at Wallsend Colliery, June, 1835. 347 



nity, and the more clearly their nature is understood, the less reason will 

 be found to impute blame to those whose lot it is to have the direction and 

 superintendence of collieries, which are subject to such dreadful catastro- 

 phes, and which imposes upon them such serious responsibility. 



All the collieries in this district, which are worked below the sea level,* 

 are subject to an evolvement of carburetted hydrogen gas, to a greater or 

 less extent. Such mines must, therefore, be subject to explosion, in spite 

 of the means which have yet been devised for its prevention. For, al- 

 though those means may be considered as giving security under certain 

 conditions, still, like every thing else, of human invention, and of human 

 application, they are fallible. Consequently, the utmost stretch of the 

 Colliery Viewer's art and vigilance, only amounts to an approximation to- 

 wards safety. It is, however, exceedingly difficult to define precisely, 

 what import or value we are to attach to our ideas of safety, even in many 

 of the ordinary occurrences of life. As in all cases involving risk of any 

 kind, the idea of safety can only be taken in a qualified sense. 



If we mount our horse, take a journey in a gig or coach, or set out on a 

 voyage in a steamer, we consider ourselves, in the common acceptation of 

 the word — safe. Yet, in all those cases, fatal accidents frequently happen. 

 It is not necessary that I should multiply examples, but thus it is with our 

 fiery collieries. We presume they are safe, when we have carried all the 

 means which we possess for effecting that object into full operation, and 

 we can only hope they may be efficacious, but cannot guard against inci- 

 dental and unforeseen causes of danger over which we have no controul. 



This was the case at Wall's End Colliery, as will afterwards appear, and 

 it is the case with not only that, but with every other colliery in the neigh- 

 bourhood. They are all safe in the qualified sense already stated, but are 

 all subject to risk from causes for which human ingenuity has not yet been 

 able to point out an effectual remedy. 



Ventilation is the only means with which we are yet acquainted for 

 clearing our coal mines from the constant influx of inflammable air to 

 which they are subject. Sir Humphry Davy, and other chemists, have 



* Generally speaking, carburetted hydrogen seldom appears in large quantities, in the 

 seams of coal lying above the level of the sea in this country. 



