While showing a rather advanced Harlan County Scrip Collector a set of Harlan Collieries Coal Company scrip, he asked me what the word “Colliery” meant. Two of his friends, also scrip collectors, asked me the same thing. When modern day scrip collectors ask me the same question three times in one day, I knew that a brief history lesson was needed. Being caught off guard and not knowing exactly what the word meant myself, I pretended to know but went to my file cabinet to retrieve information I had on the subject. While searching my files, I stalled to sound more knowledgeable than I was. I had only to find my special files and look under the name Tippy. That’s right, the R.R. “Tip” Tippy of NSCA legend.
I told my three guests that as soon as I located my “Tippy file” I would enlighten them. I needed to be enlightened myself, but I never let on that I was also ignorant of the full meaning of the word, “Colliery.” Mr. Tippy, who is one of few members, who holds the honor of being an active Charter Member of our great organization and honorary life member number 2, has a knack for saving information he comes across and has always been generous in sharing this with his fellow scriptors. He has supplied me valuable and interesting information dealing with our great hobby ever since I met him in the 1980’s. With a quick look under the “T” section of my files, Mr. Tippy saved the day for me and answered the question of what is a Colliery.
A few years back, Mr. Tippy gave me some material that had a great drawing of an early coal mine and on the reverse of the drawing had a brief article explaining a colliery. I proceeded to make my friends a copy of the article and drawing, as I quickly reviewed the content and refreshed my memory, then proceeded to explain to them what a “colliery” was!
I related this story to two of our more experienced collectors and asked them what a colliery was. Neither gave the right answer. Both said a colliery was a coal mine. One even thought a “colliery” was a series of mines owned by one company. Their answers were only half-right. Therefore, following is the article provided by Mr. Tippy and written by the University Press, Des Moines, IA in 1938. A copy of the old coal mine drawing used for illustration follows this article. Please refer to the drawing when references are mentioned.
A coal mine and the buildings belonging to it are called a Colliery. The framework above the shaft of a coal mine is called the “tipple”. (See structure with wheels on top to the left of illustration.) The buildings in the center of the illustration are for the purpose of sorting and cleaning the coal in preparation for shipment. Such buildings are covered with galvanized sheeting. The tank at the extreme right is known as the settling cone. Water from this huge reservoir passes through wash boxes and is pumped back again. As the impurities settle they are drained off, leaving the water pure for later use in washing coal. There are three types of mines with respect to the way the coal is removed; the room and pillar mine, the circle mine, and the receding mine. The room and pillar system is used when the coal bed is thick. In this system much of the coal is left to support the mine roof. As the coal is removed the mine becomes a network of rooms and roads. The coal left between entries and rooms is called pillars.
The circular system is used for thin bed mines. In this system nearly all the coal is removed. Roads are dug partly from the floor (underclay) or ceiling and the dirt thrown up to support the roof along the road. The roof is allowed to sink gradually over the mined areas. As the coal is undermined the weight of the roof breaks it down so it can be taken out. The cavity left as the coal is mined is circular, whereas in the room and pillar system the cavities are square or oblong.
In the receding system, mining, except for road making, begins far from the shaft. The roof of the mine will be allowed to fall as the coal is removed. The receding system is a block or circular system and is used particularly where the coal bed is thin.
Upon finishing my session with my friends, I realized that it is extremely important to tell and retell the stories of the past. Most collieries are gone, the mines abandoned, the tipples long since crumbled and ravaged by time or torn down. The collieries of yesteryear are now lost to the ages but their stories remembered and told to each generation keeps their legacy alive.
W. C. Stump, submitted 02/00
