The indicator was a dial with revolving finger, driven by a pair of bevel wheels to change a horizontal into a vertical movement. The bevel wheels are fastened on the shaft by a set-screw, and as one shaft was not revolving truly, it is probable that the set-screw became loose, and the bevel wheels slipping in consequence, caused the revolving finger to record an incorrect position of the cages in the shaft. After the accident it was clear that the slipping of one of the bevel wheels was the cause, and it shows that where such wheels are used for such an important piece of machinery, they should be fastened by a slot in both the shaft and the wheel, and a key so driven in that it cannot work loose or fall out. MISCELLANEOUS UNDERGROUND ACCIDENTS. By Explosives. WOODFIELD, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, 2ND APRIL.-Accident No. 209.-The deceased was in charge of a heading being driven in ironstone measures. He had charged two shot-holes in the face of a heading, one with 7 ounces, and the other with 1 ounces of gelignite, to be fired with No. 6 detonators and gunpowder tape fuze. The deceased lighted the fuze of the larger shot first, and then, after applying a light to the smaller shot, he retired from the heading to a place of safety. After waiting some time a shot exploded, and both deceased and his helper came to the conclusion that this was the larger shot. They waited a short time longer, and not hearing a second explosion, the deceased went towards the heading, although his helper called his attention to the fuze being lighted, and reminded him of the official instructions regarding missed shots, to which deceased replied that he was going to relight the fuze, and went forward. He appears to have arrived at the shot when it exploded and hurled him along the heading, inflicting injuries from which he died the same day. It is probable that the fuze was hanging fire, or had been pinched by the movement of the strata from the first shot, and burnt the covering until it reached the running part of the fuze. Deceased committed a serious breach of rule in approaching a shot which he presumed had missed-fire. His duty was to have " at once reported to the under-manager or deputy,” and "not to go to the place where the shot missed-fire until twenty minutes have elapsed after the fuze had been lighted." Printed notices to this effect were given to each shot-firer when appointed. The man failed to carry out either of the instructions, and he paid the penalty with his life. BRITAIN, DERBYSHIRE, 30TH NOVEMBER.-Accident No. 679.-Deceased was the deputy and official shot-firer. A shot-hole charged with four ounces of Monobel powder, and a No. 6 low-tension detonator placed in the centre of the charge, had failed to explode after three attempts to fire it. The system of firing was by a dry cell primary battery, which deceased carried attached to a strap round his body, the battery having two terminals to which the wires of the firing cable are attached when the shot is fired. The deceased, after his third attempt and failure to fire the shot, told the stallman to uncouple the cable from the shot, deceased dragging the other end of the cable with him to the gate end. Deceased then took off the strap and battery, placed them on the floor, and attached one end of the cable to the firing terminals as the battery lay on the floor, the other end of the cable being taken behind some timber for a dark place to see if a spark could be obtained by placing the wires together. It was then found that the wires were so dirty that a spark could not pass. Deceased said that he had found out the fault, and taking out a knife he scraped the ends of the wires clean and then drew the cable to the shot, forgetting that the firing end was still attached to the terminals of the battery. He commenced to couple up the cable to the detonator wires of the shot, when directly the second wire touched the lead to the detonator, the shot exploded and killed deceased, who was standing in front of it. After the accident, the battery and body strap lay on the floor with the cable wires still attached to the terminals, and the other end of the cable was found with one wire still attached to one of the detonator wires. It was apparent that the deceased attempted to couple up the shot while the battery was in circuit. This accident clearly shows the advantage of a magneto battery over a primary one. With the magneto firer no such accident could have occurred, for such battery is dead until made alive by turning the handle, and the turning handle should never leave the possession of the shot-firer. With the primary battery the firer is always alive, ready by any accident, or want of foresight, as in this case, to fire the shot. I hope managers will recognise that sending the shot-firer to work with a live enemy always about his person, and also carrying detonators with him, is dangerous, and that they will discard their use for the magneto battery and loose turning handle. Non-Fatal. Nine non-fatal accidents have occurred due to blasting. In three cases the man had not taken sufficient cover, and was struck by material from the shot. In one case the man was about to charge a shot-hole with ordinary gunpowder when he slipped, and knocked his lighted candle on to the gunpowder which exploded, and severely burned him. In another case the workman injured was taking Bobbinite out of his canister for the purpose of charging a shot-hole, when a spark from a torch lamp fired the explosive. The premature firing of a shot caused serious injury in one case. The man had drilled a shot-hole, and charged it with gunpowder, intending to fire by "german attached to about ten inches of gunpowder tape fuze. Directly he lighted the fuze the shot exploded and he was struck by the falling coal. This method of firing shots is a mixture of the antiquated "german" and modern fuze, an arrangement much inferior as regards safety to the electrical firing as now practised so largely in the district. Two accidents have occurred due to detonators. A missed-fire shot had occurred, and another shot was fired which was supposed to have brought down the miss-fire, but the stallman, in dressing the coal face, struck a pick into a two-ounce cartridge of Monobel powder, containing the missed-fire detonator. The blow of the pick exploded the detonator and charge. The other detonator accident was that caused by a workman finding a detonator in the mine. He pricked the inside of it with a pin, as he said to clean it, when it exploded, causing partial loss of thumb and two fingers on the left hand and injury to the right eye. HAULAGE ACCIDENTS. Trams and Tubs. Accident No. 142.—The deceased, aged 16, a pony driver, was travelling down a roadway having an inclination of about 1 in 16 with a train of three full tubs, and whether from want of sufficient lockers, or other cause, the tubs over-ran the pony, and the driver being between the pony and the first full tub, he either fell or was thrown down and run over. This accident confirms what I have repeatedly pointed out to managers, viz., that a pony in sling gears has no control over the tubs behind him, as he must keep moving or they over-run him, whereas if limmers or shafts are used, the pony has a breeching command over the tubs, and can control their speed when going down hill. Accident No. 213.-The deceased and another workman were in an incline engine plane, repairing the roadway during the night-time. At the top of the incline were a number of empty tubs, and two boys were instructed to get five of these ready for sending down the incline. The rope was coupled to the back end of the train, and then the stop-blocks at the top of the incline were opened by one boy, while the other boy pushed the train forward until the first two tubs got over the brow of the hill. The tubs had not been coupled or became uncoupled, and ran away down the incline. The boys shouted to deceased, who was about 100 yards down the incline, but he failed to get clear and was struck by the tubs and fatally injured. There were some serious mistakes made in connection with this case. An inexperienced boy, 15 years old, is not a proper person to have charge of the sending away of a train down an engine plane. He appears to have been acting with the other boy under instructions, and they had done it before, although they were not the authorised persons for the work. It was also clearly shown that had an over or under chain been in use, the accident would probably have been prevented. The attention of the officials had been called to the use of such chains only a short time previously, and had been adopted in some of the other inclines, but not in the one in which this accident occurred. Accident No. 247.-This was an accident which sometimes occurs in a roadway where the tubs are pushed by hand. The deceased was pushing a full tub when it got off the rails, and before he could re-adjust it, the man following ran into him with another full tub, inflicting fatal injuries. The roadway is low and on the descent for the full tubs, so that men in pushing the tubs, keep their heads down and have little chance of seeing over the top of the tub they are pushing. There was a signal given by shouting to the second man, but he stated that he did not recognise that the shouting was to him, and it being his first tub, and the roadway on the down grade, he did not know what force was required to control the tub. He was therefore going too fast to stop it suddenly. Accident No. 328.-This accident caused the death of a boy 13 years old who had only been at work in the mine a week. A few boys were engaged moving tubs in the pit bottom, and the deceased went to uncouple two full tubs, when a train of full tubs, being lowered towards the shaft, ran into the two full tubs, where deceased was occupied, and fatally crushed him. The space between the tubs was only 4 inches when the buffers touched, and it was in this space that the deceased was crushed. Accident No. 418.-This occurred on an endless rope roadway where the inclination is one in eight, and the tubs attached to the rope by a screw clip conveying from four to eight tubs at one time. To protect the incline in case of a runaway train there are four swing blocks projecting from the side in a distance of 175 yards, the total length of the steep part of the roadway. Shortly before the rope ceased running for the day, deceased, who was the official deputy and another man were travelling up the incline, when they heard a train of seven full tubs running away down the incline towards them. Each man called to the other to get clear, the workman standing by the side of the roadway where there was a clearance of about two feet. The deceased appeared to be going towards the centre of the roadway to get on to the empty road, when he was struck and run over by the tubs. The thread of the screw on the clip appeared to have got stripped, and so failed to grip the haulage rope. No drag or back-stay was used, but the four swing blocks were depended upon to prevent a runaway set going far down the incline. Unfortunately both men were about half-way between two swing blocks, and therefore such precautionary measures were useless so far as they were concerned. Proper and good manholes were provided, but the men do not appear to have had time to make use of one. All trains should have a drag or back-stay on, when ascending inclined roadways, and had there been one in use in this case, it might have prevented the accident. Accident No. 636.-A train of 35 tubs was being drawn along the main haulage road of the mine. Deceased, wishing to travel towards the shaft, sat on his heels with his feet on the coupling chain between the last two tubs, which usually travelled at the rate of seven or eight miles an hour. After the train had gone a short distance the two front tubs became uncoupled and went forward, the remainder and larger portion of the train appears to have come to a stand owing to some of these tubs leaving the rails, and the two last tubs closing together fatally crushed the deceased. It was against the rule of the mine for persons to ride, and deceased selected a most dangerous position, for if the tubs suddenly and with force closed together, injury was inevitable. BY MACHINERY. Accident No. 521.-The deceased was assisting in the work of an electrically driven Hurd bar coal-cutter. The cutter was fixed upon "skids" to slide along the floor as the work progressed. On the morning of the accident the machine had been moved to within a few yards of the end of the working face, for the purpose of being made ready for work, the cutter-bar being attached without cutting tools being in position. Deceased then put in 36 cutting tools ready for undercutting the face, after which the machine had to travel a few yards along the face to the far end of the stall. To do this, the motive power working the ratchet and pawl arrangement fixed to the machine was used, the bar and cutters revolving, with the bar going parallel to the coal face, doing no work. The deceased stood at the sleeve end of the cutting-bar, and appears to have been attempting to fix a wedge or piece of timber to guide the skid on the other side of the machine, when he slipped and fell on the revolving bar. The cutter inflicted very serious injury to his right leg and right side, from which he shortly died. The floor was wet and slippery, and deceased must have lost his footing and fallen sideways on the rapidly revolving bar. The coal seam is only three feet four inches thick, and therefore the deceased would be in a stooping position when at the machine, and would have little opportunity of saving himself after a slip of the foot. A coal-cutter in which teeth have been fixed should be moved forward, when not cutting, by manual labour and leverage, and not by means of the motive power, for a revolving cutter-bar is a dangerous piece of machinery, in a confined travelling parallel with the coal face. space, when SUNDRIES. Accident No. 225.-The deceased was employed in emptying tubs of stone, and building a pack. No accident occurred, but he suddenly fell over and expired. A postmortem examination was made which revealed serious defects in the heart. The doctor stated that great exertion, perhaps lifting some heavy weight, acting upon a heart which was to some extent diseased, brought about his death. The Coroner's jury returned a verdict that he died of heart failure, caused by over-exertion in lifting a stone, therefore I have included it in the list of colliery fatalities for the year. ON SURFACE. By Machinery. Accident No. 187.-Deceased was employed picking dirt from a moving belt, and at the time of the accident no coal was passing along, he got on to the moving belt supporting himself by a revolving shaft which passed across it and a few feet above the level of the belt. In this position he stood, moving his feet as the belt passed along, and supporting himself by the revolving shaft. Such a dangerous pastime was certain, sooner or later, to end with an accident, and this boy appears to have indulged in the same kind of play many times previously, but on the day of the accident his coat got fast in the revolving shaft and twisted his body round, inflicting fatal injuries before it could be stopped and the boy released. It Accident No. 234.-This was the death of a boy aged 15, who worked on the screens. appears that on the day of the accident two tubs got fast at the "tippler," and in order to free them again a pulley belt required moving back. To do this the deceased and other boys went through the fencing to take hold of the belt and pull the wheel round. While this was being done, another youth started the engine, and deceased being near the pulley, was taken round it, thrown to the ground and fatally injured. The operation of pulling a belt to move a pulley wheel when someone is starting the engine is too dangerous for an expert engineman, but to allow boys to do this and pass through a fence, is highly censurable, and in this case it was not the first time the boys had pulled at the belt, for the foreman had knowledge of it. The foreman at the inquest confessed that he had a copy of the rules, but had not read them. He was responsible for the boys, but the discipline was not good. They passed through the fence which had been erected to protect them from the machinery. The Coroner's jury censured the foreman for his conduct, the Coroner saying "he (the foreman) did not seem to have exercised any judgment over the lads, and for allowing them to go through the fence, he ought to be censured. It was a very grave confession to say that he had never read the rules." Accident No. 332.-Deceased was an engine fitter and spare engineman, and it was part of his duty to oil machinery. The endless haulage ropes are worked by machinery on the surface, and pass over wheels eight feet in diameter at the top of the shaft. The wheels are below the level of the pit bank and are approached by a lower inlet, part of the wheels hanging over the shaft so that the ropes may clear the shaft side. The oiling was done while the ropes were in motion, and a number of times each day. On the day of the accident the deceased went as usual to oil one of the wheels while in motion, and was crushed between the flange of the wheel and the girder supporting it, where the space was only a few inches clearance. The space between the wall side of the archway and the wheel was only 16 inches, and it was in this space that the deceased had to pass a distance of four feet to oil the bearing. It is supposed that while doing this he got his left hand fastened by the hauling rope and the tread of the wheels; deceased would then see that he might be thrown down the shaft, and grasped one of the spokes of the wheel with his right hand, going round with the wheel until his left hand was released by the rope leaving the pulley. He was crushed between the pulley and the girder supporting it. The method of oiling was the old one of pouring oil through a hole on to the bearing, but however done, it should not have been done while the wheel was running. If the journals required oil more frequently than the interval of standing for meals, then oil cups, which would lubricate for a day or two, should have been used. This practical and easy method of oiling such machinery would have been effective and prevented the accident. MISCELLANEOUS. Accident No. 580.-This is an accident that occasionally occurs at screens. Deceased was engaged in clearing up the slack which had fallen through a picking belt, his duty being to remove it to the fire-holes by means of tubs on tram rails laid on the same level as the railway wagon lines, and running parallel with the railway used for loading coal under the screens. Between the railway lines and the tram lines were a number of posts, erected for the purpose of carrying the screen belt staging, and between the posts and the railway wagon there was a clearance of a few inches only. At the time of the accident, four railway wagons were being lowered, and deceased, coming out from under the travelling belt, got crushed between one of the wagons and the screen post. I have repeatedly cautioned managers against having insufficient clearance between the wagons and the screen posts. If such supports are erected, then it is necessary that sufficient room should be given between the post and a passing wagon for the free passage of a man's body without injury. In many cases the want of ground prevents the distance between the rails being wider, but in such cases an iron girder would carry the screening plant, and do away with intermediate erections which are a source of danger. Another matter in connection with the movement of wagons under the screens is, that the noise made by the machinery is considerable, and a warning by shouting is not only difficult to hear, but is uncertain in its meaning, therefore when the wagons are to be moved, a good loud gong might be used with advantage to warn men of the movement. Since this accident occurred the posts have been removed without any detriment to the carrying on of the work. Non-Fatal. 5 16 Accident No. 114.-An ohm-meter fixed in the power-house was manipulated by pressing or bending a small switch to the positive or negative side, when a reading was required. This switch worked between two terminals of an inch apart; it was made of brass, and when not in use, stood vertically between the terminals, but when a reading was required it was bent to either the positive or negative side. This switch was broken, and the electrician in charge wishing to make a test, pushed a piece of brass between the broken part and one of the terminals. A short circuit took place bursting the ohm-meter, and the glass flew off and injured the man's face; the cut-out fuze also blew and slightly burned his arm. Flame from Boiler Fires. I have again to report three accidents due to flame from boiler fires. Accident No. 69.-The stoker had the firehole door of a steam boiler open, and was stirring up the fire when an explosion occurred and burned him. In such cases the stoker should see that the damper is drawn, and the firehole door left open a short time before stirring up a fire where highly bituminous coal is used. Accident No. 73.-This was a case of stirring up a fire where a steam jet or forced draught was at work. As the stoker threw the slack on the fire, the flame came back and burned him. Accident No. 369. This was a similar case to the one previously described, the stoker omitting to turn off the steam jet before opening the firehole door and commencing to stir up the fire. the fire. The flame came out of the firehole door and burned him. SECTION IV. Prosecutions. I regret that it has been my duty to take legal proceedings in one case for breaches of the Mines Act. At the time the mine was inspected, a number of violations of the Act and Special Rules were observed, and as similar neglect had been found when the mine was previously |