On Way-going Work in Coal-Mines. 



32 



Many lives have been lost 

 in these collieries by the fall- 

 ing m of the roofs. 



Besides hewers and putters, 

 there are in most of these works 

 a far greater number of other 

 jiersons employed, which is 

 one of the heaviest charges on 

 working coal, which is well 

 known to all viewers and j^ii- 



Only three lives have been 

 lost in these collieries ! and 

 these were not by the falling 

 in of the roofs. 



None but hewers and put- 

 ters can be employed ; as there 

 is not any thing for any other 

 description of person to do. 

 In fact, there is neither room 

 nor occupation for them. 



To theEditors of the Philosophical Magazine andjournal. 



Alnwick, Jan. 20, 1823. 



The variation in the direction of the currents of air in mines 

 is not by any means such a phjpnomenon as Mr. .John Rule jun. 

 seems to suppose : it may be traced without difficulty to a sim- 

 j^le cause ; namely, the change of wind acting on a change of 

 surface. If the district which contains the twenty-five shafts 

 be examined, there will be found within the boundaries of its 

 surface, or else not far distant, one or more uptakes of ground; 

 and these elevated spots, probably, have more inclined sides in 

 that neighbourhood than one. Those shafts which are on the 

 windward side of the rising ground will have doixmcast cur- 

 rents, and those on the leeward side will have upcast currents. 

 The deoTce of strength of these currents will vary as the 

 quantum of wind does : obstructions in the woi'kings of a mine 

 will affect the current of air both in force and direction. 



As the opinions of the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine 

 are always received by the world as coming from a source 

 possessed of the most general and correct scientific informa- 

 tion, it certainly becomes a duty incumbent on them not to pro- 

 nounce a judgement without giving the subject a careful and an 

 impartial consideration. Had the statement addressed to you 

 bv " A Friend to the Pitmen " been so fortunate as to have in- 

 duced you to investigate it, your intelligence would have warned 

 you ag-auist making such an unqualified assertion as appears 

 with your name tc it, page 470 vol. 60 : " The only effectual 

 remedy for foul air in mines is by drawing it off by mechanical 

 means." Now, Gentlemen, I beg leave to say, not only that 

 the assertion is uicorrect, being founded on erroneous princi- 

 ples; but that it is made in direct opposition to the proofs 

 ivhich you hold in your hands, that there is another remedy, 

 in all respects simple, safe, and perfect. No mechanical means 

 hitherto tried for purifying a coal mine, have produced at best 



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