Abstract
THE present adds one more to the already long list of primers on coal-mining that have been produced so freely of recent years, and unfortunately it cannot be said that it is sufficiently an improvement upon some of its predecessors to justify its publication. It is difficult to see to what class of student such a book as the present one can address itself, or which it can expect to benefit; if it is intended for the instruction of youths actually engaged in mining operations, such definitions as “the men engaged in the excavation of the material are termed sinkers,” “the portion of the twenty-four hours during which each set works being called a shift,” “the extreme end of the road... is called the face,” &c., are surely superfluous, as these expressions must be familiar to every boy about a pit. If, on the other hand, the book is intended for those who have no personal knowledge of coal-mining, the amount of information afforded upon the majority of mining operations cannot possibly be sufficient to en lighten them; for instance, it is hopeless to expect that the subject of coal-cutting by machinery can be adequately taught in three pages; in the same way, only twenty pages are devoted to the whole subject of shaft-sinking, including all the special methods, entirely out of place though these are in an elementary book.
First Steps in Coal Mining. For Use in Supplementary and Continuation Classes.
By Alexander Forbes. Pp. viii + 320. (London, Glasgow, and Bombay: Blackie and Sons, Ltd., 1910.) Price 2s. 6d.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
First Steps in Coal Mining For Use in Supplementary and Continuation Classes . Nature 84, 492 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/084492a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/084492a0