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WINDING APPARATUS.

An electric winder of the Ward Leonard Ilgner Type with direct current motor rated at 350 horse-power, but able to take a peak load of 550, was completed in 1914. The drum was 10 feet in diameter by 6 feet wide.

The winding ropes were of "Special Improved Plough Steel" 3¼ inches in circumference, Lang's lay, with a breaking strain of 40.8 tons. The capel or "socket" on each winding rope was of the "Reliance" type, and between it and the bridle chains, of winch there were four, was a 4-ton Ormerod Detaching Hook. The pulleys were 11 feet in diameter.

The North side winding rope was put into use on the 11th November, 1922, and that on the South side on 30th September, 1922.

The North cage was put in in October, 1922; the cage on the South side, shortly before. The chains of each cage were annealed and put on in September, 1922.

INSPECTION OF WINDING ROPES, DETACHING HOOKS, CHAINS, CAGES, SHOES, GUIDES, BUNIONS AND SHAFT.

The winding ropes, capels or sockets, detaching hooks, cage or "bridle" chains, and cages were examined daily by the Enginewright (Joseph Simpson) and the leading blacksmith (John Wilson) jointly. The cage shoes were examined daily by the former.

The shaft itself, the guides and buntons were examined and reported upon nightly by the shaftman (Timothy Collinson), and were also examined and reported upon each week by the Enginewright.

The joint daily examinations, made by the Enginewright and the leading blacksmith were usually made between 8 and 8.30 o'clock in the morning. The weekly examinations made by the Enginewright. were made either on a Saturday or a Sunday and occupied from three-quarters of an hour to one hour, which was about the same time as taken by the shaftman for the same work. The Enginewright was always accompanied by a second person either a blacksmith or a shaftman.

The guides wore greased with thick black grease by the shaftman at least once a week, usually during his shift on Sunday nights. He had on occasion greased them twice in one week but never more often.

NARRATIVE OF THE ACCIDENT.

On the day of the accident the back shift of hewers descended the shaft between the hours of 6 and 6.20 in the morning and thereafter the usual work of winding coal was continued without incident until 7.25. At that time the North cage with two empty tubs in it was sent down from the surface and the South cage brought to the surface empty. The banksman (J. W. Southern) signalled to the onsetter that it was then time to send up the foreshift men and accordingly eight men and boys — the two foreshift onsetters and six youths who had been employed in the shaft bottom siding — got into the North cage, four in the top and four in the bottom deck.

The bars which act as a gate at the two ends of each deck of the cage were put in position and the ill-fated wind began. There was nothing in the descending — the South — cage, and the persons in the ascending cage had no tools with them, nor had they any lights. The cage was wound up the shaft for some distance (it later transpired that it had been wound up as far as the upper of the two before mentioned cast iron girders, that is about 30 feet from the surface), when, according to the banksman, he heard a crash which he described as a noise sounding like the saying of "bu-r-r-r-r-up" and lasting just as long as it takes to say it. The onsetter (D. Marshall) said he thought the cage had been wound a good way up the shaft when he heard what he described as a bump and almost immediately he heard what he thought was debris falling in the shaft.

The Winding Engineman (J. G. Armstrong), who had come on duty at 6 a.m., said that up to the time of the accident everything had progressed as usual and there had been no mishap of any kind. About 7.25 he received a signal that men were about to ride in the North cage and in due course he was winding this cage up the shaft at the usual rate when men are in the cage, that is at about 15 to 18 feet per second, when he noticed a sudden shock to the cage, the engine partially stop, and the winding rope fly. He was in the act of slowing up the engine at the time and stopped it as quickly as possible The shock to the cage was instantaneous. The end of the upcoming winding rope stopped at the surface level.

The Enginewright came on the scene at 7.30 followed, a few minutes later, by Joseph Malpass a steelwork erector, who found his squad of men engaged with a blacksmith trying to erect a temporary head gear for the purpose of lowering someone down the shaft to inspect and ascertain the position of affairs. On completion of these temporary arrangements, which occupied some time, the Enginewright in a bos'un's "chair" descended the shaft, the hauling engine rope being used as a winding rope, to a point some 150 feet from the surface where he found the North side cage fast in the shaft as shown in Plate I. Having seen this cage and finding no one in it, he was wound up to the surface, and Malpass taking his place in the "chair" was lowered down the shaft to the cage. After seeing its position, he returned to the surface and obtaining a chain, took it down the shaft and with it made the cage fast. He then was lowered further down the shaft making inspection as he went. He descended as far as the South side cage which he estimated as being some 30 feet from the bottom of the shaft, and then after making measurements to see if the South side cage, if wound up, would pass the broken cage in the shaft, he returned to the surface and reported that there were bodies on the top of the South side cage; that there were broken pipes in the shaft: and that a length of the North-East guide rail had been broken. The South side cage was then lowered to the bottom of the shaft and the bodies taken from the top of it and so to the surface by way of a travelling drift.

After two pieces of broken pipe had been taken out of the shaft, Malpass made the North side winding rope fast to the damaged cage and it was by this means drawn up the shaft to the surface.