Coal and the coal mines

by Homer Greene

GLOSSARY OF MINING TERMS.

[After damp.] The mixture of gases resulting from the burning of fire damp.

Air shaft. A vertical opening into a mine for the passage of air.

Airway. Any passage in the mine along which an air current passes; but the term is commonly applied to that passage which is driven, for ventilating purposes, parallel to and simultaneously with the gangway.

Anticlinal. A fold of strata in which the inclination of the sides of the fold is from the axis downward.

Barrier pillars. Large pillars of coal left at a boundary line, or on the outskirts of a squeeze.

Basin. The hollow formed by a fold of the seam; any large area of included coal.

Battery. In steep-pitching seams, a wooden structure built across the shute to hold the mined coal back.

[Bearing in.] Cutting a horizontal groove at the bottom or side of the face of a breast.