Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1890-02-08
WHOLE NUMBER, 956.


point the older in years.
In case of death, etc, the second highest
rated applicant shall succeed by appointment
of the governor.
Some one eligible to examination shall be
appointed by the governor to serve until
August lst 1890, provided this bill becomes
law.
The duties and restrictions of Mine Inspec-
tor are about as laid down in current law.
Owners of mines are required to provide
not less than 66 cubic feet of pure wholesome
air for each person employed in mines, which
shall be properly circulated through each and
every working place. No working place
shall be driven more than 200 feet in advance
of an airway, and all airways, except those
near the working places shall be bratticcd
alr-tlght where same shall be necessary to
ventilation. The inspector shall measure the
ventilation on each visit of inlet and outlet,
and reports thereof made in his annual state
ment.
Owners ofmines are required to provide a
competent overseer and furnish timber, as
now
Also the provision for noxious gases, etc.
Eilp iol steam engines Underground.
Inspector of mines shall also be an in
spector of weights and measures.
Weighmasters to make oath as now.
The weighmaster is required to weigh coal
just as it is done now, and expose same in
ink.
Provision for accurate scales about same as
now; also measurements
Provision is moda for q cbacl, vro;,n,o, ot
expense Of miners-to be a spy on behalf of
the miners for the States attorney and grand
jury.
1t is made the duty of all connected with
mines to use all diligence in preventing acci-
dent and damage to health and property.
Miners are made liable for negligence which
jeopardizes or causes injury or death to CO.
laborers.
Inspectors conduct to be subject 20 grand
jury inquisitions and removal. etc.
Work by day, week, month or by measure
ment, instead of by ton, if desirable
Owners lessees, bosses, etc, are made
liable to lines of S25 and not over $500 for
violations Of this act; inspector and weigh
masters not less than $50 nor over $500.
Examiners shall receive IS per day, clerk
IS per day, Mine Inspector 81 800 pei, onn,tm
all to be paid by the State.
State shall furnish inspector with one ane-
roid barometer, one water gauge and one
thermometer.
Hon. r.. 7. Browning, State inspec-
tor Of mines, informed the JOURNAL
that he had visited Annapolis to file
his report with the governor, and that
if the great paper would not issue an
extra giving the people the report be-
fore he could give it to the governor,
he would permit synopsis to be made,
rs follows:
The output of coal from the Georges Creek
field for 1889, was 2,637,S39 tons, requiring
an expenditure in MARYLAND of IS, 252, ,596 for
labor supplies and transportation.
The output named is 46s, ,S3l tons less than
that Of 1888. This great falling off, he con-
tinues, "was not due to any decline in the
demand for our coal, but to the want of the
necessary transportation to get it to market
The practical destruction of the Chesa cake
and Ohio canal by the floods of May last con-
tributed more than any other cause to this
unfortunate result. The canal had grown to
be almost indispensable as a competing out
let to the coal region, Having its eastern
terminus at tide, it afforded transportation
from Cumberland to the remotest Atlantic
coast markets. Its sudden disappearance,
therefore, from our list of carriers demoralized
the trade accustomed to getting its supplies of
Our coal by water and thus entailed loss to
the State approXimating the enormous sum of
nine hundred and thirty-two thousand, nine
hundred and eighty-nine dollars.
The inspector observes that during the II
years ending with 1889 there were 81 fatal
accidents or one for each 375, ,5S5 tons of coal
mined.
During 1889 there were 5 fatal accidents, or
one for each 527, $50 tons of coal mined.
This very decided diminution of mortality
from accidents is taken as indicating "a mark
ed improvement in the mining measures and
methods which look to protection of life and
property"
The employment of too many miners is
condemned, and the inspector regrets to say
that, Notwithstanding the great decrease III
tonnage, as shown, there have been large ad-
ditions made to our already too numerous
population of miners" He goes on to say
that the productive capacity of the region is
3l million tons per- dnnHnt, yet, with one
million less produced in 1882 there has been
employed fully twenty per cent. more men
than would be necessary to develop the full
productive capacity of the region" The
moral drawn is that there is nothing that
tends to produce labor trouble among miners
so much as an increasing surplus of their
number"
The inspector has "had no complaint from
employer or employee during the year, for
| the reason, | presume, that the mines are i'll
the best possible condition. The superin-
tendents are doing all they can to keep them
in the best state Of operation in order to pro-
mote their capacity to supply the highest prob
able demand, to preserve their property and
protect the health and lives of their opera
tves.
! 81 have, therefore, no further legislation
touching the conduct of the mln9s, to sug-
| gest or recommend. This conclusion is
| further fortified by my observations, now
covering nearly two years of official life as
the States inspector, The period named
comprises perhaps the most active of Mary
| land coal development, yet peace, content
and prosperity have reigned throughout the
region as never before.
Itwould appear, therefore, that any legisla-
tive interference beyond the law in force
/