The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-11-29
DISASTER CA USE ] BY RE M ] Y Al OF.
 |RON COUPL L|NG PIN
ripple House Foreman Says Absence of Part Allowed Three Trip Cars to Fall
 Into Mine

Removal of an iron pin from the coupling joining the hoisting cable with three mine trip cars allowed them to speed back into the mine and cause the death of 89 miners in Dolo- mite Mine No. 8 Wednesday after noon, according to testimony of F. E. Dean, tipple hodse foreman, at the formal investigation started Tuesday by Coroner J. D. Russum.
 Due to the large number of wit nesses and the time occupied in talk ing testimony, the investigation was not completed Tuesday afternoon and was continued until Wednesday. Dean said that the three cars that were responsible for the explosion had been brought to the top of the dump and had been unloaded, pre- paratory to their return to the mines. As they were on their return trip from the. dump, the last car of the three hung on the track. This was accounted for by it's newness.
 Dean said that he immediately se- cured the cars with hoisting chain and started loosening the car from the jam in a slow but sure method, Dean said that T. w. Trew, general foreman, appeared and declared that he had much quicker and more eff fective method of loosening the ears and ordered the chain hoist removed. Dean said the two other ears were damned against this one, causing it to break loose and that they raced down the slope tracks.
 Rail Broken
 I piece of iron rail which had been placed across the tracks few feet | from the cars by Trew's orders, in- tended to stop the cars in the event they did start down the tracks was snapped in several places by the waheels. Dean said that he did not Nnow who was responsible for the removal of the pin. The cars in the downward plunge either caused sparks to fly from the tracks or in some manner short circuited the mine cable, carrying $500 volts, which ig- I nited the heavy clouds of coal dust aroused by the speeding cars.
 1 c. IL Nesbit. state mine inspector. ] who was the first to take the stand, testified to the safety of the mine ac- cording to the last report. submitted three weeks ago by one of his as- sistants. Nesbit testified to the theory that the explosion had been caused by the cable being ignited as the armored plate covering the cable
 
 approximately the size of a silver dol lar was found in the plate. Nesbit said that the moisture in the mine was good otherwise the explosion would have spread all over the mine and the adjoining No. mine, causing the deaths of more than 800 men.
 Four working
 S. Frank Hillman, company mine inspector declared that the sprinkler system in the mines works contin- uously and that the coal cars are dampened prior to their return to the mine to prevent great quantities of coal dust being circulated The sprinklers were all in good condition. l Hillman sail. The ventilation in the mines was also in excellent working order, according to the witness. He l said that 15 minutes after the explo- sion had taken place, and the electric current breaker had been thrown, the large gasoline fans were at work drawing forth the suffocating after damp. Hillman said that seven men | are employed by the mining company I for no other purpose than keeping the sprinkler system in good working order.
 1 w. M. Johnson, who inspected the mines for the Woodward company, said, that in his opinion, the armored cable had broken on the inside, caus- ling the break in the plate. as the ex- terior was in good condition when he inspected it three weeks ago.
 1 No other bodies were reported taken from the mines Tuesday, the death list standing at ss, the fig | UT, reached through the finding of the body of negro in the mines Monday afternoon. All mine victims are in Elizabeth Duncan hospital in Bessemer were reported convaiescent-