26 Messrs. Faraday and Lyell on 



The recent terrible event appears to have originated at the 

 Meadows Flat workings, at a point near to the upper edge of 

 the goaf concavity, at a place where a Jud was in the act of 

 being drawn. A man of the name of Williamson, and other 

 men, were engaged in this work at the time of the accident; 

 all were killed, and the jud has since been named after Wil- 

 liamson. All the evidence derivable from the way in which 

 the stoppings were blown, the charring of the posts, and the 

 adhesion of charred coal dust to them on this or that side, as 

 also to the walls of the mine and edges of the irregularities of 

 the walls, confirm this view in the opinion of practical men, 

 the viewers of the mines, and with this conclusion the results 

 of our own close inspection perfectly agree. At this place 

 Davy lamps were found. The state of the gauze indicated 

 that they had been in good condition prior to the accident, 

 but two of them were much crushed and bruised, and one of 

 the others had the oil plug out; this and the fourth were pro- 

 bably found lying on their sides, for the oil was out of the 

 bottom part of the lamps, and had soaked into half the gauze 

 along the cylinder, as they may have lain on the ground. We 

 could get no exact evidence as to how the lamps were in I'e- 

 spect of position and other circumstances when found. The 

 gauze of one of these lamps had been heated all round for 

 about 2 inches from the bottom, as if fire-damp had been 

 burning inside at that part of the cylinder; and there was also 

 on the side of the upper part of the gauze of the same lamp, 

 an oblong spot of oxidation exactly such as would have been 

 produced at the first entrance of increasing fire-damp into the 

 lamp, and consequent elongation of the flame, supposing the 

 lamp had been placed a little obliquely against the wall of coal 

 or any other upright object. These appearances accord per- 

 fectly with the idea that fire-damp came into the workings 

 whilst this lamp (which had been given out that morning per- 

 fect) was there and in use. 



At this place the men were drawing a Jud. It may be that 

 fire-damp issued into the workings there independent of any- 

 thing the men were doing, or it may be that in the falls of the 

 roof (for it had fallen, as was evident by the stone and tim- 

 bers) they broke away a portion of the upper edge of the 

 goaf concavity, and by that, both let out explosive mixture 

 into the works, as before explained, and mechanically mixed 

 it up with the air beneath. This issue of gas would not of 

 itself have caused the explosion if the lamps had been right; 

 but of these lamps there are now three that might have fired 

 the gas, for two of them are so bruised, that if these bruises 

 were occasioned by a fall of stones either before or at the 



