Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1869-04-26
Expls.ire Theories

Explosive Theories.
II lis = popular idea here in Gold Hill
as well as elsewhere, among those con-
versant with the particulars of the re-
cent great calamity in the Yellow
Jacket, Grown and Ken.uck mines, that
just atthe critical time when the FIRE
was fully discovered, and the miners
were desperately striving to flee from
impending death, an explosion of some
kind took place, which visited death and
destruction upon all so unfortunate as
10 fall within its fatal influence. This
so-called explosion is described not as
baiug accompanied by a loud report,
but simply as a quick, sudden, very
forcibls puff Of air which blew out the
candles in the drifts and passages of the
three mines, with such force ns to visi-
bly, move the heavy cage suspended at tho
mouth Of the shaft, and oven blow dust
and chips up towards the roof Of the
Building overhead. Very shortly after
thi,, all became quis, below, the smoke
and gas filed the shafts, anu few in
deed were they who same up through
that deadly atmosphere alive.
THE PowpsR THEORY.
BY some the explosion has been at
tributsd to giant powder aud common
blasting powder, both Of which wero
said to be either continually kept in the
mines, or, a. one wildly imaginative in-
dividual writing from Virginia to the
San Francisco Herald stated, 60 kegs,
each containing 20 pounds Of Santa
Cruz blasting powder, were sent down
into the Kentuck mine only the day be-
fore the disaster, besides which there
was also previously a large quantity Of
giant powder slowed down there. Now
ia the 6rst place giant powder docs not
explode by the simple action OF fire, but
burns up like SO much iawdust, Gre
ating merely a dirty smoke, and AS for
blasting powder, no one detected any Of
tho thick, foul, sulphurous smoke SO
infallibly accompanying and peculiar to
it. In the next place there was no such
quantity of powder in or about either Of
the mines, nor could there be by any
sort Of possibility without all the min
ers being fully aware Of it, for neither
man, material, or anything else, not
even the writer Of that article himself,
could possibly pass into or out Of those
mines without the statiou-men aud min
ers generally knowing MI about it. The
regular powder magazines oil Ihose mines
are at or near the surface, where no hre
could or has reached them, aud only
just enough for present use is ever sent
or kept below, If there was any pow
der at all in the ksntuck mine, the ire
had not reached 10 when the explosion
took place. Mr.. 3. F. Rogers, who,
with Martin Clooney, was in the Ken
tuck S00.foot level at the Yellow Jacket
line at that critical moment, testified
before the Coroner that the smoke and
gas suddenly burst through where they
were with a perfect roar and put out
their candles so that he had TO grope
back through the sufrocatipg atmos-
phere to the Crown Point shaft, while
Clooney, less fortunate, fell orerpow-
cred and was left behind in the drift,
where he died. Mr.. Rogers does not
speak of i, as an explosion. John Muir
puI, Iud 5latlou-uihh ~ Wv SNN'NNN
lsyel.of the Yellow Jacket shaft, where
the ERE occurred, gives the most compre-
hensiye idea Of it. In his testimony he
says ga gust Of wind, like the result Of
a blast, put all Of my lights out there
were Is Of them" he goes on to state
that BIO lost his breath directly after
ward from suffocation, aud while lying
on the floor of the station, "Jaek Ho-
PAN, now deceased, at the 900-foot sta
ton, sailed out to me; he said, MUIR
yhy, where is all the smoke ; send me q
cage, I am s~uffocsting to death These
are the last words | heard from him. |
saw nor smelled no FIRE, nor anything;
had my breath nearly taken away 10y
what l suppose Was an explosions
msdistely placed my gum coat about
my mouth for protection" Mr. Murphy
was rescued and brought to the surface
inseu,ible. He merely supposed" it
to be aa explosion, yet was not positive,
although more directly within its immc-
date Influence and y~iciaity than any
one else.
THE GAS HroKY
Having demonstrated the utter falla-
CIV of the powder explosion theory, let
us now duly consider the moro pop
ular hypothesis of a gas explosion. Car,
bureted hydrogen gas, the "hre-d"mp
found in coal mines, the combustion OF
which has proven so often and fearfully
fatal, especially in the mines Of Europe,
il not liable to DO met with in our silver
mines at all. Car0onic acid gas, or
"cheke-damp," however, is always to
be found in them in some quantity or
other. FROM very ably written mining
article In the art supplement to Apple
ton's Journal we extract the following !:
UNo meteor, however terrible its im-
agined splendor, u be compared to an
explosion of fre-damp. Let one OF
those scourges OF Heaven be imagined,
which appear sometimes as il designed
for the Punishment Of human beings
a thuuderbolt, II hurricane, q cyclone or
a Notwithstanding, o~verthrowing,
destroying everything in their course,
aud the effects produced by them will
still DO inferior to an explosion of mine
gas. 4 discharge Of canno LOADED
with csnister-shot, and fred point blank
into a crowd II powder magazine tax
ing FIRE in the midst OF u body of work
men {; q gasoms,er exploding in II facto-
ry-can scarcely give Al idea OF an ok
p~losion Of frs-damp suddenly ove'tak-
ing the miner.
The moment il comes in contact
with the fame os a lamp, II tremendous
EXPLOSION takes place, resulting from
the eonponsnts OF the fire-damP-hy-
drogen and carbon-unitiug withthe OK
wen of the air. The explosion spreads
Instantly into oil the galleries OF the
mine /; a roaring whirlwind obtaining
air destroys and overthrows everything
il encounters.
"Ths men arc blinded, thrown down,
~seorched, and sometimes burnt TO " c'n,
der; often their clothes take hre, Snu
no, u~nftequen.ly they are buried oe'
meath the ruins of the fallen roofs Tue
calamity spares nobody, ever though as
many as one or two hundred miners
NAV be at work; death extends over
the whole OF the mine where the e1Pio-
sive gas was present"
We personally saw all the bodies 'h",
,rara t.kon ont Of the three mines, and