Epitome of evidence taken before the Commissioners appointed to enquire into the condition of all mines in Great Britain to which the provisions of the Act 23 & 24 Vict. cap. 155 do not apply, with reference to the health and safety of persons employed in such mines / presented to both houses of Paliament by command of Her Majesty.

Great Britain. Royal Commission on Mines

Date:: 1864

Credit: Epitome of evidence taken before the Commissioners appointed to enquire into the condition of all mines in Great Britain to which the provisions of the Act 23 & 24 Vict. cap. 155 do not apply, with reference to the health and safety of persons employed in such mines / presented to both houses of Paliament by command of Her Majesty. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

35/302 (page 35)

$(C.)—VENTILATION. t,l(i' winze, when you would have plenty of ventilation, and the men might be working in a bad place just at that time. 2^80. Tou said that the candle indicates the existence of bad air before the men feel it ?—Yes. 2o81. Are yon sure of that ?—Yes ; I have been many times in ])laces wIiot'o the candle would not burn. I have worked on a tribute wht;re I had the candle, per- haps, seven or eight feet behind me, it would not burn where I was Avorking, and we were doing very well, and you do not think aboui the injury then. 2382. But you were injuring yourself ?■—Yes, no doubt about it. 2383. You have told me that you have forked when actually the candle would not burn, and my question is whether to a cerain extent the air would not be tainted even before the candle by not burning showed the condition of the air ? —No ; you will find that wherever there is a little failure in the air the candle will show it, and instead of having the candle upright it must lean ; as th6 air gets worse you must have it down in a horizontal way. 2393. (ifr. Kendnll.) And you came to this conclusion when you were a tributer, that you could often work in an end ^there the candle would not burn, and you put it back sorae eight or nine feet behind you P—Yes. 2394. Then the candle, according to that, is more sensitive than a human being ?—Yes. 2395. You can work where a candle will not burn ? —Yes: the candle, in the place that I spoke of, the moment you put it in, went out directly. Mr. William Cock. 2612. {Mr. A. Bruce.) Were you none the worse for that ?—My staying in it was short, only just to examine it; that was one place that we have now raised from one level to another to give better ventilation, and in rising in this place the air was very scanty. 2613. Wliat did you do ?—We effected a communi- cation between ihe two levels by a rise. 2614. How long was the air scanty ?—For about three months. 2615. Were you working there all the time?—No; I was then an agent. , 2616. Were there some men working there for the whole of the three months ?—Yes. 2617. Were they the worse for it?—No, they arc still working in the mine. 2618. Were they any the worse for it at the time ?— No. A Miner. No. 1. 2799. {Mr. A. Bruce') Were the close ends well ven- tilated ?—Some were well ventilated, and some were driven a long way from any draught. 2800. Do you call a close end well ventilated in which you sntlered in the manner in which you have just described ?—No. 2801. Do you think that that could have been avoided ? —Yes, I think it could. 2802. Did you ask the agent to improve the air ?— We generailly complain of having poor air when* we have it, and try to have a machine to blow air to us ; sometimes we get it, and sometimes we cannot. 2803. What was the reason why you could not get it?—I do not know, it might be done if they had a mind to put it for us. 2804. {Chairmayi.) Have you ever been refused?—• Yes. 2805. You have spoken to the agents, and they have refused to put it ?—Yes they have refused to put it. Mr. Andsew Kingston. 3354. {Mr. A. Bruce.) Then it is a question between the lives of men and the development of poor mines ?— You cannot get over this difficidty, that in mines where they have only one shaft the ventilation, as of course must be obvious to any one, cannot be perfect; if you put down two shafts you stop the mines at once. 3355. Then you distinctly say, as within the experience of your medical practice, that men working in mines having but one shaft are, as a body, more unhealthy than those working in mines with more shafts ?—I have known in some mines in my experience where they have had only one shaft that the men have complained that the air has been very poor, and that they have suf- fered from it. 3356.And have you observed that they did suffer ?— (C.) Ventila- Yes, most assuredly so. tion. 3362. {Mr. Kpudnll.) Are the cases very rare which you have been called to attend of men suffering exclu- sively from having worked in a badly ventilated end, a badly ventilated rise, or a badly ventilated pitch?— They are few. From the general mining work they are not in the good condition in which other men of between 20 and 30 are. 3363. From the information which you have been able to get from miners whom you see, are you not of opinion that in the majority of mines in this district the natural ventilation, quoad ventilation, is good ?—I am of opinion that it is good^ decidedly. Mr. EOBEET DUNSTAN. 3449. {Mr. A. Bruce.) Is there anything else?—Yes, the foul air that they breathe, and that they arc obliged to work in. 3480. Do you consider that all the means have been exhausted by which ventilation can be provided for the tutwork men?—No, certainly not. 3481. Even in the best ventilated mines?—No. 3490. In the mines in which you have been engaged were there no close ends that were insufficiently venti- lated?—Yes. I have worked in places where I have been obliged to keep the candle six feet behind me, for a man can breathe where a candle will not burn. 3553. {Chairman.) If the miners are working in poor air is that taken into consideration, and is a larger allowance made to them ?—You must give them more, or they could get nothing. They could not do half the work that they otherwise could do. 3554. Then it would be clearly for the interest of the adventurers that a mine should be well ventilated in order that the men might do more work ?—Yes, but take what care you can the men must of necessity be exposed to foul air. 3632. I suppose it is only in young mines that there is but one shaft?—Some mines are worked to a con- siderable depth without more than one outlet, but it is never safe to do so. In well-conducted mines we do not allow the men to travel through the shafts ; there is a private footway on purpose for them. 3633. When there is only one shaft it is divided between that and the kibbles, is it not P—Yes, and then there is an engine working up and down, which makes it dangerous for the men to travel through. All mines should have a private footway apart from all the engines. 3634. So that if any obstruction happened in that one shaft the men would have a way to retreat ?—Yes. 3635. Are the shafts lined with wood?—Yes, but some of the footways in them are very bad. The kibbles falling away knock away the casing and make large holes, which render it very dangerous. 3636. That is, if any material were to fall down and break through the division it might endanger life ?— Yes, many men have been killed by it. Mr. William Wale Taylek. 3806. {Mr. Kendall.) And as a general thing you have not heard the miners complain of working in bad air ? —No, I have heard miners say that the Fowey Consols are better ventilated than other mines to which they have alluded in the west. Mr. John Pe.uice. 4002. {Chairmayi.) Where was that mine ?—It was in this neighbourhood. They suffered very badly, and I would account for that by the ventilation not being so well attended to there, as they had not so much neces- sity to drive out the smoke from the powder, there was very little blasting, and the ground being easy retained the damp to such an extent that the timber would often become loaded with fungous growths, and all the atmo- sphere would be dead and heavy. The men in those days were in the habit of drinking more in that dis- trict, and they would often go down half drunk, .and sleep underground; but the Beam mine was observed to be one fertile source of the peculiar disease called the miners' disease. 4027. How long do you think a miner could work in that kind of air without suffering ?—That depends upon , the degree of impurity that there is. In some cases such rises are nearer to another rise than in other cases; it depends upon circumstances, they judge of it by the way in which the. candle burns ; if the candle will not$

Licence and re-use

Contents