1898 - Coalmininghistorypa.org

Official Document,"No. 11.Second Bituminous District.(ALLEGHENY, INDIANA AND WESTMORELAND COUNTIES.)Greensburg, Pa., February 14, 1899.Hon. James W. Latta, Secretary of Internal Affairs:Sir: I have the honor to herewith submit my report as Inspectorof Mines for tlie Second Bituminous District for the year endingDecember 31, 1808, in compliance with section II of article X of theBituminous Mining Act, approved the 15th day of May, 1893.The coal and coke trade has been somewhat improved during1898. In 1897, the total production was 9,134,797 tons of coal and2,505,350 tons of coke, while this year the production is 9,820,673tons of coal and 3,049,-537 tons of coke, showing an increase of 685,870tons of coal and 544,187 tons of coke over the output of 1897. Therehas also been a small increase inthe number of persons employed.In 1897 the number of persons employed was 12,272, in 1898 thenumber was 12,501, an increase of 229.I am sorry to report an increase of nine fatal accidents over thoseof the previous year, there being a total of thirty. As a result of thesefatalities ten wives were made widows and thirty-seven childrenfatherless. The non-fatal accidents also show an increase of four-Of the fatal accidents one occurred outsideteen over those of 1897.of the mine, the unfortunate one being a child aged four and one-halfyears, an explanation of which appears in another part of this report.At least ten of the fatal accidents might have been preventfnl,if the unfortunate persons themselves had exercised ordinary care.The others were unavoidable. The same may be said of the non-fatalaccidents, (piite a large proportion being due to carelessness on thepart of the injured persons. The number of fatal and non-fiitalaccidents and their causes are set forth in the following table:flassification of Accidents. \Fatal.Xoii falal.By mine wagons 10 17By falls of slate, 8 24By falls of roof, 5 3Bj smoke from a mine fire, 3 1By falls of coal and slate, 2 320—11—98( 305 )