Rule 3. After signal "Ready to shoot in shaft," engineer must give his signal when he is ready to hoist. Miners must then give the signal of "Men to be hoisted," then "spit fuse," get into the bucket, and give the signal to hoist. Rule 4. All timbers, tools, etc., "longer than the depth of the bucket," to be hoisted or lowered, must be securely lashed at the upper end to the cable. Miners must know they will ride up or down the shaft without catching on rocks or timbers and be thrown out. Rule 5. The foreman will see that one printed sheet of these signals and rules for each level and one for the engine room are attached to a board not less than 12 inches wide by 36 inches long, and securely fasten the board up where signals can be easily read at the places above stated. Rule 6. The above signals and rules must be obeyed. Any violation will be sufficient grounds for discharging the party or parties so doing. No person, company, corporation, or individuals operating any mine within the State of California shall be responsible for accidents that may happen to men disobeying the above rules and signals. Said notice and rules shall be signed by the person or superintendent having charge of the mine, who shall designate the name of the corporation or the owner of the mine. SEC. 3. Any person or company failing to carry out any of the provisions of this act shall be responsible for all damages arising to or incurred by any person working in said mine during the time of such failure. SEC. 4. This act shall take effect immediately. ANNOTATIONS. MINE BELL SIGNALS. 1. PURPOSE OF STATUTE-SYSTEM OF SIGNALS. 1. PURPOSE OF STATUTE-SYSTEM OF SIGNALS. The purpose of this act was to establish a uniform system of signals and accompanying rules to put into operation and use in all mines of the State so that miners would find the same system of signals and rules in operation in every mine and not be required to learn a new system of signals and rules; secondly, the system of signals and rules established was intended to afford an additional protection to the miners in the operation of a mine. Manning v. App. Consolidated Gold Min. Co., 149 Cal. 35, p. 46, 84 Pac. 657 (1906). The signals and rules provided for by this act were intended to afford an additional security to the miners in their operation of a mine among themselves, after the operator has discharged the duties cast upon him of furnishing for their own protection, among other things, the proper appliances for doing so. Manning v. App. Consolidated Gold Min. Co., 149 Cal. 35, p. 46, 84 Pac. 657 (1906). All the signals prescribed by this act are signals which are to be given by the employees in the mine, either from levels or shaft, to their coemployees in the engine room or at the mouth of the shaft, as to their wants below, mainly as to hoisting or sending down tools or materials into the mine; and the rules provided are not formulated as independent provisions, but as the act says, for the purpose of enforcing and properly understanding the code of signals and the signals and rules constitute one system, designed to be used among the employees with regard to their common employment and as an additional protection against the carelessness or negligence of fellow employees, particularly in the use of or failure to use the proper appliances which the employer has furnished for the work. Manning v. App. Consolidated Gold Min. Co., 149 Cal. 35, p. 46, 84 Pac. 657 (1906). See Elkton Consolidated Min. & Milling Co. v. Sullivan, 41 Colo. 241, p. 251, 92 Pac. 679 (1907). It is apparent from rule 6 that all signals and rules provided for are for the government of the employees, as it expressly provides for discharging employees disobeying them and relieves the mine operator from responsibility for accidents to employees disobeying the rules and signals, clearly indicating that all the signals and rules are designed for the use and government of the employees, imposing duties upon them, and that none of the rules or signals imposes any personal obligation upon the mine operator. Manning v. App. Consolidated Gold Min. Co., 149 Cal. 35, p. 48, 84 Pac. 657 (1906). It is to be assumed that the legislature intended by this system of signals and rules designed for the benefit of the employees in a mine, to be used in relation with each other in prosecuting their common employment to enforce with the general rule of law to the effect that the duty of an employer is discharged when he furnishes to his employees suitable and proper appliances to do their work, and that it is their negligence, and not his, if one of the fellow employees neglects to use them; and a clear expression of intention was required to show that as to this particular matter and in its application to mining operations the general rule of liability of the employer should be changed and a different rule of liability established; but this statute, rule 4, expresses no such intention, directly or inferentially. Manning v. App. Consolidated Gold Min. Co., 149 Cal. 35, p. 47, 84 Pac. 657 (1906). The California statute (Stats. 1893, p. 82) providing a code of signals for mining operations does not prohibit the use of additional signals to indicate that men are to be hoisted or lowered; but if in fact such signals were used, the engineer operating the hoist was bound, in the exercise of due care, to act upon them when they were actually given him, and if by any means he was advised that a miner was about to ride up on the bucket, it was his duty to act upon such information. Gibson v. Kennedy Extension Gold Min. Co., (1916). Cal. 156 Pac. 56, p. 59 The fact that signals given an engineer in hoisting a bucket in a mine carrying a miner were not the signals defined by the statute (Stats. 1893, p. 82), but were the signals commonly used in the mine for this particular purpose and did convey to the engineer knowledge that a man was in the bucket, the engineer was not justified in ignoring the fact thus brought to his attention and hoisting the bucket at a speed in excess of that to be used when miners were carried. Gibson v. Kennedy Extension Gold Min. Co., (1916). Cal. 2. BREACH OF STATUTORY DUTY-LIABILITY. 156 Pac. 56, p. 59 The failure on the part of a mine operator to perform any of the duties imposed upon him by this act, where such failure proximately contributes to an injury, is to be considered as evidence of negligence. Manning v. App. Consolidated Gold Min. Co., 149 Cal. 35, p. 44, 84 Pac. 657 (1906). Section 3 of the act making any person or company failing to carry out any of the provisions of the act responsible for all damages arising to or incurred by any person working in the mine during the time of such failure, can have no application to the failure of a mine operator to discharge some duty it owed to an employee imposed by the terms of rule 4; but the section has reference to the particular duties imposed on a mine operator under the entire act, this duty being to adopt and put in force the system or code of mine bell signals designated, and to see that a copy of such code of signals and accompanying rules is posted at each level in the mine and in the engine room; and for a failure to discharge this imposed duty, the mine operator is responsible under this section rule. Manning v. App. Consolidated Gold Min. Co., 149 Cal. 35, p. 48, 84 Pac. 657 (1906). Rule 4, as provided in this act, imposes no personal duty on a mine operator neither in terms nor by reasonable or necessary implication, but on the contrary, considering it with reference to the signals and rules, and the general scope and purpose of the act, it imposes no personal duty on a mine operator to lash the timbers and tools mentioned if they are longer than the depth of the bucket; nor does it impose a personal liability on a mine operator for failing himself to lash any such timbers, poles, or tools; but a mine operator has discharged his duties in this respect when he furnishes the necessary lashing material to the employees or for the use of the employees whose duty it is to send down timbers or tools in answer to signals, and to properly lash such timbers and tools. Manning v. App. Consolidated Gold Min. Co., 149 Cal. 35, p. 49, 84 Pac. 657 (1906). Rule 4, supplemented by section 3 of this act, imposes a duty upon a mining corporation to securely lash all mining poles of a certain character in a designated manner when they are to be sent in a skip down the shaft, and makes the mining company operating the mine liable for any injury occasioned from its failure to comply with these statutory rules. Manning v. App. Consolidated Gold Min. Co., 149 Cal. 35, p. 45, 84 Pac. 657 (1906). Rule 4 of this act when considered without relation to the general scope and purpose of the act or its other provisions, shows an entire absence of any language in it which in any manner indicates upon whom is cast the duty of doing the lashing of timbers, poles, or other materials, as provided; and so far as any intention is expressed, it amounts to no more than that the legislature deemed that mining timbers or poles of certain character should be lashed; and there is not the faintest indication in the rule as to whether the legislature intended to fix a personal duty in this regard upon the operator or whether it considered that in the exercise of ordinary care the operator would furnish the necessary lashing material and the employee whose duty it was to respond to the signal to send down timbers should do the lashing. Manning v. App. Consolidated Gold Min. Co., 149 Cal. 35, p. 47, 84 Pac. 657 (1906). See Elkton Consolidated Min. & Milling Co. v. Sullivan, 41 Colo. 241, p. 251, 92 Pac. 679 (1907). A miner injured while being hoisted in a bucket in the shaft of a mine because of the excessive speed at which he was carried, causing the bucket to jump from the skids, is not to be defeated in an action for damages for the injuries because he violated the statute requiring him to securely lash to the cable the upper end of a tamping stick being carried out of the mine by him, where it is made to appear that the dangerous speed of the bucket was the proximate cause of the injury, and the miner's failure to lash his tamping stick to the cable did not contribute as a cause to the injury sustained by him. Gibson v. Kennedy Extension Gold Min. Co., (1916). 32857°-18-Bull, 161—9 Cal. 156 Pac. 56, p. 61 MINE BELL SIGNALS. (REPEALING ACT.) LAWS 1917, P. 434; MAY 11, 1917. AN ACT to repeal an act entitled "An act to establish a uniform system of mine bell signals, to be used in all mines operated in the State of California, and for the protection of miners," approved March 8, 1893, and known as chapter 74, Statutes of 1893. The People, etc. SEC. 1. An act entitled "An act to establish a uniform system of mine bell signals, to be used in all the mines operated in the State of California, and for the protection of miners," approved March 8, 1893, is hereby repealed. TELEPHONE SYSTEM. LAWS 1913, P. 782; JUNE 13, 1913. AN ACT providing for the establishment and maintenance of a telephone system in mines and prescribing a penalty for the violation thereof. The People, etc. SEC. 1. In all mines operated and worked in this State where a depth of more than 500 feet underground has been reached, a telephone system must be established, equipped, and maintained by the owners or lessees thereof, with stations at each work¡ng level below the depth aforesaid, communicating with a station thereof on the surface of any such mine. SEC. 2. The failure or refusal of any owner or lessee to install or maintain such telephone system shall be deemed guilty of misdemeanor and punished accordingly. MINING BUREAU-STATE MINERALOGIST. MINING BUREAU AND STATE MINERALOGIST. LAWS 1880, P. 115; APR. 16, 1880. CODE SUPPLEMENT 1877–78, SEC. 15651. AN ACT to provide for the establishment and maintenance of a mining bureau. (Repealed.) The People, etc. SEC. 1. (Code Supp. 1877-78, 1880, sec. 15651.) There shall be, and is hereby, established in this State a mining bureau, the principal office of which shall be maintained in the city of San Francisco, at which place there shall be collected by the State mineralogist and preserved for study and reference specimens of all the geological and mineralogical substances, including mineral waters, found in this State, especially those possessing economic or commercial value, which specimens shall be marked, arranged, classified, and described, and a record thereof preserved, showing the character thereof, and the place from whence obtained. The State mineralogist shall also as he has opportunity and means collect and in like manner preserve at said office minerals, rocks, and fossils of other States, Territories, and countries, and the collections so made shall at all reasonable hours be open to public inspection, examination, and study. SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the governor to appoint a citizen of this State having a practical and scientific knowledge of mining and mineralogy to the office of State mineralogist, to hold his said office for the term of 4 years, or until the appointment and qualification of his successor, who shall take and subscribe the oath of office prescribed by the constitution, and who shall receive for his services a salary of $3,000 per annum to be paid as other officers of the State are paid, and shall also receive his necessary traveling expenses when traveling on the business of his office, to be allowed and audited by the State board of examiners, the whole to be paid out of the mining bureau fund hereinafter provided for, and not otherwise. SEC. 3. In addition to the collection, classification, arranging, and preservation of specimens, as provided in the first section of this act, it shall be the duty of the State mineralogist to make analytical assays as required, and when the funds in the mining bureau fund are sufficient therefor, to provide and maintain a library of works on mineralogy, geology, and mining; to arrange in cases such specimens as he may collect; to procure and preserve models and drawings of mining machinery and of milling machinery used in the reduction of ores; to correspond with established schools of mining and metallurgy, and obtain and preserve for public inspection and use such information respecting improvements in mining and mining machinery as will be of practical value to the people of this State; to visit the several mining districts of each county of the State, from time to time, ascertain and record their history, describe their geological formation and altitudes, the character of the mines and ores, and the general development of the district. At the close of each year he shall make a report in detail to the governor, showing the amount of disbursements of the bureau under his charge, the number of specimens collected, and giving such statistical information in reference to mines and mining as shall be deemed important. SEC. 4. The State mineralogist may, from time to time and as the funds in the mining bureau fund will permit, appoint such assistants as he may deem necessary and proper for the carrying out of the objects of this act, and the efficient provision and maintenance of a bureau of mining information and statistics, and may procure and maintain the necessary rooms and furniture for the office and uses of the bureau in San |