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

48 citation of the transmigrating mass of matter in passing ovei' the burning furnace, &c., I need not now enter into any elaborate or chemical illus- tration; it will be enough to state that every particle of combustible matter is here destroyed, and caloric set at liberty. As Darwin says— “ Thus heat from chemic dissolution springs, And gives to matter its eccentric wings, With strong repulsion parts the exploding mass, Melts into lymph, or kindles into gas.” I may also point out that it is a mistaken and false idea, prevalent with men of high pretensions too, to conclude that obstructions to the general current of air can or do frequently take place in the shafts. To the contrary of this, too, I have added proof. And why doubt it 1 Why doubt the mighty influence of caloric acting on a gaseous substance, whose capacity is increased by the vitiated matter combined in the inert volume approaching the furnace; particularly when men know that by fire metal dissolves, rocks vitrify, clay hardens, iron softens, and all the productions of the earth are formed and combined as necessity require them by the aid and power of caloric? Let the practical observer mark its volatility and elasticity when over the furnace; and bear this in mind, that if the shafts be nine feet diameter we may then calculate on sixty square feet area, and that is equivalent to 180 square feet in the main returning drifts. These scientific truths have been demonstrated by myself, in my loiv practice as chief superintendent in the ventilating department at Cox- lodge Colliery, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I may not be able to define my views properly to meet your understanding, and have reason to regret the absence of education—I mean that education which con- stitutes the learning of the higher spheres of society, and fits man for the senate, the bar, the pulpit, and the stage. Had I possessed this educa- tion it might have enableri me to gild my words with a silvery influence sufficient to induce the owners and agents of collieries to at once adopt the system I here prescribe, and carry its principles effectually into operation throughout the coal trade. Education, however, may be con- sidered as divided into branches. One species of education is requisite foi the senate and bar, another for the pulpit and stage, and so on down to doctors and chemists. But the education requisite to the miner is altogether different from any of these. The school of his learning is the great storehouse of nature. His principal teachers are the elements actuated, governed, and indicated by the power and influence of our common atmosphere, and from their indications the truly scientific and practical miner takes his daily observations and conveys them to his prolific mind for reflection, the only laboratory the poor man can buüd for his analytical solutions. Thus he may labour and toil without remuneration or profit, and thus dare the dangers of the mine without prospect or reward; and while others are sleeping or enjoying their pleasures and then- ease, you may see the intelligent miner plying the compass and scale, searching for those qualities which alone can protect the miners safety and health. Yet, says an inspector of mines, “ hence they have constantly refused to countenance sub-inspectors, especially those taken from amongst the uneducated colliers.”