Eli5 How did humanity manage to ventilate mines?

Question

This just popped into my head, but throughout history humanity has mined to some lesser or greater extend.
But given that lightbulbs were a recent invention, how did we manage to mine throughout history. I understand the idea of the “canary in coal mine” but does it mean we basically hoped on luck or had venting periods?
I can’t imaging an old mining tunnel with torches being anything but a nightmare.

In: 16

Answer 1

The send one fellow in nonburning oiled cloth to detonate small pockets. Sometimes they died