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

98 Reports of the iNsrECTORS or Mines. [Xo. 10,
The other miner, Anthony Harrison, testified, that tliey had sounded the
slab with a drill, and that they knew it was heav}', but said that it was too
high for them to bar it down. In this, however, he was mistaken, for they
could easily have prepared a place to stand upon from which it could have
been safely reached. There ought to be a wooden ''•
horse'' ^ in every work-
ing place where the roof is twelve feet high and upwards, to enable the
men to get at the roof to wedge props, &c. They are provided in some
collieries by the operators, and they ought to be provided everywhere.
Accident No. 15.—Michael Ruane, a laborer, was instantl}' killed, June
5th, in a chamber worked by Thomas Roach, in the Bellevue shaft, Lackawanna
township, by a fall of roof. This poor man lost his life by what I
must pronounce as the most criminal neglect and reckless carelessness on
the part of Thomas Roach, and the most inexcusable and unjustifiable ne-
glect of duty on tlie part of Jolm Hale, the mine boss. The facts in the
case, as brought out in my examination into the cause of the accident, are
as follows :
Thomas Roach and John Gerrity had been for some time working to-
gether, and Edward Getrick and Michael Ruane were loading coal for them.
About a week previous to the accident (?) the parties had paired off, and
each of the miners were given a separate working place—Roach and Ket-
rick going together to one place, and Gerrit}^ and Ruane going together in
another place, about one hundred and ten yards away. Thomas Roach was
in charge of the chamber where Ruane was killed, but was away at the time
of the accident, in Gerrity 's cliaraber, helping the latter to tamp a hole. He
had left his own chamber, with tons of rock and coal hanging there, liable
at any moment to fall, killing any one who might chance to be .there ;
it did ft\ll,and killed poor Ruane, who had gone in there with an empty car,
which he assisted Ketrick to push up to the end of the track, after the driver
had unhitched his mule. After pushing up the car, Ruane passed to the
right of it, under the mass of overhanging rock, as shown by the carmine
color on the accompanying plan, while Ketrick went to the left of the car,
to A. Just as Ruane got fairly under the dangerous mass, it fell upon
him, killing him instantly. The area which fell was ten square yards, and
this consisted of fourteen inches of rock and fifteen inches of coal, making
it twenty-nine inches in thickness. The following plan of the place will
show its condition better than words can describe it
The first diagram, in which the outlines of the carisseen,is a horizontal
plan of the chamber, the carmine color showing the area of the fall, and
the spot where Ruane was killed is marked. The second diagram is a ver-
tical cross section of the chamber at R, or face of the chamber. And the
third diagram is a vertical cross section at A. The carmine in all shows
the relative width of the fall at A and B. The division between the carmine
and blue, in all three diagrams, shows a break caused by a '"slip"
running nearly parallel with tlie chamber. The wliite line over the fifteen
inches of coal indicates a '• smooth " or glossy parting.
and