The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1895-10-21
IN OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION
How the Nine Men Were Burned in
KnickerbOcker COlliery.
MINE INSPECTOR STEIN TALKS
He Says the Gas Came From Fissures in
Disturbed Top Coal Was Fired by
Shot and Dust Spread the
Planes.

The terrible explosion which occurred in
the Knickerbocller colliery on Saturday was
the subject Of an official investigation to-day
Mine Inspector William Stein, General
Superintendent John Veith, Division Super
intendcnt John Skeath District Superin-
tendent William Broughall and Mine Fore
man John Brown met at the colliery this
morning and, entering the section of the
mine known as the East Buck Mountain
gangway, examined the breast where the
explosion occurred.
In conversation with an EVENING HERALD
reporter after the investigation was finished
Mine Inspector Stein said the breast in which
the explosion took place No 26) is up from
the stump heading about eight feet. The
coal in the breast is rather friable, or dislo-
Gated by slips or assures in the vein The
vein itself is about fifteen feet thick On the
morning of the accident Andrew Bossar and
Michael Chico, the miners in breast 26 had
fired a few shots which displaced the entire
thickness of the vein to the top slate. They
then drilled a hole in the bottom bench and,
without examining for gas overhead,
they fired the blast which ignited
the gas that had been liberated from
the assures in the vein exposed by the top
coal falling. Two of the men who were
burned were in breast 27 They had just
/ fired a shot and were in the act of cutting a
/ prop, or iugglar hole, when they were burned,
| but only slightly. The men wOrkingin breast
| No. 25 had come down foI a lunch and were
sitting in the heading connecting breasts 25
and 26. The men at work in breast
% had come down for manway
planBs and were sitting in the heading con
Meeting breasts "a and 25. The latter breast
is up ten yards from the stump heading or
about twenty yards from the gangway No.
24 breast is up siXty-siX feet from the head
/ ing, or ninety-six feet from the gangway
/ The headings connecting all these breasts are
in a straight line with one another and
parallel with the gangway, and this was the
course the fire from the explosion took.
Lord, the starter was at the battery Of
breast No. "a and in such a position that he
could not be dangerously injured, as the
force of the explosion was comparatively
slight at that point. The officials of the
coliery were to-day notified that all the vic
Tins will recover.
Mine Inspector Stein says very little gas
has heretofore been experienced or seen in
the workings of the Knickerbocker colliery,
yet the company had deemed it necessary
that the miners should work with locked
safety lamps in order to prevent any acci.
dent from explosion of gas; and the fire bosses
report book keptat the colliery shows that
little or no gas is found by them in making
their daily examinations Eight breasts are
at present being worked from the gangway
and the gangway, chutes and headings are at
air Of from thirty to fifty thousand cubic
feet
The workings are unusually dry and q
great deal of coal dust is occasionally floating
in the atmosphere by reason of the loading
of coal, and is also disturbed by the move
ments of the workmen in the breasts and
manways; and this dust may have intensi
fed the explosion, as the conclusion would
disturb the dust and it would be ignited by
the flame from the ignited gas, which woul
account for the spreading of the fire, as the
gas itself was of a very limited quantity.
General Superintendent Veith stated to-da!
that in view of the explosion he had decided
to treat in the future the section of TIN
Knickerbocker colliery referred to the sam,
as the most gaseous collery under his charge
so that all the safeguards employed in gaseou,
places will hereafter be resorted to in tn,