Chapter Four The Dead Workers' Work
The dead workers were not dead, it was the name given to the non-profitable sinking of shafts and driving of levels. These men were itinerant workers, working for a contractor. Theirs was difficult, dangerous work, days, weeks, and month spent drilling, blasting and mucking off, inching their way downwards.
Things sped up with the advent of pneumatic drills, to the delight of mine owners, but the drills made widows of the men that operating them.