July 24, 1914

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

xii

Supplement to THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

Division number 23 per cent, of the whole number
employed in the United Kingdom.

Persons employed.
r>-------*---------' Below

Below Above ground. and
ground. (—---A-----above

Males. Males.*?’ gr"und’

Mines

County.	at

work.

Derby............. 152	...	44,568	...	10,901	...	2	’..	55,471

Lincoln ...........	1	...	64	...	15	...	—	...	;9

Nottingham_______ 57	...	32,561	...	7,921	...	—	40,482

Yorks............. 425	...126,803	...	34,401	...	16	...	161,220

Total in 19 ; 3 ... 635 203,996 ... 53,238 ... 18 ... 257,252
Total in 1912 ... 630 ...195,552 ... 50,932 ... 19 ... 246,503

Output of Minerals.—The total output of minerals
from min-s working under the Coal Stines Acts was
73,499,759 tons. Compared with 1912 there was an
increase of 8,110,196 tons. It should be borne in mind,
however, that in 1912 there was a six weeks strike, and
consequently the output for that year was probably
from 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 below normal. In last
year’s report it was mentioned that 18 separate colliery
companies were producing 1,000,000 tons and over per
annum. There are now 23 companies with a yearly
output ranging from 1,000,000 to 2,679,000. The
following table shows the quantity and value of
mineral raised:—

Table

Fatal
acci-
dents.

A.

Non-fatal
accidents
reported
to

inspector.*

All non-fatal
accidents
disabling for
more than
7 days.

Place and cause.

<D Pl

Explosions of firedamp
or coaldust .......
Falls in mines.......
Shaft accidents .....
Miscellaneous under-
ground ...........

<x> w
02

c3
CD
A

CO
Ci'S
<D

q cj3
02

§.&

ai c

Ph



as

o s=l
<x -I-1

Ph

2... 3...	6...

149...154... 551 ..
13... 29... 17...

60... 69... 602...

6...

10

10..	.

556...13,714..13,752

41..	.	91... 106

604...23,235...23,246

Total underground.. 224...255...1,176...1,211.. 37,046...37,114
On surface ......... 36... 36... 193... 196... 3,234... 3,240

Gross total in 1913... 260...291...1,369 1,407.. 40,280...40,354

Total in 1912 ...... 225...318... 1,321... 1,379...34,960...35,059

slight evidence of coking; (4) that in the absence of any
evidence to the contrary, the only possible cause of the
explosion was a defective safety lamp. There were only
three lamps concerned. Spooner’s, a single gauzed,

County.	Coal.		Fireclay.		Ironstone.		Other minerals.		Total.	
Derby 	  Lincoln 		Tons.  16,888,316  12,394,491  43,699,034	Value. £ 7,316,223  5,455,130 20,570,955	Tons.  33,632  4,985  305,453	Value. £ 7,261  1,346 84,216	Tons.  116  58,260  28,269	Value.  £  28  *  29,485f	Tons.  2,856  299 111,058	Value. £ 901  112 38,467	Tons.  16,924,910  58,260  12,399,775  44,116,814	Value.  £ 7,404,413  *  5,456,588  20,723,123 i
Nottingham 	  Yorks 	  Total in 1913	  Total in 1912											
	72,951,841  64,881,937	33,422,308  26,059,008	344,060  291,302	92,823  73,428	86,645  92,756	29,513  28,592	117,213  122,808	39.480  49,513	73,499,759 65,389,563^	33,584,124 1 26,210,617:  1

* Included in Yorks. f Including value of Lincoln ironstone. J Includes 760 tons of oil shale, valued at <£76.

The output per person employed was (a) below ground,
360 tons; (6) above and below, 285 tons. The figures
for 1912 were 344 tons and 265 tons respectively. In
the output of mineral per person employed above and
below ground during the year, the premier position was
held by Nottinghamshire with 306 tons, Derbyshire next
with 305 tons, and Yorkshire last with 274 tons.

The number of electrically-driven machines has
increased from 290 to 331, while those driven by
compressed air have also increased from 311 to 342.
The number of conveyors at the coal face is now 86,
showing an increase of 35 during the year.

Number driven by Statute tons cut by

Description. Elec_
tricity.

Disc ......... 146

Bar .........	83	.,

Chain ....... 102 .
Percussive ___	—	.

Rotary heading —

<”Elec-

air tricity’
. 183 ... 1,750,162
.	54	...	1,028,943

.	34	...	1,143,577

71 ...	—

Com-
piessed
air.
2,559,899
657,912
272,128
195,909*

double bonneted one burning heavy oil, was found in
148’s gate end, about 30 yards from where his body was
got, with the gauze loose on the carrying ring. This
defect was not readily discernible from the outside, but
would easily account for the ignition of firedamp outside
the lamp. Of the other two being carried by Turner,
one was intact, while the other had a broken glass, and
the top of the bpnnet with the carrying ring missing.
There was no special lampman on duty at six o’clock on
Sunday night, and, as few lamps were required at that
hour, Spooner himself was the person appointed by the
manager to examine them before being taken under-
ground, and to keep a record of the lamps issued. He
was seen in the lamp-house by another deputy examining
the lamps by blowing, and the lamps were afterwards
found to have been locked, but there was no evidence to
show whether or not, in accordance with Special Rule 59
of the Derbyshire Code then in force at the mine, he
thoroughly cleaned and properly put together the three
lamps issued by him before they were taken below

_____	_______	_______

Total in 1913 331 ... 342 ... 3,922,682 ... 3,685,848*
Total in 1912 290 ... 311 ... 3,045,927 ... 3,167,314f

* Including 8,694 tons of fireclay. t Including 28,820
tons of fireclay.

Accidents.—During the year notice was received by
the inspector of 1,622 accidents which occurred in and
about mines working under the Coal Mines Regulation
Acts. Of these no less than 260 proved fatal and
caused the loss of 291 lives, the remainder, 1,362, being
non-fatal accidents which caused injury to 1,400 persons.
In addition to non-fatal accidents reportable to the
inspector of mines at the time of their occurrence the
usual return made at the end of the year of all accidents
by which persons were incapacitated for more than
seven days showed that 40,280 such accidents caused
injury to 40,354 persons. The death rates per 1,000
persons employed were as under:—Below ground, 1'25,
in preceding year 1'45; above ground, 0'68, in preceding
year 0'66; above and below ground, 1'13, in preceding
year 1'29. Illustrated in another way, one out of 839
persons employed below ground, one out of 1,479
persons employed on the surface, and one out of every
884 persons employed in and about mines lost his life
by accident. The county death rates from all accidents
per 1,000 persons employed above and below ground
were: — Derbyshire, 0'79, in preceding year 0'86;
Nottinghamshire, 1'25, in preceding year 0 61; York-
shire, 1'21, in preceding year 1'62 ; Lincolnshire, nil, in
preceding year nil.

Compared with the previous year, deaths from
explosions show a decrease of 91; deaths by falls in
mines an increase of 35; deaths by shaft accidents an
increase of 20; deaths by miscellaneous underground
accidents an increase of seven; deaths by surface
accidents an increase of two. Last year the death rate
per 1,000 persons employed showed a decrease of 0’16;
and a decrease of 0'91 per 1,000,000 tons raised.

Table A is a summary of fatal and non-fatal accidents,
classified according to place and cause.

Last year there was only one fatal explosion of fire-
damp in the division, and by it two persons lost their
lives at Holbrook Colliery in Derbyshire. The explosion,
in a safety lamp pit, occurred between 10 and 12 on
Sunday night, April 27, and resulted in the death of
Albert Spooner, 39 years of age, deputy, and George
Turner, a rope lad, 20 years of age. When Mr. Charles
D. Mott ram visited the mine to investigate the cause of
the accident, he found:—(1) There had been an explo-
sion of firedamp in the section of workings being
inspected by Spooner; (2) that the explosion originated
in 148’s road (see plan), where firedamp was still found
to be issuing freely from the strata ; (3) that coal dust
took but little part in the explosion, there being only

Spoon er

Ignition Z;

Fig. 12.—Plan of Workings, Deep Soft
Seam, Holbrook Colliery.

ground. The lamps in use at Holbrook on the night of
the accident had not been approved in the prescribed
manner, as at that time few types of such lamps could
be supplied as having passed the Government test at
Eskmeals. With regard to the presence of Turner along
with Spooner when the latter was making an inspection
of the workings, it is not unusual in the county of
Derby, where the workings extend long distances under-
ground, for a second person to accompany the deputy
when making his inspection. Where this custom
prevails, or the exigency of the mine requires two men
to travel long distances for the purposes of inspection,
both men should be deputies. Section 63 of the 1911
Act stipulates that no workman shall pass beyond the
appointed station until the mine beyond that station has
been examined and reported safe. In allowing Turner
to accompany Spooner the manager made a technical
breach of the Act, but it is not suggested that if the
second man had been a deputy instead of “ a workman ”
the accident would thereby have been prevented.

The deaths from falls show an increase of 35, and
there was also an increase of 31 in the number of non-
fatal accidents reported to the inspector from this
cause. Of the 154 persons killed by falls during the
year, 104 were at the working face, 26 were on roads
while repairing or enlarging, and 19 were on roads
while otherwise working or passing, the whole repre-
senting 60'4 per cent, of the total fatalities underground.
Arranged according to the counties there were :—
27 deaths by falls in Derbyshire, equal to 61 per cent,
of the total underground fatalities in that county;
24 deaths by falls in Nottinghamshire equal to 47 per
cent, of the total underground fatalities in that county;
103 deaths by falls in Yorkshire, equal to 52 per cent,
of the total underground fatalities in that county. The
most serious accident of the year occurred in the
Ardsley seam at Barnsley Main Colliery, Barnsley,
Yorkshire, on April 21, and involved the loss of four
lives. Through the breakage of a haulage rope in the
East Engine Plane, a set, consisting of 22 tubs, ran
back into a passbye, several of the tubs being tilted up
and smashed. The rope, made of best plough steel,
broke 600 yards from the set, probably through an
undue strain being put upon it by some of the tubs
leaving the rails. The drag behind the set attached to
the coupling chain proved inefficient, in that it did not
prevent the tubs running back, and had it been made
attachable to the axle instead, it might have done so.
When the runaway tubs were discovered, steps were at
once taken to clear away the debris. A deputy was in
charge of the operations, and after he had examined the
roof and pronounced it safe, eight men were started to
remove the debris. After they had been so occupied
an hour and a half, a fall of bastard rock occurred from
the roof, killing three men outright, and fatally injuring
a fourth, who died the same night. The road at the
place was from 8 ft. to 8 ft. 10 in. wide by 4 ft. high,
and the fall was 11 ft. 10 in. long by 8 ft. wide by 15 in.
to 19j in. thick. The roof, which consisted of bastard
rock or shale, was of a strong nature, and as supports
other than the roadside packs were thought to be
unnecessary, the roof was not timbered. The roadway
was being heightened from 4 ft. to 5 ft. 9 in., and the
portion which collapsed was the only part which had
not been so heightened. The fall was said to have been
due to a “ bump,” and to an unseen slip; a miner,
appointed by the workmen to inspect the place, expressed
his opinion at the inquest that the accident was an
unforeseen occurrence, and that the fall of roof had
no connection with the runaway tubs. It is apparent
that an accident of this kind could only be pre-
vented by systematically supporting the roof of all
roadways, whatever the condition of the strata.
Another accident, almost as serious in its results,
occurred in the Barnsley seam at Silverwood Colliery,
Yorkshire, on September 25, and involved the loss of
three lives—a contractor aged 46, a stoneman aged 41,
and a driver aged 18. These men were sent to some
stables to “ dint,” or take up the floor of 12 stalls to
heighten the place. The deputy, a man of 50 years’
experience of pit work, stated at the inquest:—(1) That
he was in the stable an hour before the accident
happened, and, after examining the roof by sounding it
with his stick and looking at the timber, he thought the
place quite safe ; ‘(2) that he had not instructed the men
to set temporary supports because there was sufficient
work to do during the shift in removing the dirt; and
(3) that he did not expect them to take up any of the
coal upon which the props were set, and therefore
additional props were unnecessary. The roof supports
were evidently disturbed by taking up the floor of the
stable, and it was an error of judgment on the part of
practical men to run the risk of disturbing the supports
without setting temporary ones. As often happens
after a fall, an unseen slip or joint was found to exist in
the roof, and the use of temporary supports would have
prevented the accident. In a place 14 ft. wide, such as
this was, it would have been better had the props,
forming the stalls partitions, been set with bars along
the top in place of lids.

Apart from these two accidents, all the rest were
single fatalities. After taking into consideration the
effect of the coal strike on the figures for 1912, in which
year the pits were idle for about six weeks, and making
an allowance for an increased number of persons
employed, amounting to 4 per cent., the increase in the
number of deaths last year, from 119 in 1912 to 154, is
still abnormal. This increase has led Mr. Mottram to
analyse and allocate those accidents which occurred at
the face and form the major part of the fatalities, in
order to ascertain—(1) the kind of work during a
miner’s occupation at the coal face most responsible for
accidents ; (2) the part of the face where the accidents
occurred.

The largest number of fatalities, 41J per cent.,
occurred during the process of holing and getting
coal, 15J per cent, during the withdrawal of timber,
13 pei’ cent, during the removal of dirt and packing.
Filling coal was responsible for 12J per cent., while the
remainder, about 18 per cent., happened during
examination, setting timber, walking along the face and
tramming tubs. Of the 104 fatalities 39, or nearly 40 per
cent., occurred at the gate end, and, considering the
small area of face and roof exposed there, compared
with the total area of ordinary longwall face, this high
percentage of fatalities points to the necessity for the
exercise of special care as regards such places both by
officials and workmen. With a view to enforcing rules
with regard to timbering, nine colliery companies in the
division took proceedings against workers for specific
violations. There were 12 deaths due to contraventions
of the timbering rules, and there were 21 instances
where, in the case of fatalities, the timbering appeared
to be insufficient or inefficient. Of the 16 fatalities
which occurred during the withdrawal of timber, nine
were the direct outcome of knocking out timber, while
two were due to the person occupied at the work going