MINE. 



371 



Mine* of reaches the place where the fire is, an explosion^ again 

 takes place, and that repeatedly as long as the < 

 exist. There have been instances of this kind where 

 the mort violent explosions have taken place, regularly 

 within the space of an hour, and continuing to do so 

 for thirty-six hours, each eruption vomiting out 

 of the pit mouth like a volcano. In such cases, no 

 man dare attempt to go down, as his destruction would 

 be inevitable. As the case is desperate, desperate 

 remedies must be applied, which are either, to moat up 

 all the pits and exclude the air, or if tin's is not practi- 

 cable, the colliery must be laid in and drowned, by al- 

 lowing the water below ground to accumulate ; and to 

 aid the common growth, the tubbing in the shaft is 

 tapped, and all the body of water from that quarter 

 tent down : when the fire is extinguished, the colliery 

 is refitted in the usual manner. 



When fire exists in the waste, with less apparent ha- 

 zard of life, the mining engineers, with their assistants, 

 descend with portable fire-extinguishing engines. . 

 are placed as near the burning matter as possible, and 

 . the fire is (peedily extinguished, 

 It I'm ] tu-iil ly happens, however, that although they see 

 the fire I .. die state of the air prevents them 



from approaching near enough to allo 



v ith effect. To remedv this Mr. Buddie, with 

 tli.it ingenuity for which he is so conspicuous, < 

 ved, that the cuiicusmon of air which is produced by 

 the discharge lit' an .lit be effect! -.e in extin- 



guishing fire, v t be approached with die 



engines. He ace nd small cannons made, 



and by charging them with powder only, and approach- 

 ing a* near the fire a* possible, he luu succeeded in 

 v ing out flame by repeatedly firing tlu-in. Tin* 

 principle ba* been proposed lately for extinguishing 

 nouse* which are on fire. 



Such is an outline of the misfortune* I: 

 mines, and to the engineers and workmen employed 

 where inflammable air abound*. 



Amicij 10 In the manner before described, and with doily inin- 

 jr*T"*V tl " fortune* of a lesser or greater degree, were the colleries 

 "'" of Great Britain carried on, ev. .iggling against 



the direful ravages of the inflammable air ; but it luf- 

 fled the skill of the most experienced engineers, and all 

 the precautions of their most unwearied diligence and 

 anxious attention. The general question and an- 

 xious inquiries were, Can no remedy be devised to 

 avert these awful calamities to deliver an indus- 

 trious dan of society from such desolating catas- 

 trophe* ? Many plans were proponed, but they were 

 Dr. Trot- altogether inapplicable. The first person who stepped 

 Uf ' plu. forward, n number of years ago, and wrote upon the 

 subject, was Dr. Trotter of Newcastle. He i 

 pamphlet, wherein lie proposed to neutralise the car- 

 buretted hydrogen as soon as it appeared ii, 

 by chemical agents. Every praise u due to him, i 

 very humane intentions, and earnest endeavour to re- 

 medy an evil so great But although the principle* he 

 ,'ht forward were consonant with sound philoso- 

 phy, and were practicable upon a (mall scale, they 

 were totally inapplicable to the extended working* of a 

 coal-mine, where there were excavations of many hun- 

 dred acres, and where the issue of gas was not only 

 incessant, but in great abundance ; hence the principle 

 was not only inapplicable in a general point of 

 but the expence of the neutralizing substances must 

 have been so great, even bad the principle been applica- 



ble, as to rentier the plan altogether out of the question. 

 After Dr. Trotter's pamphlet, nothing particular ap- 

 peared for years upon this important subject, the inin- V entila- 

 ing engineers therefore applied their whole skill and tion . 

 energies in producing a circulation by the means be- 

 fore mentioned, particularly upon the principles of ra- 

 refaction and exhaustion by fire. 



In some cases, fish, which, in the incipient stage of Expedients 

 putrefaction, give a strong phosphoric light, had been f " ll *. ht * 

 tried to give light to the miner in very dangerous l 

 cases ; and the light produced by the collision of 

 flint and steel was naivenally employed when candles 

 could not be used without producing an explosion. 

 The machine for producing this light is named a steel 

 mill, which will be particularly noticed afterwards. 

 Philosophers proposed the various kinds of phospho- 

 rus, but these were altogether insufficient lor the 

 purpose. When tried in the mines they only produced 



; melancholy light, and rather tended to ren- 

 der the " darkness visible :" In the meantime the mines 

 were extended, and the melancholy catastrophes con- 

 stantly increased. At last an explosion and catastrophe Dreadful 

 took place at Fcllingcollicry, near (latcshrad, in the coun- explosion 



; lurham. about a mile and a half distant fri-m New- ** Felling 

 castle, more dreadful and melancholy in their consc- CoUlel 7' 



e* than any which had ever taken place in the 

 collieries of (Ireat Britain. This colliery was working 

 with great vigour, and under a most regular system, 

 both as to the mining operations and ventilation ; the 

 latter was effected by a furnace and nir-tul>e placed upon 

 a rise pit on mind south from the turn- 



pike road leading to Sunderland. The depth of the 

 winning wa* above 100 fathom.* ; twenty-fix e acre* of 

 coal bad been excav. > w as the execution 



of work, that from one pit they were drawing at the 

 rate of 1700 ton* of coal wei'.ly. I '( :i t'.i 

 May, 1812, the night-shift was relieved by the 

 shift of miners .. 



and twenty-one persons were in the i 

 taken their several places, when, at half-p. 

 o'clock, the gas fired, and produced a n.. 

 explosion, which alarmed all the neighbouring 

 " The subterraneous fire broke forth with r.vo I 

 discharges from the dip-pit, and t' utly 



followed by one from the rise-pit. A slight trimbling, 

 as from an earthquake, was felt for about half a mile 

 around the colliery, and the noise of < ion, 



though dull, wa* heard at from three to four miles dis- 

 tance. Immense quantities of dust and small coal ac- 

 companied these blast*, and ro-c high into the air, in 



rm of an inverted cone. The hea\ie>t p;irt of the 

 ejected matter, such a* corves, wood, and small coal, 

 fell near the pits, but the dust, born away bv a strong 

 we*t wind, fell in a continued shower to the d 

 a mile and a half from the pit. In the adjoining vil- 

 lage of Heworth it caused a darkness like that of early 

 twilight, and covered the road* so thickly, that the foot- 

 step* of passengers were imprinted in it. The heads ,,;' 

 both shaft-frames were blown off, their sides set on fire, 

 and their pulleys shattered in piece*. The coal-dust 

 ejected from the rise-pit into the horizontal part of the 

 ventilating tube was olxjut three inches thick, and soon 

 burnt to a < iiuler ; pieces of burning coal driven off 

 the solid stratum of the mine were also blown up this 

 shaft." 



Such were the fearful and volcanic effect* in the mine 

 and atmosphere ; but we have yet to state the result of 

 4 



