I'M A Window Cleaner. . One of the most frequent questions a miner has to answer is, "what do you do in the pit?" or," what did you do in the pit?" Well, the answers are wide and varied, because mining covers such a wide range of activities. Sometimes if the question was from someone who knew nothing about mining, and we were having a social night out, I would reply, " I'm a window cleaner." My answer was mostly received with total disbelief, derision, and laughter. " Don't be daft, " they would cry, " there's no windows in a pit, it's just black, and coal, and rock, and girders, and things to support the roads. Come on, stop messing, there's no windows in a pit. What use are windows? you wouldn't be able to see anything, there is nothing to look at, just a blank wall of coal, or stone." They would sit and wait for my reply, and of course I had no intention of giving in easily, I let them think about it for a while. During this time my mate would back up my story. After a suitable period of time passed, I had to explain myself. Windows are utilized in many areas of the mine. Not glass windows, they are a clear perspex type of window, and are in places such as pit bottom offices which look out onto a roadway. Or they are built into cabins at loading points where coal may be transferred from a conveyor belt into mine cars. The loader operator needed to see if a mine car was full before closing a chute off and moving the set of mine cars forward so that the next mine car could be filled (if he got the timing wrong there would be a fair bit of cleaning up to do). Without windows the operator would be open to the elements. The ventilation system moves in the opposite direction to the conveyors (mostly), a "draft" could be very strong and could whip up coal dust (if not properly suppressed by water). Sometimes such places were very cold and also had heaters in them. Windows were essential in these places, for practical reasons as well as for the welfare of the workers. Other places were windows existed were at the shaft side. The cabin for the onsetter and his assistants contained windows so they could operate their machinery from a safe distance without coming into contact with hydraulic rams, or mine cars. Sometimes cabins would be in an elevated position on platforms with mine cars traversing underneath. Once again windows were utilized to allow the pit bottom staff to view and carry out their work from a position of safety and at times warmth. So you see, although I was never actually employed as a window cleaner, I was able to explain and enlighten those sceptics who thought my statement to be foolish, and, an act of fantasy. There are indeed, windows in coal mines.