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.
57/302 (page 57)
![(C.)—VENTILATION. blocks, and tlie cold damp was always like a cloud of thick rain. 6177. Could not you dispel it by fans?—That might have been done, but it was never applied, and when you got away from the engine shaft on to the course of the lode there was naturally cold damp. 6220. (Cliirtrmati.) As aminer you have worked in poor air yourself?—Yes. 6221. Often ?—Not a great deal. 6222. In what mines ?—I do not know that I have worked in any worse than the one I spoke of just now, the Huel Euby. [Note.'] Capt. R. DUNSTAN. Liskeard, 21st February 1863. Yoim Lordship will please observe that there are many degrees of poor air in which the miner has to work, which is more or less injurious to his health ; and although it is only in extreme cases of poor air or damp where the life of the miner is quenched out, yet I am of opinion that a man cannot work in poor air without being- injured by it to a lesser or greater extent, according to the amount of labour performed, and quantity of air inhaled. I remain. Your Lordship's humble servant, EOBT. DUNSTAN. Mr. James Eichard Quick. 693. (Jfi-. Davey.) Do they not receive better wages when they work in those bad places ?—I think they do. Capt. EicnAKD Boyns. 6807. (Mr. Kendall.) You stated that you have ob- erved that there is a variation sometimes in currents, ut those variations are not verj- capricious, are they ; they do not change every hour or two ?—No ; but generally these currents seem to me to be so very trifling that you can hardly detect whether the current is up or down; it is very slight so far as is detected from the surface. 6808. Can you tell from the nature of the current whether or not the foul air is (to use a mining phrase) wabbling about the different levels ?—No. 6809. You think that it moves about?—Yes. 6810. It remains there, you think ?—No ; I think that it will pass up the mine eventually ; but then it moves about through the mine before it finds its way out. It cannot get up at once, that is very clear. 6811. It takes some little while to get up ?—Yes. Where there is so much good air getting into a mine, the poor air must be driven away. Capt. Thomas Teahaik. 7071. [Cliairman.) Do you suppose that a miner would give up his work because he had to work in bad air ?—1 believe that some would, and that others would not. 7072. Do you not think that that would depend very much upon whether they could obtain employment elsewhere ?—Perhaps so. It would depend iTpon what they were allowed to get in those places ; where the pay is better in poor air ends, for the sake of that they will work there. 7085. Have you never heard of men being urged to drive on by an additional payment being offered to them ? —Never. 7086. Do you think that the men are not tempted to do so by a higher price being paid for their work ? —Yes. Capt. EicHABD James. 8361. (Chairman.) How do you discover that an end gets close ?—By the candles as soon as by anything. 8362. Do you discover it by the candles as soon as by your own feelings ?—Sooner. The candle will decline before we can feel it, except we work very hard, and then we can discover it; we begin to breathe very short when working in a close place more than when working in a place where there is plenty of air. Capt. Matthew Ctonow. 8-559. {Chairman.) What do you imderstand by the term poor air ?—That is where the candle will not burn without leaning it to its side. I have worked in that many times, scores of times, for years. 8560. Did you suffer from that all ?—Very little ; it (C. a.) Poor was cast out again; I felt a little from it once, but it Air. passed off again. 8561. Have you worked several times in places where the candle would not burn ?—I have worked in as bad air as any man in the country. 8562. How did you feel under such circumstances ?— I felt a shortness of breath. 8563. Did you suffer from any affection of the stomach ?—No. 8564. Was your appetite impaired ?—Yes ; but we took a little medicine to get all i-ight again. 8565. When you were working in poor air, did you feel the effects of it afterwards in climbing the ladders ? —Yes ; I felt a little stupified. 8566. Was your head at all effected ?—Yes; I was not lively. 8567. Did any of the other men working in the same core with you suffer from the same cause ?—Yes ; some of them died of it. 8568. Are there none living now who worked with you at that time ?—No ; not one of the pair. I am the only man that is living; but they were much older men than I was at that time; I was young, about 19 or 20. 8569. At what age did they die ?—Every one of them lived, I should say, until they were between 60 and 70. 8570. Did they work underground all that time ?— Some of them worked on to the last. 8571. Were they not affected by it?—Not a bit; it depends iipon the constitution ; some men are stronger than others. 8577. A new mine is therefore likely to be not so well ventilated as an old one ?—Yes ; because they have but one shaft generally ; and there is one thing that there is better ventilation in the copper mines where they work shallow than what there is in the deep mines in granite, as they can sink some four fathoms for one in killas ; in sinking one fathom in granite they can open four or five in the kiilas. Capt. Charles Thomas., 8721. {Chairman.) Have you in any of these mines ' any end in which the air is poor ?—Not now in any one of the ends in any one of the mines of which I have the management; there is not one end but where the candle will burn perpendicularly and freely. Capt. John Daw. 9274. {Chairman.) What means have you of ascertain- ing when the air will soon tell us. is poor ?—Only by the candles ; that Capt. William Teague. 9313. Is the air perfectly good at the 30 fathoms ?— We find it so. 9314. How do you judge ?—We judge from the clear- ness of the level, and the freeness with which the men can work. 9315. Do you judge at all from the burning of the candles P—Yes. 9316. How long is the powder smoke clearing away from the level?—It may bs about a quarter of an hour at that distance. 9317. {Mr. Holland.) Never longer ?—No, I should say not with us. 9318. {Chairman.) Is it then quite clear away ?—Yes; generally speaking, a quarter of an hour clears it away at that distance. 9319. Have you ever had any close ends in your mine where the air has been poor ?—Yes. 9320. How long have the men been obliged to work in that air when that has been the case ?—We have set them to work an eight hours' course, but then they have not been compelled to continue the whole of that time there. 9321. They are obliged to leave before the eight hours' course out is when it is close ?—Yes. , 9322. How long should you think a man could work where the air is close and a candle will not burn ?—We do not wish them to work at all where they cannot burn a candle. 9323. But they do _work occasionally so in some mines ?—We have neve? seen it; it has never come under my observation. H](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2398482x_0059.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
