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

CHAP.x.] "BLAST," IN THE KILLINGWORTH PIT. 101
man, it appeared, had been helped up so far by the increased
current which came about him, that, the rope running up at a
great velocity, he was projected up the shaft, yet he was landed
without injury ; it was a singular case. Four out of the five
men who had been sent down just before the explosion took
place, were not seen again for three or four-and-twenty weeks,
when they were found buried amongst the corves or baskets and
little carriages at the bottom of the shafts. The overlooker,
who had gone to set these men to work, knew the situation they
were likely to be placed in ; and, hearing the noise of the ex-
plosion before it reached the shaft, he threw himself behind
some pillars near the pits, so that the current went past him,
but the flame came about him, and nearly all his clothes were
burnt off his back, though he laid himself down flat upon his
face for safety. After the blast ceased, this person got up and
found his way round to the other pit, when he got up by the
rope in the manner stated. The pit continued to blast every
two or three hours for about two days. It appears that the coal
bad taken fire, and as soon as the carburetted hydrogen gas col-
lected in sufficient quantity to reach the part where it was burn-
ing, it ignited again ; but none of the explosions were equal to
the first, on account of many parts of the mine having become
filled with azotic gas, or the after-damp of the mine. All the
ditches in the country-side were stopped to get water to pour
into the pit. "We had extinguishing or fire-engines brought from
Newcastle, and the water was poured in till it came above the
fire, and then it was extinguished. The loss to the owners of
the colliery by this accident must have been about 20,O00Z."
Another explosion of a similar kind occurred in the same pit
in 1809, by which twelve persons lost their lives. George
Stephenson was working at the pit when the accident occurred,
but the blast did not reach the shaft as in the former case ; the
unfortunate persons in the pit having been suffocated by the
after-damp.'^ But more calamitous explosions than these occurred
in the neighbouring collieries ;
one of the worst being that which
took place in May, 1812, in the Felling Pit, near Gateshead, a
mine belonging to Mr. Brandhng, by which no fewer than ninety
men and boys were suffocated or burnt to death. And a similar