An undated photograph of the top man at a mine shaft, probably in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.
The job of the top man was to make sure that the coal cars were properly placed in the cages. The signal was then given to the hoisting engineer in the engine house to start lowering the cage with an empty car which also raised the adjoining cage with a loaded car. The top man sat outside four ten hours a day, six days a week, in all kinds of weather.
A bottom man had a similar job at the bottom of the shaft, several hundred feet underground.
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Photo and information from Pottsville Republican and Herald, “Glimpses Into Yesteryear,” 21 September 1978.
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