94: Mr. F. A. Abel [April 28, 



the injurious effects of fire-damp explosions, was originally pointed 

 out with great force by Messrs. Faraday and Lyell, in the report which 

 they submitted to the Home Secretary, in 1845, on the explosion at the 

 Haswell Collieries in September 1844, and on the means of preventing 

 similar accidents. It does not come within the scope of this dis- 

 course to examine into the chief part of this most interesting and 

 instructive report, which deals exhaustively with the cause of the 

 explosion and the means of guarding against the recurrence of such a 

 calamity ; but the lecturer, having had occasion to study carefully 

 what has been published on the subject of coal-mine explosions and 

 their causes within the last three years, cannot forbear pointing out 

 that the observations and conclusions published by Faraday and Lyell 

 thirty-seven years ago have been repeatedly re-clothed with the garb 

 of originality by workers who have but extended and amplified the 

 original observations of those eminent men. 



After discussing the subject of the accumulation of fire-damp in 

 the goaves of the mines, its dislodgement by the drawing of juds, by 

 falls of the roofs in the goaves, and by changes in atmospheric pressure, 

 its diffusion into the surrounding air in the mine ways, its ignition 

 by a defective lamp, and the spreading of the flame to the gas- 

 mixture with which the goaf was charged, the reporters say : " In 

 considering the extent of the fire from the moment of the explosion, 

 it is not to be supposed the fire-damp was its only fuel ; the coal dust 

 swept by the rush of wind and flame from the floor, roof, and walls of 

 the works would instantly take fire and burn, if there were oxygen 

 enough present in the air to support its combustion ; and we found the 

 dust adhering to the faces of the pillars, props, and walls in the direc- 

 tion of and on the side towards the explosion, increasing gradually to a 

 certain distance as we neared the place of ignition. This deposit was 

 in some parts half an inch, in others almost an inch thick ; it adhered 

 together in a friable coked state. When examined with the glass it 

 presented the fused round form of burnt coal dust, and when examined 

 chemically and compared with the coal itself reduced to powder, was 

 found deprived of the greater portion of the bitumen, and in some 

 instances entirely destitute of it. There is every reason to believe 

 that much coal gas was made from this dust in the very air itself of 

 the mine, by the flame of the fire-damp, which raised and swept it 

 along, and much of the carbon of this dust remained unbui'nt only 

 for want of air. 



" At first we were greatly embarrassed by the circumstance of the 

 large number of deaths from choke-damp, and in the evidence that 

 tJiat had been present in very considerable quantities compared with 

 the small proportion of fire-damp, which, in the opinion of those in 

 and about the works just before, must have occasioned the explosion. 

 But, on consideration of the character of the goaves as reservoirs 

 for gaseous fuel, and the effect of dust in the mine, we are satisfied that 

 these circumstances fully account for the apparent discrepancy." 



On January 17th, 1845, Faraday delivered a discourse to the 



