Coal and the coal mines

by Homer Greene

Counter-gangway. A gangway which is tributary to the main gangway, and from which a new section of coal is worked.

Cracker boss. The officer in charge of the screen room in a breaker.

Creep. A crush in which the pillars are forced down into the floor or up into the roof of the mine.

Cribbing. The timber lining of a shaft, extending usually from the surface to bed-rock.

Crop-fall. A caving in of the surface at the outcrop.

[Cross-heading.] A narrow opening for ventilation, driven through a wall of coal separating two passages or breasts.

[Crush.] A settling downward of the strata overlying a portion of an excavated coal seam.

Culm. All coal refuse finer than buckwheat size.

[Dip.] The angle which any inclined stratum makes with a horizontal line.

[Door boy.] A boy who opens and shuts the door placed across any passageway in the mines to control the direction of the ventilating current.