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.

37/302 (page 37)

(C,)—VEN^ VVc could not have done the work without it; we must liavo had either that machine or some other, and I have found this most elfectuaL 4377. Did you use any other artificial means before you adopted this j)rinciple ?—Yes, I have used the fan machine ; I have had six boys driving the fan, two boys in each corjjs, each eiglit hours, and I find that those little boys flag at their work, the fan stops, they drive too slowly, and they do not throw in the air. 4378. Did those fans throw in fresh air?—Yes ; I ap- plied a little water-wheel underground with very great success, and T think that has been done in Polgooth as well. I am now jjutting it into the I'H fathoms at Charlestowu to drive the fan there, it is. a water-wheel, a 10-fect wheel. 4379. (Mr. Hollnnd.) Are you now working the 80- fathoms with no other mode of ventilation but the iet? -Yes. 4380. (3/i-. A. Brurr.) How long has this plan been in operation ?—I have worked it for about seven or eight years. 4381. After the cacount you have given of it, I presume that there is no close end to which it would not bo ap- plicable ?—1 could not say that, because sometimes we have got a driving shaft, and where we have not got a skip rope or^.sojnc means of steadying the kibble, if we bring our iron ])ij)es down that shaft this thing would knock them out. A level driven from the driving shaft would not be so easily ventilated by that means if the ordinary fan could be used. 4882. Are you now working close ends under two systems ?—Yes. 4383. Are the men in, your opinion in the one case able to work more vigorouslj- than they are in the other ?—1 think that they work more hours. 4384. Do the}' work longer than the ordinary eight hours ?—No ; but in the one case there is so good a supply of air, the current is so great that the smoke of the powder, after a hole has been blasted, is instantly blown away, while in the other case the draught is so little that the smoke is merelj' floating. 4385. In letting work do you believe that you are able to let it more economically to your employers in well ventilated mines ?—Yes. 4386. Have you had practical proof of that in your own mine ?—Yes, I set a pair of men on Friday last at St. Austell Consols to cut through a lode, i gave them 30.S. a fathom more than I should have given them if they had had a full supply of fresh air. 4387. How mvtcli would you have given them then ?—• About 45.S. a fathom, and 1 gave them 3/. ]2s. 4388. If that is at all a fair instance to give, the dif- ference must be out of all proportion to the expense of erecting and maintaining such a machine ?—Yes, no doubt it is. 4389. Is it as applicable to the rises as it is to the close ends ?—Yes. 4390. It can be applied vertically ?—Yes. 4391. Have you done so ?—Yes. 4392. And always with the same economical effects as well as the same healthful efi'ects F—Yes. I put in a rise through to the Charlestown mines 20 fathoms, and I do not think that any other machine would have done it; we should have gone to the level and sunk part of the way, but we had the machine there, and so have risen part of the way. 4393. Has this machine been examined by other engineers in the district?—It has been examined by Captain Charles Thomas and Captain Mitchell. 4L03. Is there anything that you think is injurious to the health of the miner from the smoke of the candles ? —I think that the most injurious effect of the candle is that it takes up the oxygen and leaves the carbon, of which theve is an excess. I believe that Professor Phillips has spoken of introducing an apparatus for generating oxygen, but I think he is quite mistaken as to mining ; what w^want is a moving atmosphere. Mr. Fkancis Barratt. 4606. (Jl/r. A. Bruce.) I know that the fact is so; but what I wish you to explain to the Commissioners is, why it is not possible to do in coj^per and tin mines what is done in coal mines ?—I have seen a large mine that the men could not go clown more than two or three fathoms below the surface of a morning in still foggy Aveatber, and yet in the course of six hours that air would be driven away, and the men could resume their work ; this, of course, was in a valley. E 4631. Is there any reason why the very deep mines (C.) Vcntila- should not be as well ventilated as yours are P—I think tion. that there is more difficulty in deep mines than in shallow ones. 4632. But why so ?—The current is not so strong at the bottom. 4633. Ought not the current to be rather stronger in deep mines, where there is a greater difference between the temperature of the top and the bottom of the mine, than in shallow mines ?—We do not find it so m practice, the current is not so strong in deep mines as in shallow ones ; I do not know why it is so, but so it is. 4634. In a question aftecting the health and the lives of men, wherever difficulties in the natural ventilation occur, ought not artificial means to be resorted to to assist the natural ventilation ?—Yes. 4635. And do you know of any case where, by the joint use of artificial and natural ventilation, sufficient air cannot be introduced ?—No, I do not. 4636. Do you think that the question of cost would interfere with a sufficient supply of air ?—Yes ; it may be so. 4648. (Mr. Kendall.) What is your opinion about the down-cast and up-cast; as I understand you there is no regular dowiircast and up-cast in yovir own mines?—I have found it to be so in practice. 4649. Did you ever find the want of a draught in a mine where there were two shafts ?—Yes ; I have. 4650. Was the air dead ?—Y^es. 4651. For any length of time?—I have known it to be so for a day. 4652. For how many days in a year have jon known that state of things to exist in your mine ?—I have never known it in winter, but in summer, in very hot weather—dull, heavy weather. 4653. Your supply of air, when you use artificial means, is of course taken from the main draught, that is from shaft to shaft and from level to level ?—Yes. 4654. Are there times when you have no air there to pump in?—Yes ; and the men cannot go down. 4655. On those occasions the men do not go down ?— They cannot, they have no light; the candle would be quenched in a moment. 4656. Has that occurred several times within your knowledge ?—Yes, at East Crinnis, and at Pembroke in the valley. 4657. Have you ever heard of thai being so in any other mines in the neighbourhood ?—No, I think not. 4658. Speaking generally, where you have a connec- tion by a shaft, have you not generally a good through draught ?—Yes. 4659. Very good ?—Yes. 4660. Does not the candle show you sometimes that it is very strong ?—Yes ; you are scarcely able to keep the candle bm-ning on account of the draught being so strong. 4661. In those exceptional cases the men do not go underground ?—They could not go down. 4662. Do you, or do you not, when you find there is bad ventilation at once resort to artificial means ?—No ; a few hours would remove it, a change of wind would do it. 4663. But I mean, generally speaking, in the ends ?— Yes, they always adopt means immediately to send in air, either by fans or by bratticing. 4664. Have you ever known instances where, when the men have complained, and the complaint has been well founded, they have remained for three days, or four days, or a week, before they have ceased to work ?—No. 4665. You at once attend to it?—Yes; the men would be ill otherwise. I never ask the men to work in poor air, I tell them to stop. 4666. I suppose the men do stop before they give you notice ?—Yes ; the tributers would be in a back level, perhaps in poor air. 4667. Comparing the tributer with the tutwork man, which do you think is the longest lived ?—I should think there is not much difference, I should say they are just the same. 4668. Have you found that the deprivation of light for eight hours has something to do with the health of the men ?—I do Hot know in what way. 4744. (Chairiuan.) Although there may be a strong draught iu yotir mines with many shafts, are there no ends in which the air is poor ?—Yes. I suppose in some deep mines that the heat is so unpleasant, either from the weather or from the ground, perhaps from both, as that really the air is difficult to breathe.

Licence and re-use

Contents