Geevor
Tin Mine Museum
2009
GLOSSARY
Technical terms that may be used in the Big Book and Outreach session:
Basil
Black and White male cat. Like climbing and waving his tail! Based on a real cat that
lives at Geevor, looked after by Geevor’s guides, mainly Ian.
Battery Lamp Used by Geevor miners. Large battery worn on a belt, lamp attached to helmet.
Boiler suit Navy blue all-in-one uniforms worn by the Geevor guides. Mini-replica in loans box.
Boryer
(Borer)Chisel-like tool used with borying hammer to make hole in rock for explosive.
Buccas
Piskies, little fairy miners.
Candle
Cassiterite
Copper
‘Crack!’
Drill
Drilling
Dynamite
Used before battery-powered lamps. Originally made of animal fat (‘tallow’ candles)
which made a smelly cloud of smoke which stung your eyes. Often with looped wicks
for carrying around on shirt buttons. Attached to hat by wet clay (red mine waste).
Tin oxide (SnO2). The main ore of tin. Occurs naturally as black crystals in nearvertical veins (or ‘lodes’). Often accompanied by lines of white quartz, red iron oxides,
granite and ‘killas’ (slate-like rock).
Another common metal mined in Cornwall. Found naturally both as native metal and
as ore, called chalcopyrite. Mixing 9 parts copper to 1 part tin, makes bronze metal.
Refers to sound that the ‘boryer’ (or ‘borer’) makes when turned. Miner had to turn
boryer between blows with hammer, so that boryer didn’t get stuck in hole.
Usually a piece of modern machinery which makes holes.
Action/process of making holes, either by machinery, or by hand-tools.
A modern explosive made from nitro-glycerine contained in a type of clay. Often
produced as cylindrical sticks about 30cm long. Invented by Alfred Nobel in 1860s.
Ignited from a distance via safety fuse, then later in time, by electronic detonators.
Early Miners Vague reference to the first miners. Mining thought to have started in the Bronze
age. However, ‘early miners’ in the Big Book refers to 18th or 19th century mining.
Explosion
Result of lighting explosives. Very loud, powerful and dangerous.
Fuse
The item lit to give time to retreat before explosives are ignited. (see Goose-quill
fuse, or safety fuse).
Goose-quill fuse Used by early miners to light explosive. Not very reliable. Made of lots of hollow
quills (goose feathers) filled with gunpowder and fitted together end-in-end.
Granite
One of main rock types found in West Cornwall. Hard igneous rock.
Gunpowder Black powder used by early miners as explosive. Filled drilled holes with gunpowder
then used goose-quill fuse to light. Not very safe or reliable, especially if damp.
Hammer
Refers to ‘borying’ (or ‘boring’) hammer - a short wooden handle with an iron head
flat-faced on both sides. Used to drill holes with ‘boryer’ to put explosives into rock.
Hand drilling The process of making cylindrical holes in rock using a hammer and chisel (‘boryer’).
Hand barrow A barrow for carrying rock. Has no wheels but handles at both ends, traditionally
carried by two young (approx. 7 year old) boys underground.
Hard hat
Modern plastic safety helmet. Can usually attach lamp to front.
Ian
Kibble
Head Guide at Geevor and ex-miner who looks after the mine cats, Basil & Scraggs.
Egg-shaped iron bucket used to hoist rocks and tools up and down shafts.
Geevor
Tin Mine Museum
2009
Lamp
Lode
Machines
Melt
Metal
Refers to modern electric lamp used at Geevor today with battery worn on belt
around waist.
Cracks in the rock filled with minerals from which miners extract the desired ore.
Cassiterite (tin ore) is found in near-vertical lodes, usually accompanied by thin veins
of red iron ore and white quartz.
Mosel bag
Mechanical, usually not reliant on people power.
Heat so much that a substance
Generally shiny, malleable and hard solid, often a conductor of heat and electricity.
Tin metal is very soft, shiny and silver in colour, non-magnetic and makes a cracking
sound when bent.
Man-made series of connecting tunnels in the ground, to extract useful minerals.
Person who works in a mine.
Main vertical hole dug in ground to raise and lower men, rock, tools and machinery.
As today. When referring to modern mining, as mined at Geevor when shut in 1990.
Spelling undefined (mossel, mos’el). West Cornwall verbal term for food break. Also
known as ‘crib’ (North Cornwall) or ‘croust’ (Mid-Cornwall).
Small miners bag for carrying their lunch in.
Oggy
Ore
Cornish term for a pasty.
Raw rock found naturally in the ground from which useful products can be extracted.
Pasty
Piskies
Cornish speciality food. Traditionally half meat&vegetables, half fruit/jam, encased in
pastry with curled crust on one side. To avoid eating dirt underground, the pasty was
held by the crust which would then be thrown away once the rest eaten.
Small fairy miners, buccas
Rubble
Mound of broken rock, once exploded.
Mine
Miner
Mine Shaft
Modern
Mosel
Safety Fuse Hollow cord filled with gunpowder, that burns at a fixed rate. Invented by William
Bickford of Tuckingmill in 1831.
Scraggs
Black, white and brown striped female cat. Likes pouncing on Basil’s tail! Based on a
real cat that lives at Geevor, looked after by Geevor’s guides.
Seam
Descriptive term for lode or vein.
Shaft
Main vertical hole dug in ground to raise and lower men, rock, tools and machinery.
Slime
Verbal mining term for the underground smell of oil, rock, gunpowder and water.
St.Pirans flag The Cornish flag. Black background with white cross. According to tradition, St.
Piran (or St. Perrans), the patron saint of Cornwall, built a fire with the black tin ore
underneath, and the fire smelted the rock into white (or silvery) tin metal.
Stripe
Descriptive term for lode or vein.
Tin
Tunnel
Shiny silvery metal (Chemical symbol is Sn) extracted from black ore mineral called
Cassiterite. Not found as a metal naturally. Used for food cans, solder in electrical
circuit boards and in plumbing, biochemical industry (in toothpaste and shaving
foam), and forms alloys pewter (tin + lead) and bronze (tin+copper).
Underground man-sized hole. Also known as a ‘level’ in mines.
Underground Beneath the surface of the Earth with overlying rock/soil.
Vein
Visitors
(In mining terms) Stripes of minerals within a rockface. Can be very thin.
People who visit a place either for leisure or educational purposes.