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

19 the Burradon plan; yet you must not conclude that it is a correct dis- P *111 °? ^ie Hilda Pit. I have drawn it to contrast the principle, which I myself prefer, with that which was in use at St. Hilda Pit; and earnestly to recommend the former to your consideration, as the safest and best system of ventilating a coal mine that can be applied; for by ad- icrmg strictly to the Jetter of my insti-uctions you can get whatever quantity of air you wish for into the mine; and it is impossible for any accumulation of gas to take place in any part thereof. Consequently there can never be an explosion of any serious extent because you have nothing m jeopardy, but all being in strict conformity with the laws of nature. 1 will now further show you the immense mechanical power of air over an extensive volume of hydrogen gas, and also the subtle nature of that gas w en neg ected and in a light current of air. On a Saturday morning ( e pit being off coal work) the overman set two deputies to draw the timber (brattice props and planks) out of the two northernmost boards; and T? • 3lth them a Strong b°y to take k away- When all was done, and their time up, they went home, leaving the pit, as they supposed, all iighl, and prepared for a fresh day. But as these two north boards were the passages tor the air returning from the whole working boards it be- came my duty to see that they and all besides were right and clean before the men came on the Monday morning. Consequently, I ordered my men to be at the pit two hours before the overman and men, to examine and ascertain the true state of these two boards, in connection with the district And here let me endeavour, if possible, to show you the working of the air, as mechanically guided throughout the whole sheth, which was Avon out in the formation you see by a pair of headways turned from the nar- row boards, and driven north the distance of ten boards, leaving a barrier thirty yards thick to east of them, and dividing them from what was formerly another sheth of boards, but now a goaf, as you see marked, to the east and south. The whole was won out by the narrow boards com- ing up from east to west, until the south board holed into a convenient return, while it was necessary to continue the north one, until it holed into the incline bank headways, for the purpose of ventilating the whole district apart from the goaf. As you will observe by the darts, the air is conveyed down tlie north narrow board to the first, the westernmost and wot ting headways. You there see it is borne up by double doors in the pillar east, marked red, and if you follow the darts through the whole sheth you will observe it is coursed in twos through the waste; when it returns down the two north boards and the east winning headways back sou i to t le narrow boards again. It then passes through an aperture or slide regulator in. the south narrow board, parallel with the double doors. <5S7'I1h W See ^Le a^.mosP^er^c stream of air encircle the whole district. . e ’ had arrived at the first door in the narrow board at the foot of le rst. (westernmost) working headways. Our number was six, and as our were above GO years of age and had walked a distance of two miles tom the shaft, I told them to sit down and take a rest, while I myself would proceed up the headways to tlie north board and see what state it was m. . Lamp, in hand, I set off; but, to my great surprise, when I got o the first board my lamp was filled with the flame of hydrogen gas.