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MINING COAL - METHODS - Miners and Their Equipment
A miner's equipment was simple. The mines were usually
cold, damp and often very wet so miners needed warm clothes,
heavy boots and a cap. In the early days, there was little
protective clothing or safety equipment but after the Second
World War, the miners used hard hats and steel-toed boots.
Picks and short-handled shovels were used extensively
underground for digging and loading the coal. Hand augurs
or drills were used to make holes for the charges of
explosives used to blast out the tunnels or waste rock and
to loosen the coal from the face of the workings. In many
areas blasting was used sparingly because it broke up the
coal and produced large quantities of coal dust.
By the early 1900s, compressed air drills and coal cutting
machines were increasingly important in the underground mines
and in later years conveyors and underground loaders were
used.
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