Felling mine disasters
[3] A steel cylinder was revolved at high speed against a flint and the resulting shower of sparks gave some light.
[6] Two explosions, blackdamp (locally called choak-damp [sic]), fire and the lethal afterdamp made any rescue attempt impossible.
However, local recollections of three men who had survived for 40 days in a pit near Byker led to shouts of "murder" and obstruction.
The sparks from the Spedding mill were extinguished by the blackdamp and Haswell began staggering within 7 yards (6.4 m) due to the effects of the gas.
In the morning of the 8th, Straker, Anderson, Haswell and six others descended William shaft and found the air cool and wholesome.
As the workers moved through the mine all the various stoppings and traps had to be repaired to force the air current to fully ventilate it.
Dr. Ramsay gave his opinion that if the bodies were returned to their homes for a normal wake and burial "putrid fever" might spread throughout the neighbourhood.
The most probable cause was firedamp, there being no evidence of large amounts of coal dust in the air, the other significant risk.
After the first explosion the trap doors used for ventilation and the internal wall in the vicinity of the underground crane were observed to be in a good state by the men who escaped.
[11] The area was near John Pit, the down-cast shaft where fresh air was entering the mine at its greatest velocity.
Hodgson realised that this was significant and supposed that "the atmospheric current ... intercepted the progress of the first explosion, and prevented it from igniting the fire damp here".
Public interest was fed by a short (16-page) pamphlet written by him and published prior to the second disaster in late 1813.
Hodgson wrote for an interested public, not for practical miners, and as such explains mining terms and procedures.
On 1 October 1812 the Sunderland Society was set up consisting of clergymen, doctors, owners and mine managers.
The society aimed for greater publicity for accidents and their causes, the scientific study of ventilation, and the development of safety lamps.
The gauze had to have small spaces so that a flame could not pass through, but could admit methane, which then burned harmlessly inside the lamp.
The Newcastle Courant reported the supposition that "the hydrogen [sic] took fire at the crane lamp, in the south headways".
[e][13] Thomson also reports this but warns against too early an assumption, mentioning other possibilities such as the failure of a stopping or furnace mismanagement.
[14] The southern boards were crossed by several fissures (dykes) from which periodic discharges of gas came through apertures called blowers.
The blowers could make "the coals on the floor dance round their orifices, like gravel in a strong spring".
After an hour Gibbon tried to escape but broke his lamp and in the darkness was blocked by a roof fall; he was eventually rescued.
[15] The viewer, Thomas Foster, stated to the Newcastle Guardian that Davy lamps were employed throughout the colliery and that all the men were given written instructions in their use.
Foster reported that 60,000 cubic feet (1,700 m3) of air per minute was drawn down the shaft, a fact confirmed at the coroner's inquest.
[15][16] The colliery overman, John Greener, told the coroner that he had gone down the pit after the explosion and "found the separation stoppings blown down, and the stables on fire".
He penetrated up to 600 yards (550 m) from the shaft before being overcome by foul air and forced to retreat and go home due to the effect of the gas.
The damper should have remained slightly open to allow burnt gas from the fire to escape up the chimney.
It was supposed that the damper had been closed fully and partial combustion had occurred, effectively generating town gas ("acting as a retort").
The engineman, George Hope, said that he put on around 3½ pecks[g] of small coals and "left the damper open about an inch and three-quarters I always leave my fire this way".
On each of the four faces is a brass plaque, listing the names and ages of the victims: Pictures of the memorial on the Durham Mining Museum website:
