page_title: Snaefell Mine
section_title: Sir Clement Le Neve Foster arrives
hierarchical_section_title: Snaefell Mine / History / 1897 Disaster / Sir Clement Le Neve Foster arrives
caption_attribution_description: English: The washing floors of the Great Snaefell Mine
context_page_description: The Great Snaefell Mine, also referred to as the East Snaefell Mine, was a zinc mine located high in the Laxey Valley on the slopes of Snaefell Mountain, in the parish of Lonan, Isle of Man. The mine reached a depth of 1,188 ft and is remembered as the scene of the Isle of Man's worst mining disaster in 1897.
context_section_description: On Thursday morning Sir Clement Le Neve Foster, Chief Inspector of Mines, arrived at Snaefell and began tests to determine the extent of poisonous gas which remained in the mine. Lighted candles were lowered to the 130 fathom level in a kibble. When the kibble was pulled back to the surface after 10 minutes, all the candles were found to be extinguished. A mouse was then lowered to the level in a cage and again left for 10 minutes, but it was dead when the cage was returned. Candles were in turn sent down to the 115 fathom level, and these stayed lit, indicating better air at that level. Despite the risks, 13 miners descended the shaft to try to recover Kelly's body, but after several hours they returned to the surface without recovering it. The dead mouse, together with several sample bottles taken from below the 115 fathom level, were sent to London for examination. The examination was carried out by the eminent physiologist John Scott Haldane, one of the foremost authorities on the causes of mining deaths due to gases.
  In his report Haldane stated:
  "Sir, I beg to report as follows on the articles transmitted to me for examination in connection with the Snaefell disaster.
  The articles which had been forwarded to the Home Office by Dr Le Neve Foster, H.M. Inspector of Mines, consisted of two dead mice and two samples of air contained in bottles. The bottles were closed by corks, which had been sealed and were found to be perfectly air-tight.
  The first mouse examined was labelled as follows:-Snaefell Mine, No. 1, 13th May. Mouse lowered into the mine in a kibble as far as 130 fathom level, came tip alive, but legs paralysed; killed on reaching the surface.
  The blood on dilution with water was found to have the pink tint characteristic of carbon monoxide poisoning. Judging roughly by the tint, I estimated that the hemoglobin was about 80 per cent saturated with carbon monoxide. An exact determination could not be made, as the light was failing at the time when the articles for examination were received.
  The second mouse was labelled:-Snaefell Mine, No. 2, May 13th, 1897. Mouse taken down into the mine and lowered from the platform at the foot of the 4th ladder below the 115 fathom level to a platform some 25 feet below it. Mouse had suffered and was killed at once.
  The blood of this mouse had also the characteristic tint of carbon monoxide poisoning. The saturation of the hemoglobin was exactly determined and found to be 78.3 per cent.
  The bottles containing the samples of air were both labelled as follows:-'Sample of air from shaft of Snaefell Mine just above 130 fathom level, 12th May 1897, C. Le Neve Foster.'
  The composition of the sample in the first bottle opened was found to be as follows:
  Percentage.
  Oxygen - 15.48%  Carbon dioxide - 4.221%  Carbon monoxide - 1.07%  Hydrogen - 0.48%  Nitrogen and Argon - 78.75%
  The gas in the second (larger) bottle had the following composition
  Percentage
  Oxygen - 15.52%  Carbon dioxide - 4.26%  Carbon monoxide - 1.10%  Nitrogen and Argon - 79.12%
  As the second sample was evidently the same in composition as the first, the hydrogen was not determined separately. The carbon monoxide was in each case determined colorimetrically with blood solution, and the hydrogen by passing over a glowing platinum spiral. The carbon dioxide formed by contact with the platinum corresponded exactly to the carbon monoxide known to be present, so that no appreciable proportion of methane or other hydrocarbons can have been present.
  The composition of the sample corresponds to a mixture produced by the combustion of wood or other similar material. Inhalation of air of this composition would produce helplessness (in a man) within about seven or eight minutes at most, and would soon cause death. A candle would not burn in such air, but would just do so on the addition of a third of its volume of fresh air. The mixture would then still be intensely poisonous, and would still be if diluted with four times its volume of fresh air. When diluted with nine times its volume of fresh air it would still be capable
caption: Workings of the Great Snaefell Mine
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