Mining Laws of Ohio, 1921 Part 2

Sec. 925. [=Competent person or persons shall be designated as fire-boss.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine generating fire-damp so as to be detected by a safety lamp, shall designate a competent person or persons as fire boss or fire bosses, who shall make a thorough examination of each working place in the mine every morning with a standard safety lamp, not more than three hours prior to the appointed time for the employes to enter the mine. As evidence of such examination, the fire boss shall mark with chalk upon the face of the coal, or in some other conspicuous place, his initials and date of the month upon which the examination is made.

If there is any standing gas discovered, he must leave a danger signal across every entrance to such place.

[=Examination of other than working places.=] Each mine generating fire-damp so as to be detected by a safety lamp, shall be kept free from standing gas. All traveling ways, entrances to old workings, and places not in the actual course of working, shall be carefully examined with a safety lamp by the fire boss not more than three hours before the appointed time for persons employed therein to enter. Parts of the mine not in the actual course of working and available, shall be examined not less than once each three days, and shall be so fenced as to prevent persons from inadvertently entering therein. (Sec. 955, 959; Penalty, Sec. 976.)

Sec. 926. [=Breakthroughs and brattices.=] From a point where the seam is reached in the opening of a mine, to a point not exceeding a distance of four hundred feet therefrom, breakthroughs shall be made between main entries, where there are no rooms worked, not more than one hundred feet apart, provided such entries are not advanced beyond the point where the breakthrough will be made until the breakthrough is complete. Breakthroughs between entries, except as hereinbefore provided, shall be made not exceeding sixty feet apart.

Where there is a solid block on one side of a room, breakthroughs shall be made between such room and the adjacent room not to exceed sixty feet apart; where there is a breast or group of rooms, a breakthrough shall be made on one side or the other of each room, except the room adjoining said block, not to exceed forty feet from the outside corner of the breakthrough to the nearest corner of the entrance to the room, and on the opposite side of the same room a breakthrough shall be made, not to exceed eighty feet from the outside corner of the breakthrough to the nearest corner of the entrance to the room, and thereafter breakthroughs shall be made not to exceed eighty feet apart on each side of the room. No working place, except those provided for within a distance of four hundred feet of the princ.i.p.al openings of a mine, shall be driven more than eighty feet in advance of a breakthrough or air-way. The required air current shall be conducted to the breakthrough nearest the face of such entry or room. All breakthroughs between entries, and when necessary between rooms, except the one nearest the working face, shall be closed and made air-tight by brattice, trap doors or other means, so that the current of air in circulation may sweep to the interior of the mine. Brattices between permanent inlet and outlet airways shall be constructed in a substantial manner of brick, masonry, concrete, or non-perishable material. In mines generating fire-damp, so as to be detected by a safety lamp, the air current shall be conducted by brattice, or other means, near enough to the working face to expel the fire-damp, and prevent the acc.u.mulation of the same. (Penalty, Sec. 976.)

Sec. 927. [=Safe appliances for hoisting persons.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine shall provide and maintain safe appliances, approved by the district inspector of mines, for the ingress and egress of persons in each shaft, designated by such owner, lessee or agent as a means of ingress and egress for persons employed therein. When there is but one shaft available for ingress and egress from any unavoidable cause, the appliances therein shall be kept available to persons therein employed at all times. When such appliances in any shaft are rendered unavailable from any cause, the same shall be restored without delay.

[=Emergency appliances.=] When the only means of egress is by vertical shaft, in which cages or elevators are used as a means of hoisting persons therein employed, and the power for operating same is derived from but one source, the owner, lessee or agent shall provide and keep on hand for use in the event of an accident to the hoisting apparatus or the power by which same is operated, a suitable windla.s.s, capable of hoisting the persons from the mine.

[=Competent engineers.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine worked by a shaft or slope, shall put in charge of an engine used for lowering into or hoisting out of such mine persons employed therein, only experienced, competent and sober engineers. (Sec. 916, 928; Penalty, Sec. 976.)

Sec. 928. [=Metal speaking tube and safety appliances.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine operated by shaft, shall provide and maintain a metal tube suitable for conversation between persons, connecting the engine room with the top and bottom of such shaft; an approved safety catch, a sufficient cover, and rings or other adequate handholds for ten persons, on all cages used for lowering and hoisting persons: Such cages to be protected on each side by a boiler plate not less than one-fourth inch in thickness, and not less than three feet high, and shall provide an approved safety gate at the top of each shaft, an adequate brake to control the drum used for lowering or hoisting persons in shafts or slopes, and an indicator on all machines used for such purpose, to show the location of cages in shaft or slope. No cage having an unstable or self-dumping platform shall be used for the carriage of persons unless such platform is securely locked. (Sec. 916, 927; Penalty, Sec. 976.)

Sec. 929. [=Hoisting and lowering of persons.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine, at which the only means of ingress and egress for the persons employed therein is by a vertical shaft or shafts, of fifty feet or more in depth, shall designate one or more persons whose duty shall be to attend to the lowering and hoisting of persons into and out of such mine, and give and receive the proper signals, governing the movement of the cage while engaged in handling men. Not more than ten persons shall be lowered or hoisted at any one time. The lowering of persons shall begin in time for persons to reach their working places by hour appointed for mine to commence work and continue until starting time. Hoisting of persons shall commence at time for mine to cease work, and continue until all have had time to be hoisted. Persons may be hoisted at such other times as will not interfere with the hoisting of coal, or other products. No person shall be lowered into or hoisted out of a mine, with powder, explosives, tools or material on any cage, in the same shaft, and no person shall be lowered or hoisted in a vertical shaft in a mine car. When the vertical shaft is less than fifty feet in depth, and a stairway approved by the district inspector of mines is not provided, the owner, lessee or agent shall be required to lower or hoist persons, as above prescribed, but when such stairway is provided, the hoisting of persons shall not be required.

Sec. 930. [=Owner, lessee or agent shall provide second opening.=]

The owner, lessee or agent of a mine shall not employ or permit any person to work therein except as hereinafter provided, unless to every seam worked in such mine there are at least two openings, separated by natural strata of not less than one hundred feet in breadth at any point, by which distinct means of ingress and egress are always available to the persons therein employed. Such openings need not belong to the same mine so long as the persons employed therein have safe, ready and available means of ingress and egress, by not less than two openings, provided, however, that no air shaft with a ventilating furnace at the bottom be designated or used as a means of ingress or egress. The provisions of this section shall not apply to opening a new mine while being worked for the purpose of making the second opening and the communication therewith, and the making of the landing or bottom and extending of the main entries one hundred feet while such communication is being made; to a mine in which the second opening has become unavailable from any cause while said second opening is being restored or another is being made; nor to a mine in which the second opening has become unavailable by reason of the final robbing of the pillars previous to abandonment, so long as not more than twenty persons in either case are employed therein at one time.

[=Fire protection to shafts.=] At each mine at which the only means of egress is by vertical shaft, the owner, lessee or agent shall provide adequate fire protection to secure the safety of such shaft, or shafts, and, when but one shaft is the only available means of egress, shall keep in attendance a competent person at all times while persons are inside of such mine. (Penalty, Sec. 976.)

Sec. 931. [=Separate traveling ways.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine shall provide and maintain, in safe condition for the purpose provided, two separate and distinct traveling ways from the interior workings of the mine, each of which shall be available to not less than one opening to the surface. One of such traveling ways may be designated by such owner, lessee or agent as the princ.i.p.al traveling way. One of such traveling ways may be designated as the escapement way. The provisions of this section shall not prohibit such owner, lessee or agent from designating more than one princ.i.p.al traveling way, or more than one escapement way, so long as the provisions hereof are complied with.

[=Traveling ways and refuge holes.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine worked by shaft, shall provide and keep free from obstruction, a traveling or pa.s.sage way from one side of the shaft bottom to the other. Slopes and mechanical haulage ways used as traveling ways by persons employed in a mine shall be made of a sufficient width to give not less than three feet of s.p.a.ce between the rib and adjacent rail of track to permit persons to pa.s.s moving cars with safety. If found impracticable to make such slopes or mechanical haulage ways of sufficient width as provided, refuge holes not less than six feet in width and clearing the adjacent rail of the track not less than four feet, and not more than sixty feet apart, shall be made on one side of the slope or mechanical haulage way and whitewashed. The refuge holes shall be kept free from obstruction, and the roof and sides made secure. (Sec. 932, 959; Penalty, Sec. 976.)

Sec. 932. [=Detached locomotive from moving train. Traveling way where locomotive is detached.=] At a mine, or in any part thereof, where a locomotive is detached from a moving train of cars for the purpose of dropping such cars past the locomotive, and the haulage way at such point is designated as the princ.i.p.al traveling way, a traveling way, not less than three feet wide and separated from the track by a pillar of coal or substantial fence, shall be provided at one side of that portion of the track from where the locomotive will be detached to the switch of the siding. Such traveling way shall be made on the same side of the track as the refuge holes. In no case shall a locomotive be detached from a train of moving cars, for the purpose of making a drop thereof, more than one hundred feet from the switch of the siding. (Sec. 931, 959; Penalty, Sec. 976.)

[=Additional means of egress when inundation is probable.=] At any mine where there is a stream or body of water on the surface, or in the workings of a mine, at a higher level, which is likely to break through into such mine and inundate either the traveling or escapement way of such mine, so as to prevent the egress of persons employed therein, the owner, lessee or agent, shall, upon the written order of the chief inspector of mines, provide and maintain an additional opening by means of which such persons may escape without using the traveling or escapement way likely to be inundated. (Sec. 950; Penalty, Sec. 976.)

Sec. 933. [=Duties of owner, lessee or agent relating to supplying timber.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine shall keep an adequate supply of suitable timber constantly on hand, and deliver to the working place of each miner, the props of approximate length, caps and other timbers necessary to securely prop the roof thereof: Such props, caps, and other timbers, shall be delivered in mine cars at point where the miner receives his empty cars, or unloaded at the entrance to the room. (Sec. 953, 956; Penalty, Sec. 976.)

Sec. 934. [=Provisions for persons injured at mines.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine at, in or around which, more than ten persons are employed, shall furnish for each thirty-five men so employed a properly constructed stretcher, a woolen blanket, a waterproof blanket, a sufficient quant.i.ty of bandages and linen and such other necessary requisites for use in case of accident as may from time to time be prescribed by the industrial commission of Ohio. At mines generating fire-damp so as to be detected by a safety lamp, a sufficient quant.i.ty of olive or linseed oil shall be kept for use in emergencies. It shall be the duty of each mine foreman to keep in a safe and dry place in the territory over which he has charge such stretchers, woolen and waterproof blankets and other supplies. He shall care for the same and keep them in a dry and sanitary condition always ready for use. (Sec. 907, 921, 940, 951; Penalty, Sec. 976.)

Sec. 934-1. [=Owner, lessee or agent shall provide and maintain wash room.=] Every owner, operator, lessee or agent of a coal mine, where ten or more persons are employed, shall provide and keep in repair a wash room, convenient to the princ.i.p.al mine entrance, adequate for the accommodation of the employes, for the purpose of was.h.i.+ng and changing their clothes when entering and returning from the mine.

Such wash room shall be properly lighted and heated, supplied with warm and cold water and adequate and proper facilities for was.h.i.+ng purposes.

Sec. 934-1a. [=Penalty.=] Whoever, being the owner, operator, lessee or agent of a coal mine where ten or more persons are employed, fails or neglects, after ninety days from the taking effect of this act, to comply with the provisions of section 934-1 of the General Code, or violates any of the provisions thereof, shall be fined not less than two hundred nor more than five hundred dollars.

(This act became effective June 16, 1921.) (109 O.L. 22.)

Sec. 934-2. [=Owner, lessee or agent shall install telephone system.=] Every owner, operator, lessee or agent of a coal mine, where twenty or more persons are employed, shall install, and maintain in efficient working condition, a telephone connecting each main switch of such mine with an outside telephone so connected and maintained as to permit communication with persons outside of the mine with persons on the main switch or switches or other points inside of the mine that may be designated by the district mine inspector.

Sec. 934-3. [=Penalty.=] Whoever, being the owner, operator, lessee or agent of a coal mine, where twenty or more persons are employed, fails or neglects, after six months from the taking effect of this act, to comply with the provisions of section 934-2 of the General Code, or violates any of the provisions thereof, shall be fined not less than two hundred nor more than one thousand dollars.

(This act became effective June 22, 1921.) (109 O.L. 48-49.)

Sec. 935. [=Owner or lessee shall make map of mine.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine having an excavation of fifteen thousand cubic yards, or more, shall cause to be made, on a scale of not less than two hundred feet per inch, an accurate map thereof, which shall show the following: The boundary lines and names of the owners of the surface of each tract under which excavation is made, and for not less than five hundred feet contiguous thereto, and under which excavations are likely to be made during the ensuing year, together with all streams and bodies of standing water; the towns.h.i.+p and county lines coming within the limits of such map, with the name of each plainly marked close to and parallel with such lines; the t.i.tle, the name or number of the mine, or both, the towns.h.i.+p and county in which located; the section lines, with the number of each, marked plainly within the sections; the location of the mine openings, railroad tracks, public highways, oil and gas wells, magazines and buildings, and plainly marked with name of each; the location and extent of the excavations and connection with the surface survey; the direction of the air current, or air currents by arrows; the location and extent, so far as known or obtainable, of the excavation of any other mine or mines within the limits of the map; the boundary lines of the tracts of coal owned or leased within the limits of the map; the elevation of the floor of the excavation, above mean tide at Sandy Hook, at or near the boundary line or lines of the coal owned or leased where the coal is adjacent to coal owned by a person, firm or corporation, other than the owner or lessee of such mine, and where the excavations of such mine cease or may be approached by another mine, at points not exceeding three hundred feet apart, and referenced to some permanent monument near the main opening of such mine, and shown on the map and plainly marked bench mark, with the elevation of same. (Sec. 904, 917, 936, 937; Penalty, Sec. 976.)

Sec. 936. [=Addition to map, and certificate of engineer and mine-foreman.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine shall cause to be made, a map or an addition to the next previous map thereof, annually, and semi-annually if so directed in writing by the chief inspector of mines, showing the excavations and the information required by the preceding section, to date of survey. The map, or maps, required by this and the preceding section, and any addition thereto, shall have the certificate of the engineer making same, and of the mine-foreman in charge of the mine at the time of the survey, acknowledged before, a notary public or justice of the peace, thereon in the following form:

I, the undersigned, hereby certify that this map is correct, and shows all the information required by section nine hundred and thirty-five of the General Code, and covers the period ending ..............................................

Engineer.

Acknowledged before me a ...................... this .............. day of ......................................

I, the undersigned, hereby certify that I am a mine-foreman at the mine represented by this map, and to the best of my knowledge and belief the same correctly represents the excavations of the mine for the period ending ............................................................

Mine-Foreman.

Acknowledged before me a ....................... this ................ day of ....................................

(Sec. 904, 917, 937; Penalty, Sec. 976.)

Sec. 937. [=Owner, lessee or agent shall file map of abandoned mine with county recorder and chief inspector of mines.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine, before the pillars are drawn previous to the abandonment of a mine, or any part thereof, shall cause to be made a correct map of such mine, or part thereof, showing its area and workings to the day of the abandonment; the pillars drawn previous to abandonment; and file such map within ninety days after the abandonment of such mine, in the office of the Recorder of the county where such mine is located, and with the chief inspector of mines at his office. Such map shall have attached thereto the usual certificate of the mining engineer making it, and the mine-foreman in charge of the underground workings of the mine, and such owner, lessee or agent shall pay to the Recorder for filing such map, a fee of fifty cents. (Sec. 921.)