COAL AND COLLIERY EXPLOSIONS. 
365 
tion, who assisted in the recovery of the dead after the explo- 
sion, reports that out of the 26,000 feet of air supplied to the 
pit, 16,000 travelled in the south part of the mine, and by the 
time it had reached its destination had probably lost not less than 
6,000 to 8,000 feet, having to supply air through 756 yards of 
wood brattice and 1 7 stoppings. 
The men who worked in the colliery at the time of the ex- 
plosion used naked oil lamps fixed in their caps, in a mine in 
which seven days after the occurrence which destroyed more than 
200 men, no less than 60 yards of level was filled with gas. 
Shots had been fired by the men, in the firemen’s absence, and 
the traces removed with clay and sandpaper, and only a dozen 
Davy lamps were on the premises. 
The explosion at Hay dock on June 7 of this year took place 
in the Wood Pit, which has two shafts, 78 yards apart and 243 
yards deep, and both are on the north side of the Red Rock 
Fault. The Higher Florida coal at 105 yards, and the Lower 
Florida at 118, are worked out. At 217 yards is the Raven- 
head Higher Delf partially worked, from which a tunnel was 
driven through the fault, to the Higher Florida, which is thrown 
down 170 yards. 
The workings of the Higher Florida Mine south are bounded 
on two sides by faults, which are known in the district as the 
Downall Grreen, north-south fault, and the Red Rock, east-west 
fault, which meet in the highest point in the mine, near which 
was the spot where Evans and Clare worked, the men in whose 
place the gas was. 
Gras also appears to have been evolved from the old workings 
near the Downall Grreen fault. 
The ventilation came through the tunnel above mentioned, 
and after passing through the workings made its way through a 
special air course, to the North Ravenhead Main Delf workings, 
and thence back again into the upcast shaft, the whole length 
of the air being 400 or 500 yards. Two furnaces in the upcast 
shaft at different heights provide motive power. No fans or 
steam jets were used till after the accident. 
On the south side of the fault, the High Florida is 279 yards 
from the surface, 4 feet 6 inches thick, and a soft and freely 
worked coal not requiring blasting ; no powder was used in the 
seam at all, and the Davy lamps belonged to the firm, and 
were kept riveted, and metal-sealed with their initials. 
To expect that an ordinary gang of pitmen shall have a 
knowledge of the physical laws on which their safety depends, is 
for the present an impossibility, for large numbers of these men 
can neither read nor write ; but there ought to be no difficulty 
in teaching them the provisions of the Act of Parliament, 
which they as well as the management are by law obliged to 
