COAL AND COLLIERY EXPLOSIONS. 
363 
Inspector, Mr. Bell, reports that great carelessness is displayed 
by the men in neglecting to examine and prop their places in 
the absence of the deputy, or other officer ; but that it has been 
elicited at inquests that the time allowed the collier is not 
sufficient for him to do his work and attend to his own safety. 
In the opinion of Mr. Dickenson, the Senior Inspector of 
Mines under the Home Office, “ attention to safety has noiu been 
brought almost to an extreme point . To carry it further would 
be impossible without making life miserable.” Colliery accidents 
of all classes have been steadily decreasing during the last 
quarter of a century. 
Though occasionally accidents may arise from ignorance or 
evasion of the law on the part of some of the staff, there can be 
little doubt that the large majority of explosions are due to 
several conditions happening at one moment, which, with our 
present appliances, no foresight exercised or discipline enforced 
on the part of the management, can possibly provide against. 
Just as some of the most terrible railway disasters occur to 
railway companies who spare no expense in providing the best 
rolling stock, the best steel rails, the latest signals, the most 
experienced staff, through an unfortunate combination of cir- 
cumstances, so with the best managed mines, receiving a perfect 
and ample amount of ventilation, a sudden outburst of gas, from 
a fall in the barometer, rise in temperature, and some local 
unavoidable accident in the mine, which would be unimportant 
at any other time, brings about the fatal combination, and a 
catastrophe results. 
No better example of this can be given than the explosion 
on Oct. 11, 1877, in the Wigan feet coal at Pemberton, be- 
longing to Messrs. Blundell, in which not only were 33 men 
killed by the accident, but my able and unfortunate friend Mr. 
Watkin, with two of his managers, was killed by the after- 
damp, in their heroic attempt to save life. 
The pits are 640 yards deep, and are sunk to the Wigan 
seams, the King and Cannel coals, the Orrel coals, the lowest of 
which is the well-known Arley mine, the lowest but most valued 
of the Lancashire coal seams belonging to the Middle Coal 
Measures. The downcast or Queen Pit is 17 feet diameter, 
the upcast or King Pit 19 feet 4 inches at the top, and 
18 feet at the bottom; the sides are lined with firebricks, 
and on each side are a pair of railway metals in which run the 
cages, six in number, and made of steel, with the steadiness and 
precision of an hotel lift. The two shafts are connected under- 
ground, and the ventilation effected by a Guibal fan, 46 feet in 
diameter, and 15 feet in width, driven by two engines, either of 
which is equal to the work on an emergency, no less than 225,000 
cubic feet of air per minute being set in motion. The air enters 
