209 Dr. Clanny on the Means of procuring 



which, I understand, thirty-eight men perished, leaving eigh- 

 teen widov/s, and seventy children unprovided for. 



Soon after this melancholy catastrophe, ten men perished 

 at Killingworth by an explosion. And about the same time, 

 seven men were instantly killed, and several severely wounded 

 by an explosion at Fcnton Park colliery. On the 25th of May, 

 1812, the colliery at Felling exploded, by which ninety-two 

 persons were instantly destroyed, leaving forty-one widows, 

 and one hundred and thirty- three children to the protection 

 of the public. 



And, upon the 10th of October last, the Harrington Mill 

 pit exploded, by which twenty-three people were kilLd, and 

 many others severely wounded and scorched. 



Thus, in the short space of seven years, upwards of two 

 hundred pit-men were deprived, most suddenly, of their mor- 

 tal existence, besides a great many wounded ; and upwards 

 of three hundred women and children were left in a state of 

 the greatest poverty and distress. 



The great danger of these explosions, even when every 

 precaution has been taken, is manifest by their frequency, and 

 indeed it mey be expected, that an explosion will take place 

 by means of a lighted candle the instant that the hydrogen 

 gas amounts to one-twelfth part of the atmospheric air pre- 

 sent, and that a similar effect will follow at all proportions 

 from one-sixth to one-twelfth. 



When ventilation, by the methods in general use, is found 

 insufficient to carry off the fire-cjamp, as it arises in coal mines, 

 large pumps are employed at \Ue top of the shaft for that 

 purpose, which are worked by ;steain engines. So frequent 

 and instantaneous are the changrt;s in the proportions of iniiaiu- 



