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	Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	4th November 1907
Colliery:	Morpeth Moor
Company:	Wansbeck Colliery Co., Ltd.
Cause:	(See description below)
Lives Lost:	1
Category:

Deceased worked with a naked light in a bord or stall 6 yards wide in the Bandy seam. There was rib of coal on one side of the place and a small hitch on the other; it had advanced 14 yards and canvas brattice cloth was led into it for a distance of 5 yards. It was practically the last working place in the seam, in the working of which a good deal of gunpowder is used, and as there was only one current of air it received all the powder smoke from the other places as well as what was produced in itself. The workings are wet. A current of air amounting to 9,320 cubic feet per minute when measured on the 14th October circulated in the seam, induced by a Waddle fan recently erected on the surface, and if properly conducted to the faces should have been sufficient, as the workings were comparatively limited in area. Deceased was working in the fore shift and when his marrow came to relieve him about 10 a.m. he was ill and said he had been trying to vomit. He was put into a tub and taken to the shaft and then home, where he died about 11.30 a.m. His marrow returned to the face and finished his shift in an adjoining place. The under-manager had been in the place at 9.10 a.m. and he stated at the inquest that the ventilation was then good although deceased complained to him of the powder smoke. Deceased was then stemming a shot which he said contained ¼ lb. of gunpowder and this shot he had fired. Earlier in the shift he had also fired a shot. The deputy had reported the ventilation as satisfactory. The manager was in the place an hour or two after deceased had left it and he stated at the inquest that he found the ventilation all right. There had bean some complaint made as to the air before November 4. A doctor by the Coroner's order made a post-mortem examination and stated at the inquest that he found all the organs healthy except some adherence of the lungs due to former attacks of pleurisy; he found the blood, both venous and arterial, very fluid and of a bright cherry red colour which he attributed to carbonic oxide poisoning. He further stated that deceased had a fourth lobe to the right lung which was very unusual and which would improve his breathing. When Mr. Nicholson inspected the place the day after the death he found a very feeble current of air but it was not in an unworkable state. The Local Inspectors reported "Found wind slack, plenty of canvas and a proper road in and out for wind." The Jury found that death was caused by inhaling carbonic oxide gas through want of proper ventilation.

Source:

1907 Mines Inspectors Report (Cd 4045), Newcastle District (No. 3) by J. B. Atkinson, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 53, Accident Number: 88 Where to find this report

	Orkney, Thomas, aged 46, Hewer
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