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	Individual Details		Individual Details

Age:	32
Died:	8th Jan 1896
Accident:	8th Jan 1896
Year Born:	abt. 1864
Colliery:	Urpeth, Busty
Company:	Charles Perkins and Partners
Occupation:	Deputy
Notes:	Explosion of bellite shot [Inspection made & inquest attended]
Buried:	[not known]
Category:	Miscellaneous Underground Accidents :: By Explosives

Of the fatal accidents, the first occurred at Urpeth Busty Colliery on the 8th January, under the following circumstances. Bellite was being used, and the shots were fired by means of a battery. The deceased, a deputy, was on his usual rounds, and came to a place where two holes had been prepared. He was, for some reason, in a hurry, and deputed the hewer to attach the cable to the battery and fire the first shot. This went off all right, and he then went into the place to arrange for the second shot, leaving the hewer at the battery, but without seeing whether the cables had been disconnected from the battery, which the hewer, at the inquest, said had been done. Deceased, after charging the shot-hole, took the cartridge tin into an adjoining place, where another hewer was at work, and then returned, as the latter thought, to the battery. He heard deceased call out "fire, I'm all right," and immediately after the other hewer called for him, and on going to the place found the deputy lying in front of the shot and close to the face, so severely injured that he soon succumbed.

Why the deceased had gone back to the shot after calling out to the hewer to fire it is impossible to say, but the presumption is that he had forgotten to attach the wires to the shot in the first instance, returned to do the work, and then called out before he got away from the place, thinking that the hewer had to attach the cables to the battery.

If this surmise be correct, it is surely a very good reason why shots should be fired by the competent person himself and not under his direction, although it may impose upon him a little more labour and curtail his time to a certain extent.

Batteries for shot firing should not be placed in inexperienced hands, and as much care should be taken with them as with the explosive itself.

• 1896 Mines Inspectors Report (C 8450), Newcastle District (No. 3) by J. L. Hedley, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 11 Where to find this report
• 1896 Mines Inspectors Report (C 8450), Newcastle District (No. 3) by J. L. Hedley, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 24, Accident Number: 8 Where to find this report

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