184 



The Ventilation of Coal Mines. 



[April, 



In other districts the most serious accidents from explosions 



have been the following : — 



1852. Nitshill, Scotland 



61 lives lost. 



Gwendreath, South Wales 



27 



JT 



Middle Dyffryn, Aberdare 



68 





Coppul , 



36 



„ 



1853. Bent Grange, Oldham . 



20 



)> 



1854. Warren Yale, Eotherham 



52 



n 



Ince Hall, Lancashire 



89 



j» 



1856. Cymmer, Rhondd .... 



. 114 





1857. Lundhill, Barnsley .... 



. 189 



„ 



1858. Bardsley, Ashton .... 



53 



«» 



1862. Cethiu, Merthyr .... 



47 



♦» 



1862. Edmund's Main, Barnsley 



59 



»» 



1866. Oaks .... about 300 



>> 



1866. Talk-o'-the-Hill .... 



91 



»» 



The examples which have been given show that the coal-miner 

 has to guard against a terrible enemy ; and although a larger num- 

 ber of deaths occur in our coal-pits from other causes which 

 demand our most serious attention, it is necessary that, for the 

 present, we should dwell exclusively on the conditions under which 

 fire-damp is formed, and on the methods which are adopted to 

 remove it or render it inactive. This article addresses itself to the 

 intelligent reader who may be desirous of receiving correct impres- 

 sions upon a subject of great general interest ; therefore the student 

 of science must excuse the, to him, rudimentary details, which are 

 thought necessary. 



Numerous theories have been, from time to time, promul- 

 gated relative to the formation of coal, and many of them have 

 been received, by our most able geologists, as explaining the 

 observed phenomena. No one can deny the vegetable origin of 

 coal ; its chemical composition, its physical conditions, and the 

 evidences of embedded plants, are sufficiently satisfactory. But 

 that coal has been formed from woody fibre, rather than from the 

 succulent parts of plants, or from plants containing but little wood, 

 is not by any means so evident. Several microscopic observers 

 have thought that they have detected ligneous structure in coal ; 

 but when the same sections have been submitted to the botanist, 

 he has generally decided that no such structure was apparent. 

 This is spoken of the true old coal, and has no reference to 

 Tertiary coal (Bituminous Wood, Lignite, &c). Groeppert,* to 

 whom we are indebted for many valuable researches on coal, says, 

 " there are but few varieties of coal in which their vegetable origin 

 can be detected by anatomical examination ; and even in Tertiary 

 coal the change is so far advanced, that scarcely anything more 

 can be recognized than a few elementary organs." " Coal," writes 



* * Poggend Annal,' vol. lxxxvi., p. 482. 



