1898 - Coalmininghistorypa.org

150 REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF MINES. Off. Doc.colliery No. 5, had been engaged on account of Lis experience andabilit}' as a miner at "robbing" for some time in a breast on No. 2blanch of No. 5 slope. He had fired a shot in the pillar and the powderblew out on the inside leaving the coal standing in a shatteredcondition. He went back to bar it off when a piece of clod whichhung over the end of the pillar fell upon him, killing him instantly.Jacob Plitnic, a miner, aged 28 years, was fatallj^ injured by a fallof rock in No. 5 Harwood colliery.He had been employed driving abi'cast in the Ganna vein on the No. 4 branch of No. 5 slope. TheGanna vein is capped with scleral benches of slate and bone from8 to 10 inches thick; above this clod is the hard conglomerate rock;which in places is broken up by slii)s or folds. The miner and his i)artner,Joseph Zueofski, had taken down the clod square with the face,but on the west rib of breast one of the slipswas undermined andthey noticed it beginning to draw. The miners in the next breast,Joseph Cogus and Ludwic Janatowski, visited this breast and noticingthe dangerous condition of the same, warned Plitnic and Zueofskito take it down, but, unheeding the warning given them, they decidedto fire another hole in the coal, and after doing so, Plitnicwent back to bar off the loose coal, and while at the face, the top fell,fatally injuring him. He was immediately removed to the hosj-ital,but died shortly after; he alone was responsible for the accident.William (Jarlow, a miner, aged 52 j^ears,was instantly killed by afall of coal. While pre[)aring a hole in the seven-foot bench on thesouth side of No. 2 stripping, a portion of the top bench of coal twofeet thick fell upon him crushing him to death. I visited the sceneof the accident and found that the victim had deliberately goneunder the overhanging two-foot bench to drill a hole in the sevenfoot,which was simply madness. He alone, through his own carelessness,was responsible for the accident.Frank Radashessky, a si)ecial labor(M% aged 26 years, who was employedbuggying coal in the rock chute of the Greenfield stri])ping, atabout 8.10 in the morning, while loading the buggy on the south side ofThe pit, a piece of slate about ;ix5x7 slid out of the rib on the southwide of stripping where the ])itch of the strata is about ()5 degreesand crushed him against the side of the buggy, killing him instantly. Ivisited the scene and made a cari'ful exaiuiuatiou of the place. Iconcluded, after listening to the testimony of the men working aboutthe ]»lace, that the only r(^ason that couhl be assigned for the suddenfalling out of said sli]> was the changes in tlie temperature, as noblasting had been done at this ])oint or near it for more tliau twoweeks.John Mealing, a miner, aged 48 years, was instantly killed by afall of coal in slope No. fi, Upper Lehigh colliery. He was engaged