Book: The Story of a Piece of Coal

E >> Edward A. Martin >> The Story of a Piece of Coal




From fire on the one hand, we pass, on the other, to the danger which
awaits miners from a sudden inrush of water. During the great coal strike
of 1893, certain mines became unworkable in consequence of the quantity
of water which flooded the mines, and which, continually passing along
the natural fractures in the earth's crust, is always ready to find a
storage reservoir in the workings of a coal-mine. This is a difficulty
which is always experienced in the sinking of shafts, and the shutting
off of water engages the best efforts of mining engineers.

Added to these various dangers which exist in the coal-mine, we must not
omit to notice those accidents that are continually being caused by the
falling-in of roofs or of walls, from the falling of insecure timber, or
of what are known as "coal-pipes" or "bell-moulds." Then, again, every
man that enters the mine trusts his life to the cage by which he descends
to his labour, and shaft accidents are not infrequent.

The following table shows the number of deaths from colliery accidents
for a period of ten years, compiled by a Government inspector, and from
this it will be seen that those resulting from falling roofs number
considerably more than one-third of the whole.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
| Causes of Death. | No. of | Proportion |
| | Deaths. | per cent. |
-------------------------------------------------------------------
| Deaths resulting from fire-damp | | |
| explosions | 2019 | 20.36 |
| | | |
| Deaths resulting from falling | | |
| roofs and coals | 3953 | 39.87 |
| | | |
| Deaths resulting from shaft | | |
| accidents | 1710 | 17.24 |
| | | |
| Deaths resulting from miscellaneous | | |
| causes and above ground | 2234 | 22.53 |
| |------------|------------|
| | 9916 | 100.00 |
------------------------------------------------------------------|

Every reader of the daily papers is familiar with the harrowing accounts
which are there given of coal-mine explosions.

This kind of accident is one, which is, above all, associated in the
public mind with the dangers of the coal-pit. Yet the accidents arising
from this cause number but 20 per cent. of those recorded, and granted
there be proper inspection, and the use of naked lights be absolutely
abolished, this low percentage might still be considerably reduced.

A terrific explosion occurred at Whitwick Colliery, Leicestershire, in
1893, when two lads were killed, whilst a third was rescued after a very
narrow escape. The lads, it is stated, _were working with naked lights_,
when a sudden fall of coal released a quantity of gas, and an immediate
explosion was the natural result. Accidents had been so rare at this pit
that it was regarded as particularly safe, and it was alleged that the
use of naked lights was not uncommon.

This is an instance of that large number of accidents which are
undoubtedly preventable.

An interesting commentary on the careless manner in which miners risk
their lives was shown in the discoveries made after an explosion at a
colliery near Wrexham in 1889. Near the scene of the explosion an
unsecured safety lamp was found, and the general opinion at the time was
that the disaster was caused by the inexcusable carelessness of one of
the twenty victims. Besides this, when the clothing of the bodies
recovered was searched, the contents, taken, it should be noted, with the
pitmen into the mines, consisted of pipes, tobacco, matches, and even
keys for unlocking the lamps. It is a strange reflection on the manner in
which this mine had been examined previous to the men entering upon their
work, that the under-looker, but half an hour previously, had reported
the pit to be free from gas.

Another instance of the same foolhardiness on the part of the miners is
contained in the report issued in regard to an explosion which occurred
at Denny, in Stirlingshire, on April 26th, 1895. By this accident
thirteen men lost their lives, and upon the bodies of eight of the number
the following articles were found; upon Patrick Carr, tin matchbox half
full of matches and a contrivance for opening lamps; John Comrie, split
nail for opening lamps; Peter Conway, seven matches and split key for
opening lamps; Patrick Dunton, split nail for opening lamps; John Herron,
clay pipe and piece of tobacco; Henry M'Govern, tin matchbox half full of
matches; Robert Mitchell, clay pipe and piece of tobacco; John Nicol,
wooden pipe, piece of tobacco, one match, and box half full of matches.
The report stated that the immediate cause of the disaster was the
ignition of fire-damp by naked light, the conditions of temperature being
such as to exclude the possibility of spontaneous combustion. Henry
M'Govern had previously been convicted of having a pipe in the mine. With
regard to the question of sufficient ventilation it continued:--"And we
are therefore led, on a consideration of the whole evidence, to the
conclusion that the accident cannot be attributed to the absence of
ventilation, which the mine owners were bound under the Mines Regulation
Act and the special rules to provide." The report concluded as follows:--
"On the whole matter we have to report that, in our opinion, the
explosion at Quarter Pit on April 26th, 1895, resulting in the loss of
thirteen lives, was caused by the ignition of an accumulation or an
outburst of gas coming in contact with a naked light, 'other than an open
safety-lamp,' which had been unlawfully kindled by one of the miners who
were killed. In our opinion, the intensity of the explosion was
aggravated, and its area extended, by the ignition of coal-dust."

We have mentioned that accidents have frequently occurred from the
falling of "coal-pipes," or, as they are also called, "bell-moulds." We
must explain what is meant by this term. They are simply what appear to
be solid trunks of trees metamorphosed into coal. If we go into a
tropical forest we find that the woody fibre of dead trees almost
invariably decays faster than the bark. The result is that what may
appear to be a sound tree is nothing but an empty cylinder of bark. This
appears to have been the case with many of the trees in coal-mines, where
they are seen to pierce the strata, and around which the miners are
excavating the coal. As the coaly mass collected around the trunk when
the coal was being formed, the interior was undergoing a process of
decomposition, while the bark assumed the form of coal. The hollow
interior then became filled with the shale or sandstone which forms the
roof of the coal, and its sole support when the coal is removed from
around it, is the thin rind of carbonised bark. When this falls to
pieces, or loses its cohesion, the sandstone trunk falls of its own
weight, often causing the death of the man that works beneath it. Sir
Charles Lyell mentions that in a colliery near Newcastle, no less than
thirty _sigillaria_ trees were standing in their natural position in an
area of fifty yards square, the interior in each case being sandstone,
which was surrounded by a bark of friable coal.

[Illustration: Fig. 33--Part of a trunk of _Sigillaria_, showing the thin
outer carbonised bark, with leaf-scars, and the seal-like impressions
where the bark is removed.]

The last great danger to which we have here to make reference, is the
explosive action of a quantity of coal-dust in a dry condition. It is
only now commencing to be fully recognised that this is really a most
dangerous explosive. As we have seen, large quantities of coal are formed
almost exclusively of _lepidodendron_ spores, and such coal is productive
of a great quantity of dust. Explosions which are always more or less
attributable to the effects of coal-dust are generally considered, in the
official statistics, to have been caused by fire-damp. The Act regulating
mines in Great Britain is scarcely up to date in this respect. There is a
regulation which provides for the watering of all dry and dusty places
within twenty yards from the spot where a shot is fired, but the
enforcement of this regulation in each and every pit necessarily devolves
on the managers, many of whom in the absence of an inspector leave the
requirement a dead letter. Every improvement which results in the better
ventilation of a coal-mine tends to leave the dust in a more dangerous
condition. The air, as it descends the shaft and permeates the workings,
becomes more and more heated, and licks up every particle of moisture it
can touch. Thorough ventilation results in more greatly freeing a mine of
the dangerous fire-damp, but the remedy brings about another disease,
viz., the drying-up of all moisture. The dust is thus left in a
dangerously inflammable condition, acting like a train of gunpowder, to
be started, it may be, by the slightest breath of an explosion. There is
apparently little doubt that the presence of coal-dust in a dry state in
a mine appreciably increases the liability of explosion in that mine.

So far as Great Britain is concerned, a Royal Commission was appointed by
Lord Rosebery's Government to inquire into and investigate the facts
referring to coal-dust. Generally speaking, the conclusion arrived at was
that fine coal-dust was inflammable under certain conditions. There was
considerable difference of opinion as to what these conditions were. Some
were of opinion that coal-dust and air alone were of an explosive nature,
whilst others thought that alone they were not, but that the addition of
a small quantity of fire-damp rendered the mixture explosive. An
important conclusion was come to, that, with the combustion of coal-dust
alone, there was little or no concussion, and that the flame was not of
an explosive character.

Coal-dust was, however, admittedly dangerous, especially if in a dry
condition. The effects of an explosion of gas might be considerably
extended by its presence, and there seems every reason to believe that,
with a suitable admixture of air and a very small proportion of gas, it
forms a dangerous explosive. Legislation in the direction of the report
of the Commission is urgently needed.

We have seen elsewhere what it is in the dust which makes it dangerous,
how that, for the most part, it consists of the dust-like spores of the
_lepidodendron_ tree, fine and impalpable as the spores on the backs of
some of our living ferns, and the fact that this consists of a large
proportion of resin makes it the easily inflammable substance it is.
Nothing but an incessant watering of the workings in such cases will
render the dust innocuous. The dust is extremely fine, and is easily
carried into every nook and crevice, and when, as at Bridgend in 1892, it
explodes, it is driven up and out of the shaft, enveloping everything
temporarily in dust and darkness.

In some of the pits in South Wales a system of fine sprays of water is in
use, by which the water is ejected from pin-holes pricked in a series of
pipes which are carried through the workings. A fine mist is thus caused
where necessary, which is carried forward by the force of the ventilating
current.

A thorough system of inspection in coal-mines throughout the world is
undoubtedly urgently called for, in order to ensure the proper carrying
out of the various regulations framed for their safety. It is extremely
unfortunate that so many of the accidents which happen are preventable,
if only men of knowledge and of scientific attainments filled the
responsible positions of the overlookers.




CHAPTER V.

EARLY HISTORY--ITS USE AND ITS ABUSE.


The extensive use of coal throughout the civilised world for purposes of
heating and illumination, and for the carrying on of manufactures and
industries, may be regarded as a well-marked characteristic of the age in
which we live.

Coal must have been in centuries past a familiar object to many
generations. People must have long been living in close proximity to its
outcrops at the sides of the mountains and at the surface of the land,
yet without being acquainted with its practical value, and it seems
strange that so little use was made of it until about three centuries
ago, and that its use did not spread earlier and more quickly throughout
civilised countries.

A mineral fuel is mentioned by Theophrastus about 300 B.C., from which it
is inferred that thus early it was dug from some of the more shallow
depths. The Britons before the time of the Roman invasion are credited
with some slight knowledge of its industrial value. Prehistoric
excavations have been found in Monmouthshire, and at Stanley, in
Derbyshire, and the flint axes there actually found imbedded in the layer
of coal are reasonably held to indicate its excavation by neolithic or
palaeolithic (stone-age) workmen.

The fact that coal cinders have been found on old Roman walls in
conjunction with Roman tools and implements, goes to prove that its use,
at least for heating purposes, was known in England prior to the Saxon
invasion, whilst some polygonal chambers in the six-foot seam near the
river Douglas, in Lancashire, are supposed also to be Roman.

The Chinese were early acquainted with the existence of coal, and knew of
its industrial value to the extent of using it for the baking of
porcelain.

The fact of its extensive existence in Great Britain, and the valuable
uses to which it might be put, did not, however, meet with much notice
until the ninth century, when, owing to the decrease of the
forest-area, and consequently of the supply of wood-charcoal therefrom,
it began to attract attention as affording an excellent substitute for
charcoal.

The coal-miner was, however, still a creation of the future, and even as
peat is collected in Ireland at the present day for fuel, without the
laborious process of mining for it, so those people living in
coal-bearing districts found their needs satisfied by the quantity of
coal, small as it was, which appeared ready to hand on the sides of the
carboniferous mountains. Till then, and for a long time afterwards, the
principal source of fuel consisted of vast forests, amidst which the
charcoal-burners, or "colliers" as they were even then called, lived out
their lonely existence in preparing charcoal and hewing wood, for the
fires of the baronial halls and stately castles then swarming throughout
the land. As the forests became used up, recourse was had more and more
to coal, and in 1239 the first charter dealing with and recognising the
importance of the supplies was granted to the freemen of Newcastle,
according them permission to dig for coals in the Castle fields. About
the same time a coal-pit at Preston, Haddingtonshire, was granted to the
monks of Newbattle.

Specimens of Newcastle coal were sent to London, but the city was loth to
adopt its use, objecting to the innovation as one prejudicial to the
health of its citizens. By the end of the 16th century, two ships only
were found sufficient to satisfy the demand for stone-coal in London.
This slow progress may, perhaps, have been partially owing to the
difficulties which were placed in the way of its universal use. Great
opposition was experienced by those who imported it into the metropolis,
and the increasing amount which was used by brewers and others about the
year 1300, caused serious complaints to be made, the effect of which was
to induce Parliament to obtain a proclamation from the King prohibiting
its use, and empowering the justices to inflict a fine on those who
persisted in burning it. The nuisance which coal has since proved itself,
in the pollution of the atmosphere and in the denuding of wide tracts of
country of all vegetation, was even thus early recognised, and had the
efforts which were then made to stamp out its use, proved successful,
those who live now in the great cities might never have become acquainted
with that species of black winter fog which at times hangs like a pall
over them, and transforms the brightness of day into a darkness little
removed from that of night. At the same time, we must bear in mind that
it is universally acknowledged that England owes her prosperity, and her
pre-eminence in commerce, in great part, to her happy possession of wide
and valuable coal-fields, and many authorities have not hesitated to say,
that, in their opinion, the length of time during which England will
continue to hold her prominent position as an industrial nation is
limited by the time during which her coal will last.

The attempt to prohibit the burning of coal was not, however, very
successful, for in the reign of Edward III. a license was again granted
to the freemen of Newcastle to dig for coals. Newcastle was thus the
first town to become famous as the home of the coal-miner, and the fame
which it early acquired, it has held unceasingly ever since.

Other attempts at prohibition of the article were made at various times
subsequently, amongst them being one which was made in Elizabeth's reign.
It was supposed that the health of the country squires, who came to town
to attend the session of Parliament, suffered considerably during their
sojourn in London, and, to remedy this serious state of affairs, the use
of stone-coal during the time Parliament was sitting was once more
prohibited.

Coal was, however, by this time beginning to be recognised as a most
valuable and useful article of fuel, and had taken a position in the
industrial life of the country from which it was difficult to remove it.
Rather than attempt to have arrested the growing use of coal, Parliament
would have been better employed had it framed laws compelling the
manufacturers and other large burners to consume their own smoke, and
instead of aiming at total prohibition, have encouraged an intelligent
and more economical use of it.

In spite of all prohibition its use rapidly spread, and it was soon
applied to the smelting of iron and to other purposes. Iron had been
largely produced in the south of England from strata of the Wealden
formation, during the existence of the great forest which at one time
extended for miles throughout Surrey and Sussex. The discovery of coal,
however, and the opening up of many mines in the north, gave an important
impetus to the smelting of iron in those counties, and as the forests of
the Weald became exhausted, the iron trade gradually declined. Furnace
after furnace became extinguished, until in 1809 that at Ashburnham,
which had lingered on for some years, was compelled to bow to the
inevitable fate which had overtaken the rest of the iron blast-furnaces.

In referring to this subject, Sir James Picton says:--"Ironstone of
excellent quality is found in various parts of the county, and was very
early made use of. Even before the advent of the Romans, the Forest of
Dean in the west, and the Forest of Anderida, in Sussex, in the east,
were the two principal sources from which the metal was derived, and all
through the mediaeval ages the manufacture was continued. After the
discovery of the art of smelting and casting iron in the sixteenth
century, the manufacture in Sussex received a great impulse from the
abundance of wood for fuel, and from that time down to the middle of the
last century it continued to flourish. One of the largest furnaces was at
Lamberhurst, on the borders of Kent, where the noble balustrade
surrounding St Paul's Cathedral was cast at a cost of about L11,000. It
is stated by the historian Holinshed that the first cast-iron ordnance
was manufactured at Buxted. Two specialities in the iron trade belonged
to Sussex, the manufacture of chimney-backs, and cast-iron plates for
grave-stones. At the time when wood constituted the fuel the backs of
fire-places were frequently ornamented with neat designs. Specimens, both
of the chimney-backs and of the monuments, are occasionally met with.
These articles were exported from Rye. The iron manufacture, of course,
met with considerable discouragement on the discovery of smelting with
pit-coal, and the rapid progress of iron works in Staffordshire and the
North, but it lingered on until the great forest was cut down and the
fuel exhausted."

In his interesting work, "Sylvia," published in 1661, Evelyn, in speaking
of the noxious vapours poured out into the air by the increasing number
of coal fires, writes, "This is that pernicious smoke which sullies all
her glory, superinducing a sooty crust or furr upon all that it lights,
spoiling movables, tarnishing the plate, gildings and furniture, and
corroding the very iron bars and hardest stones with those piercing and
acrimonious spirits which accompany its sulphur, and executing more in
one year than the pure air of the country could effect in some hundreds."
The evils here mentioned are those which have grown and have become
intensified a hundred-fold during the two centuries and a half which have
since elapsed. When the many efforts which were made to limit its use in
the years prior to 1600 are remembered; at which time, we are informed,
two ships only were engaged in bringing coal to London, it at once
appears how paltry are the efforts made now to moderate these same
baneful influences on our atmosphere, at a time when the annual
consumption of coal in the United Kingdom has reached the enormous total
of 190 millions of tons. The various smoke-abatement associations which
have started into existence during the last few years are doing a little,
although very little, towards directing popular attention to the subject;
but there is an enormous task before them, that of awakening every
individual to an appreciation of the personal interest which he has in
their success, and to realise how much might at once be done if each were
to do his share, minute though it might be, towards mitigating the evils
of the present mode of coal-consumption. Probably very few householders
ever realise what important factories their chimneys constitute, in
bringing about air pollution, and the more they do away with the use of
bituminous coal for fuel, the nearer we shall be to the time when yellow
fog will be a thing of the past.

A large proportion of smoke consists of particles of pure unconsumed
carbon, and this is accompanied in its passage up our chimneys by
sulphurous acid, begotten by the sulphur which is contained in the coal
to the amount of about eight pounds in every thousand; by sulphuretted
hydrogen, by hydro-carbons, and by vapours of various kinds of oils,
small quantities of ammonia, and other bodies not by any means
contributing to a healthy condition of the atmosphere. A good deal of the
heavier carbon is deposited along the walls of chimneys in the form of
soot, together with a small percentage of sulphate of ammonia; this is as
a consequence very generally used for manure. The remainder is poured out
into the atmosphere, there to undergo fresh changes, and to become a
fruitful cause of those thick black fogs with which town-dwellers are so
familiar. Sulphuretted hydrogen (H_{2}S) is a gas well known to students
of chemistry as a most powerful reagent, its most characteristic external
property being the extremely offensive odour which it possesses, and
which bears a strong resemblance to that of rotten eggs or decomposing
fish. It tarnishes silver work and picture frames very rapidly. On
combustion it changes to sulphurous acid (SO_{2}), and this in turn has
the power of taking up from the air another atom of oxygen, forming
sulphuric acid (SO_{3} + water), or, as we more familiarly know it, oil
of vitriol.

Yet the smoke itself, including as it does all the many impurities which
exist in coal, is not only evil in itself, but is evil in its influences.
Dr Siemens has said:--"It has been shown that the fine dust resulting
from the imperfect combustion of coal was mainly instrumental in the
formation of fog; each particle of solid matter attracting to itself
aqueous vapour. These globules of fog were rendered particularly
tenacious and disagreeable by the presence of tar vapour, another result
of imperfect combustion of raw fuel, which might be turned to better
account at the dyeworks. The hurtful influence of smoke upon public
health, the great personal discomfort to which it gave rise, and the vast
expense it indirectly caused through the destruction of our monuments,
pictures, furniture, and apparel, were now being recognised."

The most effectual remedy would result from a general recognition of the
fact that wherever smoke was produced, fuel was being consumed
wastefully, and that all our calorific effects, from the largest furnace
to the domestic fire, could be realised as completely, and more
economically, without allowing any of the fuel employed to reach the
atmosphere unburnt. This most desirable result might be effected by the
use of gas for all heating purposes, with or without the additional use
of coke or anthracite. The success of the so-called smoke-consuming
stoves is greatly open to question, whilst some of them have been
reported upon by those appointed to inspect them as actually accentuating
the incomplete combustion, the abolition of which they were invented to
bring about.

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