ChatterBank0 min ago
Plate opener (mining)
4 Answers
what is a plate opener? I know they used to work in the mines, and tended to be women or children, but does anyone know what exactly one does?
Answers
Best Answer
No best answer has yet been selected by Fyncu Myncu. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.This is a bit of a guess. I know children used to work as 'trappers'. To make the ventilation work in a mine, you have to have doors in passages to make the air go the way you want. The trappers job was to open and close the doors to let miners/coal skips through. (Trapper from trapdoor). You could say a plate could be a door, so it could be a different colloquial name for the same job, but as I said I'm guessing.
In mining terms, a 'plate' is a piece of track with a projecting flange to retain the wheels of the coal-trucks. There used to be - maybe still are - mine-workers called plate-layers, plate-carriers, plate-openers etc. All of them were engaged in the creation and maintenance of mine-tracks. My guess is that the 'opener' operated the points where tracks merged, opening and closing them as necessary.
Related Questions
Sorry, we can't find any related questions. Try using the search bar at the top of the page to search for some keywords, or choose a topic and submit your own question.