1845.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



115 



we behold liis works, executcj imJer such ilisaJvanlagos, wp may well pause 

 and heconic lost in admiration at the nobleness of his views. And we are 

 also indebted to the Society of Arts for their glorious specimens of British 

 talent aai perseverance, at once testifying what may be done by the English 

 artist. 



Although prcat praise may be due to the citizens of London for the intro- 

 duction of the clifTerent experimriils, assisting as they do the revived feeling of 

 ancient magnificence, still iliore has been a golden opportunity lost, and one 

 which the we:iltli of the citizen cnuld so easily have taken advantage of; by 

 liberally remunerating our best English artists, the walls of this commer- 

 cial palace would have been embellished by appropriate design, and instead 

 being the work of one, by the eftbrts of many, that the walls might be adorned 

 by British talent, and thus form a public gallery for their productions. 



The decoration of the Royal Exchanije being the production of a German 

 artist, will most undoubtedly have a beneficial eflect in due lime ; it is calcu- 

 lated rather to improve than injure the English artist, for this reason, that 

 it will create a spirit of competition, for while it raises our jealousies it 

 stimulates our energies, and the success already attendant upon our renewed 

 eflorts in ornamental design clearly exhibits a marked superiority over any 

 thing which has been executed in the Royal Exchange. The stability of all 

 arts in a measure depends upi>n competiiion ; the great schools which have 

 arisen from the valued produclion of peculiar and original masters, and the 

 success attendant upon them, have been attributed, and with great truth, to 

 the competilion of the students. Vying with each other in every fresh at- 

 tempt, (hey renewed their efforts with a vigorous determination to excel 

 that created in many instances those bright examples of talent which will be 

 the admiration of ages to come. Nothing can better promote the interests 

 of the English artist, than the public recognizing in the decorations of tlie 

 Royal Exchange an inferior production ; it will cause a reaction in their taste, 

 they will be taught to enquire m; re fully into things, and thereby acquire 

 knowledge which was before hidden ; and from the great opportunities that 

 are now offered to inspect works of art we may anticipate the best results, 

 the public will he enabled to discriminate for themselves, and to judge of 

 things in a manner they deserve ; we shall then have no cause to fear foreign 

 preference, we are daily growing stronger in power to ctmpete with them 

 successfully ; and let talent be patronised wherever it is to be found, whether 

 it be Krtd'ir oi foreign, except in works which are Irul;/ national, it ought then 

 to become a national worit ; every means should be used to exalt its position 

 that it may be rendered worthy of the enliglitened state of the times, for, to 

 use the admirable words of Opie, "The progress of the Arts in every country 

 is the exact and excUisive measure of the progress of refinement ; they are re- 

 ciprocally the cause and efli'ct of each other ; and hence we accordingly find 

 that the most enlightened, the most envied, and the most interesting periods 

 in the history of mankind are precisely those in which the Arts have been 

 most esteemed, most cultivated, and have reaclnd their highest points of 

 elevation. To this the bright eras of Alexander the Great, and Leo the Tenth, 

 owe their strongest, their most amiable, and their most legitimate claims to 

 our respect, admiration, and gratitude ; this is their highest and their only 

 undivided honour; and if not the column itself, it is certainly Cto borrow a 

 metaphor from a celebrated orator), the Corinthian capital of thtir fame." 



THE VENTILATION OF MINES, AND THE MEANS OF 



PREVENTING EXPLOSIONS FROM FIRE-DAMP. 



A Lecture" delivered at the Royal Instiiuiion, London, January 17, 1845. 



By Professor Fararit. 



In again presenting myself— -as I have often done on previous occasions, 

 at the request of the appointed ofBcers for the regulation of these Friday 

 evening meetings — to commence the season, I think I shall best perform my 

 duty by taking you at once to the particular matter which I intend to bring 

 before you. 



The circumstances under which I have been led to bring this subject before 

 you are entirely new, resulting from a mark of confidence placed in Mr. 

 Lyell and myself by the government, upon the occasion of the unfortunate 

 accident which happened at the HasHcll coal mine, in Durham. Upon that 

 occasion we wore sent down to observe the inquest, and not merely to watch 

 the proreedings there, but to investigate the mode of working the mine, and 

 to use our best judgment in bringing home an opinion on tlie present acci- 

 dent, and the causes of such catastrophes. I may stale iummarily, that the 

 conclusion we came to was, tliat the inquest was conducted most fairly, 

 openly, and in a very enlarged manner ; that, under the circumstances, the 

 catastrophe was purely accidental. Ninety-five men and boys, it is true, 

 were unhappily killed, but no f.iult could be found with the proceedings of 

 the persons concerned in the management and working of tlie mine, as far as 

 the knowledge of practical persons up to this time had been made available 

 by coal owners and officers. There were, however, certain observations which 



* We are Indelited for tlie report of this very Interesting i^ecture to the " Repertory of 

 Patent Inventioug,"— ii^tl. C. £. and A. JuurniU. 



occurred to us, especially willi regard to a part of the mine called "the 

 goaf," w hich I intend to make the basis of tliis evening's lecture. 



But before I proceed further, I liad better warn you of an error which may 

 < ecur in my language. In speaking liastily, I may sometimes use the pro- 

 noun "I," in the singular, and, at otiier limes, "we," in the plural. I 

 ooshl, perhaps, invariably to say " we," because Mr. Lyell was always with 

 me. I cinuot at the moment wait for his assent to every statement, and I 

 hope that both he and you will excuse my using an incorrect word in my 

 hurried language, and believe that in all good things we are together, in all 

 cNlra things I alone ought to bear the responsibility. 



1 do not pretend to be a professional man as regards coal mines ; lam, how- 

 ever, a man who has looked at the laws of nature, and as far as observation 

 and practice have enabled me, I liave applied tliem in working out their re- 

 sults. It was with some such feelings I first went down to llaswell. I do 

 not venture to bring forward any plan of ours, nor do I wish you to regard 

 with tlie same kind consideration as the Home Oflice the report 1 made to the 

 Government, as one that is unexceptionable, but to look upon me at present 

 as, perhaps, involuntarily advocating some particular view wliich came into 

 our minds upon that occasion, because it is one which best commends itself 

 to us. 



I must first of all endeavour to make you thoroughly well acquainted with 

 what a coal mine really is, and what is its mode of working ; for if 1 leave 

 you behind me in tlie first few steps of our progress, I shall never bo able to 

 take you with me afterwards. I have, therefore, for the purpose of illustrat- 

 ing this point, procured a lew black boards, which will serve to convey to 

 your minds an impression of what a mine really is. If you will look at these 

 black boards, as representing a porlion of the mass of coal in the mine, you 

 w ill get a good notion of the meaning of tlie terms which I shall hereafter 

 use. .Supposing all this wood were laid down in one continuous mass upon a 

 table, covered over by superincumbent matter: it would serve to represent 

 to you what is called " a seam" of coal. But if you look at this piece of 

 black clotli on the wall, you will, perhaps, have a better notion of what a 

 seam of coal is ; for, m fact, this piece of black cloth does in width repre- 

 siut in correct dimensions this seam of coal at llaswell colliery, where the 

 accident happened. This is the seam represented in the lower part of tliis 

 srclion. which gives you from the surface downwards 900 feet to that black 

 spot, representing the coal they are working, and which, enlarged in size and 

 thickness, is, in fact, a porlion of the seam in which the accident happened 

 Therefore, four feet six inches, is the lieight of the coal, and at the bottom of 

 the seam it is five feet. The inclination I have given here is just tlie inclina- 

 tion at which the coal falls, being one in twenty-four. Having opened a shaft 

 SUO feet deep, and gained access to the coal, they begin to work it. Of course, 

 it is all in darkness ; they liave not the earth open ; their operations being 

 like those of a mole. Having gained the seam they then work forward. It is 

 worked at the width of five yards, rutting awav the coal and going straight 

 forward, perhaps twenty-five yards ; then they work right and left along the 

 passages which 1 have drawn there, and which are themselves five yards 

 wide. Theiefore, supposing this or that to be the coal, they work up fifteen 

 yards, which I represent by this opening ; when tliey have gone twenty-five 

 yards in this direction, then again they work right and left by a passage of 

 five yards. Others, again, work by another passage in this direction, and so 

 on, in the solid coal. Of course, when they have cut away the coal, it leaves 

 a series of passages. 



Observe what the intention of all this is. These are the passages giving 

 access to the coal, and are called " the ways." These masses standing here are 

 denominated " the pillars," I think, in common usage, nobody would under- 

 stand what " a pillar of coal" was, unless he saw it : he would fancy a certain 

 round thick prop, placed in the middle of the mine, and not an enormous piece 

 of coal like this.' They work up twenty-five yards before they turn the 

 corner, and therefore you may suppose, that what they call the pillar, is an 

 enormous mass of coal which is left there with these intervening passages 

 Certain of these passages are made large and commodious for placing trams 

 to run upoU; and arc called " trams," or " rolley ways ;" the otlier passages 

 being smaller, they are called " Ihemothergates;" but other terms are employed 

 in diilijrent parts ot the country. In the extreme part the miners are working 

 up the solid coal ; clearing, blasting, and cutting forward. 1 will not pre- 

 tend to give you the names of these parts ; 1 am only desirous of conveying 

 to your minds the fact that they are working on into what are called the 

 Solid masses of coal, and are gradually cutting all away ; of course having 

 all the earth over them, wliieli you can imagine, represented by the upper 

 wall. AVhen they cut away one portion or the other of the larger opening?, 

 they proji up the roof from the end by wooden props. These ways are re- 

 quired to be permanent, like rolley ways; they are the gateways to tlie rami- 

 fications of the mine ; they are cut from year to year to keep tliem perma- 

 nently in good order and safe. If an occasional fall happens, they make it 



> Tile lecturer referred to maps, diugrami, iind models, showing the passaj^es cut in a 

 seam of coal, by whieh the relative quantity of coal got out and that left as pillars on the 

 first werkini! could at ODce be seen, uud also tlie dlrectiou of the pasgagei, each five yards 



