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	Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	18th April 1876
Colliery:	Seghill
Company:	Laycock and Nicholson
Cause:	Explosion of gas
Lives Lost:	1
Category:

Explosions of Gas.

On 18th April an explosion occurred in the Seghill Colliery in Northumberland. For a considerable time pumping operations had been proceeded with for the purpose of unwatering a lower seam which had been abandoned for some years. As the water lowered in the pumping shaft it was carefully watched, and an occasional bubbling of gas, as the pressure became relieved, had been observed, but never of sufficient strength to explode in a lamp. A staple in the workings at some distance from the shaft had also been watched, the bottom of which, it was known, would sooner become free from water than the pumping shaft. Here, also, slight indications of gas had also been seen, and 10 months previous to the accident the ventilation had been modified so as to bring a current of air over the top of the staple in case a large quantity of gas should at any time come off. The staple top especially, and also the water in the pumping pit, had been examined immediately before the accident, but no indications of gas were observed. Gas must have escaped at the bottom of the staple, and have been carried by the ordinary currents of ventilation direct to the ventilating furnace, which caused an explosion there at mid-day, slightly burning deceased, who died on the 27th.

The officials in charge of the work had not received sufficiently stringent instructions as to their relative duties, and on the whole the evidence disclosed a degree of carelessness, and a want of appreciation of the gravity of moving large accumulations of water from lower seams in cases where the ventilation has been deranged by such accumulation.

Source:

1876 Mines Inspectors Report (C. 1734), Newcastle-on-Tyne District by James Willis, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 242 Where to find this report

	Cran, William (died: 27 Apr 1876) , aged 54, Furnaceman, explosion of firedamp
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