Reports of the Inspectors of Mines of the anthracite coal regions of ...

72 Reports of the Inspectors of Mines. [No. 10,
rick Skiverton, his laborer, working in tlie Lanrel Run colliery, on the
28th of April, were both killed by a large piece of rider coal falling upon
them. This case can scarcely be considered an accident, as it occurred
through pure carelessness on the part of the miner, Cauley. The miner
working in the adjoining place, called Cauley's attention to the fact, that
the said bone coal was dangerous, and advised him to timber it immedi-
ately, and Cauley rather made light of the suggestion, and after its being
repeated he said he had a hole drilled in it, and would blast it down ; after
that he would fire another blast in the coal below it. His neighbor had
scarcely reached his working place, when he heard the crash of the fall, and
behold, the rider coal had fallen killing Cauley and his laborer.
Accident No. 15.—Randall Cooper, a miner, working in No. 2 colliery,
D. and H. Canal Company, on the 14th of May, was killed by a piece of
coal falling upon him while in the act of working out coal previously
loosened, to some extent, by a blast. This undoubtedlj^ was caused through
an error of judgment on his part, of the condition of the coal overl3dng
the bench he was mining out.
Accident No. 16.—Dennis Leary, a miner's laborer, working in the
Hutchison collier}', on the 23d day of May, was instantl}^ killed by a thin
piece of rock falling upon him. The piece that fell was about eight or
nine feet long, four feet wide, and two and a half inches thick. It ap-
peared that the miner was standing close to him dialling a hole at the
time, and that some slight effort had been made by him to pull the piece
down ; 3'et it is hardly possible to think, that it could not have been taken
down had a proper effort been made to do so, and, at all events, it would
have been an eas}' matter to have put a temporary prop under it, until
such time that they were ready to try it again. I do not think this case
should have occurred with proper skill, and that vigilance, required in
mining.
Accident No. It Jackson Ide, a miner's laborer, working in the
Wyoming shaft, on the 15th day of June, was killed by a fall of rider coal
from roof. The unfortunate man had never been in a coal mine for the
purpose of working until the morning of the fatal day, and had only been
in about one half hour prior to his terrible fate. The bosses, McCulloch
and Jones, and the miners, were of the opinion that the case was purely
accidental. I did not see it quite so accidental, and so stated. There
were slips in the roof running nearly parallel with the rib, and about twenty
feet from the face, the inside prop was stood, close to which another slip
set in, in the roof running nearl}^ at right angles to the other slips afore-
mentioned. The other slips were not quite parallel, being nearer together
at the face of the chamber, hence the piece from the cross slip to the face
between two others had little or no support ; and it is only very strange
that two experienced miners should not have been able to have discovered
this fact in time. It would probably have been hard to convict any per-