[From the Reports of the Royal Commission, Children and Young People in the mines, 1814]
Addle, to earn.
Agate, to be employed.
Bank, the mound created by soil brought up. The pit's mouth.
Banksman, the superintendent at the pit's mouth.
Bailiff, the superintendent under ground.
Better bed or black bed, particular seams of coal.
Belt, a broad leather strap buckled round the waist with chain attached.
Board face, the side wall's of excavations.
Black damp, carbonic gas.
Bull stakes, the four posts at the floor of the shafts to which the conductors are fixed.
By gate, the passages from the mainways to the headings.
Cabin, the hut at the pit's mouth.
Clatch harness or clatch iron, the cross bar of iron attached to the fall of the rope with chains and hook at each end to suspend the corve by.
Chokedamp, syn. blackdamp, carbonic gas.
Conductors, four iron rods extending from the frame work above the bull stakes at the bottom of the pit's shaft,
Corve, the vehicle by which the coal is brought up.
Davy, the lamp of that name.
Day hole, the horizontal entrance to a coal mine.
Delver, a miner or quarrier.
Distraction or distortion, the deviation of a seam from its natural level.
Drink, applied to the meals of breakfast or tea.
Endings, the extreme boundaries of a mine.
Eye, the opening out of the mainway to the foot of the shaft.
fettle, to put in order, clean and prepare.
Firedamp, carburetted hydrogen gas.
Firepan or furnace, the fire at the foot of the shaft for the ventilation of the mines.
Gates, passages through the mines.
Gole, syn. distraction.
Getter, one who works out the coal.
Gin, the machinery worked by a horse above ground.
Gin driver, the child who drives the horse.
Heading, the place of work, the excavations at the extremities of the by gates.
Hurriers, children that draw corves with the belt and chain upon their hands and feet, from the headings to the main gate.
Leet, as it happens.
Lake, to be idling, to be passing away time.
Mainway, the main passage or gate.
Mashed up, disabled, worn out.
Measures, strata of different kinds.
Muck, mud or filth that accumulates in the mainway.
Nicks, the notched sticks by which the reckoning is kept.
Now't, nothing.
Pigeon hole, the place of deposit in the cabin for nicks.
Pulley, the cast iron wheels over which the rope runs.
Play, to absent from work from whatever cause.
Riddle, to sift coals.
Roller, a machine fixed above ground from bringing up coals.
Scale or shale, flakes of hard clay.
Shackles, the wrists.
Sulphur, syn. wildfire or firedamp.
Shaft, the perpendicular entrance to a mine.
Traps, the doors in the gates to divert the currents of air in their passage through the mine.
Trap stage, the stage of the pit's mouth to rest the corves upon.
Tail end, syn. day hole.
Turnwheel, syn. roller.
Turl, syn. roller.
Tunnel, syn. day hole.
Thrusters, children who push the corves with their hands and heads from the headings to the shaft,
Trub packers and trub picklers, children or young persons that pick pout bad coals from the good, and separate ironstone from the shale.
Tenter, the engineer.
Upcast, the furnace shaft or shaft for the ascending air.
Downcast, the working shaft or shaft fro the descending air, for the purpose of ventilating the mines.