CHAP. VII. DANGERS OF COLLIERY WORKING. 105 



It was natural that George Stephenson should devote 

 his attention to the cause of these deplorable accidents, 

 and to the means by which they might if possible be 

 prevented. His daily occupation led him to think much 

 and deeply on the subject. As engine-wright of a col- 

 liery so extensive as that of Killingworth, where there 

 were nearly 160 miles of gallery excavation, in which he 

 personally superintended the working of inclined planes 

 for the conveyance of the coal to the pit entrance, he 

 was necessarily very often underground, and brought 

 face to face with the dangers of fire-damp. From fissures 

 in the roofs of the galleries, carburetted hydrogen gas 

 was constantly flowing ; in some of the more dangerous 

 places it might be heard escaping from the crevices of 

 the coal with a hissing noise. Ventilation, firing, and 

 all conceivable modes of drawing out the foul air had 

 been adopted, and the more dangerous parts of the gal- 

 leries were built up. Still the danger could not be 

 wholly prevented. The miners must necessarily guide 

 their steps through the extensive underground ways with 

 lighted lamps or candles, the naked flame of which, 

 coming in contact with the inflammable air, daily ex- 

 posed them and their" fellow-workers in the pit to the 

 risk of death in one of its most dreadful forms. 



One day, in the year 1814, a workman hurried into 

 Stephenson' s cottage with the startling information 

 that the deepest main of the colliery was on fire ! He 

 immediately hastened to the pit-head, about a hundred 

 yards off, whither the women and children of the colliery 

 were running, with wildness and terror depicted in every 

 face. In an energetic voice Stephenson ordered the 

 engineman to lower him down the shaft in the corve. 

 There was danger, it might be death, before him, but 

 he must go. As those about the pit-mouth saw him 

 descend rapidly out of sight, and heard from the depths 

 of the shaft the mingled cries of despair and agony 



