The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-18 00:00:00

THE lUSCA COLLIERY .EXPLOSION.

RISCA, TUESDAY, JAN. 15.
Yesterday afternoon, after the despatch of our
parcel, and this morning five or six other miners
were called, who gave evidence of. a similarly
favourable character as to the condition of the mine.
Several of them had worked in the eastern district
close to the seat of the explosion, but by none of
them had any signs of the presence of gas been dis-
covered up to the time of its occurrence. The report
was the same with regard to the west side. None of
them however, had heard the blower, the existence
of which at present rests entirely on Mr. Harrison's
evidence. In all cases the lamps were proved to
have been locked by the proper officer, and no de-
parture from the rule which provides that where a
lamp is extinguished in the process of working it
shall be taken back to the top of the slope to be
relighted was proved to have taken place. Several
of the witnesses spoke of the current of air in the
mine
.being thoroughly sufficient; in fact, some-
times so strong as to be inconvenient and almost
put out the lamp. Derrick's account of his journey
through the east workings the night beitre the ex,
plosion was corroborated by miners who had met
him at various points on his rounds.
Samuel Jones a timberman, was at work all night
in the cross heading close to Sage's stall, where the
pit fired, but saw nothing to excite his suspic,ons.
There appeared to have been a small fah in the
roof of this stall, and Mr. Owen, by his cross-
examination endeavoured to show that gas had
accumulated from it, but none of the men had ever
found any there. Gas had been seen from time to
time in different part of the workings, but
when this was discovered, according to the evi-
dence, it had been usual to remove the men until
the air had been coursed through the place, and the
gas swept away.
No evidence was obtained as to infractions of the
colliery rules, with the exception that one of them
admitted that he had been allowed to wander about
the workings looking for his tools, or for other pur-
poses, without any check from the viewer, though
one of the rules prohibits men from roaming about
without special permission. One of the witnesses
identified the lamp of which mention was made by
Mr. Harrison, with a pick-hole in the gauze. It
was found some hundred yards from the seat of
the explosion, and on being produced.
Mr. Brown, the inspector, remarked that the
hole appeared much larger than it was when first
brought up from below. It seemed as though some
one had been trying whether a mandril or pick
would fit into it, and had thus enlarged it.
Mr. Llewellin, for the company, said he was pre-
pared with abundant evidence to show that it had
not been tampered

Joseph Adams, a collier belonging to a neigh-
bouring mine, who descended the pit immediately
after the accident to render what assistance he
could, gave a long account of the operations in
which he had taken part for the recovery of the
bodies in the first few days. By far the greatest
number of men, according to his account, were
choked by the after-damp, not many were very
badly burnt, and some he had four d crushed by
the falls. Fifty-two men were found lying dead
altogether. They were at work on the west side,
and were making the best of their way, after the
explosion, to the downcast shaft, when they were
stopped by a fall, and before that could be cleared
away the after-damp overtook them and poisoned
them. Adams, when questioned as to his opinion
of the cause of the explosion, attributed it to the
accumulation of gas behind the stalls where Sage
and others were at work "ripping back"—i. e.,
taking away as much as possible of the 12 feet
pillars of coal which in the first operations are left
standing between each stall. In "ripping back"
the men begin at the most remote end of the pillar,
and work forward to the heading, leaving open
space or "gobs" behind them. When all the pil-
lars are removed, the district then becomes a
" gob," " goaf," or old working of larger or smaller
extent, which is shut off astightly as possible from
the rest of the workings, so as to prevent the oozing
out of the gas generated therein. Adams said he
had been informed by Joseph Hall, one of the men
who worked in the thin east level, that there was
no air carried round the back of these " rip-
pings." The consequence of this, in witness's
opinion, would be that tine gas emitted from the
" gob," which daily grew larger and larger as the
men worked forward, would be accumulated in the
roof, and, by some means or other, tired from the
lamp of one of the men there employed.
The .evidence of this witness brings into view a
second cause of explosion. Mr. Harrison, the
manager, attributes it to a sudden discharge of
gas. Adams puts it down, on the contrary, to the
gradual accumulation of gas in the space lei t behind
by the men in taking away the pillars from the
back of the stall to the heading or gallery from
which the stall starts. As to the precise manner
in which the gas, however produced, was fired, no
evidence as yet has been brought forward. In
reference to blowers, this witness allowed that
when he had been employed in the pit some years
ago, he had known of three blowers suddenly
making their appearance.

SAN. 16.
After the despatch of our parcel yesterday,
Joseph Hall was called to confirm the hearsay
evidence given by the preceding witness, Adams, as
to the inadequate ventilation of the "rippings" in
the fourth east district. His account, however,
of the conversation by no means agfeed with what
had been reported of it. It turned out that some time
he had been at work driving a windway near these
rippings, and his conjecture was that the sides of
this windway had been squeezed together by Hall.
`I he current of air was weakened or stopped alto-
gether, and a sudden blower coming off, it had over-
powered the ventilation. He himself had seen a
blower some three months before, which was so
strong that it fouled the air for 20 yards to wind-
ward—that is, instead of being swept away by the
ventilation, it had forced its way against a current
of air, which was there going at the rate of from
sto 7 feet per second. The work was, of course,
stopped in that particular spot, and a spouthole or
narrow passage driven through into the neat stall
so as to carry the gas off. Hall was questioned as
to the ventilation of the open spaces left behind by,
the men in taking out the pillars, but did not ap-
pear to think it practicable to sweep a current of
air through them, inasmuch as the roof and floor
were so bad that they very soon squeezed together.
He explained the mode of ventilating these rippings
by means of spoutholes driven through the 12 feet
pillars from one stall to another, so as to carry the
air well up to the face of the work, and could not
take upon himself to say that any better mode than
this could have been adopted.
John Sims was employed in driving a windway
in the first cast district, and on several occasions
had met with gas in that operation. It was impos-
sible altogether to avoid this, for the brattice which
carried the air along in this work could not be car-
ried up to the face of the work. In such cases it
was usual for one man to hold the lamp some 5 or
6. yards back, while the other man cut away the
coal. On some occasions he had known the lamp
get redhot. If the wind were at any time slack the
foreman, on complaint being made to him, would
immediately- do all in his power to remove the cause
of it, whatever it might be.
This morning the examination took place of
several colliers belonging to the mine, who had
been at work in the mine, and who gave the same
account of the absence of every sign of danger, and
of the confidence of the men in the arrangements
of the mine and the power of ventilation. Several
of the men had been at work when the pit fired.
They were made aware of it by a sudden check, in
some places by a reversal of the current owing to
the partial vacuum produced by the explosion, and
by a ringing noise in the ears. All caught up their
lamps and made as fast as possible for the bottom
of the downcast shaft, meeting more or less of the
after damp in their flight, which killed their weaker
comrades by the way, and affected even those who
were fortunate enough to escape severely. One poor
boy was called, who started with his father from
the most distant part of the working, and when
they had almost reached safety a strong column of
the after damp met them. The old man told his son
to lie down, and both went quickly off into the
lethargy which is produced by this deadly com-
pound. How long they lay in this state thesurvivor
could not tell, but he was revived bya sudden resto-
ration of the current of air. He groped about in
the dark for his father, but could find him nowhere,
and when he was reached by the mem who were
searching for the sufferers the old man was found
quite dead at the bottom of a short incline.
Thomas Purnell was called, and stated that he
had worked in the neighbourhood of the stall where
the mine fired, and some months ago had met with
a blower there. He could not get near enough to
hear it, but he knew of its presence by the cap of
flame on his lamp.
Being cross-examined as to the manner of driving
the ways, he said the brattice was never more than
three yards from the face of the work. The spout-
holes from stall to stall were generally from 28
yards to 30 yards apart, and whenever one was