It was not until the early 1880s that large-scale mining equipment was introduced into the Nova Scotia gold fields. Many miners and mining interests did not immediately switch over to steam or air drills (ILLUS. 19), however, their introduction did have implications for mining operations (ILLUS. 20), particularly in the area of shaft sinking. A. A. Hayward discussed how he had employed two Rand No. 2-rock drills to sink a shaft through hard rock at Waverley. The shaft was divided into two compartments, each measuring 4 feet by 4 feet inside dimensions and requiring frock dimensions of 5 ½ feet by 12 feet. To expedite the work, the labour force was divided into three shifts of eight hours each:
The first, and drilling shift began at 7 a.m. and consisted of a foreman, two drillers and two helpers. The men in this shift were expected to drill all necessary holes, and to have the work completed before three o'clock; the drills, tools and piping were then hoisted to the surface leaving the shaft ready for blasting. The second shift, which began at three o'clock consisted of two mockers and a firing boss, whose duty it was to measure the depth of each and every hole, keep a record of the same, also keep a record of the amount of explosives used in each and every hole. The firing boss remained on shift sixteen hours, and had charge of both the second and third shifts … This shift was expected to fire the four sump holes and to clean up the same during the eight hours.The third and last shift, which consisted of but two mockers, were expected to fire all the remaining holes, clean up the rock, quarry any loose rock in the bottom of the shaft, put in any new slides and do any necessary timbering, and leave the shaft ready for the drilling shift.(1)
In addition, there was surface crew which was divided into two twelve-hour shifts. The first include an engineer, deck man, blacksmith and carpenter, while the second there was only the deckman and an engineer. Using this system of drilling and blasting, plus shifts of timbermen when the shaft reached additional depths of fifty feet to construct the necessary stagings and stalls, the shaft progressed on the average of three feet per day. Hayward calculated that using this system a shaft measuring 4x12x200 feet would cost $20 per foot to sink, and it would take approximately one month to progress 40 feet, substantially cheaper and faster than it done by hand.(2)
During the late 1890s until the early part of 1900, the common procedure had been to sink a number of mining shafts on the same vein, each successive one being deeper or shallower than its predecessor depending on the pitch of the ore-body. Then levels were driven off, on the vein, at varying distances of 50, 100, or 150 feet apart and the vein was stoped out.(3) An examination of photographs of Goldenville companies, (c.1897, demonstrates the impact of this procedure) on the surrounding landscape. Close to one another, crude shafts houses were erected over the shaft and a series of tramways were constructed linking the shafts with one another and with the mill house. The shaft structures were wood framed with ladder access and ore chutes protruding over the tramway to transfer the ore from the shaft to the mill. ILLUS. 21, 22, and 23.
The way in which the landscape was transformed by Faribault's system of deep mining(4) is revealed in the photograph of the Royal Oak's 450-foot shaft house, ILLUS. 24, as well as in the later photographs of Goldenville's mining concerns. ILLUS 25 and 26. Shaft houses were not required in the single shaft system and the development of more extensive underground workings. ILLUS. 27 and 28, underground plans of Dufferin Mines and Salmon River and ILLUS. 29, underground workings using the multiple shaft and the single vertical shaft systems.
A second mining system to have an impact upon the landscape was open pit mining. This method had been used in the earlier period, but not to the same extent as during the later years. George Stuart used open pit mining on the Mayflower Belt in Goldenville during the 1890s.(4) ILLUS. 30 and 31
The method of stoping was undergoing change during this later period. Since the 1860s, the method most commonly used was that of underhand stoping.(5)
Wallace MacDonald (b. 1905) recalled that in his father's time at the Goldenville mines, the underhand method was employed: "It was different then. It was all underhand work they done then (pre W. W. I.)"(6) Underhand was used at the Blue Nose, while at the Royal Oak both methods were tried.(7) More mines switched to the overhand methods as the use of cross cutting and the single vertical shat increased. The further refinement of heavy drills and support systems would make the overhand method more feasible than it previously had been.
In 1900 the Blue Nose made a series of cross cuts from the main shaft and intersected a number of veins that been exposed before.
The Springfield belt was worked throughout a length of 900 feet and to a depth of 400 feet. It was believed that by cross cutting towards The anticlinal axis other auriferous vein might be found. Three cross cuts were, therefore, driven north from the Springfield belt at depths of 280, 364 and 460 feet and were carried respectively to lengths of 230, 250 feet. Several belts not exposed on the surface were cut.(8) ILLUS. 32
Another development in the later mines was the use of ore chutes in removing ore from stopes.(9)As we see in ILLUS. 33 the ore is coming down the chute from the above stope. The ore-car would then be pushed to the main shaft and loaded into the cage to be taken to the surface for sorting, as shown in ILLUS. 34. The ore chutes were usually constructed from 15 to 30 feet apart.(10)
Not all mines were as well equipped as the Baltimore and Nova Scotia in Catibou. In the 1903 Department of Mines Report it was reported that the Blue Nose Gold Mining Company had sunk a shaft measuring 14 ½ x 4 ½ feet on the Palmerston Belt. The shaft was divided into three compartments: a skip way, a tub-way for sinking and baling, and a ladder and pump compartment. The skip system appears to have been a common means of hoisting ore form the mine to the shaft as well as to the mill.(11)
There were still the smaller operations scattered throughout the province that made use of older hoisting systems, the whip and the windlass, dependent upon horsepower or manpower. However, such devices were more commonly used in prospecting shafts or during the early stages of shaft sinking. ILLUS. 19, 35 and 36.
The use of stream to hoist ore tubs even in the most primitive shafts is evident in ILLUS. 37. In other operations the common wheelbarrow would utilized to haul ore from the mine. ILLUS. 38
In the larger concers hoisting was done both by steam and air.(12) In the mining and industrial journals, published throughout the 1890s in Nova Scotia and Canada, there are numerous advertisements for hoisting machines. Suppliers include the Lidgerwood Manufacturing Company in New York; the Quebec Company, Jenckes Manufacturing, with an office in Halifax; and Fraser Brothers, also in New Glasgow.(13) In April 1900, Thomas Cantley, president of the Blue Nose Mining Company, sent inquiries to Carlin Machinery and Supply Company, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, about a hoisting engine. ILLUS. 39. He specified a "Lidgerwood single or double drum with reversing action and a brake lowering device".(14) In the 1899 edition of the Canadian Mining Manual the hoisting engine at the Blue Nose had been identified as manufactured by Fraser Brothers, New Glasgow; a 1903 report states that there are three Jenckes hoisting engines in the plant system.(14) The Magnitude of one hoisting engine at this company is evident in ILLUS. 40. See also ILLUS. 41 and 42.
Throughout the 1890s handwork continued in many Nova Scotian gold mines; often there was a reluctance to move to the air rock drills:
There was for some time a prejudice against the adoption of machine drills, some claiming that owing to the ease with which the slate is worked it was as economical to drill by hand. But records of the cost to the two methods have shown the economy of the machine drill. From May 1, 1897, it cost with had drilling on an Average $2.54 per ton to deliver ore to the Mill from the Libbey fissure, Brookfield, a vein not averaging over 14 inches in width of crushing material; while in January, February, March 1898, the average cost with machine drills $2.44 per ton, This shows a balance of 10 cents per ton in favour of the machine drills. Besides with the air plant they were able to do in a given time 25 per cent more sinking and drifting than with hand drilling.(15) 5 ILLUS. 43.
Machine drills were in use in Goldenville between 1895 and 1900. Neil McEachran, a Goldenville miner, expressed approval of their employment in an interview with The Industrial Advocate:
Just look at the New Glasgow Company, they are working old pits which have been abandoned for years. They never paid when they were last worked, and now, with dynamite and air drills, in place of black powder they pay very fairly.(16)
Two types of air drills were used in the underground work: the piston drill for sinking and driving, and hammer drills for stoping.(17) Ingersoll-Sergeant, Sullivan and Rand drills were all employed at various times within Goldenville operations. In 1899 the Blue Nose was using Ingersoll-Sergeant drills; a Norwalk compressor was to be added that year to operate a total of ten air drills. In the 1901 Mines Report there are recorded four Rand and one Sullivan drills operating from a Norwalk straight-line air compressor.(18)
8 ILLUS. 44.
These early air drills were known as dry hammer drills. It was not until this century that water was added to reduce the dust levels in the mines.(19) ILLUS. 45 shows the drill used to crosscut in the New Egerton Gold Mining Company at Fifteen Mile Stream, 1897. The drill would be set in place at the rock face and cranked into position to drill the blasting holes. Note in this photograph that the main source of lighting for the drillmen to work with was provided by candlepower. Candlelight continued to be the main source of illumination in the drifts and stopes in Goldenville during the first decade of this century.(20) ILLUS. 45 and 46.
Wallace MacDonald describe what it was like when drillman in Goldenville throughout the '20s and '30s, after water drills had been introduced:
Workin' on the drill was an awful dirty job. Greasy and wet. Noisy. You couldn't hear a sound after you came out. Oh, you was all grease from the drill… You had a lubricator that fed oil to the drill all the time… and the compressed air blowin' it out and it would be all over. Over your face and everything. You'd be as black as can be.(21)
There was a division of labour underground just as there was in the shaft sinking process. The drillmen and his helpers worked responsible for removing all the ore from the drift or stope:
One shift, the drillman, would all go in at the same time and they'd all be drillin'. Then, at the end [of the shift] they'd blast. Add the mines would be empty generally from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. It had two hours to blow out the gas and dust, to clear the air. Then the night shift came on at 7 and started muckin'. They'd be lucky to get through in nine hours.(22)
The number of holes drilled depended on whether they were in a drift or a stope. In a drift 'you'd generally drill about 17 [holes]", while in a stope, you'd generally put in about 12."(23)
MacDonald estimated that in his time the holes measured 6 ½ feet steels, making the holes approximately 5 ½ feet in depth.
The place (the stope) would probably be five feet wide and you'd drill one row… three holes across. And then, you'd be up where you'd drill three more holes. You done that right up as far as the face went.(24)Once the holes had been drilled, they were tamped:
You had to tamp the holes before blastin' them. You'd take a piece of paper and wrap it around a stick; fold it over on the end…, we'd call them loading sticks. Generally we'd put the loadin' stick in the hole to see that it was clear (after the hole had been dried out with the blow pipe) and then you'd put your dynamite in.(25)The loading sticks were used again and again, until they had worn down to such a point that they were no longer useful.
You just had one (loading stick). Generally they'd be seven or eight feet long. And they'd wear down on the end until they got sharp. You'd cut them off, and they'd get shorter and shorter, until you'd have to get another.(26)Once the dynamite was in and tamped, there was a definite manner in which each charge was lit to go off.
… according to it you were drillin' in a drift or a stope, there was certain holes that had to go off first and other holes that had to follow. If you had three holes in a row… this one (the center one) had to go first before the others… the center would have to break down before the others would break out… it would blast that piece out of the middle and then these holes blast into that. And then when you come up onto the next row of holes you done the same thing. The center one went, then these two.(27)Once the dynamite was loaded into the holes in the face, the fuses had to be lit:
… we'd use to light [them] with a lamp… we had carbide lamps at that time [post W.W.I] and we'd just light them with the flame of the carbide lamp. You see, you split your fuse at the end so to have some loose powder… you'd spilt it by cuttin' the middle of it and then light it. And according to if you were drillin' in a drift or in a stope there were certain holes that had to go first and other holes that had to follow. Well, your fuses would all be the same length, say seven foot, and for the first hole (the one that had to go first) you'd cut so much off to make your fuse shorter. You'd keep doing that so the longest fuse would be in the last hole. Lots of times we'd make what you'd call a 'spitter'. We'd cut the fuses every inch or, right into the powder, and then turn the ends out. Then as it burned, every time the light came to one of those places that was turned out, it would spit… spit fire right out. You'd use that for lightin' the other holes.(28)All the blasting in the mine would be done during the same time near the end of the shift.
The drillmen were responsible for blasting their own charges and insuring that they went off:
… they counted the holes - you always counted the holes when you blasted to see that they went. You knew how many [charges] you had in and you'd listen to see how many went off.(29)Since all the blasting would be done at the same time, more or less, a sequence was developed to enable each man to listen to his charges:
If there was somebody out further than you were, he would wait until your holes went. Then he'd light his and they'd go. And if there was somebody out further, than he'd light his…(30)Once the blasting was complete, the men would leave the mine and preparations were made for the next shift. Following the blasting, the mine would be filled with smoke and gas. Once air drills had been introduced, it was a fairly simple matter of blowing air into the underground areas. Ventilation was provided by the old shafts and winzes.(31)
The next shift that came in, once the mine was clear, were the muckers. It was their responsibility to clean out the ore from the area that had been blasted and get the face cleaned up and ready for the next shift of drillmen and their helpers. ILLUS. 33. The men working at the ore chute would be classified as a mucker.
When the underground work was predominantly underhand stoping, all the work was done by hand:
… it was all done by hand. All shovel work… they loaded right into skips. They didn't use no trolley cars at all…(32)As the mining operations became more systematic there was an attempt to reduce the amount of handing ore by hand. People were aware of the minute proportions of gold to large amounts of low grade ore. The installation of ore chutes ILLUS. 32, the use of tramcars to truck the ore from the level to the shaft, and skips or tram systems to transport it to the mill were all means of achieving this end.(33) However, it was only in the large operations that such systems could be installed. The installation of mechanical devices above and below ground to reduce hand labour demanded a high level of production to keep the 'modern' plant in operation at a profitable level.(34) So, in many of the small operations wheelbarrows continued to be used to haul the ore from the drift or stope to the shaft.
1 A. A. Hayward, "Rapid Sinking in a Nova Scotia Gold Mine" in The Measurers of Nova Scotia and Deep Mining Together with Other Papers Bearing upon Nova Scotia Gold Mines. (Transactions of the Mining Society of Nova Scotia v. IV, 1889), p. 33 - 34.
2 Ibid. p. 34.
3 W. Malcolm, op. cit., p. 111; N. S. Department of Mines, OFR 171 (unpublished report, 1911) p. 7.
4 GSC, Summary Report, 1891, W. Malcolm, op. cit.
5 Malcolm, op. cit., p. 112.
6 W. MacDonald, Interview, Tape 2, Side A.
7 N. S. RDM, 1902.
8 W. Malcolm, op. cit., p. 235.
9 N. S. Department of Mines, OFR, op. cit., p. 7.
10 Ibid. p. 7; W. Macdonald, Ibid.
11 N. S. RDM, 1901 & 1903, p. 50; C. F. Andrews, "Notes on Gold Mining of Low Grade Ores in Nova Scotia", Journal of Canadian Mining Institute, v.2, 1894, p. 6., illustration of skip system employed at Country Harbour. PAC RG 45, v. 146. Faribault's Notebook 4451, September 13, 1899, p. 35, description of operations at Dufferin Mine, Salmon River.
12 H. C. Scott, op. cit., p. 7. According to this report, hoisting in most N. S. mines was accomplished by "horse whims and hand windlasses". However, beyond the 150-foot level this type of power was inadequate.
13 B. T. A. Bell, ed., op. cit.,
Industrial Advocate, v.II, n.7, May 1898, p. 3; also, v.l, n.6, April 1897, p.2.
14 PANS, MG 1, Thomas Cantley papers, correspondence, 24 April 1900; B. T. A. Bell, ed., op. cit., 1899; Nova Scotia Mining Number (Halifax), 1903.
15 W. Malcolm, op. cit., p. 112; J. C. Murray, op. cit., p. 33. According to Murray, hand drilling was common until the 1890s when the price of labour was sufficiently low to complete with the efficiency of machinery.
16 Industrial Advocate, v.l, n.5, May 1897, p. 17.
17 N. S. Department of Mines, OFR 171, op. cit., p. 8.
18 B. T. A. Bell, ed., op. cit., 1899; N. S. RDM, 1900. Rand steam drills were used at Royal Oak; Rand and Sullivan at the blue Nose; N. S. RDM, 1901, Rand drills were replaced by drills of the Sullivan pattern at the Blue Nose. In 1903, there were five Sullivan drills in use.
19 Wallace MacDonald, Interview, Tape 1.
20 Dalhousie Archives, Killam Library, Raddall Papers. Byrne Material on gold mining: both candle light and seal oil lamps were used in the gold mines of Queen's County. Also illustration 18: R.G. Fraser, Halifax Chemist advertised the sale of miners' oil lamps in Belcher's Almanac, 1865.
21 W. MacDonald, Interview, Tape 1, Side A.
22 Ibid. Tape 1, Side A.
23 Ibid. Tape 1, Side A.
24 Ibid. Tape 1, Side A.
25 Ibid. Tape 1, Side B.
26 Ibid. Tape 1, Side B.
27 Ibid. Tape 1, Side B.
28 Ibid. Tape 1, Side A.
29 Ibid. Tape 1, Side B.
30 Ibid. Tape 1, Side A.
31 Ibid. Tape 1, Side A; See also W. Malcolm, op. cit., p. 111 and p. 123, figure 1, showing ventilation system at the Libbey Mine, North Brookfield.
32 W. MacDonald, Interview, Tape 2, Side A.
33 A. Woodhouse, "The Occurrence and Reduction of Gold" in Journal of the Mining Society on Nova Scotia, v. II, 1893 - 94, p. 21.
34 J. C. Murray, op. cit., p. 3; Andrews, op. cit., p. 7.