"After-damp": The gas
mixture reamaining after a "fire-damp"
explosion in a coal mine. Typically, this gas is composed
of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and nitrogen.
Aslo known as "choke-damp".
"Baff-week": Miners were paid bi-weekly.
The week during which no pay was received was called "baff-week".
"Bait": The food and provisions
that a coal colliery miner takes with him on the job.
"Balance pit": As wains loaded with
coal were brought to the top of the shaft, women helped to push
a slide underneath the wains and unloaded these wains (skips
tubs) and pushed them along the pit bank (called
"banking"). They also helped to
'run them in', which meant pushing the empty wains back into
the cage. In South Wales, "horse gins"
were replaced by balance pits. Full trams were raised by lowering
empties containing water and thereby acting as a balance (the
horse was replaced by gravity). The speed at which iron and coal
ore could be raised to the surface depended upon how quickly
water could be drained from the container. Balance pits were
introduced in the Tredegir area in 1829. Ty Trist mine was started
as a balance pit in 1834, changing to steam winding in the 1860's.
(Steam winding was faster than draining water.)
"Bank": The "bank" referred to above
ground areas of a mine (not below ground). For example, a
"banksman" worked worked with tubs of
coal but above ground, not in the mine pits.
"Banking": As wains loaded with
coal were brought to the top of the shaft, women helped to
push a slide underneath the wains and unloaded these wains
(skips tubs) and pushed them along the pit bank.
"Banksman": A banksman is a person
who withdraws the full tubs from the cages above ground at the
surface and then replaces them with empty tubes.
"Barragon": A light weight corded
cotton used primarily for Summer wear. Manufactured in Bolton.
"Barrowmen*":
Women and children
who pushed and pulled tubs or sledges of coal through the
small shafts, up inclines, through water, along hard and
wet-clay surfaces, to the more centrally-located horse
paths, or to the pit shaft. They crawled along the floors,
harnessed to their tubs by a belt of leather or rope. This
passed around the waist or shoulder and from it a chain
passed between the legs and was hooked onto the tub. These
women and children were called putters in Fifeshire, but
they were also called
"carters",
"draggers" (Sirhowly),
"drawers",
"hauliers" (South Wales),
"hurriers" (Yorkshire), or
"putters" (Fifeshire).
* Women
and children also performed this work, thus the term
"barrowmen" is historically
inaccurate and is misleading.
"Batten": The batten is a
part of a loom that pushes the woof yarn just "woven"
between warp yarns to where the already produced cloth
is located.
"Binding": Coal miners were
hired once a year, sometimes there were two yearly
occasions when the miners were hired. These miners were
bound by a "contract" and the time of hire was referred
to as the "binding". (See "bond".)
"Black country": The area of
England known for its coal mines, iron mines, and coal
coking operations as well as the iron foundries and steel
mills that used the coal. This is the setting of the
"coke town" of Charles Dickens' "Hard Times").
"Blackleg": A strike-breaker.
Historically, the term "blackleg" originally was used to
refer to Irish miners used as strike-breakers against the
English coal miners during the great strike of 1844. Unions,
Chartism, and strike-breaking were all new aspects of the
Industrial Revolution. It took time for the workmen to
understand how they were being used against each other. As
many pf the coal miners were women and children, it took
time to understand how gender was being used to divide
workers by gender. See "knobstick".
Additional information
"Black lung": "Black lung"
was a disease that commonly affected miners. Particles
of coal-dust were inhaled, causing this disease. This
disease greatly shortened the normal life-span.
"Boll": A measure of coal
(approximately 2.35 cwts of coal).
"Bond" or
"Binding": The "bond" (see
"binding"), was a contract forced upon coal miners. If
any miner complained, he was considered a trouble maker
and as coal miners often combined together, such a coal
miner would no longer be able to work as a miner at any
colliery. Legitimate problems with the bond contract arose
for several reasons:
Miners were usually paid for coal by measure (tubs
by volume), not by weight (even though the coal was
sold by weight).
When miners were paid by weight, the scales were
often inaccurate (often known even by the mine
"viewer"). The miners
could do nothing when they were underpaid due to
inaccurate scales (see "weighman".)
Any complaint and the complaining miner would likely
be "victimized" (lose his job). The person in
charge of the scales was a representative of the
mines, not the miners. There was no way that accurate
scales could be enforced.
There was no impartial judge to decide upon payment
of coal deemed to be of insufficient quality or
quantity (see "laid-out"
and "set-out" tubs). In
addition, coal deemed to be of insufficient quality
or quantity was not only not paid for, the miner
was fined for these tubs of coal. It was possible
for a miner to work all day, and be fined such that
the miner earned no pay at all, but owed money due
to the accumulated fines (a form of peonage).
Mine work is very dangerous as well as unpleasant:
caveins and coal-gas explosions happened often.
"Black lung" disease,
and other work related health problems were common.
Work shifts were very long (up to 36 hours on some
occasions).
If miners stopped working, even to report a dangerous
situation or because of some legitimate grievance,
the miners were in violation of the "bond" and could
be dismissed, resulting in the
"poor house" or even
"transportation" (viewed
legally as a criminal for violating the bond). Many
of the local Justices of the Peace were family
relations of the mine owners or were mine owners
themselves, thus were hardly impartial.
Miners were often compelled to buy from
"tommy shops" (company
stores, recall the term
"tommy rot") and lived in
company "cottages"
("pit houses").
The "Bond" became a major
reason for the "great Strike of 1844",
where W. P. Roberts (solicitor) defended the interests
of the miners, and in which the additional issues related
to the exploitation of women and children working in the
mines became a public embarassment to the British
government, leading to white-wash coverups that lasted for
decades past 1844.
"Bottle kiln" or
"hovel kiln": Ceramics were
manufactured in "bottle kilns" or "hovel kilns". Bottle
kilns were updraft kilns that used coal held upon cast
iron grates (after 1700) and were shaped like bottles,
hence their name. These kilns had two levels. In the
upper chamber the ceramics were "bisqued", while the
lower chamber held the glazed wares. The tall bottle
kilns required strong bricks able to withstand the
stresses due to the weight of the high kiln walls.
Hence the walls were thick (and even used bracing
chains around the walls to provide strengh). Such kilns
required a great deal of coal to heat these walls.
"Hovel kilns" were a slight modification, in which the
chimney (or "hovel") was constructed separately from the
main part of the kiln. Many of these "bottle kilns" and
"hovel kilns" were located in Staffordshire. Often these
kilns were quite large, as large as a house.
"Breaker boys":
See "sorter".
"Brakesman": The person who
attends to the winding machine in a mine.
"Buttons down the back": Due
to the low passageways below ground, miners must bend down,
but still they often bang their backbones on the rock
ceiling or supporting beams. The scabs on each vertibra
are called "buttons down the back".
"Butty": A "butty" is an
overseer of the miners, below the brow.
"Calling course": The time at
which a caller goes from house to house to awaken mine workers.
"Candyman": The
"cottage system" worked in a way
that was similar to the tommy Shops.
Miners forced their employees to live in specially-constructed
cottages ("pit houses"). The
miners had to live nearby the mines; thus, the mine owners
constructed cheap housing and the miners were forced to live
in these "company houses" and pay exhorbitant rents, else they
would not be hired (see the "Bond").
This was also used as a strike-breaking practice: miners who
went out on strike could be thrown out of their houses (as
happened during "The Great Strike of 1844",
when so many workers were evicted that the term
"candyman" referred to the baliff).
"Captain Swing": The
"Captain Swing" disturbances (1830)refers to repression
by wealthy farmers of landless agricultural workers,
resulting in revolts by landless workers. See the
"Tolpuddle martyrs" and the
"Peterloo Massacre".
"Carters": Women and children who
pushed and pulled tubs or sledges of coal through the small
shafts, up inclines, through water, along hard and wet-clay
surfaces, to the more centrally-located horse-paths, or to
the pit shaft. They crawled along the floors, harnessed to
their tubs by a belt of leather or rope. This passed around the
waist or shoulder and from it a chain passed between the legs
and was hooked onto the tub. These women and children were also
called
"barrowmen",
"draggers" (Sirhowly),
"drawers",
"hurriers" (Yorkshire),
"hauliers" (South Wales) or
"putters" (Fifeshire).
"Chaldron": A measure of coal, as follows.
A Newcastle chaldon was 21 tons, 4 cwt., or 53 cwts. (22.536 bolls)
A London chaldron varied between 26.5 cwts to 28.462 cwts.
"Check-viewer": A representative
of the interests of a mine owner, whose function was to
determine if work assigned has been fulfilled.
"Choke-damp": The gas
mixture reamaining after a "fire-damp"
explosion in a coal mine. Typically, this gas is composed
of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and nitrogen.
Aslo known as "after-damp".
"Clatch-iron" or
"Clatch harness": Mine
workers descended and were brought back to the sirface
at the brow from the pit by hand-winding a winch. The
workers were secured by a "clatch-iron" or "clatch harness".
"Cog and rung gin": Some
windlasses had been adapted to be worked by horses: the
"cog and rung gin" worked on a wheel and pinion basis.
"Coke girl": A girl that
stacked coal. Coke is a high-temperature fuel. Coke
girls stacked coal at coal collieries, ready to be
coked in ovens. Coke girls also worked at iron furnaces
(such as at Dowlais).
"Colliery": A "colliery"
referred to a mine. However, although a coal mine was
typically referred to, iron mines were also called
collieries.
"Corf": A basket to hold
coal, made from hazel-wood. Also called a
"Corve".
"Corve": A basket to hold
coal, made from hazel-wood. Also called a
"Corf".
"Cottage System":
The Cottage System worked in a way that was similar to the
Tommy Shops. Miners forced their
employees to live in specially-constructed cottages
("pit houses"). The miners had
to live nearby the mines; thus, the mine owners constructed
cheap housing and the miners were forced to live in these
"company houses" and pay exhorbitant rents, else they would
not be hired. This was also used as a strike-breaking
practice: miners who went out on strike could be thrown out
of their houses (as happened during
"The Great Strike of 1844", when
so many workers were evicted that the term
"candyman" referred to the baliff).
"Cracket": A low wooden
stool that a hewer sits upon while working.
"Culm": Dirt that is mixed
in with coal and must be removed. Culm also refers to
stones or shale mixed in with iron. The operation of
removing the culm was sometimes called to 'shoo'
the dirt. The collected culm was sometimes loaded
into a special dirt wagon.
"Dimity": Sheer corded
cotton, usually white. Originally made of silk or wool,
but woven only of cotton since the 18th century.
Manufactured in Bolton.
"Dipping-house": Ceramics
(pottery) was widely used in Victorian times, not for its
aesthetic beauty, but because of its functionality. To
harden the ceramics as well as act as a barrier to
absorbing liquids (as ceramic material as porous), a glaze
was used. Glazes were applied to the ceramic objects by
"dipping" the ceramic object into glazes then the dried
glazed ceramic was fired in a kiln to harden the ceramic
by removing water in the clays. Glaze colours typically
come from metals such as Chrome, Arsenic, Lead, Cobalt,
Iron oxides, etc. Most metals are toxic. Lead and Arsenic
are particularly toxic and acidic solutions can leach out
these metals from the glazes, thus harming those who use
these ceramics. During Victorian times, poisoning by
ceramic glazes was quite common, but was especially
harmful to those who dipped the ceramics into the glazes
in the "dipping-house.
"Doggy": A "doggy" is a
person works for a "butty" (overseer), seeing that a
"butty's" orders are carried out.
"Doubling": When two strands
of yarn are twisted together for strength, the result is
referred to as "doubling".
"Draggers": Women and children
who pushed and pulled tubs or sledges of coal through the
small shafts, up inclines, through water, along hard and
wet-clay surfaces, to the more centrally-located horse
paths, or to the pit shaft. They crawled along the floors,
harnessed to their tubs by a belt of leather or rope. This
passed around the waist or shoulder and from it a chain
passed between the legs and was hooked onto the tub. These
women and children were called draggers in Sirhowly, but
they were also called
"barrowmen",
"carters",
"drawers",
"hauliers" (South Wales),
"hurriers" (Yorkshire), or
"putters" (Fifeshire).
"Dram": A small cart.
"Draught": The design of a
pattern for selecting warp yarns by specific headdles
is called "drawing a warp". The plan of the sequence of
headdles is called a "draught"
"Drawers": Women and children
who pushed and pulled tubs or sledges of coal through the
small shafts, up inclines, through water, along hard and
wet-clay surfaces, to the more centrally-located horse
paths, or to the pit shaft. They crawled along the floors,
harnessed to their tubs by a belt of leather or rope. This
passed around the waist or shoulder and from it a chain
passed between the legs and was hooked onto the tub. These
women and children were also called
"barrowmen",
"carters",
"draggers" (Sirhowly),
"hurriers" (Yorkshire),
"hauliers" (South Wales) or
"putters" (Fifeshire).
"Dressing": As cloth is
created (see "batten", the
cloth tends to get tangled and the yarn to unwind as well.
Rapidly weaving cloth by machines causes such tangling,
unraveling and slows down the process of weaving. A
"dressing" or "sizing" is a liquid that can be used to
decrease this tangling and unraveling process from
occurring. A dressing is a liquid, thus can easily be
applied, but must then be dried. Learning how to work with
"dressing" in an automated power-loom took time.
"Dross": Sorters in coal
mines removed dirt from coal (the dirt being called
"dross"), and the pieces
of coal were then separated or graded by size (thus
'sorted'). Later, screens were used near the pit brow
to do this 'sorting'. Even further in time,
"picking belts" were used
to help in this process of grading by size.
"Druke and beam": A
primitive windlass used in the mines. When wound, it
could drag tubs of coal to the surface or to the trams.
(See "pitching-vein".)
F
"Fire-damp": An explosive
gas found in a coal mine, typically methane (mixed with
coal dust). (See "after-damp"
or "choke-damp".
"Foal": A young miner
(called a "headsman")
that is not yet strong enough to work as a
"putter" alone, but is
strong enough if assisted by a young child (called a
"foal"). The "headsman"
pulls the tub by two ropes (or
"soames") that are
attached to the tub. Sometimes both the "headsman"
and the "foal" push the tub. When two children the
same age or strength work as
"putters" together, they
are called "half-marrows".
"Following-in": When one
person works after another at the same location in a mine.
"Fother": A measure of coal
(1/3 of a Newcastle chaldron or a well loaded single
horse-cart of coal).
"Frame Breaking Act": The
Frame Breaking Act of 1812 was specifically designed by
the government of Spencer Perceval to stop the
"Luddites" from destroying spinning jennies that were
forcing many of those in the cloth industry to lose
their jobs as well as to depress wages paid in the
cloth industry. The government had to send 12,000
troops to the Lancastershire area to put down this
rebellion. Violations of the Frame Breaking Act were
either a death sentence or transportation.
"Fremit": A worker shared
between two hewers, not related to either. (A hewer
generally engaged two relatives as bearers to assist
him, sometimes sharing a third team member, the fremit,
with a fellow worker.)
"Fustian": Corduroy.
"Fustian-cutter": Cutting
fustian cloth required the skills of a "fustian-cutter".
Replacing these skilled human workers with a machine
required the examination of the exact work done by a
"fustian-cutter" so that this work could be mimicked
by a machine.
"Half-marrow": A young
miner (called a "headsman")
that is not yet strong enough to work as a
"putter" alone, but is
strong enough if assisted by a young child (called a
"foal"). The "headsman"
pulls the tub by two ropes (or
"soames") that are
attached to the tub. Sometimes both the "headsman"
and the "foal" push the tub. When two children the
same age or strength work as
"putters" together, they
are called "half-marrows".
"Haulier": Women and children
who pushed and pulled tubs or sledges of coal through the
small shafts, up inclines, through water, along hard and
wet-clay surfaces, to the more centrally-located horse
paths, or to the pit shaft. They crawled along the floors,
harnessed to their tubs by a belt of leather or rope. This
passed around the waist or shoulder and from it a chain
passed between the legs and was hooked onto the tub. These
women and children were called hauliers in South Wales,
but they were also called
"carters",
"draggers" (Sirhowly),
"drawers",
"hurriers" (Yorkshire), or
"putters" (Fifeshire).
"Headdles": Headdles were
horizontal objects with hooks that caught onto a subset
of warp yarns. The headdles were then used to separate
the warp yarns so that the woof yarns may be woven
inbetween the warp yarns. It was possible to use different
headdles to mix different warp yarns. Treadles were
foot-powered levers attached to the headdles that enabled
a weaver to intermix different subsets of warp yarns with
a woof yarn, much like playing a piano or organ.
"Headsman": A young miner that
is not yet strong enough to work as a
"putter" alone, but is strong
enough if assisted by a young child (called a
"foal"). The "headsman" pulls
the tub by two ropes (or "soames")
that are attached to the tub. Sometimes both the "headsman"
and the "foal" push the tub. When two children the same age
or strength work as "putters"
together, they are called
"half-marrows".
"Hewer": One who extracted
the coal from the face. A hewer generally engaged
two relatives as bearers to assist him, sometimes sharing
a third team member (a 'fremit',
not a relative) with a fellow worker.
"Holer" or
"Undergoer": A "holer" or
"undergoer" is a person that undermines small holes under
a mass of coal.
"Horse gin": In early times,
miners collected coal by digging or hewing it out of
mountainsides, but as time moved forward, pits (mine
shafts) were dug. Coal was still hewed, and manually
brought to the surface in tubs, etc. Eventually, the
process of hauling the coal was done by engines such
as a windlass. Some windlasses were powered by
horses, then horse trapiches were used in general.
These were eventually by steam engines. Steam engines
were also used to pump water from the mines. A "horse
gin" referred to horse-powered engines that were used
in the mine pits (for example, to turn a windlass).
(See "pit gin".)
"Hough": When two miners
share a seat together. Thus an invitation to share your
seat is to "crook your hough"
or "cruick-yor-hough".
"Hovel kiln" or
"Bottle kiln": Ceramics were
manufactured in "bottle kilns" or "hovel kilns". Bottle
kilns were updraft kilns that used coal held upon cast
iron grates (after 1700) and were shaped like bottles,
hence their name. These kilns had two levels. In the
upper chamber the ceramics were "bisqued", while the
lower chamber held the glazed wares. The tall bottle
kilns required strong bricks able to withstand the
stresses due to the weight of the high kiln walls.
Hence the walls were thick (and even used bracing
chains around the walls to provide strengh). Such kilns
required a great deal of coal to heat these walls.
"Hovel kilns" were a slight modification, in which the
chimney (or "hovel") was constructed separately from the
main part of the kiln. Many of these "bottle kilns" and
"hovel kilns" were located in Staffordshire. Often these
kilns were quite large, as large as a house. See
"Bottle kiln".
"How!/How again!": These
are salutations between two pitmen.
"Hurrier": Women and children
who pushed and pulled tubs or sledges of coal through the
small shafts, up inclines, through water, along hard and
wet-clay surfaces, to the more centrally-located horse
paths, or to the pit shaft. They crawled along the floors,
harnessed to their tubs by a belt of leather or rope. This
passed around the waist or shoulder and from it a chain
passed between the legs and was hooked onto the tub. These
women and children were called hurriers in Yorkshire, but
they were also called
"barrowmen",
"carters",
"draggers" (Sirhowly),
"drawers",
"hauliers" (South Wales) or
"putters" (Fifeshire).
"Hutchies": Oblong,
square-sided four-wheeled boxes which were made
to run on a rail.
"Iron-man": To reduce the
costs of skilled Mule spinners, a self-acting mule that
did many of the steps that required a skilled worker
was invented. This was a time of many (1820) labour
strikes. Replacing many skilled workers by a few
semi-skilled workers was the cause of some of these
strikes. Andrew Ure described the self-acting mule as
the "iron man".
"Jenny": The spinning "jenny"
combined 8 (later 16, then more) spinning-wheels on a
common axle, thus producing a leap in the amount of spun
yarn produced. Initially, in a household spinning machine,
the spindle was horizontal. However, in the "jenny" the
spindles are vertical.
"Jigger": In 19th century
Staffordshire, the 'muffin maker' was a potteries worker,
who specialized in making small plates less then 7 inches
in diameter. The plates were made on a mold, by a jigger.
"Keel": A keel is a broad
flat-bottomed boat that carries eight Newcastle chaldrons
of coal from coal wagons ashore to the larger coal ships
at Newcastle harbor (and at other locations).
"Kenner": An expression that
miners use signifying that it is time to stop working.
"Kibble": A square wooden
tub used to hold rubbish. The "kibble" is usually placed
on a tram.
"Knobstick": A strike-breaker.
Unions, Chartism, and strike-breaking were all new aspects
of the Industrial Revolution. It took time for the workmen
to understand how they were being used against each other.
As many pf the coal miners were women and children, it took
time to understand how gender was being used to divide
workers by gender. See "blackleg".
Additional information
"Lace-runner": A young worker
who embroidered patterns on lace was called a "lace-runner".
"Laid-out": A "laid-out" tub
of coal is a tub that contains too many stones and coal
of unacceptable quality. The coal miner is not only not
paid for a "laid-out" tub, but is fined for this
"laid-out" tub. (See "set-out".)
"Luddites": The
"Luddites" (1810)
believed in destroying spinning jennies that
were forcing many of those in the cloth industry to lose
their jobs as well as to depress wages paid in the
cloth industry. The government had to send 12,000
troops to the Lancastershire area to put down this
rebellion. Violations of the Frame Breaking Act were
either a death sentence or transportation. (See the
"Frame Breaking Act").
"Marksman": A "marksman"
was an illiterate person who "signed" contracts by
making his "mark". Of course, being illiterate, any
such "contract" was legitimately open to question,
even if compulsion was not used to illicit the
"contract".
"Marrow": A partner that
helps another miner. (See
"half-marrow").
"Master and Servants Act of 1823":
The 1823 "Master and Servants Act" required the
obedience and loyalty from servants to their
contracted employer (master), with infringements of
the contract punishable as a criminal before a court
of law, often with a jail sentence of hard labour.
The court of law in the
"Black country"
was usually a local Justice of the Peace, who if not
a relative of the "master" (coal owner) was also a
coal owner himself. The employer however, was only
bound to a civil court. Such "servants" were often
not permitted legal representation. Often such
servants were "marksmen" (illiterate, signed with
their "mark"), thus it
was questionable if any legal contract had ever
existed. If two or more "servants" discussed any
such putative "contract", this also was a criminal
offense (see the "Tolpuddle martyrs")
in that it was viewed as a "conspiracy" in
restraint of trade. Such servants usually were
"victimized", meaning that employers conspired not
to hire such servants any longer.
See the "Vend".
"Moot hall": A town hall,
dating from the Medieval period, where trade guilds met.
"Mould-runner": A 'mold runner'
was typically a young boy of as little as 9-10 years of age.
He would take the mold with its newly formed plate to a
drying room and bring another blank.
"Muslin-wheel": Samuel
Crompton's first name for the
"spinning mule".
"Mule": The spinning "mule" was
named a mule as a mule is a hybrid between two things. In
this case, the "spinning" mule combined a water-frame
(water-mill power) with a spinning jenny. The purpose was
to increase the efficiency with which yarn could be spun by
also reducing the number of workers required.
"Overman": An mine "overman"
ranks below a mine "viewer".
The "overman" is in charge of work at the colliery, the
wages, expenses, and fullfillment of ventitlation and
safety, as well as fortnightly accounts. An overman is
assigned to a pit, and as there may be several pits in
a colliery, there may be several "overman" assigned at
a colliery. It is expected that an "overman" has
experience in all kinds of work done in a colliery. An
"overman" is paid weekly wages, but payment includes a
house, garden, and coal gratis.
"Pee-dee": A child that
works on a "keel" at
Newcastle harbor is called a "pee-dee".
"Peterloo massacre": Famine
and unemployment reached such serious proportions that
demonstrations started to spontaneously take place. On
August 16, 1819 one such demonstration took place in
Manchester. The Manchester authorities called in the
Army. During a cavalry charge using sabres, many people
were injured or killed. This event was referred to as
the "Battle of Peterloo" or the "Peterloo massacre". It
become clear who the British government viewed as an
enemy: starving people. See the
"Tolpuddle martyrs" and the
"Captain Swing" disturbances.
"Picking belts": Sorters
in coal mines removed dirt from coal (the dirt being called
"dross"), and the pieces
of coal were then separated or graded by size (thus
'sorted'). Later, screens were used near the pit brow
to do this 'sorting'. Even further in time,
"picking belts" were used
to help in this process of grading by size.
"Picking-peg": An innovative
loom shuttle. A picking-peg selected the correct shuttle
(different shuttles could have yarn of different materials
such as cotton yarn and wool yarn, or different colours).
After selecting the correct shuttle, the shuttle (peg) was
shot through the warp yarns separated by the headdles, then
the woof yarn (attached to the shuttle) was pushed against
the cloth being produced. The advantage to the picking-peg
is that it automated this process as well as increased the
speed with which the woof yarn was inter-woven with the
warp yarns.
"Pilers": "Pilers" worked
in "puddling mills"
stacking and weighing heavy iron bars which had been
cut to be made into rails. As trams on iron rails were
used in both coal and iron collieries (Dowlais), "pilers"
worked in both coal and iron of mines.
"Pit brow lasses": Women
who worked at the surface and beneath the surface of
collieries, in a variety of jobs.
"Pit gin": In early times,
miners collected coal by digging or hewing it out of
mountainsides, but as time moved forward, pits (mine
shafts) were dug. Coal was still hewed, and manually
brought to the surface in tubs, etc. Eventually, the
process of hauling the coal was done by engines such
as a windlass. Some windlasses were powered by
horses, then horse trapiches were used in general.
These were eventually by steam engines. Steam engines
were also used to pump water from the mines. A
"pit gin" referred to engines that were used in the
used in the mine pits (coal, lead, iron, etc.). (see
"horse gin".)
"Pitching-vein":
A system used to help haul tubs of coal up steep slopes,
consisting of windlasses positioned at convenient
intervals on the incline of the vein, and women who
would turn the handles of the wooden rollers to help
the heavy tubs of coal advance to the surface.
"Pointswomen": Women who
worked at railway sidings.
"Poll girl": A "poll
girl" took iron ore from trams (for example, at Dowlais),
and sorted out stone and shale, cleaned the ore, and
then piled it, ready for ironworks furnaces.
"Potbank": The "mine" where
clay was extracted from to be used in making pottery or
pottery glazes. A potbank might also refer to the
buildings and workers where pottery was manufactured.
"Power-loom": Factories are
defined as being composed of machines that originally
spun yarns and wove cloth. To "qualify" as a factory, the
power used to run the machines were originally based upon
water mills and then by coal-fueled steam engines. In the
case of looms, a power-loom was a loom driven by water
mill power first, later by a steam-engine.
"Power-spinner": Factories are
defined as being composed of machines that originally spun
yarns and wove cloth. To "qualify" as a factory, the power
used to run the machines were originally based upon water
mills and then by coal-fueled steam engines. In the case of
looms, a power-spinner was a yarn spinning machine driven
by water mill power first, later by a steam engine.
Originally, a horse-driven "trapiche" was used as a source
of power to drive the spinning machines.
"Puddling mill": Puddling mills
were used to make steel from pig iron. Puddling was invented
in 1783, and was in heavy use by the mid 19th century (for
example, at the Bloomfield ironworks that used 'wet puddling'
at Tipton in 1830).
"Putters": Women and children
who pushed and pulled tubs or sledges of coal through the
small shafts, up inclines, through water, along hard and
wet-clay surfaces, to the more centrally-located horse
paths, or to the pit shaft. They crawled along the floors,
harnessed to their tubs by a belt of leather or rope. This
passed around the waist or shoulder and from it a chain
passed between the legs and was hooked onto the tub. These
women and children were called putters in Fifeshire, but
they were also called
"barrowmen",
"carters",
"draggers" (Sirhowly),
"drawers",
"hauliers" (South Wales),
"hurriers" (Yorkshire), or
"putters" (Fifeshire).
"Rake": The trip from the
pit surface to the coal face, then back from the coal
face to the pit surface.
"Rag-pump" or
"Rag-wheel pump": A
"rag-pump" is a manually powered pump used to pump
water from a mine. Water in mines is always a problem.
Steam engines were first used to pump water from
mines. Later, steam engines were used to wind
windlasses to draw coal and people up from the pits
to the brow.
"Rekoning day": Pay day
in a mine was called "rekoning day". (See
"baff-week".)
"Roberts, William Prowting": The
"Bond" became a major
reason for the "Great Strike of 1844",
where W. P. Roberts (solicitor) opposed the mine owners
and defended the interests of the miners, and in
which the additional issues related to the
exploitation of women and children working in the
mines became a public embarassment to the British
government, leading to white-wash coverups that lasted for
decades past 1844. Another major achievement by Roberts was the
public exposure and opposition to "truck"
shops and "pit cottages".
Roberts also often confronted the "Master and Servants
Act" of 1823 (a "legal" form of involuntary servitude).
Click for another view.
"Rolly-way": An
underground horse road in a mine.
"Roving": A
"sliver" or small portion
of cotton fibers are elongated or attenuated, then
slightly twisted together. The twisted fibres may then
be twisted with more cotton fibres which are now
stronger, and thus further, additional attenuation is
possible. This process of attenuation is called roving
(see "slubbing").
"Scotch cattle": This
referred to a secret society of coal colliery workers
that used intimidation in an attempt to secure their
objectives, active in 1822. Mine owners collieries
were blown up. Mine owners' truck shops were destroyed.
Blacklegs were severly beaten or killed. Colliery workers
from a distant place (so that they couldn't be identified)
dressed up in disguise as "cattle" with the leader
wearing a headdress of bull's horns carried out these
violent activities.
"Screen-man" or
"Screener": A mine worker
whose job was to grade coal by size using a screen.
However, the work also included removing stone, and
dirt. It would be misleading to think that this term
referred only to men, as many women and children
worked as screeners, even after it was against the
law for women and children to work in the pits
(below ground). Similarly, an initial screening took
place below the bank (below the surface of the mine).
"Set-out": A "set-out" tub
of coal is a tub that contains an insufficient amount
of coal. A miner is not only not paid for a "set-out"
tub of coal, he or she is fined for "set-out" tubs of
coal. (See "laid-out".)
"Shifter": A day labourer
in a mine that is hired to work only for a specific
shift was called a "shifter".
"Sizing": As cloth is
created (see "batten", the
cloth tends to get tangled and the yarn to unwind as well.
Rapidly weaving cloth by machines causes such tangling,
unraveling and slows down the process of weaving. A
"dressing" or "sizing" is a liquid that can be used to
decrease this tangling and unraveling process from
occurring. A sizing is a liquid, thus can easily be
applied, but must then be dried. Learning how to work with
"sizing" in an automated power-loom took time.
"Soames": A young miner
(called a "headsman")
that is not yet strong enough to work as a
"putter" alone, but is
strong enough if assisted by a young child (called a
"foal"). The "headsman"
pulls the tub by two ropes (or
"soames") that are
attached to the tub. Sometimes both the "headsman"
and the "foal" push the tub. When two children the
same age or strength work as
"putters" together, they
are called "half-marrows".
"Slubbing": Woolen yarn was
made on machines such as a "slubbing-billy".
Wool was first "carded", which
means that wool was combed to remove dirt or particles,
then straightened. A portion of carded wool (called a
"slub") was elongated and
given a slight twist as it was intertwined and
collected upon a spindle, for example, collected upon
a slubbing-billy spindle (see "roving").
"Slype": A wood-framed box,
curved and shod with iron at the bottom, used to hold
between 225 and 500 pounds of coal. Slypes were dragged
by workers in leather harnesses that were chained to the
cart.
"Sorter": Sorters removed
dirt from coal (the dirt being called
"dross"), and the pieces
of coal were then separated or graded by size (thus
'sorted'). Later, screens were used near the pit brow
to do this 'sorting'. Even further in time,
"picking belts" were used
to help in this process of grading by size.
"Staith": A waterside
depot for coals brought from the collieries for
shipment, furnished with staging and chutes for
loading vessels.
"Stick": A stick was a
limited "strike". A "stick" meant to cease work to
increase wages or to prevent a decrease in wages. A
strike is more general, not limited to issues
specifically based upon wages.
"Strapper": A worker who
was attached by a leather harness chained to either a
hutchie
or a slype.
Closely related to a carter,
drawer, dragger,
haulier, hurrier
or putter.
"Tally-snatcher": Name for
a tally-taker. Miners were fined if the tubs credited
to them contained coal-dust or were only partly filled
(though over-filled tubs were not paid any extra). When
workers were paid by weight, false scales were used. The
tally-takers were called "tally-snatchers" because the
miners were often denied tallies (payment) due to coal
dust in the tubs or tubs that were considered of low
weight. The miners had no redress for the 'snatched'
tallies.
"Tip girls": Welsh pit women
who helped remove cinders from furnaces, unload at the
tips and chip bits of iron ore with small picks.
"Tippler": A mechanism
designed to "tip" and empty a coal wagon. The wagon runs
up rails to the tippler platform, locks temporarily into
place, and is rotated more than 100 degrees to release its
coal. Once emptied, the cart can pull forward and leave
the platform.
"Tolpuddle martyrs": In 1824,
the "Combination Act" was repealed. The 1800 "Combination Act"
viewed it as unlawful for workers to "conspire" to improve
working conditions. The "Captain Swing" distubances attest
to the widespread poverty at this time. Thus the repeal of
the "Combination Act" was interpreted as permitting what are
now known as "unions". An increasing number of poor tenant
farm workers were dispossesd of their lands leading to
widespread poverty. Six such impoverished farmers from Tolpuddle,
Dorset swore a "secret oath" or combined as a "union". The
government's repeal of the "Combination Act" was interpreted
as not allowing unions, and these poor farmers were found
guilty of a crime (of "Combination") and were "Transported".
Click to see demonstration supporting the martyrs.
See the "Peterloo massacre" and the
"Captain Swing" disturbances.
"Tommy-shop":
A company store (where workers are required to buy, and
the goods are at exhorbitant prices and of very poor quality
["Tommy rot"]). This practice was
outlawed by the Truck Act of 1831
(but continues even to this day).
"Tony Pandy Riots":
The Tony Pandy Riots of 1910, South Wales used scabs, called
"Knobsticks" or Blacklegs". These tactics were supported by
the British government. Historically, the term "blackleg" or
"knobstick" was originally used to refer to Irish miners used
as strike-breakers against the English coal miners during the
great strike of 1844. Unions, Chartism, and strike-breaking
were all new aspects of the Industrial Revolution. It took
time for the workmen to understand how they were being used
against each other. As many pf the coal miners were women and
children, it took time to understand how gender was being used
to divide workers by gender. Of course, such tactics were not
limited to 1844, and the Tony Pandy riots of 1910 are evidence
of this. See "blackleg"
and "knobstick".
Additional information
"Trammers ": A trammer was
someone who guided the horses that pulled four-wheeled
carts (called trams) that contained the coal. Originally
these trams ran on wooden rails; later, on cast-iron rails.
"Tramping": Unemployed workers
often had to walk or travel by whatever means they could
afford to towns often far away to seek work. This is
referred to as "tramping". Depending upon class affiliation,
this could be viewed negatively or sympathetically.
"Trapiche": Originally, mills
were used to crush grain into flour. Mills of stone were
used originally, and were used for other purposes than
grain, such as crushing and extracting the juice from
sugarcane. The efficiency of this process was increased
by using horses, rather than men to drive these mill-stones
over the grain or sugarcane. Eventually, windmills and
steam-engines and other engines were developed for this
process. Trapiches were widely used on sugar plantations
in the New World and were horses used to push the heavy
mill-stones. Richard Arkwright adapted a Trapiche to turn
the multiple spinning-wheels used to create yarn. Later,
watermills were used, then replaced by coal-fueled steam
engines. The slaves were replaced by the "Yorkshire"
slaves.
"Trapper": A child worker in
a mine whose job consisted of opening and shutting
trap-doors (used for ventilation).
"Travelling": "Travelling"
refers to the distance miners must walk underground
(often bent down low due to the low passageways), from
the pit to the coal face. The distance can be up to
five miles. Miners were not paid for time they "travelled".
"Treadles": Headdles are
horizontal objects with hooks that catch onto a subset
of warp yarns and the headdles are then used to
separate apart the warp yarns so that the woof yarns
may be inter-woven between these separated warp yarns.
It is possible to use different headdles to mix
different warp yarns. Treadles are foot powered levers
attached to the headdles that allow a weaver to
intermix different subsets of warp yarns with a woof
yarn, much like playing a piano or organ.
"Trim": When coal from
wagons is loaded onto a keel (ship), a conical heap
forms in the ship that blocks the hatchway. This
conical heap that impedes work is called a "trim".
"Trimmer": When coal from
wagons is loaded onto a keel (ship), a conical heap
forms in the ship that blocks the hatchway. A flat
sheet of iron is then placed atop the trim, causing
any additional coal that is transferred to fall over
the sides of the iron sheet (hence the trim ceases to
grow in size). Trimmers are workers that use shovels
and rakes to spread the coal away so that the hatch
will be free to allow additional coal to be loaded
into the keel.
"Truck Act":
The Truck Act of 1831 required that workers be paid in money
and not in any other form; thus, "tommy shops"
were made illegal (on paper). The reason for this is that
payment in any other form might in fact not be equivalent.
A Tommy Shop (company store) sold goods at jacked-up
prices and poor quality ("tommy rot"),
but the employee was forced to buy at these jacked-up prices
(the price of goods was not a fair equivalent). Of course,
the Truck Act was not enforced, and even still exists today.
For another similar practice, see the
"cottage system".
"Tup": At the end of the
year, there was a holiday a fortnight long during
which stock was taken and no coal was mined. The last
"corf" of coal sent up to the "bank" was covered with
candles and this was called "sending away the tup".
"Vend": The "vend" was a
mutual agreement between participating coal collieries.
The purpose of the "vend" was to set or regulate coal
output with the aim of setting prices. Indirectly,
regulating coal output also implied regulating or
determining the amount of work that miners did in the
mines. The "Bond" imposed
no restrictions to the number of miners employed nor
the amount of work that employed miners were to be
allowed to do.
"Viewer": The over all
manager of a colliery. All overmen reported to the
"viewer".
"Wain": A four-wheeled
horse-drawn wagon used to carry loads rather than for
transporting people. (Four-wheeled wagons used to
transport people were called
carriages; two-wheeled
wagons used to carry loads were called
carts.)
"Warp": The warp yarns are at
right angles to the woof yarns, both being woven into
cloth on a loom. The warp yarns are long (the length of
cloth being produced), while the woof yarns are only as
long as the width of the cloth being produced.
"Warping": Warping meant
collecting the yarns together that were used on a loom.
The warp yarns were to be of the same length, hence
warping machines were developed.
"Weighman": Coal miners
were usually paid by measure (volume) while the coal
mines sold the coal by weight. A fairer method of
payment would be by weight. However, the coal mine
owners were represented by their man, who checked the
weight of the coal. Scales were used that often
reported lower weights than were believed to be true.
There was no way to enforce the use of accurate scales.
Furthermore, it was overwhelmingly believed that the
coal owner's weigher often reported lower weights.
(See the "bond".) The coal
miners wanted their own "weighman",
someone that the coal miners paid who they felt would
then provide a true weight. Eventually, the coal owners
came to agree with the coal miners, as the coal miners'
"weighman" could be
"influenced"; the "influence" not being to report low
weights, but to influence the new unions that were
looming in the future. (See W. P. Roberts, and
Alexander MacDonald).
"Whim gin": The horse-driven
"whim gin" or "whimsey"
superseded the "cog and rung gin". The whim gin used a drum
and was mounted on a vertical shaft away from the pit mouth.
Its diameter could be increased to provide faster winding.
The number of levers and horses could be increased for
heavier winds.
"Wailer": Wailers were children
that worked in mines. Their job was to work in wagons (as
an additional kind of screeners), sifting coal to remove
stone that the screeners had missed.
"Woof": The warp yarns are at
right angles to the woof yarns, both being woven into
cloth on a loom. The warp yarns are long (the length of
cloth being produced), while the woof yarns are only as
long as the width of the cloth being produced.
1
Esther Lederberg was also interested in novels by Jane Austen,
and there are those members of the Jane Austen Society of
North America (JASNA) who are interested in which West Indian
slave plantations can still be identified as having provided
the wealth for those men to whom the women sought to sell
themselves (men who bought and sold slaves as they bought
their English wives and mistresses).
In relations to this, it is important
that Friedrich Engels pointed out (following the views of
Thomas Carlyle, that "Even the relation between himself [the
bourgeoisie, the capital owning class] and his wife is, in
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, mere 'cash payment'.
Money determines the worth of a man; he is 'worth ten thousand
pounds'."
A viewpoint clearly and repeatedly mentioned by Jane
Austen in all of her books.
2
Arthur Joseph Munby Papers (including his sketches of women and
children colliery workers and an authentic description of
their work using their language).
3
Ure dedicates this book to "The Marquess of Lansdowne". The
Lansdown estates had thousands of Ireland's poorest tennants.
Lansdowne used the Irish "blacklegs"
as strike-breakers during the Great 1844 coal strike.
Ure said the following in his dedication:
"The reluctant tasks of our Colonial Slaves have been
converted into the cheerful labours of freemen. Our
complex and restrictive code of fiscal laws has been
so simplified and liberalized as greatly to facilitate
foreign trade; while the vast empire of China has been
made freely accessible to its operations."
The use of the word "freely" is significant here as
Great Britain at this time was engaged in "gun-boat"
diplomacy and wars, forcing China to accept opium from
its colonial possession in India as a form of exchange
and forcing control of Chinese customs duties in what
are referred to as "unequal treaties". It is in this
sense of the honest representation "freedom" that Ure
speaks. Ure means free, unencumbered access, forced
upon other peoples to impoverish them.