Saarländisches Bergbaumuseum Bexbach

Equipment for accidents and incidents, particularly firefighting appliances and mine rescue equipment.

Extraction, loosening of coal and other deposit content from the hard rock with the aid of the extraction procedure. (following: Das kleine Bergbaulexikon [The small mining glossary], 1998)

Blasting work, all the activities, with the exception of making blasting boreholes, that are necessary for blasting, meaning the forceful rupture and fragmentation of target objects through the application of explosives. (following: Das kleine Bergbaulexikon [The small mining glossary], 1998)

Machines and accessories for making cylindrical cavities in the rock, for prospecting, extraction, alignment or lining work, or for preparing blasting work.

Miner’s lamps, a collective term used in mining for all lighting equipment used underground. (following: Das kleine Bergbaulexikon, [The small mining glossary], 1998)

This is protective clothing designed to withstand the tough working conditions underground.

Uniforms worn by mining officials and miners on festive and formal occasions.

As lifelike, scaled-down replicas, models are used to explain the functional methods of technical plant and machinery.

Diorama, a plastic, painted rendering usually assembled within a display case and used as a teaching aid. (following: dtv-Brockhaus-Lexikon, 1986)

Objects in the areas of geology, mineralogy and palaeontology, frequently used to document the structure of various deposits

The term for the geodetic survey of the mining claim performed by mining surveyors

Markscheide is the word for the lateral boundary line of a mining claim, and which is determined by a line to the earth’s surface, and which continues as an imaginary plane to the centre-point of the earth. (following: Das kleine Bergbaulexikon [The small mining glossary], 1998)

Objects with a close connection to mining customs, miners’ associations as well as personal mementos

Manriding, movement of people on foot while underground, using passenger trains, overhead monorails, floor conveyors, band conveyors or chairlifts. (following: Das kleine Bergbaulexikon [The small mining glossary], 1998)

Transportation encompasses all installations, systems and measures employed in the movement of mineral raw materials, the worthless debris, materials and individuals, and in powering such facilities. (following: Das kleine Bergbaulexikon [The small mining glossary], 1998)

Tools used in mining work. In German-speaking countries, the miner's toolset is known as a "Gezähe". (following: Das kleine Bergbaulexikon [The small mining glossary], 1998)

Objects, systems and support elements for keeping mining cavities open, also for face supports incl. walking props and for removing the lining.

Constructing a horizontal or inclined tunnel

This object group encompasses mining-related map materials, including maps showing colliery sites or graphical representations based on surveys performed above and below ground, known as Grubenrisse [mine layouts].

Image, film and audio material particularly containing historical images of collieries and audio-visual documentation of underground mining work.

These are written records (files, books, company brochures etc.), which are found in practically all the recorded collections and museums, alongside the objects kept there.

Facilities enabling communications to be relayed from aboveground to underground, and enabling people underground to communicate with one another

Alongside sculptures, the range of mining-related artworks particularly includes paintings, especially portraits and depictions of mines. A significant portion of these are naïve paintings created by amateur artists, frequently former miners who use this medium to describe their day-to-day work and leisure time.

Compressed air and electricity are practically the only sources of energy suitable in underground mining. Compressed air is suitable for powering all machinery, while electricity is primarily used for rotationally powered machines. (following: Grothe, Lexikon des Bergbaues, [Mining Lexicon] 1962)

Art pieces usually made in series, and defined by a more or less clear utility value

Sinking, constructing a mine opening such as a shaft, blind shaft, borehole or bunker using various techniques such as blasting or drilling large boreholes. (following: Das kleine Bergbaulexikon [The small mining glossary], 1998)

Meaning a miner's personal effects for use underground, and which do not directly serve as work tools. These might be the miner's lunch box or snuff pouch.

The purpose of mine ventilation is to allow people and animals in the mine to breathe, and to supply the air needed to fuel the miner's lamp, and to thin and dissipate the stale or toxic air and firedamp that accumulates in the mine, until it has been rendered harmless. (following: Grothe, Lexikon des Bergbaues, [Mining Lexicon] 1962)

Machines and accessories for drilling down form aboveground, whether to exploit raw materials such as crude oil and natural gas, or for geological research work; usually deep boring applying the rotary method. Also includes shallow wells usually with mobile drilling rigs, in which the drilling depth ranges between just a few metres up to several hundred.