4 
NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE. 
reign of Edward VI. this borough was united to New- 
csflle; but in the fucceeding reign it was redored to the 
fee of Durham, See. Previous to the former event, it ap¬ 
pears, from Strype’s Annals, that the mayor and bur- 
gefles of the latter place purchafed from Thomas Sutton, 
founder of the Charter-houfe in London, for i2,oool. 
“ the manor of Gatelhead, with all the manors, coal-pits, 
and coal-mines, in Gatelhead and Wickham, with the 
common wades, &c.” The trade of this place is not 
very extenfive; it however poffefles feveral manufacto¬ 
ries, particularly of call and wrought iron, whiting, See. 
The population was dated in the late returns at 8597, 
inhabiting nor houfes. 
Heaton-hall, fituated about two miles eaft from New- 
caltle, is the feat of tire family of the Bidleys ; and near 
it are the ruins of an old building, fortified on the north, 
and faid to have been one of the places of king John’s 
retreat from the fury of his rebellious barons.—Walls- 
Eud, the Segedummi of the Romans, lies dill farther to 
the ead ; and derives its prefent appellation from the cir- 
oumftance of the great done barrier erefted by Adrian 
terminating clofe to the village. Some remains of the 
Roman fortrefs appear in a field called the Well, or Wall 
Laws. In finking the pits of the colliery here, many cu¬ 
rious and valuable relics of Roman art were dug up by the 
workmen.—At Benwell, two miles wed from Newcadle, 
was the Condercum of the Notitia, and the dation of the 
Ala Adorum. A hypocaudum, a very fine urn, (now 
in Durham library,) and a variety of inlcribed dones and 
coins, were difeovered here at different periods in the lad 
century.—Gosforth-houfe, the feat of C. J. Brandling, 
efiq. is a fplendid manlion, fituated about four miles north 
from the town. 
Other feats in this neighbourhood are Stote-hall, Eland- 
hall, and Blagdon-liall.— Ogle Cadle, the ancient refi- 
dence of the Ogles, in which David king of Scots lay 
the fird night of his captivity, is now in ruins.—Not far 
from hence, adjoining the village of Walton, are the re¬ 
mains of a very remarkable encampment, fuppofed to be 
of Danilh or Saxon origin. 
The importance of the coal-trade in our country is fo 
well underdood, that nothing need be faid to enforce the 
conviction of it; but lately, the humanity alfo of the pub¬ 
lic has been deeply aftcCled by events which have happened 
in the profecution of this bufinefs ; and every feeling 
heart has differed on perufing accounts of difaders fo 
dreadful as thofe which it is now our duty to introduce. 
The explofions of inflammable air in coal-mines, arife 
from the ignition of carburetted hydrogen evolved from 
the drata, and mixed with the atmofpheric air that cir¬ 
culates through the mine. Thefe explofions very fre¬ 
quently occasion the mod fatal effeCts, dedroying the lives 
of all the perfons employed, as well as of the horfes, and 
producing great mifehief to the fubterranean works. 
Some mines are much more liable to accidents from this 
caufe than others. In fome the carburetted hydrogen ac¬ 
cumulates flowly from the want of due circulation; in 
other mines, it is generated very rapidly, iffuing from fif- 
fures called blowers, which occur either in the roof, the 
.floor, or the fides of the mine. 
In the coal-fields of theTyne and the Wear, it has been 
edimated that fix hundred men and boys were dedroyed 
in two years by explofions in the mines ; but thefe acci¬ 
dents, unlefs they took place on a large fcale, were as 
much as poflible kept from public notice, partly from the 
fear of alarming the workmen, and partly from the ap- 
prehenfion of blame to the viewers and managers of the 
works. Of thefe melancholy catadrophes, few regiders 
are kept in any part of Great Britain ; but in the year 
iSio an explofion took place in a mine in the parilh of 
Felling near Newcadle, which, from the magnitude of 
the evil it occafioned, (101 lives being lod,) excited a 
general fenfation of horror throughout the country. In 
rids mine, the property of wealthy and liberal owners, no 
-expenfehad been fparecl in the introduction of machinery 
and the mod approved methods of ventilation, Not- 
withdanding this, on the 25th of May, 1812, the inflam¬ 
mable air exploded in two difeharges from one of the pits, 
which was Ihortly followed by a third from another pit. 
The depth of thefe explofions under the furface obtunded 
the found of the reports; but for half a mile round the 
vibrations of the earth announced the occurrence of the 
accident before the noife efcaped,and an alarm was created 
four or five miles round by low and hollow rumblings in 
the air. Immenfe volumes of denfe vapour and coal-dud, 
with pieces of wood and coal, were driven high into the 
atmofphere; and the mangled bodies of feveral men and 
boys were abfolutely thrown out of the ffiaft. The coun¬ 
try in the immediate vicinity was enveloped in darknefs, 
and every kind of machinery near the mouths of the pits 
was blown to pieces, or fet fire to. Out of a hundred and 
twenty men and boys employed in the mine, only thirty- 
two were faved, three of whom afterwards died. The 
coal being fet fire to, and the fubterranean works blown 
down or dedroyed, the owners were compelled to clofe 
the mouths of the pits in order to extinguifh the fire;. and 
it was not till the feventh or eighth of the following 
month that it could be re-opened to extradl the bodies, 
which were, many of them, too much mangled, and in 
too putrefeent a date, to be identified by the relatives. A 
feries of fimilar difaders, in each of which from twenty 
to thirty-five human beings were dedroyed, occurred foon 
afterwards in the fame didrifts ; and even in the Felling- 
mine another explofion took place in December 1813, by 
which twenty-three men and boys, and twelve horfes, 
were killed. The only method that had been adopted to 
prevent explofions, befides the ufual modes of ventilation 
for clearing the mine, was the fubditution of fleel-mills 
for candles. 
The Jieel-mill is an indrument for producing light by 
the collifion of flint and fleel: it confifls of a brafs wheel 
about five inches in diameter, with fifty-two teeth, which 
works a pinion w'ith eleven teeth. On the axis of the pi¬ 
nion is fitted a thin jagged deel wheel, from five to fix 
inches in diameter; againd the circumference of this 
wheel the (harp edge of a flint is fixed, and the toothed 
wheel has a handle, which is turned by a boy; the whole 
machine being fixed in an iron frame fulpended by a lea¬ 
ther belt. The deel wheel revolves with great velocity, 
and elicits a dream of fcintillations, which give a conft- 
derable light. Where the mines were fufpe&ed to con¬ 
tain inflammable air, thefe machines were uled ; but, befides 
affording only an undeady light, and being difficult to 
manage, many indances had occurred of the air igniting 
from the fcintillations of deel-mills. For the purpofe of 
exploring the unworked and more dangerous parts of the 
mine, the deel-mill was both an inconvenient and in¬ 
complete indrument; but until the year 1809 no method 
of lighting had been attempted which might fuperfede 
its ul’e. 
About that time Dr. Reid Clanny, a fcientific and in¬ 
genious phyfician at Sunderland, commenced a feries of 
experiments, with a view to infulate the gas which might 
explode in a lamp, and cut off its communication with 
the furrounding air in the mine. With this intent, he 
condrudled a lamp in which the combudion of the oil or 
tallow is fupported by the ordinary air of the coal-mine 
fupplied by a pair of bellows, and palling through a ftra- 
tiim or refervoir of water below the light; at the lame 
time, a portion of the air already in the lamp is driven 
through another refervoir in the upper part above the 
light, and thus the air fupplied may explode within the 
body of the lamp without communicating the flame to 
the external air, however highly it may be charged with 
carburetted hydrogen gas. The moment the air enters 
the lamp it comes in contact with the flame, and conf®- 
quently onlyafmall portion of it can be exploded, indead 
of the whole contents of the lamp ; by this means feveral 
obvious advantages are fecured. The air palling in a brilk 
current dole by the flame carries the fnuff with it, fo that 
the 
