Durham Mining Museum - Evan Evans (original) (raw)

Middle Dyffryn explosion, Aberdare. — Sixty-eight lives lost. This pit was ventilated by a furnace and an occasional steam jet, to the amount, it is said, of about 28,000 cubic feet, which was three times split ; and the workings were carried on with naked lights. They had an engine pit and coal pit, the latter of which was bratticed and formed the upcast and downcast, the engine pit being shut off. The explosion was attributed to some gas having come suddenly off from a fall, and that it had fired at the furnace. Mr. Blackwell, after a previous explosion, had recommended lamps, to do away with the shaft brattices, and to cause a dumb furnace to be provided, not one of which suggestions had been attended to. The stoppings used near the lower part were 18 inches thick of dry wall, and the upper part of mortar, backed with 8 or 10 yards of rubbish. The men were made to go up and down the engine shaft by means of ladders ; for it does not appear that they had slides. Not more than 30 acres were mined over, which were mostly standing in pillars. The arrangements of the ventilation demanded no less than 35 doors, the necessary leakage of which would require a much more ample current than 28,000 feet.

• 1853 Mines Inspectors Report
• 1855 Mines Inspectors Report, by Herbert Mackworth, H.M. Inspector of Mines, includes a list of all the fatal accidents in the Southern District during the years 1851 to 1855, Page: 150

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