Pit Workers in the Old Days: Truck and Mine Timber
April 1965

Mukashi no Yamabito: Daisha, Koboku
[Pit Workers in the Old Days: Truck and Mine Timber]
38.1 x 54.1 cm Painting in Watercolors and Ink

(Pine wood was mainly used for mine timber. It was selected according to the diameter of its smaller end.)
The truck was about 40 to 60 centimeters longer than a mine car and had side frames made of flat iron 5/8 x 3" (16 x 76 mm). Frameless trucks were used at some small-scale coal pits. Long cotton ropes were necessary to use such trucks. Timber for supports used at coalfaces was sent down by surface day laborers (kogai hiyaku/nimpu). Short timber was thrown into empty mine cars.
The repairer (shikurikata) waited for an empty truck to come up to the pit mouth and took it. He loaded it with necessary timbers himself and wrote a sign on one of them to show its destined level with a piece of chalk. He asked the transport man (saodori) to send them underground. When he loaded the truck with longer timbers, he connected an additional length of chain.
1. The timber yard was placed near the pit mouth and it was managed by the person in charge of supplies (yodo-gakari) or warehouse-clerk (soko-gakari).
2. In each pit with slopes inclined more than 20 degrees, the repairer coupled an empty mine car before the truck to prevent timbers from sliding forward.


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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