384 Dr. Turner's Chemical Examination of the Fire Damp 



No. XX. — Chemical Examination of the Fire Damp, from the Coal Mines, 

 near Newcastle, hy Edward Turner, M. D., F. R. S., Lond. and Edinb., 

 V. P. G. S., Professor of Chemistry in the University of London* 



1 he gases subjected to examination were collected under the direction 

 of Mr. Hutton, by emptying Winchester quart bottles filled with water, at 

 the spot where it was designed to collect the gas, and then inserting a well- 

 greased ground glass stopper, which was afterwards secured in position by 

 cement and a covering of bladder. About half an ounce of water was left 



* From the period of its institution the Natural History Society had directed particular 

 attention to the evolution of gas in coal mines, and many papers had been read from time 

 to time when the feelings of the public were most painfully excited to the subject by the 

 awful calamity at Wallsend Colliery, on the 18th June, 1835, described by Mr. Buddie, in 

 the preceding paper. At this time, an enquiry was in progress before a committee of the 

 House of Commons, which soon after published its report. It was given in evidence be- 

 fore this committee, that both free hydrogen and defiant gas, occur in the atmosphere of 

 some coal mines ; this, as striking at once at the efficacy of the Davy lamp in prevent- 

 ing explosions, seemed to be a matter requiring immediate attention in a district where 



that instrument is so extensively used, and where its safety is so entirely relied upon 



With this view, immediately after the publication of the Parliamentary Report, the Natu- 

 ral History Society determined to institute such an enquiry, and Mr. Hutton was directed 

 to communicate with the committee of the Coal Trade to ask their valuable co-operation 

 and assistance : for this purpose he addressed the following letter to Robert Wm. Brand- 

 ling, Esq., the chairman. 



(Copy.) 



Newcastle, January 9 th, 1836. 

 Sir, 



I beg leave respectfully to state, that at the last meeting of the Natural History 

 Society, after the reading of a paper on the gas of mines, it was resolved that the Society 

 should do all in its power to promote an investigation into the nature of the gas evolved in our 

 different colleries, for the purpose of ascertaining if any other, and what gas, occurs besides 

 the common carburetted hydrogen, it having been stated in evidence before the late Parlia- 

 mentary Committee that free hydrogen and olefiant gas are both to be found in the mines of 



