MINES WORKED BY THE AID OF THE SAFETY LAMP. 
183 
to 538. To account for this increase, it may 
be sufficient to observe, that the quantity of 
coal raised in the said counties has greatly 
increased ; seams of coal, so fiery as to have 
lain unwrought,* have been approached and 
worked by the aid of the safety-lamp.-h Many 
dangerous mines were successfully carried 
on though in a most inflammable state, and 
without injury to the general health of the 
people employed in them. I Add to this the 
idea entertained, that on the introduction of 
that lamp the necessity for former precau- 
tions and vigilance in a great measure ceased. 
This fact led your committee to a serious 
part of their inquiry, how are these calamities 
to be prevented for the future 1 They desire 
fully to recognize the undoubted rights of pro- 
perty, enterprise, and labour. They ac- 
knowledge their conviction, that the public 
interest has been served by the opening of the 
more dangerous mines§, and the competition 
their working has created, they do not over- 
look the anxious care alleged to have been 
maintained to diminish the attendant ris'. || ; 
but they deem it their duty to state their de- 
cided opinion, that the interests of humanity 
demand consideration, and they would gladly 
put it to the owners of the mines how far any 
object of pecuniary interest or personal gain, 
or even t' e assumed advantage of public 
competition, can justify the continued expo- 
sure of men and boys in situations where 
science and mechanical skill have failed in 
providing anything like adequate protection.^ 
Immediately after their appointment, your 
commiitee received intelligence that a most 
awful and melancholy catastrophe had taken 
place at Wallsend colliery, between New- 
castle-on-Tyne and Shields.** Having called 
for a copy of the evidence taken by the coro- 
ner, it has been produced, and accompanies 
this report. The particulars it contains, 
extracted in the course of an able and patient 
investigation, and the further elucidation of 
the casett, as contained in the evidence of M i. 
Buddie before your committee, are of a deeply 
interesting character, the whole furnishing an 
example of a most dangerous mine, which, 
though conducted on princit)les sanctioned by 
some of the most eminent colliery viewers and 
best pitmen, cannot be considered secure from 
the recurrence of similar calamities. Your 
committee refer to the verdict of the jury, and 
to a document (pp. 177—78) containing the 
opinions of a highly respectable meeting in 
Newcastle, as proofs that, in the judgment of 
well informed individuals, no reasonable pre- 
caution had been omitted. The melancholy 
result was, that in an instant 101 men and 
boys were killed. 
Here your committee would observe, that 
without any disposition to question the zealous 
and faithful discharge of their important duties 
♦ 1639. + 758., 
t 1417. 1491. .363. 1621. 1859.1413 1623.1646. 
^ 2396. II 1794.1799. H 2069.2090.2165. 
♦♦ 1239. t+ Pages 179.190, 
by local coroners and juries*, it may be expe- 
dient to consider how far it is necessary to pro- 
vide that, at the earliest possible opportunity, 
information of every accident attended with 
death to a large number of His Majesty’s sub- 
jects, should be transmitted to the secretary of 
stale for the home department, and that he, or 
the chief justice of .England, His Majesty’s 
coioner, should, at his or their discretion, 
direct the attendance of some fit and proper 
person or persons by them to be appointed, 
to be present at and assist the said coroner 
and the jury in their investigations. From 
such a proceeding results the most valuable 
to humanity and science might be obtained ; 
the aim of justice would be still better secured, 
and to the public (particularly the relations 
of the deceased), the verdict would be deli- 
vered under the best pos.sible recommendation, 
and with the highest sanction 
The presence of carbonic acid gast, or 
choke-damp, though less sudden and violent 
in its consequences, has proved a fatal attend- 
ant of the miner in innumerable instances, 
and this in districts where explosions are 
rare and insignificarl. f; Other noxious gases, 
varying in kind an.d combination, are also 
stated to exist in certain mines, and furnish 
additional subjects for chemical investiga- 
tion. § Inundations of water have occasion- 
ally been very destructive. [j There still re- 
mains a long list of casualties^f , some of 
which are wholly beyond human control 
inseparable from mining pursuits, and their 
fatal results are often justly attributed to 
ignorance or a w’anton neglect of ordinary 
caution, and a recklessness of danger in 
defiance of common discretion-** 
Your committee, strongly impressed with the 
paramountimjiortanceofthatpartof the ques- 
tion referred to them which calls upon them to 
investigate the best method of preventing the 
recurrence of these calamities, have assidu- 
ously and anxiously inquired into the nature 
and success of the means already adopted. In 
this part of the inquiry your committee have 
had the voluntary and valuable aid of philan- 
throphic and scientific individuals to whom 
the community is greatly indebted. The 
means of prevention may be divided under 
three heads : 1. Ventilation ; 2. Safety-lamps : 
3. Maps or plans. 
1. VentilationtT, hy wliich is meant, any 
adequate supply of atmo^'pherical air, suffi- 
cient as an active agent to displace deleteri- 
ous gases, or so to adulterate those gases as to 
leave them no longer explosive, or, as in the 
case of carbonic acid gas no longer fatal to 
vitality.;!;^ On ventilation and the daily, 
unceasing, strict discharge of duly§§ by every 
person engaged about the mines, from the 
scientific, professional viewers, through all 
grades, the' under viewer, the wasteman, the 
overman, the deputy, the lamp-keeper,, the pit- 
man, down to the trapper ("often a boy too 
* 2281 2261. + 1528.1849.2375.3345.684. ^ 2506. 
^ 876. 11 2366. 5 1824.2450. ** 1779.2040.205i: 
2191.2252.2351 2965.1082.1132. 
+ + 1605. H 527. ^^ 1567.1613, 
