1873 - Old Forge Coal Mines

INSPECTORS OF MINES. 41
a more strict surveilance by the parties in charge has elsewhere been attended
with a sensible diminution of casualties in the ratio of deaths to
tonnage, and doubtless, if attended to properly, would also be succeeded
by the same happ} r results.
Any person conversant with the mining statistics of Great Britain since
the inauguration of the inspection law, some twenty }*ears ago, will see the
proportion of deaths to the number of persons employed has decreased
from one in two hundred and nineteen persons employed in 1853 to one
in three hundred and forty-five persons employed in 1873.
A general observance of order and good government of the mine, coupled
with a much more stricter discipline, would bear its good results, at least
it would be nothing more than the duty of managers and mine bosses to
make the rules of caution more strict and general, when workmen are entering
the mine, and enforce the same with proper dignity during the hours
of labor ; and particularly those who are not practical or schooled in mines
should receive particular warning of dangers to which they may be exposed.
The boss should never absent himself from the mine while a single persjn
of his shift is working or on duty in the mine.
It will be noticed by reference to those statistics that, besides fatal accidents,
many serious ones occur which, in their consequences, result as
disastrous as though they were fatal. Many are maimed, disabled and
blinded, which makes their maintenance a burthen on relations and friends.
Full as this part of our list of casualties may appear, I have every reason
to believe it is incomplete, and that the reports of a number of casualties
have been withheld for causes having no honorable grounds.
Explosions of Gas.— (Carburetted Hydrogen Gas.)
This species of casualties may be properly attributable to the following
causes: First.—A want of competent management. Second.— Fire-bosses
who draw pay and elude duty, and who can, with wonderful adroitness
and tact, exonerate themselves on all occasions from blame or any participation
in criminal negligence on their part, and never found at their post of duty,
because they are a sort of privileged characters, more in the capacity of secret
service men than fire-bosses. To such persons may be attributed many
fearful casualties on the part of the employees' inattention to orders, indi-
In view of
vidual ignorance and incompetency deserves especial comment.
all the terrible examples seen amongst miners in their disfigurement and
contorted appearance, it would appear of itself to be a sufficient subject of
warning. But no amount of counsel will overcome this horrid recklessness
practiced amongst miners.
Explosions of
Powder.
This species of accidents has no valid extenuation in any way to excuse
the sufferers by this sort of accidents, for it is evident that it is nothing
short of sheer recklessness, by no means uncommon in the handling of
powder by mine employees, in charging holes, temping of the powder,
drilling out missed holes, the making of cartridges, carrying naked lights
in proximity to powder barrels or loose packages, kept near their persons,
which not only endangers their own lives but the lives of many others
The temperature of powder flame is as high as 1,100° Fahrenheit, while
that of boiling water is 212°, besides the virulence of the acid of the
nitre of the powder adds still a poisonous influence to the burn. Most
everybody is conversant with powder and its agency, still how incautious
people are in handling it, while its palpable effects are visible among miners