THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
267 
The Government Inspector deposed that “ all the circumstances went 
to show that the fireman did not examine the place before the men 
went to work, and that one of the men walked into it with a naked 
candle and ignited the gas.” 
At the second explosion (at the Aldwarke Main Colliery, near 
Rotherham), the fire-trier appears to have made his customary inspec¬ 
tion and found all safe at the place where the explosion occurred, and 
had left his usual sign to indicate to the men that all was right. The 
opinion of the engineer was that a considerable fall of roof (of the 
working) had occurred after he had left, and that, before the liberated 
gas had time to be carried away by the ventilating current, the men 
entered and met the gas, which immediately fired. u Had there been 
a delay,.or had the men been provided ivith safety-lamps , the 
accident would in all probability have been averted.” In the Report of 
the accident it is stated that the men in that district will rather leave a 
colliery than be subject to the strict enforcement of the rules of the 
Act passed to ensure their safety, and that some such calamity was 
needed to enforce proper regulations for the safe working of the mine. 
There can be no question that the comparatively dim light afforded 
even by the best constructed lamps in general use is the cause of great 
temptation to the men to use uncovered lights; it is therefore much to 
be hoped that continued efforts may be made to apply the electric light 
to the illumination of mine workings. Some approach to success in 
this direction was already attained ten years ago, and one cannot but 
have great faith in the ultimate feasibility of some portable method of 
illumination by electric agency. 
There are, however, causes other than the use of unprotected lights 
which contribute to the production of coal-mine explosions. Efficient 
ventilation of workings, whether in use- or not, whereby all dangerous 
accumulation of fire-damp is avoided and any sudden eruption of gas 
may be rapidly dealt with (the gas being largely diluted and swept 
away as speedily as possible) is indispensable to the safe working of 
the mine (without any reference to the health of the men) so long as 
there is any temptation for the use of naked lights. The original 
laying out of a working greatly affects the question of efficient ven¬ 
tilation, and explosions have been clearly traced to gas accumulations 
which there was sufficient power of ventilation to reduce if the nature 
of the working had admitted of its proper application. At the Bignall 
Hill Colliery, where the fearful explosion occurred on Christmas Eve 
last, the ventilation had been reported imperfect about three weeks 
before the accident, and the Government Inspector stated that the 
deficient ventilation was due to the improper laying out of the work. 
In arranging for the efficient ventilation of a mine, ample provision for 
rapidly applying* extra artificial ventilating power should be made; 
and in connection with this the interesting and useful series of obser¬ 
vations should be borne in mind which have been made public in 
communications to the Royal Society and the Meteorological Society 
by Messrs. R. H. Scott and W. Galloway. Those gentlemen have 
clearly established a connection between the occurrence of meteoro¬ 
logical changes and colliery explosions; they have shown that explosions 
35 
