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
Licence: Public Domain Mark
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.
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![(C.)—VENTILATION. Poor you get a tightness in the head, and afterwards it will cause an overflow of bile, and make you very sick. 2626. (il/r. Fiilhe Ef/erton.) Like a sick head-ache in fact ?—Very much like a sick head-ache, and afterwards when you work in poor air again j-ou feel it directly ; it will act lapon the system even for years afterwards, and in working in good air after the poor air you feel it more, if you do not take medicine ; I had to take open- ing medicine directly on working in poor air, and it worked it off, and it relieved the system. In the damp air the candle wavers, it ))cats down, hut in light poor air it will extinguish. 2('>27. {C'Jiairmau.) Wiiich do you think is the worst? —Tlie damiD, what the miners call the cold damp. 2628. Is that principally in sinking the shaft 'r*—Yes, and you sometimes get it in extending levels, and some- times rising in the back from the long distance where there is no current of air. 2629. Would ventilation cure that Yes, certainly. ■\Vhere there is the damji when you explode, the ])owder smoke will rise perhaps half up the shaft, and will not ascend to the surface; the dam]) will keep it down there, and many men have loi^t their lives in conse- (pience, after it has exploded. 2630. Is that from the damp or from the powder ?— From the damp air ; powder does not affect us so much as peojjle think, because there is charcoal in the powder. Mr. James ISTakce. ■ P_ 2655. {Mr. HoUand.) Have you worked in poor air 1 Yes. 2656. What effect has it had upon you ?—You feel very little from it when you are in it, but the sensation in coming into the fresh air is very singular; you feel a weakness for a minute or two which you did not feel before. 2657. You feel an amount of fatigue far more than proportioned to the exertion?—Yes. 2658. Do you feel a shaking of the legs and knees ?— Yes, when j'ou get into the fresh air. 2659. Do you sometimes feel frightened and nervous without any apparent cause?—No, I tliink not; you feel a sensation on getting into the fresh air. 2660. (Mr. A. Bnirc.) How long does it last?—Per- haps for two or three minutes ; persons who work in those close places feel chilled considerably more than persons working; in good air places. 2661. Is that^all you feel ?—That is all I felt, because I was never so much in it as some of them. 2662. {Mr. HoJlcnd.) Have you ever had indigestion produced by bad air ; such air as you have described ? —Not that I recollect. I have felt a little indigestion latterly. 2663. [Mr. A. Brvcr.) How long were you under- ground ?—In my training I was underground four years, but nothing more than being trained. 2664. {Mr. Holland.) Did you ever work in bad air ? —One month. 2665. What was the state of your health at the end as compared with its state at the beginning?—I felt lan- guid and feeble after the end of the month, rather more than I was before. A Miner. 2725. {Mr. A. Bruce.) Have you ever worked in bad air ?—Yes. 2726. How long together ?—I can hardly tell. I have been working underground a good while now ; perhaps, two or three months together. 2727. At the end of those t^vo or three months, would you feel worse than at the Ijeginning of them?-No. nothing more than at any time of working. I feel head-ache. 2728. Do you sleep well and cat well? —Yes, I always do. 2729. Have you seen others suffer from it worse than you ?—Yes, in time. 2730. Have you seen men obliged to give up work- ing p—I have known men who have been obliged to give up working. A MlNEK, No. 1. 2767. {Chcnrman.) Do you know any men who have been affected from working in a bad end ?—Yes ; I have been affected in working at Par Consols myself. 2768. What was the effect of working there ?—It (C*-«•) Poor threw the rheumatism into my bones, and I was bad in the head. 2769. Did you get cold there ?—Yes. 2770. Fi'om v,-hat?—From cold damp. 2771. What sort of thing is the cold damp ?—It makes the candle burn awajr up ; if a man is v^'orking hard and sweating, and stops a few minutes, lie gets chilled very quickly if it is in a cold place. 2772. The candle rises up, does it ?—Yes, the candle AviU rvui up terribly sometimes. 2773. (Mr. Holland.) Would your candle burn there ? —Yes. 277-i. (CJiairman.) Does that damp prevent the pow- der smoke getting away ? Were you blasting at that end?—Yes. 2775. And did the powder smoke get away quickly ? —No. 2776. What did it do, did it hang?—Yes, it hung about the place. 2777. How long?—For a whole corps sometimes. I worked in one little mine, and there was plenty of cir- culation up in the level, but the smoke would come up six feet, and it was like a seller, it would rise no higher ; we were forced to give up working there, we could not work there at all. 2778. Did the men ever fall down before it ?—No. 2779. Were any means taken to remove it ?—No, the place was stopped working, they rose against it. 2780. The men would not work?—No, we all of us gave up our place. 2781. How many were there of you?—Six. 2782. Did any other men take to it afterwards ?—No. 2783. About how long ago is that?—About three years. 2784. What was the effect iipon yow of working there ? —It affected me in my head. 2785. Did it produce giddiness ?—Giddiness and pain and a beating m the head and heart, after six or seven fathoms I was forced to stop. 2786. How long did you continue to work in it ?— Four weeks. 2787. Were all the others equally affected with your- self?—There was one not affected so much as the rest. 2809. (Mr. A. Bruce.) Did you know any of them?— I cannot remember any by name now, I know that several worked in one mine. You cannot go in one mine out of 20, or one out of 100 hardly, but there are some poor air places in it, hardly lit to work in. A MiXEE, No. 2. 2889. (Mr. A. Bruce.) Have you ever been working at all in a bad close end yourself ?—I have not worked in an end, but I have worked in close places, that is, in a rise in the back ; the place that I am now woi-king in, is rather a closeish place. 2890. Have you complained of the want of sufficient ventilation?—No, we have not complained; I do not know that it is of much service to complain. I do not see how they can ventilate it. 2891. Why not?—One reason is, that it would not pay. I am working now in a ijitch, and the captains give us two-thirds of the pound, and it will hardly pay: 13s. Ad. out of a pound is as much as they can give, as they are allowed to give by the mining gen- tlemen. 2892. (Chairman.) Do they give that because the air is not good there ?—No, it is not on that account. 2893 (Mr. A. Bruce.) Are you working now at that rate ?—Yes. 2894. Have you been long working at that rate?— The last two or three months ; it is going on for three months. 2895. How has it answered?—Not at a very great rate ; perhaps we may have got 41. a month. Gene- rally speaking, when we are working in a close place, that is to say, where the aii' may be tolerably good but yet close, there being no thoroughfare, the agents, I consider, do not make allowance enough (and it is so considered hy the men generally) in a close place ; the smoke remains a long while in those places. Sufficient difference is not made between the price given for a jjlace where there is a thoroughfare and for a place where there is none ; and for the price which the agents give, we are obliged, if we have a mind to get any money to bring home to our families, to rush into the work again almost as soon as we shoot. G 3](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2398482x_0055.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
