The life of George Stephenson, railway engineer - Lighthouse ...

CHAP. X.J FEKQUENT EXPLOSIONS IN MINES. 99
CHAPTER X.
INTENTS THE " GEOEDT " SAFETY LAMP.
Explosions of fire-damp were unusually frequent in the
coal mines of Northumberland and Durham about the time
when George Stephenson was engaged in the construction of his
first locomotives. These explosions were frequently attended
with fearful loss of life and dreadful suffering to the colliery
workers. Killingworth Colliery was not free from such deplorable
calamities ; and during the time that Stephenson was em-
ployed as a brakesman at the West Moor, several " blasts " took
place in the pit, by which many workmen were scorched and
killed, and the owners of the colliery sustained heavy losses.
One of the most serious of these accidents occurred in 1806, not
long after he had been appointed brakesman, by which ten per-
sons were killed. Stephenson was working at the mouth of the
pit at the time, and the circumstances connected with the acci-
dent seem to have made a deep impression on his mind, as will
appear from the following graphic account which he gave to a
committee of the
the event :— *
House of Commons, some thirty years after
" The pit had just ceased drawing coals, and nearly all the
men had got out. It was some time in the afternoon, a little
after midday. There were five men that went down the pit
four of them for the purpose of preparing a place for the fur-
nace. The fifth was a person who went down to set them to
work. I sent this man down myself, and he had just got to the
bottom of the shaft about two or three minutes, when the explo-
sion took place. I had left the mouth of the pit, and had gone
* Evidence given before the Select Committee on Accidents in Mines, 26th
June, 1835.
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