Reports of the Inspectors of Mines of the anthracite and bituminous ...

No. 12.] Sixth Anthracite District. 213
slate or rock in an}^ mine, no iron or steel pointed needle shall be used,
and a tig'lit cartridg-e shall not be rammed into a hole in coal, slate, or
rock, with an iron or steel tamping bar, unless the end of the tamping-
bar is tipped with at least six inches of copper or other soft metal."
The company had provided tamping- bars tipped with copper, but Paddock
did not use them. We find that in this case the copper-tipped
tamping- bar is laid away and covered with rock material, and rather than
search for it, if it is not readily found, the miner takes an iron bar to
tamp the hole, and while he knows he is doing- wrong-, he hushes his con-
science to silence with the hope that he can do so with no serious results.
No. 11. William Mulhern, a rock miner, ag-ed twenty -four years, was
killed instantly at Girard colliery, on the 17th day of March, at the same
time that Paddock lost his life.
No. 12. Mat Jackobitch, miner, ag-ed thirty years, was fatally injured
by a fall of coal at Gilberton collier}', on the 23d day of March, and died
in the Miners' hospital on the 24tli. Jackobitch was working- at what
is known as "robbing- back," and it was necessary to renew the chute
platform, and to do this, a prop had to be removed which had been put
in place years ag-o to support a piece of coal on the "rib" of the chute,
he, with a seeming- want of knowledg-c of cause and effect, cut away the
foothold of the prop, and, as a matter of course, the coal supported by
it, fell on him.
No. 13. Patrick Fallon, a miner, ag-ed twenty -five years, was fatally in-
jured by a fall of coal at the Knickerbocker colliery, on the 22d day of
March, and died in the Miners' hospital, April 1. He and his "butty"
had tried to bar down this piece of coal, but concluded to load a car and
then stand double timber under the loose coal, but before they had time
to even g-et from under it a fall came which caused Fallon's death. I examined
the surroundiug-s subsequent to the accident, and it was quite
apparent that it was unsafe to work under this loose top, from the fact
that "slips" or dislocations were very prominent, and in addition, taking-
into consideration the fact that a short time previous to the fall a shot
had been fired, which made the place so that no practical miner would
have done other than continue to make his place of work safe, by either
barring- or blasting- all loose material down.
No. 14. Michael Welsh, a laborer, ag-ed forty-eigfht years, in sinkingshaft,
was killed in Shenandoah City shaft, on the 26th day of March.
He, with the other men of the "shift," were working- in the bottom of the
shaft. Welsh and another of the workmen had loaded a bucket and g-iven
the sig-nal to hoist, the eng-ineer responded to the sig-nal g-iven him and
when the bucket was up a distance of fifty feet or at a point Avhere the
last sett of timber was placed, it came in contact with the timber, forcing-
out one of the "punch blocks" which fell on Welsh.
It occurred to me that before the bucket was sent away from the bottom
that the men did not take time to allow it to " steady," which must