24 FORMATION OF THE SOCIETY : UNPUBLISHED RECORDS. 
the case, and that the throw had been met with in the Middle ton 
colliery, and also in a colliery to the west of Middleton, where the 
coal had been worked up to it for a considerable distance. At 
Middleton, the throw was evidently a downcast to the south, as the 
fissure of it was first met with on the roof of the coal ; if the fissure 
had been first found in the floor, then it w^ould have been an upcast, 
and would have destroyed the theory of Mr. Briggs and Mr. Morton. 
This was the only gap in Mr. Morton's section which required filling 
up, and a knowledge of the existence of this throw was enough of 
itself to prove the non -identity of the two seams, and of course, when 
this was done it was evident that the seams lying above the 
Haigh Moor coal were not the same as those found above the Middle- 
ton Main coal. Mr. Embleton begged to call the attention of the meet- 
ing to the patent safety fuse of Mr. Davy, of Camborne, in the county 
of Cornwall, which he assured the meeting would tend to diminish 
the many serious accidents from the premature ignition of gun- 
powder in blasting rocks and coal. In appearance, it was similar 
to turned cord, and enclosed a cylinder of gunpowder of 3-16ths 
of an inch in diameter. No " Spindle " being required, all ac- 
cidents arising from the friction of the " stemming " against it 
was prevented. It was well adapted to conveying fire to charge 
under water. It had been introduce 1 into Cornwall, and wherever 
it had been used, accidents had visibly diminislied. Mr. Embleton 
then produced specimens of Middletonite, a new mineral which he 
discovered at Middleton colliery about five years ago, and which had 
lately been analysed by Professor Johnston, and found to be a 
peculiar compound of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, and closely 
allied to oil of turpentine. The professor considered it to be an 
altered resin belonging to one of those trees, from which it seems 
probable coal may have been formed. In confirmation of this, 
Mr. Embleton stated that it was found in thin L.yers in the coal, that 
the thin layers were not continuous, and that the resin appeared to lie 
on the bark of the tree from which it had exuded, for when the separa- 
tion between this substance and the coal was minutely examined, it was 
not a plain surface, but exhibited some indentations, as are found in 
making a section of the bark of some trees. 
