ISiG. 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



243 



ner. Abundant rarelessness is often, however, apparent; and, when the 

 collieries are viewed as a whole, unnecessary risk is loo common, espe- 

 cially when it is recnllected that the fool- hardiness or carelessness of one 

 may destroy the lives of many. 



To those who have, diirins; many years, had occasion to visit collieries 

 in different parts of Great Britain, the thcmshlless diirins of many of our 

 colliers, and their frequent carelessness under danger, must be familiar. 

 They will often, in an endeavour to execute more work in a given time, 

 when paid by the ton or piece, remove the covers of their lamps, or em- 

 ploy a candle at a risk. Some even prefer a candle to ascertain the pres- 

 ence of tire-damp, since by it they more readily see the change in the 

 flame. In many districts, ihoui^h in some they are anxious to employ the 

 safety lamp, it requires much ti-oub'e on the part of the managers to pre- 

 vent the conllnnal use of candles in suspected places before the danger 

 becomes known to them. The less light aiforded by lamp^ is considered a 

 great drawback to their use when it can be avoided. Many mo^t careful 

 men, no doubt, anxiously watch over the coiumuD danger, and great pre- 

 cautions are taken by many coalovviiers and workers ; but looking at the 

 subject generally, and without reference to many exceptions, especially to 

 be found in the north of England, the want of system in t^ie management 

 of lights, and in due precautions respecting the kinds employed, can 

 scarcely escape the observation of those whose opportunities have been 

 suOiciently extended. 



When we consider that the safety lamps have now been in use for so 

 many years, causing security in all cases where proper care is employed, 

 although they may not be ahsolutely safe under unusual circumstances, 

 their utility appears sufficiently sanctioned by experience to make them 

 the subject of legislative enactment. The evils complained of in the modi- 

 fications of the Davy lamp are, that, while they add to the security, they 

 diminish so much tlte amount of light, as to render them practically use- 

 less. These are described ill the report of the Select Coinniittee referred 

 to. A new inoditication of Dr. Clannj's lamp, invented since then, is not 

 subject to this fault, and in principle is an elegant application of the safely 

 lamp, and consists of a wire gauze cylinder, having heneath a thick glass 

 cover to the lamp, which only ascends till it meets with the gauze ; the 

 thickness of this glass is supposed to free it from accidents, and, whilst 

 strong enough to bear a considerable blow, it is sufficiently well annealed 

 to resist sudden changes of tempeiature. 15ut whether, in a manufaciure 

 80 uucertaiu as glass, these conditions can always be attained, is question- 

 able, and at all eients has not been sufficiently tested by experieuce to 

 induce the coalowuers to employ this lamp in their mines. 



It has been at various times proposed, during the last eight years, to 

 employ electricity as a means of lighting coll-eries. The electricily, 

 streaming between two charcoal points from a Grove's or Bunsen's bat- 

 teiy, affords a light of much beauty, and perfectly safe, if completely sur- 

 rounded by glass, but capable of igniting an explosive mixture if expused. 

 Professor Grove has constructed a lamp on this principle, which he kindly 

 prepared for us, and which we have examined lu action. It consisted of 

 a box, containing four galvanic cells, and the light was obtained by the 

 passage of electricily between two coils of platinum wire. These were 

 surrounded with glass vessels ; the inner one for the purpose of isolation, 

 the exterior one being filled with water, so as to destroy the light should 

 the inner glass vessel be broken. The light given out was rather more than 

 that of a miner's caudle. This, certainly, is a safe lamp, but in its present 

 state still unlitted for the purpose of the collier as at present arranged. 

 The acids, sulphuric and nitric, render the lamp so inconveniently heavy, 

 that both hands must be used in carrjing it; besides, from not being 

 covered, the spilling of these corrosive liquids on the persons of the miners 

 could scarcely be avoided. The water in the exterior vessel soon becomes 

 heated, and ultiinalelv boils, and the light only lasts in proper strenglh for 

 two or three hours. There must, therefore, be considerable modilication 

 in this lamp before it can be rendered available for ordinary mining pur- 

 poses, which we may readily expect, from the ackuowledi;ed talent of its 

 inventor. 



The means of obtaining the needful lights in collieries, though most im- 

 portant, wouldstillappearsubordinaie.ashas, indeed, been before remarked, 

 to such a system of ventilation as should not expose men in such large por- 

 tions of a colliery as is now frequently the case to the risk of death from 

 explosion (the greater proportion, and often all, perishing from the care- 

 lessness of one man), or to unforeseen accidents under the greatest pre- 

 cautious in the use of lights. The too common use of single shafts in col- 

 lieries, in cases where others might have been sunk, the single shaft 

 divided into two or three portions by wooden partitions named brattices, a 

 dowu current of pure air descending through one division, and the foul 

 air from the colliery workings rising up through another, has often been 

 reprobated. The Comt.ultee of the House of Commons of 1S35, and 

 many important witnesses examined, animadvert upon this practice; and 

 the bad elfecls of this system is pointed out by the South Shields Com- 

 mittee in their report of 1813. 



In a single shaft, as has been often remarked, the ventilation may be cut 

 off from the workings of a whole colliery in an instant by an explosion 

 sufficient to destroy the doors or partitions directing the air-courses, the air 

 merely going down one division in the shaft and rising through another, 

 when the biatlices may not be destroyed by the explosion, and a kind of 

 draught kept up. Thus all not destroyed by the explosion perish in the 

 mixture of nitrogen and carbonic acid, known as after-damp, to which no 

 fr«sli air can reach, la the explosion at Jurrow Colliery there was only 



a single shaft communicating with the workings upon two beds of coal ona 

 above the other, and the lower part of the brattice in the shaft was so 

 shattered by the late explosion in it, that Dr. I'layfair and Mr. Williams, 

 in their descent into the pii, then lontaming a large amount of fire-damp, 

 had to be let down a considerable distance by a loop in a rope. In this 

 explosion the upper portion of the brattice fortunately remained, and thus 

 the lives of many of those engaged in the upper workings were saved, 

 although several perished, 



Eveu in a double shaft, or two shafts not far distant from each other, if 

 the air be not made to course fora considerable distance amid the work- 

 ings by a firm thick parting of coal, any needful perforation in the parting 

 for the progress of the colliery being lirnily built up, a whole mass of 

 workings may, by an explosion, be suddenly cut off from ventilation, and 

 numbers of persons, not killed by the explosion, perish by the after damp. 

 This was the rase at ihe late explosinn at Kisca, It should, however, iu 

 this instance, be observed, that the colliery was, as regards ventilation, in 

 a transition state, a more perfect arrangement for ventilation being in pro- 

 gress. 



Great improvements were introduced in Ihe ventilation of collieries in 

 many districts, when the course of air was quickened by means of a fur- 

 nace established near the bottom of the upcast shaft, or that through which 

 the foul air passes outwards, and more particularly when, in the north of 

 England, instead i,f permitting the air introduceil liy Ihe downcast shaft to 

 pass slowly and imperfectly along a course of 'JO or 30 miles of pass- 

 ages, it was split or divided into separate courses, from two to six miles 

 iu length. Those, however, who may possess an extended acquaintance 

 with our collieries in different parts of the country cannot but be aware, 

 that, as a whole, their general ventilation is very imperfect, good as it may 

 be iu some collieries, particularly in certain districts. 



When it is considereil that coals are worked in the United Kingdom 

 under every variety of condition, — from levels driven into mountain sides 

 to pits sunk to great tlejjths through m-isses of superincumbent ro';ks, — in 

 beds ranging from a vertical to a horizontal position, and even contorted 

 and bent, — sometimes traversed by faults, at others free from them, — the 

 beds near the surface in one place, and ranging beneath mountains in an- 

 other, — in fact, under a great variety of geological conditions, it is not dif- 

 ficult to see that many plans which have been suggested for the v\'orkiugof 

 coUieres, good as they may be for some localities, would be iuapplicaOla 

 generally, and would indeed fail, except under the conditions Ijtted for 

 them. 



So various are the conditions under which collieries are or can be worked 

 in the United Kingdom, that we would suggest for consideration, if legii- 

 lative measures slmuld be deemed advisable, and an extension of the prin- 

 ciple which regulates the ein|>loyment of women and children in our mines, 

 and the labour in our factories, be thought good, that eli'ective discretion- 

 ary powers should be vi sted in properly qualified persons, appointed in 

 convenient districts, so that the needful adjiistments to conditious may be 

 effected, and no single'system be attempted, napplicable to our collierie* 

 as a whole. 



Any general system of legislation for conditions so different could only 

 be productive of failure or nf injurious consequences, both to owners uud 

 workers; but a local examination and inquiry, with power to adjust to 

 special conditions, would, v.'e apprehend, remove the difficulties which the 

 Legislature has felt in dealing with inierests so important. 



Jealous as the coalowuers should properly be of any undue intermed- 

 dling with their collieries, it may nevertheless be true that a judicious sys- 

 tem of superintendence iu a district, by which the pi'oper ventilation of 

 collieries, efficient knowledge on the part of subordinate agents, and proper 

 punishment for fool-hardiness or carelessness on the part of the colliers 

 may be secured, would be a great advantage to them individually and col- 

 lectively, and be the saving not uuly of lives but of much capital, securing 

 them, in the case of accidents, from many au unjust accusation for ne- 

 glect. 



On the other hand, careful but not overmeddling supervision would 

 afford confidence to the collier. Proper persons being appointed as super- 

 intendents (and, if improper, their deficiencies would soon become ajipar- 

 ent, and their removal the consequence), he would feel that he li-is the ad- 

 vantage of the existing knowledge of the day brought to bear upon tha 

 particular conditions iintler which Ihe colliery iu which he labours is 

 worked. Iu some districis the working collier is far better informed upon 

 the general principles which should receive attention than may be cum- 

 mooly supposed, and he would feel far more secure from danger than ha 

 now does, if assured that the State was not neglectful of his safety. 



Though several collieries in particular districts possess good plans and 

 sections of their workings, and an inspection of such plans and sections 

 ali'ords a view of the system of ventilation and general mode of working 

 adopted, this is far from being the case generally, and has been much re- 

 gretted alike by the enlighteued coalowuers and by the public. The im- 

 portance of correct plans and sections has been prominently pointed out, 

 both by the Committee of the House of Commons of 1835, and in the 

 report of the South Shields Committee of 1843; indeed, the necessity of 

 them is sufficiently obvious. 



Should the suggestion of a system of judicious inspection be considered 

 worthy of consideration, the ready access to proper plans and sections uf 

 collieries, brought up to given times, would necessarily form a part of any 

 general system of regulations. If correct (.and power to ascertain that 

 they were &o would be essential), they would at once UiAcluse the sytlcut 



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