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Tertiary Entomostraca, p.p. 29 and 44, pi. iv., figs. 6 and 7,) Cytheridea Sorbyana and Cytherea concinna, neither of which have hitherto been met with anywhere else, either living or fossil.

ON COLLIERY VENTILATION. BY RICHARD CARTER, ESQ.,

C.E., OF LONG CARR, B A R N S L E Y .

In assenting to bring before the West Riding Geological and Polytechnic Society the subject of Colliery Explosions in connection with the sad occurrence at Lund-hill, in this neighbourhood, on the 19th February last, I cannot but feel deeply the important bearings of the question, and its peculiar claim to be brought before this Society—whose province it is to promote or encourage any means by which mining operations may be harmonised with the advancing steps of progressive science; to dissipate the miasma of uneducated prejudice, and to present the standard of practical wisdom and truth.

I have ventured to put forth ray humble ability, well knowing that if I only elicit the interchange of a moderate amount of sentiment, on the part of those members of the Society whose practical acquaintance with the subject so eminently qualifies them for its discussion, and so discharge the battery of thoughtful speculation and reflection which the Lund-hill calamity has been the means of most naturally creating, I shall have done some service to the cause of humanity, as well as of practical science as applied to mining operations; and so have acquired ample reward for, and justification of, the step which I have reluctantly taken in appearing before you to-day.

It is not surprising that a catastrophe by which nearly 200 of our fellow mortals were instantaneously swept out of life into the stillness of death, should have induced the expres-

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aion of various opinions and the propounding of varions schemes of improvement through the ordinary channels by which public attention can he attracted. Some perhaps sound, whilst others have possessed a visionary and impracticable quality only.

It would be difficult to over-estimate the national importance of the mining interests of this country, and particularly that department of mining enterprise which allies itself to the discovery and winning of coal; and the rapidity with which the coal trade is being developed, to meet the growing requirements of our own, as well as of other countries, to which the commodity is exported, originates a duty which I fear is but too wofully neglected, of adapthig all the appliances of colliery working to the altered circumstances,— which greater vigour imparted to the trade, and more extended demand on our natural resources, of necessity gives rise to.

Half a century ago, colliery workings were carried on at comparatively shallow depths; and we now find that most of our large establishments, such as Low Moor, Bowling, and Elsecar, have been planted in localities where valuable mineral seams have come to the surface, or laid at a moderate depth only below it. For a long period of their earlier history the operations of acquiring supplies of coal were, therefore, carried on with far less risk and difficulty than were ultimately to be contended against. Besides which, the force of competition, which now strains the last efforts of economy, had not then been felt, as urging on to the recovery of every particle of coal, from any given area, with the least possible expenditure of capital and labour. Time, in its onward flight, has added to the steady and ceaseless demands of the age—one after another have been taken the great strides of mechanical progress—and the century which has now passed has witnessed the steam-engine, cradled in tiny

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infancy, matured, and at length diversified, till nearly every department of human labour, animal toil, and marine transit, has been revolutionised by its sublime and stately growth. One achievement of its noble powers has succeeded another till the toils of animals, and of man, have been reduced comparatively to a pastime and sport. Alike insensible to the severity of winter and the relaxing heats of summer, our iron-horse enables us to glide through space; and with rapidity and ease, all but miraculous when contrasted with the facilities of intercourse known to our grandsires, we traverse the very length or breadth of our sea-girt isle, until at last even Neptune himself shall bow to the sceptre of oar triumphant power, and a few weeks shall suffice to witness the launch of a vessel whose proportions and strength will enable her to tread his aqueous domain, bidding defiance to his storms, and securing digestive tranquillity and repose to the pilgrims whom, hitberto, it has been his delight to torture and afBict.

But if such be the transition which so short a period has witnessed, does it not reflect the labour and activity by which such an altered state of thinfjs has been brought about and maintained. And what class amongst the entire communit}' can he said, now, to bear the severest remnant of bygone miseries and toil ? Surely the poor collier, who, in his grim pursuit, raises the fuel and food of our Leviathan machine, should be at once the object of our attention and solicitude. The hardy ploughman, in light of day and sweetness of refreshing breeze, cultivated and produced the food for former agents, by whose power the means of transit, and excursive jaunt, were maintained. But the food we now require is had by toil, where even light is, at its best, but darkness visible,— and where the salubrity of nature's grand element of respiration and of life may be unconsciously and instantaneously rendered the medium of horror and of death.


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It would appear from the statistics of our last census, that of the population of Great Britain, about 220,000 of our fellow-countrymen are now pursuing the occupation of coal miners. And from the vast stimulus given to the trade, as well as from the progressive exhaustion of the shallow seams of coal, in every part of the country, an increasing risk is gradually accruing to this vast and industrious body of men, which claims for its amelioration the be.st efixirts of intelligence and science.

It is not intended to deny, or even to overlook, the numerous and powerfully directed efforts both of Government and scientific bodies, and individuals, to diminish, if not altogether obviate, the hazardous conditions under which the occupations of our mining population are followed out; on the contrary, I do not think that much would remain for the severer deductions of abstract science, if the full benefit were derived from what baa been already done and published, for revealing the real nature and character of the difficulties to be encountered, and the most probable means of surmounting them. The researches of Faraday, Playfair, Graham, De la Beche, and Phillips, not to mention the names of many practical mining engineers who have laboured so nobly in the field, afford an abundant guarantee for this assertion. But the grand object to be attained is the application, in individual examples, of a sound principle of working in harmony with the knowledge we now possess, both of the agents which surround us with their mischief, and of the laws which those agents acknowledge, in order to their being placed more effectually within our control and command.

It would be presumptuous in a paper of this kind to attempt the definition of any plan or system of working, which should be supposed equal to the test of special and individual application. To a considerable extent every colliery requires a system of management adapted to the


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peculiar circumstances which its own position and winning may disclose. But there are general principles which have reference to all collieries, and which must in some degree enter into their individual management, in order to their safe and economical progress. And it is to these principles, as coming most directly under the province of the West Riding Geological and Polytechnic Society, that the observations of this paper are addressed.

If the subject were not one requiring the most diligent application of intelligent and educated skill, the duties of the mining engineer would be divested of much of their present importance ; and little might be said in reproach of the systems (or, perhaps, more consistently speaking, of the want of system), which we find to exist. But it needs no argument to demonstrate the requirement of much practical wisdom and ingenuity, to cope successfully with the numerous difficulties which surround the operations of an active colliery; and so to conduct its working, as that under all the various circumstances which attend the miner, he may not jeopardise his own, or the safety of his fellow-workmen. For it too frequently happens that all are dependent on the risks which attend upon the conduct and operation of each individual workman in the mine.

The duties of the mining engineer, or practical manager of a colliery, seem then to comprehend scientific qualifications of a two-fold character; and which, for the sake of cleaver definition, we may express as being mechanical and meteorological.

Into the former, or mechanical department, as related to the physical operation of getting and drawing the coal, it is not our purpose here to enter,—but rather to dwell upon the latter division of the subject, which bears more directly on the ventilation of the mine and the personal safety of those who labour in it.


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The task of ventilation, if it had reference only to the supply of fresh air to the workpeople engaged in the mine, would become one of the simplest character, and would scarcely continue to be one beyond the reach of the most ordinary capacity to deal with it.

Besides contributing the vital element of respiration to the workmen, however, ventilation also embraces the removal of gases given out by the coal, and other strata exposed in the mine, and which, if not removed, are by their presence and accumulation ever surrounding the entire operations with danger and death.

Of the general character of the most important gas exuded from coal strata, known familiarly as fire-damp, or the carbu-retted hydrogen of chemistry, but little need be said. Its specific gravity, slightly more than half the weight of atmospheric air, renders it under certain conditions, peculiarly easy of removal by ventilation, although under other conditions, and those perhaps most commonly found in practice, this quality of lightness increases the difficulty with which it is expelled from the mine. Nature, however, in which we trace such inexhaustible evidences of Providential arrangement and design, has given another peculiarity to this gas, as if to stimulate the ingenuity of man, in providing for its effectual escape from the place where its presence might originate such fearful disaster and distress. It has neither colour nor smell, and hence may exist in the most dangerous proximity, without attracting the notice of the workman by whose light it may be instantly ignited, carrying ruin and death by its explosion, to every part of the mine. Surely we recognise in these peculiarities, admonitions, as of Providence, warning us of the kind of arrangements we ought to provide, in order to the free and voluntary exit of an agent, whose habit would be to escape from our presence rather than linger to our peril, if the conditions were not opposed to its retreat, which almost univer-


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sally ally themselves to the systems of winning coal, now practised in this country.

Released as this gas is, by the continual getting and breaking down of the coal, and by the exposure of innumerable fissures and openings, through which it discharges itself from the strata into the mine, its natural and irresistible tendency is to lodge in the most elevated cavities which can be found for its reception,—and hence a powerful opposition is exerted by its own specific gravity to any channel of escape, which does not present the features of an ascending plane. And here we meet the grand parent of all our difficulties, and perhaps of all our woes. For the system of laying out collieries, now most commonly acted upon, by placing the down-cast and up-cast shafts in near proximity to each other, gives, after the works have been a short time in operation, a descending rather than an ascending way of escape, which the explosive gas or fire-damp is made to pursue (so far as its escape is effected at all), by being united in the air supplied from the surface for the respiratory and ventilating requirements of the miners, and of the Limbo of their arduous toil.

Beyond that which escapes along the return-air-courses, there is necessarily in every mine a considerable generation of gas, which exudes at places where no admixture with the return-air can take place; and this gas, with portions which escape admixture, even in the air-courses themselves, goes to furnish the supply, which, lodging in the " goafs" or places from which the coal has been exhausted, and in other parts of the mine, creates and perpetuates a magazine of explosive element, almost too fearful to contemplate.

It is not intended here to allege that a state of things, of which this statement affords a picture, obtains in all collieries, even of this district; or that abstraction of explosive gases, or fire-damp is impossible, or may not be effected, both from the " goafs " and other parts of the mine, along descending


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courses. But <as a general rule it seems obvious that ascending modes of exit have advantages of the first consequence, not only in favouring the natural tendency of the element to be dealt with, but by ejecting it from shafts in advance of the workings, and upon the *' rise" of the coal, all possibility of lodgment is remov^ed, and the chances of explosion materially lessened, by the gases being carried off without returning through the active parts of the mine, and under circumstances which may be suddenly affected by changes of weather, variations of the barometer, and other conditions, which it is less difficult to conceive than enumerate.

The. doctrine of advance shafts for ventilation is not presumed to be at all a novelty, and it is not set forward here except for the purpose of asserting its soundness in theory; and moreover, of expressing a strong belief, that much greater advantage mighty and ought to be taken of this principle, in every system of colliery ventilation; although there may be cases where the time and expense to be incurred in the uniting, by underground drifts, of two shafts at opposite ends of the territory, would swamp the pecuniary prospects of success which a particular enterprise might indicate.

Having regard to the future, and when the workings are to be pressed along the dip of the coal, as also in the opening up of deeper and underlying seams, it is clear that very important advantages might be taken of existing shafts and workings, in forming air passages on the rise or ascending principle for use of our own, as well as of generations yet to come.

This proposition assumes for its practical application and value, an immediate survey by competent parties, of entire districts of coal, in order that provision should be at once made by giving greater permanency to some of the shafts now and hereafter to be sunk, as well as in securing the driftways intended to be left open, by an adequate amount of pillar coal to be left for their support and continuance.


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So long as the system prevails, of ejecting the gases with the return air, and portions of " goaf" are allowed to receive the gas as a means of getting rid of it, the recurrence of fatal calamities, sweeping off the poor miners by scores and hundreds, may be regarded as events of but too sad probability; and although under any circumstances the transition from one principle of working to another, of a totally different kind, could not he effected save at a considerable expense of time and pecuniary resource, the obligation is not less binding if the lives and health of our mining population are thereby promoted and secured.

In the resolution of the present systems of working collieries, two primary objects may be admitted as governing the proceedings of those who have charge of their development: ECONOMY, as related to tho price per ton at which the coal can be landed on the surface; and SAFETY, in the means to be employed for its acquisition.

These two objects press with equal claims for constant, unwearying, and devoted attention. But what is the answer •which truth would dictate to the solemn inquiry—Are these claims equally respected ?

However favourable the reply with respect to the original design, Safety in practice cannot be maintained, A thousand motives combine (and a vast proportion of them, perhaps, beyond the reach of human foresight to control and preyeTit) to jeopardise the question of Safety; and hence the fearful amount of fatality which attends upon the mining operations of the country.

How is this proposition affected, if we glance retrospectively at the practice of coal mining, and the steps by which we have attained to the methods now pursued ? In early days, as we have already remarked, this mineral was obtained only at very shallow depths; and chiefly from winnings commenced at the outcrops of the seams, where attention had been


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arrested, of |»Bople who appear to have known but little of the grand doctrines of modem geology.

Their humble wants, as the measure of their operations, abundantly justified the neglect, on their part, of any elaborate systems of ventilation, even if the proximity to the surface had not exonerated thpm from the troublesome gases which endanger the operations of their ultimate successors.

But, passing from these early adventurers, what do we next become acquainted with ? A bolder system of penetrating the seams, by means of shafts, and traversing the mineral stratum to greater or less distances, as occasion seemed to justify. This continued till, by degrees, the necessities of ventilation had ended in something like the scheme of Intake, Distribution, and Upcast, which we find in very general operation at the present day. How was our friend Economy behaving all the while ? Did he invite poor Safety to his counsels, and with the vastly altered circumstances suggest a remodelling of the plan of operation ? No, he even grudged the expense of an additional shaft, as an Upcast for the special purposes of ventilation, and actually made " a shift" for the emergency, by tubbing (or to use perhaps a more polite expression) " bretticing-off" a portion of the existing one, and thus performing all the operations of drawing the coal,—taking-in air for ventilating the works, and discharging the air after doing so, within the area of one small aperture or shaft, yfh'ich in all probability was in its dimensions scarcely adequate for any one of the purposes, separately, which we have just specified.

Science beheld in sorrow the events as they occurred. But what wonder that she should fail to descend into the workings when she witnessed what was done on the surface 1

A third era has dawned upon us; and, notwithstanding the stupendous growth of the trade, the immense increase in the population employed in it, and must we not add of the dangers


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attendant on that employment! what is the transition-state by which we are now distinguished? Why " Economy," after numerous explosions, and a catalogue of miseries on which we will not dwell, although it is not human quite to forget them,— and after being "drawn up before his betters" in various ways and places, was made to surrender, and we have at length a SECOND shaft conceded, and, happy to relate, the two constructed with very respectably increased diataeters and areas; so that with the aid of a good fire (or to use a polite expression again) the " cupola," we do manage, when all the doors are properly shut, and the other etcaeteras in correct order, to get air, though in various degrees of freshness and salubrity, to all the working places of the mine.

In taking leave of this inquiry, we must again hint, whether, in attaining the position we now occupy, as regards the practical development and working of collieries in this country, Safety and Economy have each had their due share of attention?

In the review we have taken of its history, we see nothing in its pedigree or its perfections to entitle the present system. to immunity from interference; and, therefore, I have ventured, although with a crudeness for which I must apologise, to suggest a plan which, if it can be acted upon, should render obsolete the very term return-air-courses, by substituting a method by which the ventilation should be always direct; and the currents of air having swept through the mine, should be discharged by shafts, always in advance, and on the rise or more elevated side of the working places in which the labour of men or of animals is being employed.

If this can be accomplished, we not only provide escape for the explosive gases in the manner which their natural characteristics seem so forcibly to indicate, but we obviate at once the most fruitful source of practical danger, by withdrawing them from the passages and cavities of the mine.


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where they now intermix or retreat, to the detriment and peril of every living creature in it. For however energetic the current may be, which is maintained in the cupola or up-cast shaft, upon the present system of ventilation by return-air-courses, the stimulus does but apply in the direction of the air-courses themselves; and in such direction the energy is equally participated in by perfection and defects. Leakages from the right channel, as well as the proper current itself, receive accession of strength by the vigour imparted to the up-cast draft. But remembering the kindred relation of gases to fluid bodies, as regards obedience to certain laws of motion, we must at once recognise the energy due to their relative gravities; and, herein, the repugnance with which a lighter medium is made obedient to the impulses given to a heavier one. Hence the perfect repose of firedamp in the lateral cavities or " goafs" of a mine, whilst the current of atmospheric and heavier air is sweeping past along the air-courses, in the direction of the up-cast. In active motion, the two may be blended. But no natural affinity exists which would secure dilution of fire-damp by a voluntary admixture of this gas with the fresh or atmospheric air where no current existed. And thus may be accounted for the presence of fire-damp, forming an independent statum, even in the passages along which, but at a lower level, the air may be sweeping in a condition of perfect purity and safety.

The practical lesson to be learnt from these facts is,—that along the return-courses of the existing system, which from the very nature of things implies a descending plane of communication,—no voluntary action can be relied on for inducing the escape of carburetted hydrogen or explosive gas. The consequence of which is, that the lighter and explosive gas, ever isolating itself from surrounding media, stealthily creeps into every cavity, away from draft or disturbance, until, by the fact of its separation and increase, it


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forms a perfect magazine of destruction, whenever, by accident or otherwise, the smallest atom of flame is brought into contact with it.

It will be argued in support of the system as it now exists, that superior elevations attained in the up-cast shaft, and the vigour with which, by rarefaction, the air is caused to move in it, must have the desired effect, and equally answer all the purposes we are contending for, of extracting the explosive gases from the mine.

The shaft may be, and no doubt is, in the manner referred to, made to operate as a " head" in impelling the currents of ventilation along the passages, in which, but for some artificial stimulus, the motion of air would be very trivial indeed. But the influence of an up-cast shaft, approached by descending passages, and placed on the dip-side of the active workings of the colliery, must be maintained in opposition to, and independently of, the laws which explosive gases naturally and voluntarily obey. And hence the complicated system of trapping and splitting, and coursing and heating, for the purpose of carrying the air to all parts of the mine, where its presence is desired in the capacity of scavenger, to withdraw the agents of mischief by channels along which they have of themselves no disposition to retreat.

The insidious and ever active force with which the lighter and dangerous gases seek out and obtain possession of all the most elevated cavities of a mine, indicates in language which cannot be mistaken, the soundness in theory of any plan of ventilation which harmonises with this voluntary habit of their nature. We have already shown, and experience abundantly proves, that the systems of working now in operation are not so harmonised; hut, on the contrary, are in a most active sense directly opposed to it. Let there be vent provided on the " rise," and the gases themselves supply the place of the cupola furnace. Their tetidency


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being to escape at the highest, and as experience would generally dictate, the most remote part of the workings, the question of unventilated goafs will lose much of its perplexing uncertainty and alarm, and every other arrangement attendant on the work of ventilation would so be simplified and improved. It would be easy for the purpose of strengthening the evidence in favour of direct ventilation by means of up-cast at the uppermost " rise," to enter more largely into the difficulties and uncertainty which attend in practice upon the existing system, with its allied necessities of return-air-courses, trappings, and stops. How by friction, leakasre, and unforeseen casualties which cannot be ennme-rated, the processes of ventilation may be retarded, and perhaps in some degree suspended, to the great peril of part if not of the whole mine. But a word or two on other aspects of the case must close this paper.

We remarked at the outset that observations of meteorology were also amongst the prominent duties of colliery management. All experience and authority seem to sanction the direct influence of temperature, pressure, and other conditions of the atmosphere upon the practical ventilation of a colliery from time to time. And yet how rarely do we find any adequate recognition of this Important truth in their management and superintendence. Effective ventilation being in the strictest sense the vital principle on which everything depends, every circumstance which affects it should have the closest and most intelligent notice and respect. I have observed on several occasions of violent explosion in different parts of the country, that they were accompanied by some striking variations of atmospheric condition; and who can tell to what useful results it might lead if a careful register were kept at every colliery, and returns made to some one recognised authority whence all could draw for information in the study of the natural laws on which so much of our


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safety and welfare depends. The subject needs but little application on the part of those more immediately interested, to deduce a plan of operation at once simple and effective. Mining operations may not be identified with as much of scientific perfection as we could desire; but it would be unjust to the proprietors of the present time to suppose that they were averse to their improvement. The period has arrived when some bold step must be taken for arresting them, or the disasters of explosion will be fearfully multiplied.

It is for societies like the one I have the honour of addressing, to perform their part by drawing attention to the indices of scientific truth. And may we not hope that under their auspices a mighty efi ort will be at once made to ameliorate the condition and brighten the prospects which attend upon the mining industry of our country. Already an association has been heard of in this district of the coal viewers and mining engineers, which I trust will be speedily organised; and that, if not in actual union, at least a most cordial intercourse may be established between such an association and the West Riding Geological ^nd Polytechnic Society. I know of no arrangement more likely to advance the practical knowledge which it is desirable to obtain and bring to bear upon this all-important question. And whilst we congratulate ourselves on one, let us not overlook the indications of improvement in another division of the mining community of our district.

The last few weeks have witnessed a most encouraging evidence of self-advancement amongst the working miners themselves; and whilst in their praiseworthy efforts we heartily wish them God speed, still substantial aid should be forthcoming for enabling them to raise the standard of practical education in their own ranks.

To the ignorance of the working miner may probably be traced many of the calamities which hare awakened the


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sympathies of the public; and if to dissipate this ignorance, is at once to promote their physical as well as moral safety, surely no object more worthy can elicit the beneficence and support of every humane and sympathising heart.

ON THE MIXED USE OF DAVY LAMPS AND NAKED LIGHTS

IN COAL MINES. B Y E. W. BINNEY, ESQ, , F.R.S, , F.G.S.

The mixed use of Davy lamps and naked lights in coal mines is a subject well worthy of the attention of a body like the Yorkshire Geological and Polytechnic Society. By the term mixed use, it is not only intended to apply to Davy lamps and candles, but to include lamps with the gauze so secured as a workman may open it either with his fingers or the use of a knife, an old nail, or such like instrument.

It is not necessary here to deprecate the use of lamps as a substitute for thorough and efiicient ventilation. The illustrious inventor of the lamp never intended that it should be so used, and no coal proprietor who at all considers his own property or values the lives of his workmen would ever think of so using it. The first point to be attended to in a mine that gives out light carburetted hydrogen gas is to remove it as soon as possible by good ventilation. When this has been done, the lamp should be employed as a precaution against any stoppage in the ventilation by falls of roof or derangement of air-courses, or by the sudden liberation of gas from the roof or other part of the mine.

Lamps are frequently used on the opening of a seam of coal, in driving fast places, and where pillars are being robbed or worked back, whilst naked lights are in use over the greater part of the mine. This is the dangerous admixture that it is desirable should be openly condemned. The most experienced miner or best scientific man shall not be able to

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