Cape Breton's Magazine

Co-operative. And he figured it'd be better than working one day a week or two or three days a week (in the Co-operative store), to be working full time in a coal mine. So I went in the coal mines. And of course, I stayed there till I joined the Navy, 1941. And then came back out of the Navy in '45, and then went back in the coal mines again. (When you say you went in with your father, does that mean that you actually worked with him?) No. No, no, no. No, that's just an expression you use. He took me to work. He took me down, he showed me where to go and all the rest of it, for a couple of days. And then turned me loose. (And that was your training.) Yeah, let me go. (Were the coal mines mechanized yet?) No. No, no, no, no. It's what they called hand- loading, longwalls. And then some places they had room- itjj' THE m BEAR PAW GIFTS CRAFT SHOP Local Crafts to Tickle Your Fancy Photographs • Knitting • Crocheting Painting • Quilts • Weaving/Hooking Gifts to Test Your Resistance • Beautiful Souvenirs • Attractive Tartans • China and Glassware • Numbered Icono Celtic Prints PLUS OTHER ARTISTS And: • Celtic Jewellery • Cape Breton Tapes and CD's CENTRAL AVE. INVERNESS PHONE 258-2528 and-pillar. But predominantly then, it was longwall. That meant that they cut it with a longwall ma? chine, and then they bored it, and then the men would come down and they'd take the duff out from under the cut. And they'd plug up the holes. And they'd shoot them--shoot the coal down--and they'd load it. TOURS OF: LOUISBOURG, CABOT TRAIL, MINERS MUSEUM AIR CONDITIONED UNITS 564-6200 Limousine Service Taxi Fleet 24 KINGS ROAD SYDNEY THE it (And although they had the machinery to undercut the coal, you don't call that "mechanization.") Oh, no, because, actual? ly, the men went down and they were shooting and loading.... You'd load it in boxes, with a shovel. Now, when you were on the longwall, the place was cut for you and bored for ' you--then all you did was shoot it and load it. And you loaded that on a pan- line. The panline was shaker pans. (They ran the length of the wall?) That's right. And the coal went the length of the wall, and it was loaded in probably 18- box(car) trips, on the bottom of the wall.... Malcle MacLeod holding Bill Marsh, around 1925 (But although we had a radial saw, and al? though we had the panline, we still don't really say that the mines were mechanized at that time.) No, no, no, no. That wasn't mechanization. That was handloading. (Even though we had tools, and the tools had some power.) Well, see, the mechanization--just so you'll understand it--your mechanization is supposed to eliminate the backbreaking 564-4444 $iui$$ Chalet chickan+ribs • Catering to Large Parties (Kids' Menus only $3.95) FULLY LICENSED • AMPLE PARKING Take Out • Drive Thru • Delivery Service and SENIORS' APPRECIATION CARDS 482 Grand Lake Road SYDNEY, N.S. • 562-3232 Congratulations to Ron Caplan on your 25th Anniversary of publishing Cape Breton's Magazine