Explosions in Coal-Mines

Abstract

EVERYBODY in the least degree conversant with matters connected with coal-mining will at once admit that our knowledge of the remote causes of colliery explosions has increased enormously during the last few years. Whether, however, the practical application of this knowledge has kept pace with the rate of increase in the knowledge itself is another matter. Since 1851, when the first Mines Inspection Act was in force, the number of fatal explosions in collieries has steadily diminished, but the annual loss of life from these catastrophes is as great as ever. During the ten years ending 1860 there were 820 fatal explosions, resulting in 2441 deaths, or an average of 2.98 deaths per fatal explosion; during this decade there was an average of 3000 persons employed in and about the mines for every fatal explosion, and 1008 persons for each resulting death. During the ten years ending 1870 the number of fatal explosions fell to 565; the deaths were 2267, or an average of 4.01 per fatal explosion; and the ratio of persons employed to each fatal explosion was 5650, and hence to each resulting death 1408. During the ten years ending 1880 the number of fatal explosions was 424; the resulting deaths were 2686, or an average of 6.33 per fatal explosion; the ratio of persons employed to each fatal explosion was 11,372, and to each resulting death 1795. During the five years ending 1885 we have had 146 fatal explosions, with a loss of 906 persons, or an average of 6.20 deaths from each explosion; the ratio of persons employed to each fatal explosion was 17,503, and to each resulting death 2820. These figures are in the highest degree significant, but they are not capable of telling everything. They do not, for example, bring out the fact that the actual violence of colliery explosions when they do occur is nowadays greater than formerly. This may seem to be indicated by the increase in the average number of deaths from each fatal explosion, but then, on the other hand, there are far more men employed in pits now than formerly. The diminished number of explosions is probably due, in the first instance, to the more general employment of safety-lamps, and, during late years, to the restrictions which have been placed upon the use of explosives. The increase in the average number of deaths to each explosion is doubtless owing to the gradual deepening of the pits and to differences in the mode of origin and character of the explosion. Thirty years ago the pits as a rule were comparatively shallow and damp. Such a sinking as that of the Ashton Moss pit at Audenshaw, which is upwards of half a mile deep, was unknown. Explosions in these damp shallow pits were usually caused by the ignition of gas, most frequently by naked lights; they were very local in their action, and the loss of life was small. Nowadays an explosion in a deep and dry mine not unfrequently penetrates throughout the whole pit; it is often extremely violent, and the number of deaths, mainly from after-damp, is correspondingly great.

Explosions in Coal-Mines.

By W. N. J. B. Atkinson, H.M. Inspectors of Mines. (London: Longmans, 1886.)