EXPLOSIONS IN COAL-MINES AND REVOLVING STORMS. 11 



presence of the cyclone which the curve indicates to have arrived on the 

 12th of November. 



Explosions in December 1852. 



Dec. 2 and 14, Abersychan. 

 „ 16, Blackleyhurst Colliery, St. Helen's. 

 „ 22, Elsecar Colliery, Barnsley. 



Dec. 27, Comrie, Culross, Perthshire. 

 „ 27, Titwood Colliery, Pollockshaws, 



Glasgow. 

 ,, 29^ Pendlebury Colliery, Lancashire. 

 „ 31, Seghill Colliery, Northumberland. 



Mr. Lowe states that "the gales of December were all accompanied by 

 hot weather for the time of year," which is also shown by the Manchester 

 thermal lines. The explosion on the 2nd of December was probably a conse- 

 quence of the cyclone just past. From the IVth to the 18th of December, the 

 barometer at Manchester rose an inch and a quarter, i. e. from 28*85 to 

 30"10. In Peebleshire, the simultaneous rise was from 27*90 to 29*60. This 

 sudden rise of the barometer marks the exit of a cyclone all over the world. 



Another cyclone, which had more of the violence of a tropical hurricane 

 than is usual in Britain, began to reach England on the 18tli of December, and 

 did not entirely pass over until the 1st of January 1853. The hurricane 

 began at S.W., shifting to W.S.W., and blew hardest on the 26th and 27th. 

 The ' Times ' of the 29th has several columns of details of losses of ships and 

 lives. The following is from the Parliamentary Return of Wrecks for 1852: 

 " On the 24'th of December a heavy storm from the S.W. burst over the 

 country, and continued to the end of the year with such violence, that by the 

 29th there was scarcely a vessel in the neighbourhood of the British Islands 

 left at sea. Some had found safety by running into port ; while of others, 

 the returns show a list of 183 casualties ; of these 102 were totally wrecked, 

 making an average of thirty wrecks a day during this awful and destructive 

 gale." 



Two explosions on the very day of the greatest barometrical depression are 

 indisputable witnesses of the effect of greatly diminished atmospheric pressure. 



Explosions in January 1853. 



Jan. 2, Titwood, Pollockshaws, Glasgow. 

 „ 3, Leasingthorne Colliery, North of Eng- 

 land. 



Jan. 9, Trubshaw Colliery, Newcastle-under- 

 Lyne. 

 „ 10, Smallbridge Colliery, Rochdale. 



„ 5, 6, Seghill Colliery, North of England. 



The weather was still unsettled in the early part of January, and these 

 explosions were doubtless partly induced by the great atmospheric paroxysm 

 that had just occurred. 



From the 10th of January to the 12th of February there were no explosions, 

 which corresponds with the indications of the general curve respecting the 

 season of lowest annual temperature. 



Before quitting this examination, let the winter curves for 1851 and 1852 

 be placed in juxtaposition, and the different conditions of atmospheric pressure 

 and temperature carefully noted, and it will be at once apparent why there 

 were so many as seven fatal explosions in November 1852, and none in 

 November 1851 ; and so many as eight fatal explosions in December 1852, 

 and only three in December 1851. 



- In order to corroborate the evidence already adduced in proof of the 

 connexion between revolving storms and explosions in coal-mines, I have 

 selected the following from a considerable number of cases in which explo- 

 sions have occurred either during or immediately after the passage of a 

 cyclone. 



