Mining accident

“ Coal-mining is unfortunately a dangerous occupation, more than a thousand deaths from accident being reported annually by the inspectors of mines as occurring in the collieries of the UnitedAccidents. ”

“ RESCUE PARTY ENTERING MINE AFTER EXPLOSION
THE STORY OF COAL
Safety in Coal Mines SIX
Since the year 1870, some 60,000 men have lost their lives as a result of coal mining accidents in this country. This is approximately one fatality for every 180,000 tons of coal mined. Gradually this bad record is being improved, thanks to the combined efforts of the United States Bureau of Mines, the mining departments of the various states, the operators and the miners themselves; but coal mining remains a hazardous pursuit. ”

“ The assistant superintendent, the mining engineer, the safety inspector, and the fire boss were already in. The foreman jumped in beside them, and the cage rattled down to the bottom.
Already the word had spread to the gathering crowd that the accident was but a roof-fall, not an explosion, that two cages full of miners had come and that there was a likelihood that most of the men were safe.
Volunteers clustered around the mine-owner, clamoring to be allowed to go down.
"We'll dig 'em out, sir!" they cried cheerily.
"Keep back, men!" was the answer. "Wait till we know just what has to be done. ”

“ If that is so, a nation which owes its industrial greatness to coal should consider whether it is desirable to work this under-sea coal or not, for it would appear obvious that a mine as fiery as the 1907 inquiry proved the Whitehaven colliery to be, must sooner or later be the scene of serious disaster under the given conditions. To pass to another point, a large proportion of mining accidents occur in the shafts. It would be interesting to know the ages of many of the cages and of much of the winding machinery which are employed in our coal-mines. ”

“ The danger from this choke damp, therefore, is one that concerns the individual workman rather than large bodies of men or the structure of the mine itself. With fire damp, however, the case is different, as an explosion of this gas may destroy the mine itself and all the workmen in it. It is, therefore, the most dreaded factor in mining, and is the one to which more attention has been directed than to almost any other problem. ”

“ York Commissioner of Labor, in the spring of 1899, would indicate a yearly average of 14,576 accidents for factory workers alone in one State. In the Pennsylvania anthracite mines more than 400 persons are killed every year, and in the bituminous mines of the same State the yearly average for the period 1895-98 was 171 killed and 421 injured. An official report made to the United States Geological Survey in September gives the record of lives lost in mining coal for the year 1901 as 1467, and the number of workmen injured as 3643. ”

“ The seam is worked on successive levels, but, even then, it is impossible to prevent constant accidents from the fall of coal or the sudden collapse of a roof. Take it the world over, and ten miners are killed every day in collieries alone. I told you coal mining was dangerous. ”

“ On work calculated to prevent accidents in mines, not only the Tennessee Coal, Iron, & Railroad Company, but all the leading mining companies in the State join for conference. As a result the number of accidents steadily decreases. Nine years ago one man was killed, on an average, for every 100,000 tons of iron ore raised. The record at the time of our visit was one man to 450,000 tons. In the coal mines, where nine years ago one man was killed for every 75,000 tons raised, the recent record is one man for 650,000 tons.
In 1914, 126 men were killed in the coal mines of Alabama. ”

“ It exists no more. All mine development work ceased long ago. There are green-stained carbonates on the surface, but there are no copper ore-bodies. The "mines" have been dismantled of their machinery and other equipment, and not even a lone watchman remains to point out to the desert-wayfarer the spot on which was reared the monumental mining-stock swindle of the century. Every dollar invested by the public is lost. ”

“ Upon the bed-rock is a deposit, from three to four feet in depth, of gravel and boulders, in which the gold is hidden. This is called by the miners "pay-dirt," and to remove it to the surface and wash it is the end of mining. It is an expensive and laborious process indeed. The water has first to be controlled; and in mines of not too great depth this is done by a drain ditch along the bed-rock, commenced many claims below. In this all the claim-holders are interested, and all contribute their quota of the labor and expense of digging it. ”

“ As the coal is mined a certain proportion of it is ground into powder, and this fills the air and becomes a powerful explosive. Precautions are taken in most cases. The mines are sprinkled and state and national governments have done much to make mining safe, but at the best the occupation claims an unusually heavy toll in life and limb. ”

“ Another of the series was the Hartley calamity on the 16th of January 1862—a calamity which is unique in the history of mining disasters, which moved the heart of the nation, and turned the minds of men everywhere to two very important matters—first, the sinking of two shafts to every mine; and second, to the provision for the relatives of those who lose their lives, or for the workmen who are injured. And thus it has ever been: our industry has offered up its human sacrifices before necessary reforms have been introduced. Death has in many instances opened the gateway to life and blessing. ”

“ Many men are killed outright. These accidents are caused by the roof of the little room in which the miner works falling in upon him, and the unexpected drop of coal. Of course there are many things that contribute to accidents, such as bad machinery, shafts, dirt rolling down, landslides, etc.
One day there was a fellow-prisoner working in the room adjoining me; he complained to the mining boss that he did not want to go into that room to work because he thought it was dangerous. The officer in charge thought differently, and told him to go in there and go to work or he would report him. ”

“ Iron and copper ores will not probably be injured by any amount of dumping. Coal should be handled as few times as possible. In view of this fact, other things being equal, adopt that system that will injure the ore or coal the least. [104]
As a rule, workmen are safer in tunnels than in shafts, since there is little danger from objects falling any great distance. Tiny bits of rock have been known to kill men in shafts. On the other hand, there is less liability of injury from falls of large rocks in shafts than in adits. Roof falls are a very prolific source of mine accidents. ”

“ They were conducted at sunrise from prison by a subterranean passage into the mine, and compelled to toil on until the evening, when they were led back again to their dungeons. In a few years the greater number died, through inhaling the poisonous vapours of the mercury. Reduced to despair, a century and a-half ago, they set fire to the galleries, which, being then constructed of wood, were destroyed, and mining operations put a stop to for many years. Only free labourers are now employed, who are not allowed to work longer than six hours a-day. ”

“ During the last 19 years, 28,514 men have been killed in the coal-mining industries.2 In 1907 alone, 3,125 men lost their lives in coal mines, and, in addition, nearly 800 were killed in the metal mines and quarries of the country. ”

“ As the mines go deeper and further away from the opening they accumulate gas and underground water. The greatest number of injuries and deaths in the mines, and coal mining is among the most hazardous of all occupations, result from the falling of overhanging rock and coal; but the catastrophies which have shocked public opinion into a sympathetic attitude toward the commoners of the mines do not come from this steady death toll but have resulted from explosions or fires that have trapped and suffocated or burned their scores and hundreds. ”

“ Nothing so startles a mining community as to have this signal come from underground. It may mean death and disaster. It surely means that there are injured men to be brought up to the surface, and the time elapsing before their arrival is always filled with deepest anxiety.
[Pg 51]
It was so in the present case, and when the cage containing the two battered miners, one of whom had also every appearance of being dead, emerged from the shaft, a throng of spectators was waiting to greet it. ”

“ Fires and explosions attract a greater amount of public attention than other mining disasters on account of the large number of victims so often involved in a single occurrence of this kind. In the explosion at the Courrières colliery, in France, March 10, 1906, more than 1,100 miners perished. This mine had previously been renowned for its freedom from accidents. Coal mine explosions are due to two principal causes, which may act either separately or in combination—fire-damp and coal-dust. ”

“ Of a hundred prospectors, ninety-nine die poor. The failures must be charged off to industrial waste attendant upon inherent conditions of the mining industry.
Again, in the development of a mine after it is located and proved in part, there is more unavoidable economic waste. The rock is blank and silent. It can only be explored by means of expensive drifts and drillings. In one mine at Bisbee, Arizona, a shaft was sunk which had drifts at the 600-and 900-feet levels, all without result. ”

“ The pumps had got control of the water, a temporary ventilating circuit had been established in an effort to keep the mine air pure—for the main system had been destroyed by the fall, and the mining gangs were at work, digging away the obstruction and loading with feverish haste.
This was a very different matter from hewing coal, which is always laid out in regular seams and naturally divided by splitting planes. The rock from the strata above had fallen into the galleries at all angles, and was mixed up with the crushed and partly splintered timbers of the roof [Pg 78] and sides. ”

“ Before starting work a miner often tests for gas by poking his lamp into all the corners. The gas may be touched off by a spark during blasting operations, or by a pick striking a spark from a stone, or by a defective lamp, or by ‘gob fires’ – spontaneously generated fires which smoulder in the coal dust and are very hard to put out. The great mining disasters which happen from time to time, in which several hundred men are killed, are usually caused by explosions; hence one tends to think of explosions as the chief danger of mining. ”

“ Probably no industrial operation excites more widespread interest, when accorded publicity, than the mining of coal, and that because of the dangers which attend it. The annual list of victims buried beneath a falling roof, or mangled by runaway cars, causes little comment, but every now and then the world is startled by an appalling catastrophe in which hundreds of men lose their lives. From the early days when growing industry demanded more coal, inventors have been busy devising all sorts of safety appliances for the miner. ”

“ After the Northern Pacific began mining here in 1886, with approximately 500 laborers, life in the little settlement was disturbed periodically by industrial strife and tragic disasters. Forty-five men were killed in a mine explosion in May 1892; in a second explosion in October 1909, ten miners were killed. Today modern mining methods are in operation, greatly lessening the danger of explosion, and the town has achieved a peaceful solution of its industrial troubles. ”

“ An instance of this is to be found in the{650} salt-workings of Cheshire, in the neighbourhood of which, houses are constantly being wrecked. Thousands of pounds are paid every year by mine-owners for damages done to surface proprietors, farmers, and others; and there is no more fruitful source of litigation than surface-damage.
Even under public roads, we find the minerals being worked. The public have only a right of passage, the minerals underneath belonging to the adjoining proprietor, and it is not an uncommon circumstance in mining districts for a road to suddenly sink several feet. ”

“ A deep old mine which has been abandoned, is undertaken with a chance of less profit and a certainty of greater risk, than a new and promising discovery. In the first case encouragement is often held out, by fixing very moderate dues, while in the other, so much is too frequently demanded and given, as to prevent that share of profit accruing to the adventurers which is due to the great risk constantly attendant on all mining pursuits. ”

“ Yet, in the history of coal-mining, there are several cases on record in which men have been even a longer time below ground and recovered. In a French colliery, two out of thirty men who were buried for fourteen days, recovered; in a Welsh colliery, one man survived out of seventy who had been entombed for seventeen days.
A still more astonishing case occurred in a Scotch coal-mine. A big roof-fall in a pit in Ayr [Pg 100] shire had blocked off all the outlets to the shaft, save one, by which all the miners were able to escape. ”

“ Hugh heard someone beside him say, “I hear Dodson’s caught in a drift.”
Carstairs, the superintendent, answered: “Yes. Dutch is with him. They went to look at that new vein we struck yesterday.”
No accident contains more terrible possibilities than a fire in a mine. Flame and gas pursue the trapped victims as they fly. Cut off from the shaft, buried hundreds of feet in the ground, the miners run the risk of being asphyxiated, burned, or blown up in an explosion of released gases.
The shaft, the drifts, the crosscuts, and the tunnels all act as flues to suck the flames into them. ”