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

Ex. Doc] Reports of the Inspectors of Mines. 103
caught him, and fractured his skull. The roof in this chamber was bad,
and was not as well timbered as it should have been. It was verj^ wet, and
the water made it very much worse. The chamber was thirty feet wide,
and had only one row of props on each side of the road to sustain the
roof; and the nearest prop to the face, on the right hand side of the road,
Avas fourteen feet away, and the nearest prop to the face, on the left, was
seventeen feet away.
Accidents Xos. 35 and 36.—George Batt and James Johnson, miner
and laborer, working together at No. 2, Diamond shaft, were instantly
killed, November 17th, by a fall of roof. In this case, there was a slant in
the roof, running to a thin edge, which extended a little to the right of
the road. A row of props' had been put in on the right of the road, under
this thin edge, where any experienced and careful miner would have known,
at a glance, that it was too weak to bear the weight of the rock which
spanned the road, and, consequently, that those props, for the purpose of
holding up that slant, were of very little use. I hold that they were de-
ceptive, and worse than if there had been none at all there. On the other
side of the road, another row of props had been stood, under the thick
part of the slant, but they had not been put in soon enough, for the rock
had opened and parted from the solid over it, some three inches, before
the props had been put in. Two of these props had been knocked out by
a blast, which was too heavily charged with poNvder; and the two men
rushed in to re-stand these props, trusting to the treacherous props on the
right of the road, when the weight of the rock discharged tliem, and some
more with them, and the rock fell, killing both men instantly. David
Mosier, the mine boss, had not been in the chamber for two days, and I
could not satisfy myself that he had done his duty faithfull}', under the
law. I did not feel like taking the responsibility, however, of determin-
ing where the fault rested, if fault there was, in the premises; and I re-
quested Alderman R. K. Cranfield to hold an inquest, which was accord-
ingly done. The jur}^ failed to agree, however, and its findings, therefore,
was not as satisfactory as could be wished. The evidence, in part, has
been suppressed, but that which was admitted b}^ the acting coroner, and
the verdict of the jury, is as follows:
The InqiieHt.
A jury being Impanneled, consisting of Nicholas Washbnrne, (foreman,)
John Wagner, Esdras Howells, B. F. Ackerly, and Thomas Barrow, with
R. K. Cranfield, (alderman,) acting coroner, an inquest was held, at Alderman
Cranfield's office, Hyde Park, November 20th, 1871.
Benjamin Humphries, sworn : I live in Hyde Park ; am a miner, and
work in the. Diamond shaft, where James Johnson and George Batt were
killed. The accident took place on Saturday morning, November 17th,
1877, about ten o'clock. T was at work in my own chamber that morning,
which is the next chamber to where the men were killed, and I heard the
roof coming down. My laborer's name is Hugh Hart. He was running