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Signals Used When No Electric Bell Was Available in the Mid-Meiji Era(1868-1912)
May 1967

Beru no Nai Meiji Chuki no Aizu
[Signals Used When No Electric Bell Was Available in the Mid-Meiji Era (1868-1912)]
37.8 x 53.9 cm Painting in Watercolors and Ink

[Translator's Notes: In the mid-Meiji era when no electric bell was available, the signals from underground were manually sent to the surface by pulling the shown lever linked to a hammer, hitting a board to make signal sounds. The meanings of the signals represented by the number of hammering were as follows.]

Text at the Top Left
Signals Used When No Electric Bell Was Available in the Mid-Meiji Era
O-rai! (Stop!): 1 time
Make! (Rise!): 2 times
Sase! (Down!): 3 times
Yao make! (Rise slowly!): 4 times
Yao sase! (Down slowly!): 5 times

The above were the same in every pit. Other signals were decided by each pit.
In coal pits with lots of diagonal slopes and faults, the inclinations of the slopes were uneven. It became impossible to send signals when the distance from the pit bottom and pit mouth reached nearly 1,000 meters. In which case, such a pit had to newly set up some relay signal stations and hire signal men even if more personnel costs were necessary.
This painting shows the relay station in the right diagonal slope 500 meters away from the pit mouth of the main pit of Kamimio Coal Pit in Iizuka Town around 1911.
Strong and prompt men were assigned as these transporters called saodoris.
The signals went rat-a-tat from the slope bottom to the surface.

Text at the Bottom Right
Thin zinc wire ropes were used for this signal system and # 8 zinc wire ropes were used at first.


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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