MISCELLANIES. 



603 



tfhe gin of ihe John Pit ran, were 

 fixed on a crane, wich turned 

 them over or from the shaft as oc- 

 casion required. 



This mine was considered by 

 the workmen a model of perfection 

 in the purity of its air, and orderly 

 arrangements — its inclined plane 

 was saving the daily expense of at 

 least thirteen horses — the concern 

 ivore the features of the greatest 

 possible prosperity, and no acci- 

 dent, except a trifling explosion of 

 fire-damp, slightly burning two or 

 three workmen, had occurred. 

 Two shifts or sets of men were 

 constantly employed, except on 

 Sundays. Twenty-five acres of 

 coal had been excavated. The 

 first shift entered the mine at four 

 o'clock A. M. and were relieved at 

 their working posts by the next at 

 11 o'clock in the morning. The 

 establishment it employed under 

 ground, as will be seen in the suc- 

 ceeding narrative, consisted of 

 about 128 persons, who, in the 

 fortnight from the 11th to the 25th 

 of May, 1812, wrought 624 scores 

 of coal, equal to 1300 Newcastle 

 chaldrons, or 2455 |g London 

 chaldrons. 



About half past eleven o'clock 

 on the morning of the 25th of May, 

 1812, the neighbouring villages 

 were alarmed by a tremendous ex- 

 plosion in this colliery. The sub- 

 terraneous fire broke forth with two 

 heavy discharges from the John 

 Pit which were almost instanta- 

 neously followed by one from the 

 William Pit. A slight trembling, 

 as from an earthquake, was felt for 

 about half a mile round the work- 

 ings; and the noise of the explo- 

 sion, though dull, was heard to 

 three or four miles distance, and 

 much resembled an unsteady fire 



of infantry. Immense quantities 

 of dust and small coal accompanied 

 these blasts, and rose high into the 

 air, in the form of an inverted cone. 

 The heaviest part of the ejected 

 matter, such as corves, pieces of 

 wood, and small coal, fell near the 

 pits; but the dust, borne away by 

 a strong west wind, fell in a con- 

 tinued shower from the pit to the 

 distance of a mile and a half. In 

 the village of Heworlh, it caused a 

 darkness like that of early twilight, 

 and covered the roads so thickly, 

 that the footsteps of passengers 

 were strongly imprinted in it. The 

 heads of both the shaft frames were 

 blown off, their sides set on fire, 

 and their pullies shattered in 

 pieces ; but the pullies of the John 

 Pit gin, being on a crane not with- 

 in the influence of the blast, were 

 fortunately preserved. The coal 

 dust, ejected from the William Pit 

 into the drift or horizontal parts of 

 the tube, was about three inches 

 thick, and soon burnt to a light 

 cinder. Pieces of burning coal, 

 driven off the solid stratum of the 

 mine, were also blown up this 

 shaft. 



As soon as the explosion was 

 heard, the wives and children of the 

 workmen ran to the working-pit. 

 Wildness and terror were pictured 

 in every countenance. The crowd 

 from all sides soon collected to 

 the number of several hundreds, 

 some crying out for a husband, 

 others for a parent or a son, and 

 all deeply affected with an admix- 

 ture of horror, anxiety, and grief. 



The machine being rendered 

 useless by the eruption, the vnpe of 

 the gin was sent down the pit with 

 all expedition. In the absence of 

 horses, a number of men, whom 

 the wish to be instrumental in 



