The Sun.
London, England, 1852-08-31 00:00:00

EXPLOSIONS IN COAL MINES.

The Select Committee appointed last session to
inquire into the causes of the frequency of explosions
in coal mines, with a view to prevent the appalling
loss of life arising from them, and who were em-
powered to report their observations, together
with the minutes of evidence taken before them,
to the House, have considered the matters to
them referred, and agreed to the following report :
" Your Committee had in the first place to consider
how best, in the short space of time permitted them in
the present session, so to prosecute their inquiry as that
some early advantage might be derived from it to that
numerous class which is employed in the coal mines of
Great Britain.

"If they had consented to receive evidence from every
quarter from which it was tendered, not only would the
whole of their time have been occupied in the examination
of witnesses only, without an opportunity being afforded
to them of offering any conclusions of their own, but the
evidence would have been of that voluminous character
which renders it practically useless.
" Your Committee, therefore, considering the pressing
emergency of the matter committed to their charge, how
deeply the interests of humanity were involved (the
deaths from explosions having latterly increased to the
fearful number of about 1,000 per annum), determined
only to examine witnesses of the highest and most expe-
rienced character, in the hope that they might be able
to derive sound information on which to recommend ad-
ditional means for the prevention of such widespread
calamities during the present session,
' " They were the more induced to adopt this course
from the circumstance of a Committee of the House of
Commons having inquired into the subject in 1835 (Mr.
Pease chairman), and of a Committee of the House of
Lords (Lord Wharncliffe chairman), having repeated
the inquiry in 1849; and of a great mass of evidence
having been published by those Committees.
"But early in their sittings, the report from the
South Shields Committee, appointed to investigate the
causes of accidents in coalmines,' was brought under
their notice; to which report the attention of the House
of Lords' Committee was also directed in 184. On
examination, this report proved to be a repertory of in-
formation, so extensive, important, and apparently so
accurate, that it seemed to supersede in a measure the
necessity of examining very numerous witnesses.
This committee was appointed by a public meeting in
South Shields, held in consequence of the dreadful loss
of life by the explosion of the St. Hilda Mine, in
1839, close to that town. It continued its labour
for three years; visited in person various mines, com-
municated with many of the most scientific and prac-
tical men of the day, at home and abroad, and terminated
its labours by that report.
" The first witnesses, therefore, summoned by your
Committee, were the chairman of the South Shields
Committee, Mr. Ingham, late member for that borough,
and Mr. Mather, its honourary secretary, to authenticate
the accuracy of that report. The result was satisfactory.
To the evidence especially of Mr. Mather, whose labours
in this interesting cause of humanity are worthy of the
highest praise, they beg to refer. So much value do
your Committee attach to this document that they have
added it in extenso in an appendix to their report.
" The Committe of the House of Commons, in 1835,
called public attention to the undue confidence that
hitherto had been placed in the Davy lamp; suggested
that reliance should chiefly be placed for security on in-
creased ventilation ; and concluded by expressing the
hope that the evidence they published would stimulate
to such increase. It is to be regretted that so little at-
tention was paid to those beneficial suggestions.
" From the Committee of the House of Lords ema-
nated a recommendation for a Government inspection
of mines, which has since been adopted. The inse-
curity of the Davy lamp, under particular circum-
stances, was implied. They report—' Better ventila-
Wien, however, appears to bo the improvement most
generally needed and most to be aimed at.' They state,
in addition, that the mines of Scotland are compara-
tively free from danger from explosion. To this a me-
lancholy contradiction has been given by the calamitous
tragedy, last year, of the Nitshill colliery explosion,
near Glasgow; and by the statement of the Government
inspector of that district, Mr. M. Dunn, in a late report
to the Secretary of State, in which he says that the de-
partment of Scotland exhibits a greater succession of ac-
cidents, in proportion to the number of persons employed,
than in England.'
"The Committee of the House of Lords refers also
with some stress, among other plans, to the proposal to
increase ventilation by means of the steam jet. This plan
had been suggested by Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney, its
inventor, to the Committee of 1835. It is the system al-
most exclusively relied on by the South Shields Com-
mittee in their report for increased security from ex-
plosion.
" Having considered, therefore, the laboura of those
who have preceded them, as well in reports of Com-
mittees of the two Houses as in those of inspectors and
others; and having verified the authenticity of the South
Shields report; and having discovered that nothing new
upon the subject appears to have been elicited since
the report of the South Shields Committee, except
on some important conditions connected with ven-
tilation pointed out by Mr. Gurney before the
Lords' Committee, as to what he termed the furnace
limit,' and the formation of a natural brattice,' and the
furnace paradox;' and all these reports having leaned
to the conclusion that increased ventilation was the only
true and secure means for the prevention of explosions,
your Committee determined, if possible within the limits
of the present session, to bring the matter and the means
of increased ventilation to some more practicable issue
than that to which it had hitherto been brought; and
for the conclusions to which they have come, they beg
to refer to the very interesting evidence which they now
publish.
" Your Committee are of opinion—
" That any system of ventilation depending on com-
plicate machinery is unadvisable, since under any dis-
arrangement or fracture of its parts the ventilation is
stopped or becomes less efficient.
" That the two systems which alone can be considered
as rival powers aro the furnace and the steam jet.
" The furnace system, under favourable circumstances,
i. e, of the area of the shafts being large and deep, the
air-courses sufficient, the goaves (or old workings) well
insulated, and the mine not very fiery, appears to be
capable, with strict attention, of producing a current of
air that will afford reasonable security from
explosion;
but when the workings are fiery and numerous as well
as remote, and the intensity of the furnace or furnaces
requires to be raised in order to increase, on any parti-
cular emergency, the amount of ventilation, then the fur-
nace not only refuses to answer the spur and to increase
ventilation, but from a natural law (discovered by Mr.
Gurney, and scientifically and practically confirmed be-
fore your Committee), there arises a dangerous stoppage
n iea
to the ventilation going on throughout the mine. An
explanation of this is given urailner
ththee,
rhreecadh
heads ' Natural
Brattice,' and Furnace Limit,'
Defi-
nitions and Explanations' at the foot of this report.
Under the head of Furnace Paradox' will bo shown the
importance of the water gauge as a test of the drag of
the mine which produces the furnace limit under the
furnace system.
" To the powers of the steam jet, on the other hand,
there appears to be no practical limit; for although it
acts, when placed (where recommended) at the bottom of
the upcast as a rarefier to the extent of the steam used,
and fire under the boiler, its principal or direct efficiency
depends upon its power of propulsion. The heated air
not only rises from rarefaction, but any amount of cold
air can be bodily pushed up the upcast, the amount
merely depending on the number and size of jets em-
ployed, and the pressure of steam.
" This power of the steam jet, although recommended
so strongly by the South Shields Committee, in 1843, did
not appear to have been so extensively introduced, or so
thoroughly tested, as to be taken by your Committee
for granted, notwithstanding the testimony borne to its
efficiency by most intelligent witnesses. They held their
judgment in suspense for the greater part of their in-
quiry. They adjourned to the Polytechnic Institution,
and there had ocular demonstrations of its power; they
summoned before them Mr. Nicholas Wood, considered
the most experienced exponent and defender of the fur-
nace system. They heard nothing from him to weaken
the impression which grew upon their minds of the
great power of the steam jet as a ventilator. Still, from
its having been, as stated, ignorantly applied in some
cases, and producing less effect than had been described
in such cases, the superiority of it over the furnace
in actual practice had not been adequately proved to
them until Mr. Foster, next to Mr. N. Wood, it seems,
the largest viewer of the north of England, appeared
before them.
" The evidence of Mr. Forster in favour of the steam
jet, from long and constant use, was conclusive, and
any doubt previously existing was at once removed. To
the whole of his moat valuable evidence reference should
be made.

"Your Committee are unanimously of opinion that
the steam jet is the most powerful, and at the same time
least expensive method for the ventilation of mines.
" Previous to 1848, when Mr. Forster introduced the
steam jet into the Seaton Delaval Mine, the firedamp
was constantly seen playing around the face and edged
of the goaves and oter parts of the workings. Since
that period the mine is swept so clean that it is never
observed, and all danger of explosion seems removed in
a very fiery mine. The increase of ventilation is from
63,000 cubic feet per minute, under the furnace system,
to 84,000 under the steam jet; and to double that quan-
tity, which Mr. Forster considers sufficient, would, he
says, only require the application of some extra jets.
Mr. Forster states the original outlay for tho steam jet
to be less than for the furnace by 391. I ss. 61, and the
annual cost to be less by 50/. 12s. id., while the power of
ventilation is increased to nearly double.
" Notwithstanding the increase of ventilation which
Mr. N. Wood states he has obtained in one of his col-
lieries where the areas of the shafts aro very large, and
by the aid of three furnaces, it appeared in evidence that
the explosion at the Killingvvortu Colliery last autumn,
un,ler Mr. N. Wood's management, took place under the
furnace system of ventilation.
" Although a few of the witnesses (two of the most
intelligent of the Government inspectors among the
number) seemed to have misunderstood the mode in
which the steam jet operated as a ventilator, and pro-
fessed themselves so fur unacquainted with it as to be
unable to form an accurate judgment on its merits, all
the witnesses, with scarce an exception, coincided in the
opinion that in a fiery mine, even where the furnace
system was thought sufficient under ordinary circum-
stances it would be a prudent and almost necessary pre-
caution to have a steam jet apparatus at the top of tne
downcast, connected with the boiler of the engine which
worked the mine, in case a sudden and great increase of
power was required under pressing omergenny.