Page:Walker (1888) The Severn Tunnel.djvu/120

Rh which had been brought down by the blasting, and then coming out. On this system three sets of men worked in each twenty-four hours, changing shifts at six in the morning, two in the afternoon, and ten at night. Each shift was allowed half an hour in the middle of the shift for a hasty meal.

I had insisted on the men working ten-hour shifts, and, during the shift, coming twice to bank for their meals.

All the work having to be done by blasting, it was dangerous for the men to return to the faces immediately after the shots had been fired, because at that time dynamite was used, the fumes of which are dangerous.

On the ten-hours system it was arranged that nearly all the blasting was done just before the men came out of the tunnel to their meals. The air was then clear by the time they went down again. The men commenced to work at six o’clock, and worked three hours. From nine to ten they came out of the tunnel, and had breakfast; going down again at ten, they worked till one o’clock; from one to two they came out to dinner, and from two till six they worked again to complete the ten-hour shift.

When the Great Spring broke in and drowned the tunnel in October, 1879, the distance from the shaft to the face of the heading under the river was 10,100 feet, or more than a mile and three-quarters. All the skips were brought out by men pushing them that distance, the men being known as ‘runners