1898 - Coalmininghistorypa.org

2 REPOItT OF THE BUREAU OF MINES. Off. Doc.Of the 51 killed, 15 were miners aud 25 were laborers. Threedrivers, 2 runners, 4 slate pickers, 1 door tender and a timbermancomplete the sorrowful list. Thirty were killed by falls of rock and4 by falls of coal. Not one of these accidents, however, occured onthe main or traveling roads of the mines, but every one happenedcjose to or at the faces of gangways or breasts, and in no case wasmore than one killed at the same time or by the same accident. Severalof these occurred while the miners were barring down loosepieces of rock and coal. Others happened while the men were eitherengaged in securing the roof with new timbers, or replacing oldones that had been discharged by shots fired at the face a few minutespreviously.Fatal falls of "top coal" occurred while old and experiencedminers were barring or in other words ''working" out the bottombench.Of the 126 non-fatal accidents, 63 were caused by falls of rock andcoal, making 07 of the 177 due to this cause alone.Nine lost their lives and 81 were injured by cars inside.There were 215,590 kegs of powder, of 25 pounds each, and 149,-874 pounds of dynamite used during the year, and but one life waslost in the consumption of this great quantity of explosives, and thiswas through sheer recklessness on the part of one of the most experiencedminers, who made the fatal mistake of trying to forcea charge of powder to the back of a hole with a drill.Four w^ere injuredby premature blasts, and two slightly burned by explosions ofpowder caused by sparks flying from lamps. The remaining sevenfatalities are due to various causes in and about the mines. The177 casualties are attributed to 20 different causes, as will be seenby reference to table E.Among those killed and injured were representatives of fourteennationalities, showing that a very cosino])oli1an population works inthe mines of this locality.An application was made to the court of Lackawanna county forari injunction to restrain the Elk Hill Coal and Iron OomiKiny from\^orking the Dunmore vein of Kiclimond No. 8 shaft in contraventionof sections 1, 8 and 1(» of article 4 of lite mine law of June 2, 1891,which was granted on March 8, and the miiu^ subse:)U('n(ly closeddown until the escajte way was comi>leted, which was altout the middleof June.A full report of the proceedings of the case, together wilh thecourt's o])inion, was duly made to Chief of linrean of Mines, liencea repetition here would be sujicrflnoiis.On tho 28th of July the engine and fan house at "Richmond No. 8were entirely destroyed by tire, and llic 28 jXM-sons Ihen woi'king inNo. 2. Dunmore vein were obliged lo mal