444 



Accident at Felling Colliery, 



[June, 



air was conducted to number 45. After this the stopping above 

 the crane was taken down, and the workmen were employed 

 from the night of the 18th to the morning of the 22d of July, 

 in making a brattice from the north-west corner of the fourth 

 right-hand pillar above the crane, to the south-east corner of the 

 pillar next above the drift to the William Pit. By this con- 

 trivance the fire-damp on the south side of the plane-board was 

 not only pent in by two rows of stoppings above the crane, but 

 it was left at liberty to escape into the drift on the south side of 

 the brattice, represented by the line x n in the annexed figure. 



July the 22d. Numbers 46 and 4?, as well as 39, had pro- 

 bably attempted to make their escape from the blast — they were 

 lying on their faces, their heads downwards, and their hands 

 spread forwards : 46 was working with 48 ; and 39, 4/, 49, and 

 50, were blasting stone from the roof at 49. 



Little progress was made on t[ie 23d ; for after 51 was found, 

 the day was chiefly spent in removing two heavy falls under 

 which 52 and 53 were buried. The last of these had his em- 

 ployment in the second board south of the plane-board ; he had 

 therefore at the time of the accident either not commenced his 

 work, or left it to talk with the young men at 49. 



A|bout ten o'clock this evening the piece of solid coal between 

 the face of the first board south of the William Pit, and the 

 double head-ways on the west of it, began to be pierced. After 

 being bored through with a miner's augur, the hole was kept 

 perfectly tight by a wooden plug, while a passage for the men 

 was opened. Iron picks were used till the coal was thin, when 

 it was battered down in tlie dark with a wooden prop. Then 

 picks of oak and lignum vitse, hardened in the fire, were used 

 in widening the avenue; and the steel-mills not suffered to play 

 till the air took a regular suck past 54, "Jd, 78, and behind the 

 brattice, x n, into the William Pit drift. This work was 

 finished a little after twelve o'clock. 



Before two o'clock in the morning of the 24th number 54 was 

 reached. It is worthy of remark that nearly the whole of the 

 men found in this line of boards had fallen on the very spot 

 where they were employed. In the progress of obtaining the 

 bodies from 54 to 60, nothing particular occurred except a large 

 fail, under which number 59 was found. 



