Scenes And Incidents From The Life Of A Practical Miner
With A Treatise On The Ventilation Of Coal Mines

14 extrflor^ * ti ary current of air, and that when in an. atmosphere of inflanl- mable gas, the flame could be blown through the'meshesof the gauze, and pro- duce an explosion. Now this engine furnished us with a favourable oppor- tunity of testing the truth of this assertion, as it had to pump the water out at nights, or when the pit was off, a distance of 600 yards. Thus, when commencing to pump, the water was generally down to the crank, and required a vast number of strokes before it reached the top or delivering channel, the space between the crank and the top of the pipes, or small pumps, was filled with hydrogen gas, and every stroke was a gust of hydrogen, until the water reached the top, when it was borne away by the current of air, diluted, and rendered harmless. At the end of these pipes we suspended a safety lamp, entire, which was soon filled with the flame, the next stroke of the engine blew the Haine through the gauze, and we were nearly enveloped in the blast, but fortunately escaped injury. . This experiment told us that danger did exist, if the lamp was not used with caution and care in such an atmosphere. Indeed, it is then, and only then, that the Davy is truly a safety lamp. And how often have we been in an inflammable atmosphere with that lamp, under all circum- stances, confident of our skill and judgment, even in the midst of danger. These pipes were laid down the east headways the distance of 600 yards, which was also the air’s return passage; the workings in this district were not of great extent, being only thirty-four pillars east, at twenty-two yards, per pillar; and nine pillars to west, at twenty-two yards per pillar. Thus, giving us an area of about 54,400 yards of excavated drifts, two yards in breadth, and twenty apart, from north to south; and four and a-lialf yards in breadth, and eight yards apart from west to east. This is called a waste, which must be duly and properly ventilated, i. e., the atmospheric current of air must pass through, and along every one of these drifts, so that they may he all kept clean and wholesome. Now, this is what might be considered the mechanical application of the air in the mine. When a district is brought to this point, the managers generally begin to work off the standing pillars of coal, which is (as the miners say) working in the broken. And, as this distance of 600 yards from north to south had declination of about five inches to the yard, you will see that the proper place to begin at (according to the law of gravitation), is the top- most part, or north-east corner, next the barrier and main horseway leading into the interior and vastly more extensive workings. Attention to this rule renders the ventilation easy, and free to compete with the hydrogen gas generated in the goaf. In course of time the whole of these pillar *are brought off, and this vast district becomes a precarious goaf of about 100 acres in area, situated close by the main horseway, and only 400 yards from the downcast shaft. The governing authorities, in de- liberating on the future, determined to bar it off with stoppings, and have nothin«' to do with it. I now show you the formation of these three head- ways, as the only drifts that penetrated this district. (See the Plan.) The centre one was four yards wide, and, as the darts indicate, was the ingoing drift for the air, the one that all the men and hoys travelled in going to and from their work, and also up which the engine drew all the coals. The