From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

[Rodney Mills]

Chris, re. #9

gripping post....I thought all deck apprentices and deckie-boys just learnt to tie granny-knots or whatever and how to tap with a chipping hammer to keep catering staff awake. Glad I went into the galley, our right of passage was to peel a potato with just one hand,


Cheeers, Rodney

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Chris.
Know how you felt at the time, I have an article on here about having to change the halliard on the top mast as a JOS, but later loved going aloft, always volunteered for the top mast.
All the time I spent at sea I only saw one bloke fall of a mast, we were discharging petrol in Port Pirie in South Australia, we shouldn't have been up there while discharging as the fume pipe ran up the masts, I was up the foremast Alby James was up the main when he was overcome by fumes and fell out of the chair, around 55 feet, smashed his legs, arms, can't remember what else, he spent eight months in hospital there,ended up with one leg about three inches shorter than the other. Nowadays the mate and skipper would probably have done time, but then Alby would have been wearing a harness.
Cheers Des

[j.sabourn]

Anyone know when the first recorded act of miners carrying canary’s into the mines with them To detect gas. ? Wouldn’t mind betting it was a miner himself. Must have been one of the earliest safety features in mining. The Davis safety lamp not far behind. Was he a miner also ?? JS

[happy daze john in oz]

I supervise the local men's shed three days a week.
It is part of the local community health center and comes under men's health.

A new lady joined the center to supervise the OHS conditions.

Having not long left uni she knew all the paperwork and all the rules, but she does lack any common sense.
We get a lot of donations from various sources , paint timber etc.
She was doing an audit of all equipment and consumables when she came to the paint.
All the tins have a Bar Code so it is easy to look up all specifications of them.

One tin of red paint she attempted to convince us should not be there as it was lead based.
No it is not, here in Oz the last lead based paint was back in about 1990, all now, including varnish apart from marine one, are water based.

In the end we had to convince her to go to the paint shop we buy from just across the road where she was told about the paint.
She vary rarely comes near us now.

[j.sabourn]

Maybe should have had Red Lead Ted there, he would soon have put her right. JS

[Doc Vernon]

Anyone know when the first recorded act of miners carrying canary’s into the mines with them To detect gas. ? Wouldn’t mind betting it was a miner himself. Must have been one of the earliest safety features in mining. The Davis safety lamp not far behind. Was he a miner also ?? JS

Not too sure as to when that started JS but it was a very safe thing indeed only thing is there were many a poor Canary that dies saving the Miner!
When I was underground on the Gold Mines the safety was not as good as it should have been but we did have to carry the Safety Latern which would flare up in the Glass Enclosure once Methane was detected,a very good system that was.
Methane was the Number one Killer then , and one had to very careful.
Then of course as said safety not as it should have been with the Watering Down after Blasting not carried out by many a Miner leaving him open to contracting the deadly pneumoconiosis, infecting the Lungs. My dear Uncle Cecil died of that and it was terrible to watch him go. I belive a lot of Coal Miners in the UK suffered with that more so than in the Gold Industry.(Black Lung Disease)
At some 1500 foot down there it can be some frightening experiences!
Had many a Rock fall as it was known with the low Stopes (only at 3 or 3 foot Six Inches high) with the Machine Boys at the Face drilling away if you had a Rock Fall that was it,no out all squashed under Tons of Rock. A bleedin Mess to say the least.
I count myself very lucky indeed that I came out of the Mining Career in one piece and with my Lungs in tach as well,not so for many others poor People.
Cheers

[Captain Kong]

My Great Aunt Emily was a Coal Miner at the age of 8 it is on the 1881 census, do not know how long she had been a Miner before then. Started young in those days.

Not a lot of SAFETY around in those days,

Tomorrow, December 21, is the 108th Anniversary of 1910, there was a huge explosion at Pretoria Colliery, Bolton, 344 men and boys were killed. One of the worst disasters in mining.

Not a lot of Safety around in those days .

My Brother, Jim, ex Seafarer, became a Miner, he was buried and injured a few times in his 35 years underground, had a lot of Blue scars, from the coal dust in his cuts.
He died last August.
Brian.

[robpage]

Anyone know when the first recorded act of miners carrying canary’s into the mines with them To detect gas. ? Wouldn’t mind betting it was a miner himself. Must have been one of the earliest safety features in mining. The Davis safety lamp not far behind. Was he a miner also ?? JS

Beginning in 1911, miners in Great Britain carried a canary in a cage with them down into the mines. Why? Carbon monoxide can build to deadly levels, and it has no smell. If the canary weakened or stopped singing, miners knew to get out of the mine — and quickly. Why use a bird instead of, say, a mouse? It all had to do with the birds’ breathing anatomy: canaries get a dose of air when they inhale and when they exhale, thus a double dose of toxic gases. Thankfully, in 1986, more humane electronic warning devices replaced them.

[Rodney Mills]

And to think historians look back on the Victorian Age with pride and admiration!


"...Before the Mines and Collieries Act of 1842, children as young as four were allowed to work in the mines...

"...The Children's Employment Commission published its first report on mines and collieries in 1842. The report caused a sensation when details appeared in newspapers...

"...The majority of people in Britain were unaware that women and children were employed as miners. However, nearly three-quarters of the petitions to Parliament were against the proposed regulation of child labour...

"...Within a week of the report being published Lord Ashley gave notice of the Mines and Collieries Bill that he intended to take through Parliament. He wrote in his diary: "The government cannot, if they would refuse the bill of which I have given notice, to exclude females and children from the coal-pits - the feeling in my favour has become quite enthusiastic...


"...Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, an owner of several collieries, led the opposition in the House of Lords. He presented a petition put forward by the Yorkshire Coal-Owners Association: "With respect to the age at which males should be admitted into mines, the members of this association have unanimously agreed to fix it at eight years... In the thin coal mines it is more especially requisite that boys, varying in age from eight to fourteen, should be employed; as the underground roads could not be made of sufficient height for taller persons without incurring an outlay so great as to render the working of such mines unprofitable". Londonderry declared that some seams of coal required the employment of children; and certain pits, which could not afford to pay men's wages must either employ children or close down...


"...because it was easier to pay them less, these children were paid about five times less than men for the same number of hours worked, which for these young miners could be up to fourteen-hour days....


"...It was not until the Children’s Employment (Mines) Report came out alongside it in 1842 that Parliament passed the act that all boys and girls under the age of ten were not allowed to work in the coal mines...

"...Child labour in the mines Taken from The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 : Friedrich Engels (1845). Engels wrote his book after the passing of the 1842 Mines Act which prohibited the employment underground of all females and of males under 10 years...

"...The Coal Mines Regulation Act of 1860 improved safety rules and raised the age limit for boys from 10 to 12. By 1870 over 1,000 lives were still being lost in mining accidents each year.... The Mines Regulation Act, passed in 1881, empowered the Home Secretary to hold inquiries into the causes of mine accidents..."

The female miners worked from 1843 onwards above ground, employed to sort stones from coal and haul away the slag working the same long shifts as the men. They were known throughout the industry as the "Brown Lassies."


Rodney

[happy daze john in oz]

There was also a time when they went up chimneys to sweep them, as young as six so I have been told.
Looking back at those times there was no concern for the life of the working class as far as the owners of such were concerned.

The workers had no option but to do as told or no work which meant no food.
Thankfully there were some of the gentry who had some decency about them and managed to have laws changed or introduced.
Without them who knows how we would be today?