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

53 of engineering or mining, but the public must not consider him a Stephenson or a Wood. Theory is a speculation, practice is natures self—the origin of art and science.” The particulars I have narrated are but a fractional portion, although the most special and important, of my practical servitude. They show how the mind of the observing miner may be enriched by opportunity, and how, like gathering shells on the shore of the ocean of circumstances, our store of mechanical and scientific knowledge is increased from day to clay, and from one occurrence to another, exercising the constructing faculties, fur- nishing the memory with ready resources, and gradually amalgamating well tested theory with expertness in practice. I have looked back on those accumulated heaps of toil, indulging in pleasing recollections of the past, and awaiting the future with buoyant hope. But disappointment is often at the bottom of the sweetest cup; I had to quit that colliery on dis- honourable terms, after a service of thirty-four years, having been always in the van of labour of every description in the mine ; twenty years of this period I was engaged in the ventilating department; for near fifteen years I had charge in chief, and effected many improvements in the system, for the benefit of my employers. But changes of agency neutralise all the virtue of long services in the working classes, however important and bene- ficial these services may be to the colliery, or to the owners thereof. I am sufficiently frank to admit that I had my faults, but let the difficulties be also borne in mind whatever might be the thirst for knowledge in my early days, it could be gratified by surmounting perpetual obstacles. Ye rising youths of the present day, ye have no excuse for ignorance, you have your reading rooms, your teachers and preachers, your libraries, and opportunities to store your minds with the knowledge necessary for your occupations. Let not this opportunity slip, introduce into your libraries works on the system of mining. Above all, I would recommend ‘’Parks Chemical Catechism,” which is necessary to every man engaged in the ventilation of a coal mine, the principles of which ought to be, nay must bo guided by the common rule of arithmetical progression ; the plan incurs no additional expense, if proper provision be made in the formation of t e pit. Four drifts can be driven (if requisite for the air’s returning passage) with the same facility as one, and in that lies the whole secret oi successful ventilation ; let your object be to prevent friction being applied to the volume of air in any part of the mine. You will then require no steam jets fan blasts, nor any other artificial means to furnish the necessary quantity of air. Its mechanical application through the mine will be the principal lesson you have to learn, when your daily practice with clue observation will give you the requisite dexterity. My object is to make you inspectors of the mine you are employed in, to qualify you to protect yourselves against approaching danger from your own immediate resources, as Dryden did at the Burradon explosion. I confess to you, I have been under a delusion in reference to the system of government inspection. I understood it to be, that persons so ap- pointed, were to inspect the mines daily, or nearly so, to protect the work- men against ignorance and negligence, to guard against the introduction of false principles in the system, and above all, to ascertain for themselves