This picture of a driller at work with modern pneumatic equipment illustrates both the technological progress made in the Bell Island mines and the sophistication achieved by the local work force. Mechanization of the type shown here necessitated a twenty-four-hour-a-day operation. Three shifts worked the mines - one from 8 am. to 4 p.m., another from 4 p.m. to midnight and a third - "the graveyard shift" - from midnight to 8 am. After the driller had finished his work, the blaster began his. Another important job was done by the "face-cleaner." It was his responsibility to scour an area being worked to ensure that the loader was safe from loose overhead rock or from any other potential "fall of ground." The electricity which ran the mines came via an undersea cable linking the Island to St. Phillips.
