Mining Laws of Ohio, 1921 Part 6

[=Employes shall not loiter.=] Each employe of a mine shall go to and from his place of duty by the traveling ways provided; shall not travel around the mine, or the buildings, tracks or machinery connected therewith, where duty does not require, and when not on duty, shall not loiter at, in, or around the mine, the buildings, tracks or machinery connected therewith.

[=Intoxicants.=] No person shall go into, at, or around a mine, or the buildings, tracks or machinery connected therewith, while under the influence of intoxicants. No person shall use, carry, or have in his possession, at, in, or around a mine, or the buildings, tracks or machinery connected therewith, any intoxicants.

[=Must not go beyond danger signal.=] No person other than the fire-boss shall remove or go beyond any caution board or danger signal placed at the entrance to any working place, or to the entrance to any old workings in a mine.

Sec. 960. [=Intent to defraud.=] No person shall erase or change a mark of reference or monument made in connection with measurements; change the checks on cars; wrongfully check a car, or do any act with intent to defraud.

[=Fire must not be taken into stable.=] No person shall take a lighted pipe, or other thing containing fire, except lanterns as provided for, into any stable or barn. (Sec. 945-955.)

[=Must not obstruct airway.=] No person shall place refuse in, or obstruct any airway or breakthrough used as an airway.

[=Injuries to mine by workmen and others.=] No workman, or other person, shall knowingly injure a water gauge, barometer, air-course, brattice, equipment, machinery, or live stock; obstruct or throw open an airway; handle or disturb any part of the machinery of the hoisting engine of a mine; open a door of a mine and neglect to close it; endanger the mine or those working therein; disobey an order given in pursuance of law, or do a wilful act whereby the lives and health of persons working therein, or the security of a mine, or the machinery connected therewith may be endangered.

(Penalty, Sec. 976.)

Sec. 961. [=Persons not permitted to ride on haulage trips.=] No person or persons except those in charge of trips, superintendents, mine-foremen, electricians, machinists and blacksmiths, when required by their duty, shall ride on haulage trips, except where by mutual agreement in writing, between the owner, lessee or agent, and the employes, a special trip of empty cars is run for the purpose of taking employes into and out of the mine, or empty cars are attached to loaded trips, which shall not be run at a speed exceeding eight miles per hour. No person except a trip rider shall ride on loaded car or cars, and he shall ride only the front or rear end of the trip. (Sec. 958.)

[=Size of lamps for open lights.=] No person, except as hereinafter provided for, shall use in any coal mine, any oil lamp for the purpose of maintaining an open light, more than two and one-half inches in height, with spout not more than three inches long, with opening not more than three-eights inch in diameter; provided, however, that mine-foreman, electricians, machinists, motormen, trip-riders, drivers, and other persons whose duties require them to ride on moving trips, works in main air current, or travel frequently from place to place, may use lamps not exceeding three and one-half inches in height, with spout not more than four and one-half inches long, with opening not more than five-eights of an inch in diameter. (Sec. 943; Penalty, Sec. 976.)

Sec. 962. [=Handling and storing of explosives.=] No workman shall have at any one time more than one twenty-five pound keg of blasting powder in the mine, nor more than three pounds of high explosives, and no person shall keep blasting powder or explosives dangerously near the electric wire or power cable in any part of the mine where electric wires are in use. No blasting powder, or other explosive, shall be stored in any mine except as above provided.

[=Explosives kept in boxes.=] Every person who has powder or other explosives in a mine shall keep same in a wooden box, or boxes, securely locked, and said boxes shall be kept at least five feet from the track, and no two powder boxes shall be kept within twenty-five feet of each other, nor shall blasting powder and high explosives be kept in the same box, and in no case shall detonating caps be kept in a box with blasting powder or high explosives.

[=Fire must be kept from explosives.=] Whenever a workman is about to open a box, package or keg containing powder or other explosives, and while handling the same, he shall place and keep his lamp at least five feet distant from said explosives, and in such position that the air current cannot convey sparks to it; and no person shall approach nearer than five feet to any open box, keg or package containing powder or other explosives, or within five feet of another person handling such explosives, with a lighted lamp, lighted pipe, or other thing containing fire.

[=Conveying of explosives.=] Blasting powder or explosives must not be taken into or out of a mine, or moved from place to place in a mine along any entry or haulway where there are electric wires, while the power is on such wires, except when such powder or explosive is conveyed in insulated cars or packages.

[=Explosives and tools on cages or stairways.=] Powder, explosives and working tools shall not be taken down or up a hoisting shaft in a cage when men are going down or up; nor shall they be taken down or up a stairway used for ingress and egress of persons. (Sec. 956, 963; Penalty, Sec. 976.)

Sec. 963. [=Squibs and fuses; missed shots.=] Any workman who is about to fire a shot with a squib, shall not shorten the fuse, saturate it with oil, or ignite it except at the extreme end; he shall see that all persons are out of danger from the probable effects of such shot, and if it be a rib shot, he shall notify the person or persons working next to him on said rib before firing said shot, and shall take measures to prevent any one approaching by shouting "fire" immediately before lighting the fuse.

When a squib is used and a shot misses fire, no person shall return until five minutes shall have elapsed.

When a fuse is used and a shot misses fire, no person shall return until one hour for each foot of fuse used shall have elapsed.

The needle used in preparing a blast shall be made of copper, and the tamping bar shall be made of wood, or shall be tipped with at least five inches of solid copper.

No inflammable material, or any material that may create a spark, shall be used for tamping, and some soft material must always be placed next to the cartridge or explosive. When it is necessary to tamp dynamite, nothing but a wooden tamper shall be used. (Sec. 956, 962; Penalty, Sec. 976.)

=RELATING TO PERSONS NOT EMPLOYES.=

Sec. 964. [=Persons not employes of a mine.=] Persons not employes of a mine, except those permitted by law, shall not enter such mine or go upon the property connected therewith, unless consent of the owner, lessee or agent has been secured, and then only when accompanied by a guide furnished by such owner, lessee or agent.

This, however, shall not prohibit persons seeking employment at such mine, or the duly authorized representatives of the employes, from entering upon the property as may be necessary to make such application to the proper authority or to transact business, provided such persons do not enter the mine until given permission to do so, and do not stand on the tracks, go near the machinery, or other place of danger. (Penalty, Sec. 976.)

=GENERAL PROVISIONS.=

Sec. 965. [=Qualifications of miner.=] Each person desiring to work by himself at mining or loading, shall first produce satisfactory evidence, in writing, to the mine-foreman of the mine in which he is employed, or to be employed, that he has worked at least nine months with, under the direction of, or as a practical miner; provided, however, if the mine in which such person is to be employed generates explosive gas, or fire-damp, he shall have worked not less than twelve months with, under the direction of, or as a practical miner. Except as hereinafter provided, until a person has so satisfied the mine-foreman of his competency, he shall not work, or be permitted to work at mining or loading unless accompanied by a competent miner.

[=Inexperienced miner.=] The provisions of this section shall not prohibit a person not so qualified from working in a mine by himself, or with another inexperienced person, when such person or persons work under the direction of a competent overseer, as hereinafter prescribed. Until such person or persons have been employed in a mine for a period of not less than three months, the overseer shall visit the working place of such persons not less frequently than once in each four hours that such persons are in the mine, and instruct them as to their work and safety, and a.s.sist them in caring for their safety. After such persons have been employed in a mine for a period of three months, and until they have been employed not less than six months, the overseer shall examine the working place not less frequently than once during each six hours that such persons are in the mine, and shall instruct them as to their work and safety, and a.s.sist them in caring for their safety.

After such persons have been employed in a mine for a period of not less than six months, the overseer shall examine the working place not less than once each day until such persons become qualified by having worked the period of time hereinbefore provided. The overseer shall instruct such persons not to handle or use any explosives, except in his presence, until they have been employed in a mine not less than three months, and not then until he is satisfied that such persons are fully competent to handle and use same with safety. The overseer shall visit the working place of such persons oftener than required herein, when, in his judgment, it is necessary to do so for the proper safety of such persons. (Sec. 954; Penalty, Sec. 976.)

Sec. 966. [=Oath and bond of weigh-master.=] Any person employed to weigh coal at a mine in which ten or more miners are employed, and upon the weight of which the earnings of the miners depend, shall take and subscribe to an oath before an officer authorized to administer the same, that he will correctly weigh all coal taken from such mine under existing contracts between the owner, lessee or agent, and the miners, and give due credit for same; and when required by existing contracts between the lessor and lessee, he shall give due credit to such lessor. He shall also give a bond in the sum of three hundred dollars, with two sureties approved by the clerk of the towns.h.i.+p in which such mine is situated, conditioned for the faithful discharge of his duties, and payable to the state, with the oath indorsed thereon, which shall be deposited with such towns.h.i.+p clerk. (Penalty, Sec. 976.)

Sec. 967. [=Examination of machinery, ventilating current, etc., by miner or owner.=] The miners employed in a mine may appoint two of their number to act as a committee to inspect, not oftener than once in every month, the mine and the machinery connected therewith, and to measure the ventilating current. If the owner, lessee or agent so desires, he may accompany such committee or appoint two or more persons for that purpose. The owner, lessee or agent shall afford every necessary facility for making such inspection and measurement, but the committee shall not in any way interrupt or impede the work in the mine at the time of such inspection and measurement. Within ten days after the inspection and measurement, such committee shall make a correct report thereof to the chief inspector of mines, on blanks furnished by him. (Sec. 906; Penalty, Sec. 976.)

Sec. 968. [=Appropriation of land for mines, how made.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a coal mine, may, when such owner, lessee or agent does not own or control suitable surface ground for openings for the ingress and egress of persons employed therein, for the means of ventilation as provided for in this act, for the means of draining said mine as may best protect the lives and health of the persons employed therein, for the protection of the employes and property, for conducting the water from the mine to any natural water course, or for suitable roadway from any opening to a public highway, appropriate as hereinafter provided, for any one or more of such purposes any required intervening or adjoining lands, and make openings, lay pipe for conducting water, and maintain roadways into, upon, over, under or through same, provided that no land shall be appropriated for a roadway more than twenty feet in width, and no land for any other one of such purposes in excess of one-quarter of an acre. Such owner, lessee or agent, whether a corporation, firm or individual, shall be governed in proceedings to appropriate such land by the laws relating to the appropriation of private property by corporation; but no land shall be so appropriated unless the court is satisfied that suitable land cannot be obtained upon reasonable terms.

Sec. 969. [=Examination and survey of mine by owner of land adjoining.=] Each person owning land adjoining a mine worked for the production of coal, and each person interested in such mine, who has reason to believe that the protection of his interests therein or in the coal on his adjoining land requires it, upon making affidavit to that effect before a justice of the peace or other proper officer, may enter such mine and have an examination or survey of it made, after giving three days' notice, in writing, to the owner, lessee or agent of such mine. Such examination shall be made at such time, and in such manner, as will least interfere with the working of the mine.

[=Transportation of surveying party.=] When the affidavit has been made, and notice given, as provided in the foregoing, upon the application of the person giving the notice, the person in charge of such mine shall transport, by the ordinary method for entrance and exit in use at such mine, a surveying party of not more than three persons, furnish them a competent guide, and supply them with necessary and proper lamps. The person in charge of the mine shall be paid by the person requesting the survey, fifty cents for each person so transported, and five dollars per day for guide; but, if the shaft, (if such mine be a shaft mine), exceed two hundred and fifty feet in depth, he shall be paid one dollar for each person so transported.

[=Liability for damages caused by examination.=] If the owner or lessee of such mine sustain damage for which compensation should be made because such examination or survey was made at unreasonable times, or in an improper or unwarrantable manner, the person making, such examination or survey, or causing it to be made, shall be liable therefor to such owner or lessee.

[=Forfeiture.=] The persons owning or operating a mine shall not hinder or obstruct such examination or survey, if made at a reasonable time, and in a reasonable manner, and as provided by law.

[=To whom provisions concerning examination and survey available.=]

The preceding provisions for examination and survey shall be available to any person, who, on his oath, states that he is the owner, or authorized agent of an owner, of land which he believes contains coal or commercial products adjacent to the underground working of a mine, although it does not adjoin the property of such mine.

[=Action for refusal to permit examination.=] Upon the refusal of the owner, lessee or agent of a mine to comply with the provisions of this section, the person who makes the application for the survey may recover judgment as upon default, in a court of competent jurisdiction, against the owner, lessee or agent, in such sum as he declares under oath that he believes to be justly due him for coal belonging to him taken by the owner, lessee or agent of the mine without his permission, and the statute of limitations shall not run against such claim, but the demand, and refusal of permission to enter such mine, must be first proven to the satisfaction of the court or jury.