Germinal (83 page)

In translating his novel I have had to find English-language equivalents for the terms he uses. Since mining technology in the second half of the nineteenth century was broadly speaking the same in France and Belgium as in England, Wales and Scotland (my research has not extended to mining practices in the United States or Australia and New Zealand), the search for equivalents was relatively unproblematic. On the other hand, English-language mining terms during this period varied from region to region far more than their French-language counterparts. The choice of an equivalent was therefore not straightforward. The Glossary that follows is intended to explain what the choices were and why a particular word has been used in this translation. If it incidentally offers an insight into the world of British mining, it should be remembered that that world was essentially the same as the one so accurately depicted in
Germinal
.

The following abbreviations are used for sources cited herein:

banksman
In French ‘moulineur', a term derived from the terminology of silk-working. According to Bulman and Redmayne, the ‘bank' is ‘the surface-land surrounding a pit's mouth'; ‘the banksmen are stationed at the landing of the cage on the surface, and their work consists in ‘‘uncaging'' the tubs – that is, taking the tubs out of the cage, and conveying them to the screens (where this is not done by mechanical power), putting the empty tubs into the cage, and giving the necessary signals to the engineman and to the onsetters. The latter, the onsetters, do similar work at the bottom of the shaft' (p. 96).

chimney
Pamely records that ‘as the colliers hew their coal it is filled into the nearest chimney, to be afterwards withdrawn from below by the putters, who bring tubs under the chimneys, and for a time remove the sluice, thus allowing sufficient coal to rush into the tubs to fill them' (p. 236).

coke-oven
Coke is a form of fuel obtained by heating coal to high temperatures, a process which ‘drive[s] off its volatile constituents, including all the smoke-forming elements, and leaving a fuel which is comparatively clean to handle, gives off no smoke when burnt, but generates great heat, and has a higher radiant efficiency than ordinary coal' (
The Mining Educator
, ed. John Roberts, 2 vols, London, 1926, vol. II, p. 1212). Hence its use in blast-furnaces as well as in the fire-grates of steam engines. When this process of ‘carbonization' occurs naturally, the result is anthracite.

Davy lamp
Sir Humphrey Davy (1778–1829) invented this safety lamp in 1815. It is so designed that the naked flame is protected by a piece of fine wire gauze, thus preventing ignition of the methane gas (or firedamp) which is found in so-called ‘fiery' mines. According to Penman: ‘If the workings are non-fiery, open lights may be used. These may take the form of spout lamps burning oil, animal fat or paraffin wax, and are carried on the cap of the worker, or candles' (p. 49). In
Germinal
the majority of miners have Davy lamps, but the deputies carry open lamps on their caps, doubtless because they did not work in the confined spaces where firedamp was likely to ignite.

engineman
See
mechanic
.

firedamp
Methane gas; see
Davy lamp
.

hewer
In French ‘haveur'. In British terms ‘hewer' was by far the commonest term at the time. ‘Pikeman', used in Havelock Ellis's translation, is a Staffordshire term (see Bulman and Redmayne, p. 406).

hopper
A metal funnel in the shape of an inverted pyramid down which the coal passed from the screens into the railway wagons beneath.

loading-bay
See
pit-bottom
.

mechanic
In French ‘machineur', a word now no longer used except in its sense of someone engaged in ‘machinations'. The British equivalent would have been either ‘engineman' or ‘mechanic'. Bulman and Redmayne refer to ‘joiners, fitters, smiths, masons, enginemen and other mechanics' (p. 70). According to C. H. Steavenson the job of an ‘engineman' was ‘attending winding-engine, hauling, pumping, fan, air compressors, electric generators, motors and locomotives', while the term ‘mechanic' covers ‘plumber, fitter, blacksmith' (in his
Colliery Workmen Sketched at Work
, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1912, pp. 24 and 26). For Bulman and Redmayne, therefore, an ‘engineman' – which in some contexts we might call a ‘machine-operator' – is a subcategory of ‘mechanic'. Since it is not clear what Étienne's expertise or qualifications are (from his work in the railway workshop at Lille), nor those of Souvarine later in the novel (he is also a ‘machineur'), the broader term ‘mechanic' has been preferred.

overman
The equivalent of an under-manager, the overman was in charge of the day-to-day running of the pit. He was assisted by deputies.

onsetter
See
banksman
.

pit-bottom
In French ‘à l'accrochage', literally where things are hooked on or attached, and where the tubs full of coal are loaded into the extraction cages. Throughout the novel Zola refers variously to ‘l'accrochage' or ‘la salle d'accrochage': the former usually designates the pit-bottom in general and the latter more specifically the chamber or loading-bay hollowed out of the rock at the foot of the pit-shaft. Similar loading-bays were also situated adjacent to the shaft at intermediate levels in the mine.

pit-head
In French ‘la recette' (and later ‘la salle de la recette'), literally where the coal is received. In British terms the pit-head, or the area at the mouth of the pit-shaft where the coal is unloaded.

putter
In French ‘herscheur'. Bulman and Redmayne refer to ‘trammers, putters or hauliers' and describe them as ‘big lads who convey the coal-tubs to and from the working places' (p. 47). Earlier in the century, as we learn from
Germinal
, most of these ‘big lads' were in
fact girls, or ‘herscheuses' – that is, before the French passed a law in 1874 making the employment of women underground illegal. (This practice had been outlawed in Britain in 1842 when women – and children under ten – were thus protected. The age limit for children was raised to twelve in the Coal Mines Regulation Act of 1887.) None of the British terms distinguishes the sex of the worker. Since ‘putter' seems to be the commonest term in the books that I have consulted, I have preferred it to the others, and on one occasion invented the term ‘putter lad' where the sex of the putter is relevant and not otherwise identifiable.

roadway
In French ‘galerie'. Zola also uses the term ‘voie'. Although he used the two terms for the sake of variety, and without there being any important distinction between them, I have almost always maintained his distinction by translating the former with ‘roadway' and the latter with ‘road'. These are both standard terms for a tunnel in a colliery pit: the word ‘tunnel' itself is absent from standard late-nineteenth-century handbooks.

rope-works
A factory which made not only ropes but also steel cables, which were known as ‘wire ropes' at the time.

screening-shed
The place where the coal was passed over screens to separate it from clay and small stones. The larger stones were removed by rake and hand.

shifter
So called because they worked a shift, not because they shift rubble; ‘a class of men who do the necessary
repairing and preparatory work
at nights, when the pit is not drawing coals – such as ridding falls of stone and setting timber, to make the pit ready for the following day' (Bulman and Redmayne, p. 95 (their emphasis)).

spoil-heap
In French ‘terri'. In British terms ‘spoil' is ‘earth or refuse material thrown or brought up in excavating, mining, dredging, etc.' and accordingly a ‘spoil-heap' is ‘the place on the surface where spoil is deposited' (
OED
). A ‘slag-heap', on the other hand, is found beside a blast-furnace or smelting-works since ‘slag' is ‘a vitreous substance, composed of earthy or refuse matter, which is separated from metals in the process of smelting' (
OED
).

stonemen
In French ‘les ouvriers de la coupe à terre'. In British terms ‘stonemen' belonged to the category of miners known as ‘off-hand' workers (to distinguish them from those who actually dug out the coal, or ‘coal-getters'). According to Bulman and Redmayne: ‘their work, which may be termed the ‘‘dead'' work of the mine – consisting as it does in a very great degree, if not entirely, of opening out and development – constitutes one of the most important branches of
the underground department' (p. 83). ‘Ripper', used in some translations of
Germinal
, was an alternative name for a stoneman (see Bulman and Redmayne, p. 406).

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.