TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 55 
object; and, on the other hand, that the Davy is by no means a perfect instrument. 
To the first objection I can refer in reply to the experience of more than one of the 
best-regulated collieries of the north of England, where a vast number of Davys are 
in daily use: about 130 of these instruments being employed in the Wallsend pit, 
and in others a still larger number. The workmen also on the whole prefer to work 
at the same wages with the rest with the comparatively obscure light and the greater 
danger, because the coal is somewhat more tender. To the other objection, that the 
Davy is useless, I can only say, that with regard to all cases of explosive mixture that 
have been fairly met with underground, and all rates of motion hitherto attempted, 
the united experience of wastemen and viewers for the last thirty years cannot but 
be considered of some value, and is unanimously, as far as I can learn, on the side 
of its great practical value. I have trusted my own life to these instruments, and 
would do so again without the slightest hesitation, provided of course that proper 
care is employed. The instrument is simple, easily kept in order, and what is per- 
haps of yet more importance, easily and quickly examined ; and if, as is done in well- 
regulated pits, the gauze of every lamp was examined and locked before being de- 
livered to the men, I cannot believe that an accident could happen except by such 
a falling of the roof as would injure the gauze, and this would also destroy every 
other contrivance hitherto imagined for giving safe light. 
“Tn conclusion, I am anxious to express my own firm conviction that no great im- 
provement can take place in coal-working generally without some external interfe- 
rence. The coal trade is now hardly remunerative; it is a struggle in which every 
one endeavours to bring into the market saleable coal at a low price, and a struggle 
obliging those concerned to compete with the utmost energy. Such a state of things 
is not likely to admit of any great improvement of the kind here advocated, since 
the supply of labour is greater than the demand, and few proprietors will be found 
to risk money where the return is so doubtful. But the interests at stake are not 
only those of monied men ; the lives of thousands and the well-being of the popula- 
tion of large districts are also involved, and it is the duty of government to watch 
over and protect these. This can be done properly only by a most careful super- 
intendence over all those engaged in the employment. It ought to be considered 
absolutely necessary that ventilaticn should be conducted in every individual mine 
on the best principles, and that in each the safety of the pitman should be secured 
by insisting on every reasonable means of preventing accidents being equally adopted 
by all. But this can only be done by the interference of government, and even the 
full necessity of it can only be learnt by a strict and careful investigation, since it 
would be impossible to ascertain otherwise how far the greater number of the col- 
lieries (amounting in the Newcastle district to nearly 200) are properly conducted 
or not. 
* My object has been to show that much may be done by simple, practical and in- 
expensive methods to diminish the loss of life in collieries arising from noxious 
es, Experiments however are still greatly needed, not only in picked mines, where 
the ventilation is as good as under the circumstances it can be, but also in the nu- 
merous other pits little heard of, but still employing an important proportion of the 
whole colliery population. These experiments should be made with a view to the 
solution of various questions not at present fully determined, among which I would 
instance—(1) the actual nature of the gas given off by the ceal where the singing noise 
is chiefly heard ; (2) the real extent to which splitting the air may be carried with a 
view to shortening the air-courses ; (3) the extent of the ventilation at the floor, the 
walls and the roof of a mine when an ordinary current is passing along the middle, 
I mention these, but they are only a few among many points hitherto undecided in 
coal-working, and yet bearing most importantly on the subject of ventilation ; but I 
might greatly extend the list, and I feel quite certain that when the attention of com- 
tent chemists and practical geologists is directed not only to the goaf, which I must 
consider, from documentary evidence, as among the least important subjects of inves- 
tigation, but also to the whole coal when first worked, and the small hitches and faults 
so abundant in every coal-field, there will be accumulated a heap of evidence bearing 
on these points and leading ultimately to some important practical result. At present 
I can only suggest the methods which have struck me as at once reasonable and use- 
ful,—I mean the not working too large an area of coal from one pair of shafts; never 
