Germinal

by Emile Zola

  supervisor In French ‘surveillant’. In British terms this person would have been subordinate to the deputies, themselves subordinate to the overman, and might have been either a ‘master shifter’, a ‘master wasteman’, or someone in charge of a particular area or activity. While the term ‘supervisor’ is not current in the handbooks of the period, I have used it for the sake of clarity and simplicity.

  tippler The tippler, also known as a ‘tumbler’ or a ‘kick-up’ (see Pamely, p. 60), was a hand-operated or (later) mechanized device into which the tub was wheeled, allowing the banksman then to revolve and unload the tub with the minimum of effort.

  tubbing The technical term for lining a shaft with wood (and later metal); akin to barrel-making.

  ventilation doors The purpose of ventilation doors was to limit the passage of air in subsidiary roadways in order to direct the main air current to the ‘ventilation roads’ or ‘air roads’. ‘In its passage through the mine,’ writes Penman, ‘it is necessary to confine the air current to roads or places where men are to work or pass, and to conduct it by the shortest, largest and straightest road to the working faces, with as little leakage as possible. In many pits a considerable portion of the air entering the mine never reaches the working places. Care must be taken to block all roads but those along which the air ought to flow. This is done in three ways: – (a) By brick or stone walls (stoppings)…(b) Hinged or sliding doors. These are employed when it is necessary for men or [tubs] to pass, and where at the same time tightness is desired. (c) Bratticing…hanging sheets of cloth, nailed or tacked to props’ (p. 181). Pamely notes also that ‘when the road has to be used both for travelling and the passing of tubs, a different kind of door is required so as to allow the horses and tubs to pass. The framing of such doors should not be set quite upright, but sufficiently inclined for the door to fall and close by its own weight. A boy is stationed near to open it as required’ (pp. 346–7). This boy was known as a ‘trapper’. In Germinal the doors are attended to by pit-boys like Jeanlin as they accompany the trains of tubs.