Popular Culture Review Vol. 1, December 1989 | Page 71

of special jiggered shoring techniques known as Diedesheimer
square-sets, which became a standard for mines everywhere.
This problem solved, another immediately took its place. As
the shafts went deeper and deeper, some to 2600 feet, the air grew
hotter, often exceeding 120 degrees. The stale air was barely
breathable and so denuded of oxygen was it that the candles at that
depth burned only with a flickering blue glow, instead o f a bright
orange. The miners could work but fifteen minutes out o f every
hour in that intense heat. Ice continually was transported to them
in the shafts and each miner used up about 95 pounds o f the ice/
water mix in a shift. Despite the use of fans, ventilation was
extremely poor, and the condidions wrought havoc on the men.
Dangers were everywhere and the work was gruelling. Fires
were commonplace, since so much timber was in the mines and
explosions from black powder (later, dynamite, blasting caps, and
low voltage detonators) crippled many. The tamping o f the powder
and the crimping of the blasting caps were moments o f severest
hazard. Moreover, over a period of time, the numerous blasts
produced severe hearing impairment.
Flooding was frequent as new tunnels were dug. Also, men
were commonly scalded by sudden, steaming, hot-water springs
breaking through the walls. Hernias were common and many wore
the popular bulb belt to hold them in, especially in the case o f the
muckers, men who loaded and pushed the ore carts out o f the mine.
Their usual quota was 16 cars loaded and pushed out each eighthour shift.
Those who chiselled and drilled in hard-rock mining, some
times granite, gave the world the memorable phrase, “Deep Enough!”
It came to refer not only to the hole drilled, but meant, in effect,
“That’s as far as I go,” or, “I’ve had it for now,” or “I ’ve reached
my limit—any more and you can shove it!” Eventually, heavy,
compressed-air drills replaced much of the hand work required by

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