pumping, and hewing. The coal-bearers are occasionally rub the hair from the crowns of their heads, and become almost bald. The little trapper represented in Fig. 586 belongs to the mines of this district: he is in the act of opening an air-door in a thin mine, to allow a wagon to pass through. The child is represented as sitting on his heels, a common custom with the colliers of this district. The mines in the mountain seams in the higher parts of Oldham and Rochdale are with few exceptions worked on a very small scale, and in a very rude manner. Several of them are entered by breasteyes or day-holes in the hill-side. Many of them are insufficiently drained, and the ways are so low, that only very little boys can work in them, which they do in a state of nudity, and often in mud and water, dragging sledges with tubs of coal on them by means of the girdle and chain, and in an atmosphere and with an amount of ventilation which prove sufficient only because the deleterious gases of the coal-pit are here almost unknown. The main way in the larger mines where the young people have to work, is only 3 or 4 feet high, and in some cases 6 inches higher; but in narrow seams the height is only 1 foot 10 inches, and the width only just enough for the passage of the tub. A candle stuck in the drawer's cap or in front of the tub, is the only method of lighting these dark and narrow passages. almost all girls and women; they carry the coal on their backs, in burdens varying from cwt. to 3 cwt. The following statement will show the amount of labour which a child of tender age has to undergo. The child has to descend a nine-ladder pit to the first rest, where a shaft is sunk to draw up the baskets or tubs of coal filled by the bearers; she then takes her creel, a basket formed to the back, not unlike a cockle-shell, flattened towards the neck so as to allow lumps of coal to rest on the back of the neck and shoulders, and pursues her journey to the wall-face, or room of work, as it is called. She then lays down her basket, into which the coal is rolled, and it is frequently more than one man can do to lift the burden on her back. The tugs or straps are placed over the forehead, and the body bent in a In Cumberland, the height of the coal-seams admits of horses being brought up to the workings. In the east of Scotland, from the very great inclination of the strata, the seams are called edgeseams, as if they were set up on edge, instead of being horizontal or nearly so. In these mines, girls and women are employed equally with males in all the labour of the coal-mine. It is stated as a general rule, that girls are invariably set at an earlier age than boys to this kind of labour, from a notion among parents that girls are more acute, and capable of making themselves useful at an earlier age than semicircular form, in order to stiffen the arch. boys. They are engaged in trapping, coal-bearing, | Large lumps of coal are then placed on the neck, Fig. 590. COAL-BEARING IN THE EAST SCOTLAND MINES. Fig. 591. and she then commences her journey with her burden to the pit-bottom, first hanging her lamp to the cloth crossing her head. One girl noticed by the commissioner had first to travel about 14 fathoms (84 feet) from the wall face to the first ladder, which is 18 feet high: leaving the first ladder, she proceeded along the main road, probably 3 to 4 feet high, to the second ladder, 18 feet high; so on to the third and fourth ladders till she reached the pit bottom, where she casts her load varying from 1 cwt to 11⁄2 cwt into the tub. This one journey is called a rake the height ascended, and the distance along the roads, added together, exceed the height of St. Paul's Cathedral, and it not unfrequently happens that the tugs break, and the load falls upon those females who are following. (See Fig. 590.) Figs. 591, 592, 593, will give some idea of the appearance of the coal-bearers and of the passages they have to traverse. Fig. 592. Fig. 593. TURNPIKE STAIR. After adducing evidence of the frightful evils resulting from this employ slavery, of which I conscientiously believe no one unacquainted with such facts would credit the existence in the British dominions." It is further painful to reflect that all this suffering results from the coal-owners continuing to work their mines in modes which have become obsolete in all other districts. "A little reflection would have prevented a vast deal of unnecessary and painful labor in the working of edge-seams in Scotland; for instance, in South Wales (where the stratification is almost vertical), on the sea coast, at Briton-ferry, and in the Anthracite field in Pembrokeshire, coal-bearing practised in Scotland is entirely unknown. The coal is transported from the different workings by succes sive windlasses, or balances working on inclined planes, which plan entirely removes the necessity of employing female labour. In the county of Pembroke, for example, the field or bed of coal (anthracite) is in many workings highly inclined. Suppose a vein to lie at an angle of 45° or even 55°, windlasses are fixed at convenient distances on the incline of the vein, by which means (if the mine is worked by adit or level, and above the adit) the coal after being brought from the stalls to the stage of the windlass in carts or skips, is dropped by the chain of the windlass down the incline to the level road, and the empty carts are worked up to the stage on which the windlass is fixed by the opposite chain of the windlass. If, on the contrary, the coal is worked to the dip, the coal is in a similar manner worked up to a convenient stage by windlass, and then taken by shaft to the surface. The windlasses are worked by women, and their labour is certainly severe, though only of 8 or 10 hours' ment, the sub-commissioner duration. Fig. 594 represents the carts or skips of says:-"When the nature coal descending the incline in a pitching vein to the of this horrible labour is taken into consideration, its extreme severity, its regular duration of from 12 to 14 hours daily, which once a-week at least is extended through the whole of the night; the damp, heated, and unwholesome atmosphere in which the work is carried on; the tender age and sex of the workers: when it is considered that such labour is performed not in isolated instances selected to excite compassion, but that it may be truly regarded as the type of the every-day existence of hundreds of our fellow-creatures,--a picture is presented of deadly physical oppression, and systematic Fig. 595. level of the road, after their arrival at which they are drawn by horses to the shaft, or to the mouth of a level. Fig. 595 represents girls winding coal from the workings in the dip. The Act of Parliament already referred to has put an end to these evils. From the time of passing the Act, no female, other than such as were so employed previously, was to work in any mine or colliery; and after three months from that date, no female under eighteen years old should be so employed; nor any female whatever after March 1, 1843. After this latter date, no males were to be employed under ten years of age; no person to be apprenticed under ten years of age, nor for longer than eight years (except in the case of engine-wrights and others who are only occasionally at work under-ground). Where there are vertical or other shafts, no steam or other engine to be entrusted to the care of a person under the age of fifteen; in the case of a windlass or gin, worked by a horse or other animal, the driver to be considered the person in charge. After three months from the passing of the Act, proprietors of mines or collieries not to pay workmen their wages at any tavern or public-house. To enforce the observance of these regulations the following arrangements were made-Inspectors of mines and collieries, appointed by the Secretary of State for the Home Department, are empowered to enter and examine any such works, and to report concerning them to the Government; any proprietor violating the law as to the age and duration of apprenticeship is subjected to a fine varying from 57. to 10%.; parents or guardians misrepresenting the age of children so employed, are fined 40s.; a neglect of the clause as to the care of the shafts, and also of that relating to the payment of wages, subjects the offender to fines varying from 57. to 50%. In many of the coal-mines of England where firedamp is not very common, ventilation is defective. According to the evidence of Mr. Woodhouse, mining overseer of the Moira collieries, Leicestershire, there are many drawbacks from the profits of collieries arising from a bad and defective system of ventilation. He says:-"The improved system adopted in the collieries on the Tyne and the Wear, of dividing the workings into districts, and so obtaining a current of fresh air in every division, may in many cases be adopted at a trifling expense in these counties; and although the extent of the workings in general bears no proportion to those in the collieries in the north, the principle remains the same, and the result would be favourable in a corresponding degree. It may be urged that the immense quantity of gas given out of the coal in the north has called for the improved system there, which is, probably, the fact; but there are many advantages to be derived from good ventilation, beyond the mere prevention of explosion. In pits with a rapid circulation the men respire more freely, the road ways are kept dry and repaired at less expense, and the timber lasts longer by years, and therefore it is a matter of strict economy to ensure a good ventilation. The men suffer most materially from working in an impure atmosphere. In some mines the air can scarcely be perceived to move at all, a thick mist or fog pervading the whole pit; which is caused partly from fermentation in the wastes and old works, partly from the lights, and partly from the heat and effluvia from the horses and men. This, with a large proportion of carbonic acid gas, forms an atmosphere that none but colliers, who are accustomed to it, could endure, but which has the effect of shortening their days." With respect to drainage, some pits are naturally very dry; others cannot be kept so without constant care, and much expense. Various methods of drainage are adopted, according to circumstances; such as bringing up the water to the surface in buts worked by machinery, or by successive lifts of pumps, or by collecting the water in a sink or sump at the bottom of one of the shafts, and then drawing it up in buckets by the engine when it is not engaged in raising coals; or by sinking a shaft on purpose, in which is placed a series of pumps for raising the water from one lift to another, until from the highest pump of all, which brings water to the surface, a perpetual stream is made to flow. Whenever the floor of the pit lies in such a way that the water will flow to the place to which the lowest pump descends, then the pit can be effectually kept dry. Neglect of drainage renders the mine very miserable for the work-people. Thus, in speaking of the Derbyshire pits, the commissioner says that some of them are so wet, "that the people have to work all day over their shoes in water, at the same time that the water is constantly dripping upon them from the roof. In other pits, instead of dripping, it constantly rains, as the people themselves term it, from the roof, so that in a short time after they commence the labour of the day, their clothes are drenched, and in this state, with their feet also in water, they work all day. The children, especially,—and in general the younger the age the more painfully this unfavourable state of the place of work is felt,-complain bitterly of this, and it must be borne in mind that it is in this district that, according to the evidence, the regular hours of a full day's labour are 14, and occasionally 16." The subcommissioner, speaking of the same district, says :--"I have met with pits where it rained so as to wet the children to the skin in a few minutes, and at the same time so hot that they could scarcely bear their clothes on to work in, and in this wet state they had to continue 14 hours, and perhaps had to walk a mile or two at night without changing or drying their clothes." Coal-pits are almost always warm, and in general the deeper they are, the warmer. By proper ventilation the heat can generally be so regulated as to render the temperature pleasant. When cold in the main roads the heat is often oppressive in the side gates and at the workings. Oppressive heat indicates imperfect ventilation. It is stated that in the mines of the Yorkshire coal-fields the thermometer stands in the main roads at from 50° to 60°, in the side roads from 60° to 65°, and at the workings from 64° to 72°. In the deep mines of the northern coal. field the temperature is considerably higher. In one | it strongly. A fine green, known as Rinmann's green, of the Hetton pits in South Durham, the temperature is similarly prepared, by combining oxide of cobalt was found to be 66° at the bottom of the shaft, and 70° in the workings; but in the Monkwearmouth colliery, the deepest in the northern coal-field, the average temperature ranges from 78° to 80°, and in some parts it occasionally rises to 89°. COBALT occurs in nature in combination with arsenic, as arsenical cobalt; or with sulphur and arsenic, as grey cobalt ore; but it is also contaminated with iron, nickel, and other metals. The ores remained without value until about the middle of the sixteenth century, when they were first applied for imparting a blue colour to glass; but the nature of the mineral was not known until it was examined by Brandt, in 1733, who obtained from it a new metal, which he named cobalt.' Cobalt is also found in most meteoric stones. It is not used in the metallic state: indeed, the processes for its reduction are difficult and complicated, and are carried on only in the laboratory on a small scale. The metal is brittle, of a reddish grey colour, of the density 8.5, somewhat more fusible than iron, and it is attracted by the magnet. There are two oxides of cobalt: the protoxide, Co O, and the sesqui- or peroxide, Co. O3. The former possesses the property of colouring glass blue, even when present in very minute quantity. No other colouring-matter is so permanent or so intense: hence, a glass formed of this oxide, under the name of smalt, is of great importance in the arts, it being the blue colouring matter used for ornamenting porcelain and earthenware, for staining glass, for painting on enamel, for tinting writing-paper, and for a variety of other purposes. The interesting processes concerned in the manufacture of smalt will be described presently. The protoxide, which is prepared by igniting the carbonate, is a powder of an ash-grey colour. When precipitated by an alkali from its solution in acids, it forms a hydrate, of a fine blue colour. The salts of this oxide have a reddish colour in solution. This oxide combines with alkalies and earths: dissolved in fused potash, it gives a blue colour to the compound; and when magnesia, or a body containing it, is touched with drop of nitrate of cobalt, and dried and ignited, a feeble but characteristic rose tint is obtained. A beautiful blue pigment, known as cobalt blue, almost equal for purity of tint to ultramarine, is obtained by mixing a solution of a salt of pure cobalt with a solution of pure alum, precipitating the liquid by an alkaline carbonate, washing the precipitate with care, drying and igniting (1) According to Beckmann, ("History of Inventions," vol. i.) cobalt was dug up in great quantity in the mines on the borders of Saxony and Bohemia, about the end of the fifteenth century. It was thrown aside as a useless mineral, entailing fruitless labour on the miners, and injuring their health by the arsenical particles contained in it. The word cobalt is supposed to have been derived with oxide of zinc, or 1 part sulphate of cobalt and ? or 3 parts sulphate of zinc, dissolving, and precipitating by means of carbonate of soda; and the precipitate, when washed and calcined, acquires a green colour. Chloride of cobalt is obtained by dissolving the oxide in muriatic acid. The solution is of a pink red, but when highly concentrated, it is of an intense blur. The chloride, the nitrate, and the sulphate of cobalt form what are called sympathetic inks. Thus, if charac ters be written on paper with the chloride, they remain colourless and invisible, or nearly so; but by warming the paper near the fire, the writing becomes of a beautiful blue colour. As the paper cools, moisture is absorbed, and the colour disappears, but may be reproduced by heat. The addition of a salt of nickel gives a green instead of a blue colour. Thus, in painting what are called magic landscapes, the sky is painted with pure chloride, and the trees and grass with a solution containing nickel. Nitrate of cobalt forms a red sympathetic ink. Phosphate of cobalt is an insoluble precipitate, of a deep violet colour. 2 parts of this and 1 part of arseniate of cobalt, carefully mixed with 16 parts of alum and strongly ignited for a considerable time, produce a beautiful blue pigment called Thenard's blue. It is said to have all the characters of ultramarine: it has lately been substituted for smalt in the manufac ture of paper. When protoxide of cobalt is calcined with a boraxglass, it absorbs oxygen, and a black mass is obtained, which, mixed with oxide of manganese, forms a fine black, which is used in enamel-painting. Smalt is principally manufactured in Germany and Norway. In the year 1840, the imports into Great Britain amounted to 118,638 lbs., of which 97,751lbs were from Norway, and the remainder from Germany and Holland. In 1842, the imports amounted to 145,470lbs. By the new tariff an import duty of 10. per cwt. is levied on smalt: this has greatly promoted the sale of a rival colour, artificial ultramarine, which is prepared at a very cheap rate at Cologne and other towns on the Rhine, and being admitted free of duty, it has for the most part superseded smalt for paper. hangings, and all those cases in which it is not used as an enamel colour. The following is a very brief outline of the manufacture of smalt as carried on in Saxony. The success of this manufacture depends in great measure upon the purity of the materials employed, and on the exact proportions in which they are combined. The ore of cobalt is first picked, to separate stony matters, then sifted, stamped, and washed, bṛ which means it is reduced to a coarse powder, and the earthy matters are separated. The ore is then from cobalus, the name of a spirit which was reputed to haunt roasted, for the purpose of separating arsenic and mines, destroying the labours of the miners, or giving them much unnecessary trouble. "The miners, perhaps, gave this name to the mineral out of joke, because it thwarted them as much as the sulphur: this is done in a reverberatory furnace, to which is attached a tube of great length, or a series supposed spirit, by exciting false hopes, and rendering their labour of chambers for the purpose of condensing the fumes often fruitless. It was once customary to introduce into the church service a prayer for the protection of miners and their works against kobolts and spirits." (2) Abridged from a paper read by the Editor before the Society of Arts, London, 5th March, 1851. |