James S. Tate
James S. Tate C. E., Civil engineer and mathematician. (presumably James Samuel Tate)
An article by J. S. Tate about surveying for tunnels in mines[1] is more entertaining than might be expected. An extract:-
'The engineer also, perhaps, overpowered with the heat and oppression of foul air, or choked with smoke and the unsavoury smells of gunpowder and natives; sometimes nearly scorched or singed by the torch or bit of candle that a rough but well-meaning miner lights up his book and the vernier or object-glass of his transit; tumbling about at times in the heading over loose fragments of rock or into pools of water, and, on attempting to straighten himself up from his cramped and stooping attitude, brings his head into such violent contact with the hard roof that it feels as if driven into his body; finds that this is hardly the time or place to think of and contrive the readiest and surest means of giving correct driving lines, making a neat junction of two curves, of a straight line and a curve, and adjusting any error he may find at the time in the lines; and feels that in the small space of the heading of a smoky tunnel he is not so well able to use the same methods of setting out works that he usually would adopt in the open and breezy country. To try and aid him in his work .....' Tate then offers some straightforward but extensive mathematical assistance.