Germinal - Emile Zola [293]
The following abbreviations are used for sources cited herein:
Bulman and Redmayne
H. F. Bulman and R. A. S. Redmayne, Colliery Working and Management (2nd edn, London, 1906 (1st edn, 1896))
Pamely
Caleb Pamely, The Colliery Manager’s Handbook (London, 1891)
Penman
David Penman, The Principles and Practice of Mine Ventilation (London, 1927)
banksman In French ‘moulineur’, a term derived from the terminology of silk-working. According to Bulman and Redmayne, the ‘bank’ is ‘the surface-land surrounding a pit’s mouth’; ‘the banksmen are stationed at the landing of the cage on the surface, and their work consists in ‘‘uncaging’’ the tubs – that is, taking the tubs out of the cage, and conveying them to the screens (where this is not done by mechanical power), putting the empty tubs into the cage, and giving the necessary signals to the engineman and to the onsetters. The latter, the onsetters, do similar work at the bottom of the shaft’ (p. 96).
chimney Pamely records that ‘as the colliers hew their coal it is filled into the nearest chimney, to be afterwards withdrawn from below by the putters, who bring tubs under the chimneys, and for a time remove the sluice, thus allowing sufficient coal to rush into the tubs to fill them’ (p. 236).
coke-oven Coke is a form of fuel obtained by heating coal to high temperatures, a process which ‘drive[s] off its volatile constituents, including all the smoke-forming elements, and leaving a fuel which is comparatively clean to handle, gives off no smoke when burnt, but generates great heat, and has a higher radiant efficiency than ordinary coal’ (The Mining Educator, ed. John Roberts, 2 vols, London, 1926, vol. II, p. 1212). Hence its use in blast-furnaces as well as in the fire-grates of steam engines. When this process of ‘carbonization’ occurs naturally, the result is anthracite.
Davy lamp Sir Humphrey Davy (1778–1829) invented this safety lamp in 1815. It is so designed that the naked flame is protected by a piece of fine wire gauze, thus preventing ignition of the methane gas (or firedamp) which is found in so-called ‘fiery’ mines. According to Penman: ‘If the workings are non-fiery, open lights may be used. These may take the form of spout lamps burning oil, animal fat or paraffin wax, and are carried on the cap of the worker, or candles’ (p. 49). In Germinal the majority of miners have Davy lamps, but the deputies carry open lamps on their caps, doubtless because they did not work in the confined spaces where firedamp was likely to ignite.
engineman See mechanic.
firedamp Methane gas; see Davy lamp.
hewer In French ‘haveur’. In British terms ‘hewer’ was by far the commonest term at the time. ‘Pikeman’, used in Havelock Ellis’s translation, is a Staffordshire term (see Bulman and Redmayne, p. 406).
hopper A metal funnel in the shape of an inverted pyramid down which the coal passed from the screens into the railway wagons beneath.
loading-bay See pit-bottom.
mechanic In French ‘machineur’, a word now no longer used except in its sense of someone engaged in ‘machinations’. The British equivalent would have been either ‘engineman’ or ‘mechanic’. Bulman and Redmayne refer to ‘joiners, fitters, smiths, masons, enginemen and other mechanics’ (p. 70). According to C. H. Steavenson the job of an ‘engineman’ was ‘attending winding-engine, hauling, pumping, fan, air compressors, electric generators, motors and locomotives’, while the term ‘mechanic’ covers ‘plumber, fitter, blacksmith’ (in his Colliery Workmen Sketched at Work, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1912, pp. 24 and 26). For Bulman and Redmayne, therefore, an ‘engineman’ – which in some contexts we might call a ‘machine-operator’ – is a subcategory of ‘mechanic’. Since it is not clear what Étienne’s expertise or qualifications are (from his work in the railway workshop at Lille), nor those of Souvarine later in the novel (he is also a ‘machineur’), the broader term ‘mechanic’ has been preferred.
overman The equivalent of an under-manager, the overman was in charge of the day-to-day running of the pit. He was assisted by