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calls loudly upon the Government of the country, and upon 
every man of humane mind, to try to devise some means by 
which such dreadful catastrophes may, as far as possible, be 
prevented ; and, at the same time, to provide for the pitmen 
the means of escape, should any such unfortunately happen. 
Having these objects in view, I have for some time past 
turned my attention to the subject, viz., a safe mode of 
working and ventilating coal mines, more particularly in the 
Barnsley or thick coal bed. This coal, as well as the strata 
overlaying it, gives out considerable quantities of inflammable 
gas (carburetted hydrogen), which, being nearly colourless, 
and extremely elastic and light, — its specific gravity being 
about one-half that of common air, — has a strong tendency, 
as soon as liberated, to rush upwards, and to accumulate in 
all the upper crevices and intricacies of the mine. Bearing 
in mind these characteristics and tendencies of the gas to be 
expelled from the mine by ventilation, and having carefully 
reconsidered the subject, I adhere to 3 and strongly recom- 
mend for adoption by coal proprietors, the general principles 
indicated in my letter on this subject, of the 9th April last, 
to Sir George Grey, the Home Secretary. These princi- 
ples are — 
1st. That before the coal is begun to be got from the 
banks or wide icorks of the mine, the board-gates or air 
passages should be driven through the coal to cross headings 
communicating with the furnace and up-cast pit placed at 
the extreme rise of the coal-field intended to be got by means 
of the same winning. 
2nd. That the coal should be wrought down bank from 
the cross headings, so as to place the goaves or wastes behind 
the men, betwixt them and the furnace and up-cast pit, and 
thus, should an explosion happen, to ensure the means of 
escape through the passages in the solid coal to the drawing 
pit. 
z z 
