Chapter 2
Sec. 918. [=Complaint against district inspector; how made.=] When written charges of neglect of duty, incompetency, or malfeasance in office against any district inspector of mines, are made and filed with the chief inspector of mines, signed by not less than fifteen employes, or an owner, lessee or agent of a mine, the chief inspector of mines shall promptly investigate such charges, and advise in writing, addressed to the complainant whose name appears first in the charges, the result of such investigation.
[=Complaint against chief inspector, how made; appeal.=] When written charges of neglect of duty, incompetency or malfeasance in office against the chief inspector of mines, are made and filed with the governor, signed by not less than fifteen employes, or the owner, lessee or agent of a mine, or if not less than fifteen employes, or the owner, lessee or agent of a mine, having filed charges against a district inspector of mines with the chief inspector of mines, are dissatisfied with the result of the investigation made by him, and appealed to the governor by filing the same charges against such district inspector of mines with the governor, he shall make, or cause to be made, an investigation of such charges, and advise in writing, addressed to the complainant whose name appears first in the charges, the result of such investigation.
Sec. 919. [=Appeal and hoard of examiners.=] After such appeal from the decision of the chief inspector of mines, or after charges have been filed against the chief inspector of mines with the governor, and the result of the investigation made by him, or at his instance, is unsatisfactory to the complainant, and notice thereof is given to the governor in writing by said complainant, accompanied with a bond in the sum of five hundred dollars, payable to the state, conditioned for the payment of all costs and expenses of the investigation of such charges, in the event such charges are not sustained, and signed by two or more responsible freeholders, the governor shall convene a board of examiners, consisting of two practical miners, one chemist, one mining engineer, and one mine operator at such time and place as he directs, giving ten days' notice thereof to the inspector against whom the charges are made, and also to the person whose name appears first in the charges.
[=Duties of board.=] When so convened, and being duly sworn truly to try and decide upon the charges made, the board of examiners shall summon any witnesses desired by either party, and examine them, on oath, administered by a member of the board. Depositions may be read on such examination as in other cases. The board shall examine fully into the truth of such charges and report the result of its investigation to the governor; and, according to its finding, award the costs and expenses of such investigation against the inspector or the persons signing the bond. The costs and expenses of such investigation shall include a compensation of five dollars per day for each member of the board, for the time occupied in the trial, and in traveling to and from his home, together with all legitimate expenses which shall be paid from the state treasury on the certificate of the president of such board. The attorney general shall proceed to collect such costs and expenses, and pay them into the state treasury.
Sec. 920. [=This act shall not create new office or displace any officer.=] No change herein made in the name of an office existing when this act takes effect shall create a new office. The incumbents of offices when this act takes effect, the duties of which are herein defined, or the filling of which is herein provided for, shall hold their respective offices for the full term for which they were severally elected or appointed, the same as if this act had not been passed.
=RELATING TO COUNTY RECORDER AND COUNTY CORONER.=
Sec. 921. [=Duty of Recorder.=] The recorder of the county, when presented with a map of an abandoned mine, by the owner, lessee or agent thereof, as provided for in this act, shall properly label, file and preserve the same as a part of the records of the land upon which said mine is located. (Sec. 937.)
[=Duty of coroner.=] Upon receiving notice of a death occurring at a mine, as provided for in this act, the coroner shall hold an inquest forthwith upon the body of such person, inquire carefully into the cause of his death, and within ten days after such inquest, return a copy of his findings, with a description of the body, and all the testimony before him, to the chief inspector of mines. Upon request of the owner, lessee or agent of the mine where such person was employed, shall furnish a copy thereof to such owner, lessee or agent, for which such coroner shall be entitled to a fee of ten cents per legal cap page, but in no case more than five dollars for any one inquest, for copy furnished owner or lessee. (Sec. 940; Penalty, Sec. 976.)
=RELATING TO OWNER, LESSEE OR AGENT.=
Sec. 922. [=Ventilation of mines.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine, shall provide and maintain the necessary artificial means of capacity and power capable of supplying the required ventilation, and shall maintain a sufficient volume of air, not less per minute than one hundred and fifty cubic feet for each person, and five hundred cubic feet for each animal working therein, measured at the intake, and distributed so as to expel or dilute and render harmless, explosive, poisonous and noxious gases.
[=Additional requirements where fire-damp is present.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine generating fire-damp, so as to be detected by a safety lamp, shall, in addition to the foregoing, provide and maintain not less than fifty cubic feet of air per minute for each person working therein. (Sec. 923, 924, 952; Penalty, Sec. 976.)
Sec. 923. [=Ventilating appliances.=] In each mine, the doors used in assisting or directing the ventilation thereof, shall be hung so that they will close themselves, and shall be kept closed except while persons or cars are passing through same. Each door, not operated automatically, through which cars are required to pass, shall have an attendant, whose first duty shall be to open it for transportation, and prevent it from standing open longer than necessary for cars to pass through, and, persons in charge of cars passing through automatic doors shall be required to keep a close watch over such doors, and if any such door fails to close, they shall promptly close same and report such fact to the mine foreman. This shall not prevent the attendant from performing other duties, provided the door is not kept open longer than is necessary for cars to pass through. Where necessary, a refuge place shall be provided at each door for the safety of the attendant. (Sec. 943, 958; Penalty, Sec. 976.)
Sec. 924. [=Ventilation of mines while persons working therein.=] At each mine where the ventilation is not continuous, it shall be started a sufficient length of time prior to the appointed time for any person, or persons, working therein to enter, to clear the mine of explosive, poisonous and noxious gases, and shall be kept in operation a sufficient length of time after the appointed time for such employes to leave their working places, for all persons to be out of the mine. (Sec. 922, 923, 952; Penalty, Sec. 976.)
[=Pressure gauges.=] At each mine generating fire-damp so as to be detected by a safety lamp, and wherein twenty or more persons are employed, a recording pressure gauge for the purpose of recording the pressure or vacuum of the main air current, shall be provided and maintained, which shall be kept in constant use, and records preserved for ninety days, subject to the inspection of the chief inspector of mines and the district inspector of mines. (Penalty, Sec. 976.)
Sec. 925. [=Competent person or persons shall be designated as fire-boss.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine generating fire-damp so as to be detected by a safety lamp, shall designate a competent person or persons as fire boss or fire bosses, who shall make a thorough examination of each working place in the mine every morning with a standard safety lamp, not more than three hours prior to the appointed time for the employes to enter the mine. As evidence of such examination, the fire boss shall mark with chalk upon the face of the coal, or in some other conspicuous place, his initials and date of the month upon which the examination is made. If there is any standing gas discovered, he must leave a danger signal across every entrance to such place.
[=Examination of other than working places.=] Each mine generating fire-damp so as to be detected by a safety lamp, shall be kept free from standing gas. All traveling ways, entrances to old workings, and places not in the actual course of working, shall be carefully examined with a safety lamp by the fire boss not more than three hours before the appointed time for persons employed therein to enter. Parts of the mine not in the actual course of working and available, shall be examined not less than once each three days, and shall be so fenced as to prevent persons from inadvertently entering therein. (Sec. 955, 959; Penalty, Sec. 976.)
Sec. 926. [=Breakthroughs and brattices.=] From a point where the seam is reached in the opening of a mine, to a point not exceeding a distance of four hundred feet therefrom, breakthroughs shall be made between main entries, where there are no rooms worked, not more than one hundred feet apart, provided such entries are not advanced beyond the point where the breakthrough will be made until the breakthrough is complete. Breakthroughs between entries, except as hereinbefore provided, shall be made not exceeding sixty feet apart. Where there is a solid block on one side of a room, breakthroughs shall be made between such room and the adjacent room not to exceed sixty feet apart; where there is a breast or group of rooms, a breakthrough shall be made on one side or the other of each room, except the room adjoining said block, not to exceed forty feet from the outside corner of the breakthrough to the nearest corner of the entrance to the room, and on the opposite side of the same room a breakthrough shall be made, not to exceed eighty feet from the outside corner of the breakthrough to the nearest corner of the entrance to the room, and thereafter breakthroughs shall be made not to exceed eighty feet apart on each side of the room. No working place, except those provided for within a distance of four hundred feet of the principal openings of a mine, shall be driven more than eighty feet in advance of a breakthrough or air-way. The required air current shall be conducted to the breakthrough nearest the face of such entry or room. All breakthroughs between entries, and when necessary between rooms, except the one nearest the working face, shall be closed and made air-tight by brattice, trap doors or other means, so that the current of air in circulation may sweep to the interior of the mine. Brattices between permanent inlet and outlet airways shall be constructed in a substantial manner of brick, masonry, concrete, or non-perishable material. In mines generating fire-damp, so as to be detected by a safety lamp, the air current shall be conducted by brattice, or other means, near enough to the working face to expel the fire-damp, and prevent the accumulation of the same. (Penalty, Sec. 976.)
Sec. 927. [=Safe appliances for hoisting persons.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine shall provide and maintain safe appliances, approved by the district inspector of mines, for the ingress and egress of persons in each shaft, designated by such owner, lessee or agent as a means of ingress and egress for persons employed therein. When there is but one shaft available for ingress and egress from any unavoidable cause, the appliances therein shall be kept available to persons therein employed at all times. When such appliances in any shaft are rendered unavailable from any cause, the same shall be restored without delay.
[=Emergency appliances.=] When the only means of egress is by vertical shaft, in which cages or elevators are used as a means of hoisting persons therein employed, and the power for operating same is derived from but one source, the owner, lessee or agent shall provide and keep on hand for use in the event of an accident to the hoisting apparatus or the power by which same is operated, a suitable windlass, capable of hoisting the persons from the mine.
[=Competent engineers.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine worked by a shaft or slope, shall put in charge of an engine used for lowering into or hoisting out of such mine persons employed therein, only experienced, competent and sober engineers. (Sec. 916, 928; Penalty, Sec. 976.)
Sec. 928. [=Metal speaking tube and safety appliances.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine operated by shaft, shall provide and maintain a metal tube suitable for conversation between persons, connecting the engine room with the top and bottom of such shaft; an approved safety catch, a sufficient cover, and rings or other adequate handholds for ten persons, on all cages used for lowering and hoisting persons: Such cages to be protected on each side by a boiler plate not less than one-fourth inch in thickness, and not less than three feet high, and shall provide an approved safety gate at the top of each shaft, an adequate brake to control the drum used for lowering or hoisting persons in shafts or slopes, and an indicator on all machines used for such purpose, to show the location of cages in shaft or slope. No cage having an unstable or self-dumping platform shall be used for the carriage of persons unless such platform is securely locked. (Sec. 916, 927; Penalty, Sec. 976.)
Sec. 929. [=Hoisting and lowering of persons.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine, at which the only means of ingress and egress for the persons employed therein is by a vertical shaft or shafts, of fifty feet or more in depth, shall designate one or more persons whose duty shall be to attend to the lowering and hoisting of persons into and out of such mine, and give and receive the proper signals, governing the movement of the cage while engaged in handling men. Not more than ten persons shall be lowered or hoisted at any one time. The lowering of persons shall begin in time for persons to reach their working places by hour appointed for mine to commence work and continue until starting time. Hoisting of persons shall commence at time for mine to cease work, and continue until all have had time to be hoisted. Persons may be hoisted at such other times as will not interfere with the hoisting of coal, or other products. No person shall be lowered into or hoisted out of a mine, with powder, explosives, tools or material on any cage, in the same shaft, and no person shall be lowered or hoisted in a vertical shaft in a mine car. When the vertical shaft is less than fifty feet in depth, and a stairway approved by the district inspector of mines is not provided, the owner, lessee or agent shall be required to lower or hoist persons, as above prescribed, but when such stairway is provided, the hoisting of persons shall not be required.
Sec. 930. [=Owner, lessee or agent shall provide second opening.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine shall not employ or permit any person to work therein except as hereinafter provided, unless to every seam worked in such mine there are at least two openings, separated by natural strata of not less than one hundred feet in breadth at any point, by which distinct means of ingress and egress are always available to the persons therein employed. Such openings need not belong to the same mine so long as the persons employed therein have safe, ready and available means of ingress and egress, by not less than two openings, provided, however, that no air shaft with a ventilating furnace at the bottom be designated or used as a means of ingress or egress. The provisions of this section shall not apply to opening a new mine while being worked for the purpose of making the second opening and the communication therewith, and the making of the landing or bottom and extending of the main entries one hundred feet while such communication is being made; to a mine in which the second opening has become unavailable from any cause while said second opening is being restored or another is being made; nor to a mine in which the second opening has become unavailable by reason of the final robbing of the pillars previous to abandonment, so long as not more than twenty persons in either case are employed therein at one time.
[=Fire protection to shafts.=] At each mine at which the only means of egress is by vertical shaft, the owner, lessee or agent shall provide adequate fire protection to secure the safety of such shaft, or shafts, and, when but one shaft is the only available means of egress, shall keep in attendance a competent person at all times while persons are inside of such mine. (Penalty, Sec. 976.)
Sec. 931. [=Separate traveling ways.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine shall provide and maintain, in safe condition for the purpose provided, two separate and distinct traveling ways from the interior workings of the mine, each of which shall be available to not less than one opening to the surface. One of such traveling ways may be designated by such owner, lessee or agent as the principal traveling way. One of such traveling ways may be designated as the escapement way. The provisions of this section shall not prohibit such owner, lessee or agent from designating more than one principal traveling way, or more than one escapement way, so long as the provisions hereof are complied with.
[=Traveling ways and refuge holes.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine worked by shaft, shall provide and keep free from obstruction, a traveling or passage way from one side of the shaft bottom to the other. Slopes and mechanical haulage ways used as traveling ways by persons employed in a mine shall be made of a sufficient width to give not less than three feet of space between the rib and adjacent rail of track to permit persons to pass moving cars with safety. If found impracticable to make such slopes or mechanical haulage ways of sufficient width as provided, refuge holes not less than six feet in width and clearing the adjacent rail of the track not less than four feet, and not more than sixty feet apart, shall be made on one side of the slope or mechanical haulage way and whitewashed. The refuge holes shall be kept free from obstruction, and the roof and sides made secure. (Sec. 932, 959; Penalty, Sec. 976.)
Sec. 932. [=Detached locomotive from moving train. Traveling way where locomotive is detached.=] At a mine, or in any part thereof, where a locomotive is detached from a moving train of cars for the purpose of dropping such cars past the locomotive, and the haulage way at such point is designated as the principal traveling way, a traveling way, not less than three feet wide and separated from the track by a pillar of coal or substantial fence, shall be provided at one side of that portion of the track from where the locomotive will be detached to the switch of the siding. Such traveling way shall be made on the same side of the track as the refuge holes. In no case shall a locomotive be detached from a train of moving cars, for the purpose of making a drop thereof, more than one hundred feet from the switch of the siding. (Sec. 931, 959; Penalty, Sec. 976.)
[=Additional means of egress when inundation is probable.=] At any mine where there is a stream or body of water on the surface, or in the workings of a mine, at a higher level, which is likely to break through into such mine and inundate either the traveling or escapement way of such mine, so as to prevent the egress of persons employed therein, the owner, lessee or agent, shall, upon the written order of the chief inspector of mines, provide and maintain an additional opening by means of which such persons may escape without using the traveling or escapement way likely to be inundated. (Sec. 950; Penalty, Sec. 976.)
Sec. 933. [=Duties of owner, lessee or agent relating to supplying timber.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine shall keep an adequate supply of suitable timber constantly on hand, and deliver to the working place of each miner, the props of approximate length, caps and other timbers necessary to securely prop the roof thereof: Such props, caps, and other timbers, shall be delivered in mine cars at point where the miner receives his empty cars, or unloaded at the entrance to the room. (Sec. 953, 956; Penalty, Sec. 976.)
Sec. 934. [=Provisions for persons injured at mines.=] The owner, lessee or agent of a mine at, in or around which, more than ten persons are employed, shall furnish for each thirty-five men so employed a properly constructed stretcher, a woolen blanket, a waterproof blanket, a sufficient quantity of bandages and linen and such other necessary requisites for use in case of accident as may from time to time be prescribed by the industrial commission of Ohio. At mines generating fire-damp so as to be detected by a safety lamp, a sufficient quantity of olive or linseed oil shall be kept for use in emergencies. It shall be the duty of each mine foreman to keep in a safe and dry place in the territory over which he has charge such stretchers, woolen and waterproof blankets and other supplies. He shall care for the same and keep them in a dry and sanitary condition always ready for use. (Sec. 907, 921, 940, 951; Penalty, Sec. 976.)
Sec. 934-1. [=Owner, lessee or agent shall provide and maintain wash room.=] Every owner, operator, lessee or agent of a coal mine, where ten or more persons are employed, shall provide and keep in repair a wash room, convenient to the principal mine entrance, adequate for the accommodation of the employes, for the purpose of washing and changing their clothes when entering and returning from the mine. Such wash room shall be properly lighted and heated, supplied with warm and cold water and adequate and proper facilities for washing purposes.
Sec. 934-1a. [=Penalty.=] Whoever, being the owner, operator, lessee or agent of a coal mine where ten or more persons are employed, fails or neglects, after ninety days from the taking effect of this act, to comply with the provisions of section 934-1 of the General Code, or violates any of the provisions thereof, shall be fined not less than two hundred nor more than five hundred dollars.
(This act became effective June 16, 1921.) (109 O.L. 22.)
Sec. 934-2. [=Owner, lessee or agent shall install telephone system.=] Every owner, operator, lessee or agent of a coal mine, where twenty or more persons are employed, shall install, and maintain in efficient working condition, a telephone connecting each main switch of such mine with an outside telephone so connected and maintained as to permit communication with persons outside of the mine with persons on the main switch or switches or other points inside of the mine that may be designated by the district mine inspector.
Sec. 934-3. [=Penalty.=] Whoever, being the owner, operator, lessee or agent of a coal mine, where twenty or more persons are employed, fails or neglects, after six months from the taking effect of this act, to comply with the provisions of section 934-2 of the General Code, or violates any of the provisions thereof, shall be fined not less than two hundred nor more than one thousand dollars.
(This act became effective June 22, 1921.) (109 O.L. 48-49.)