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

100 LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. [chap. x.
about fifty or sixty yards away, when I heard a tremendous
noise, looked round, and saw the discharge come out of the pit
like the discharge of a cannon. It continued to blow, I think,
for a quarter of an hour, discharging everything that had come
into the current. There was wood came up, stones came up,
and trusses of hay that went up into the air like balloons. Those
trusses had been sent down during the day, and I think they had
in some measure injured the ventilation of the mine. The
ground all round the top of the pit was in a trembling state. I
went as near as I durst go ; everything appeared cracking and
rending about me. Part of the brattice, which was very strong,
was blown away at the bottom of the pits. Very large pumps
were lifted from their places, so that the engine could not work.
The pit was divided into four by partitions ; it was a large pit,
fourteen feet in diameter, and partitions were put down at right
angles, which made four compartments. The explosion took
place in one of those four quarters, but it broke through into all
the others at the bottom, and the brattice or partitions were set
on fire at the first explosion. After it had continued to blow for
a quarter of an hour the discharge ceased, and the atmosphere
all round poured into the pit to fill up the vacant place that must
Lave been formerly occupied by the flame. In one of the other
pits, that was connected by some doors in a drift with that in
which the explosion took place, were several men, some of whom
succeeded in getting up safe. The ropes in the first pit were
shattered to pieces by the force of the blasts, but the ropes in
the other pits were still left comparatively uninjured. Nobody
durst go near the shafts for some time, for fear of another ex-,
plosion taking place. At last we considered it necessary to run
the rope backwards and forwards, and give the miners, if there
were any at the bottom of the shaft, an opportunity of catching
the rope as it came to the bottom. Whenever the rope went to
the bottom it was allowed to remain a short time, till we consid-
ered the men had time to
up in this way ;
cling to it. Several were safely got
and another man had got hold of the rope, and
was being drawn up, when a further explosion took place at the
time he was in the shaft, but it was merely like the discharge
of a gun, and it did not continue like the former blast. This