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DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLIERY AND CONDITION OF THE WORKINGS PRIOR TO THE EXPLOSION.

We append hereto a copy of the plan of each working seam, showing the normal direction of the ventilating current, as also a section of the shafts showing the relative position of the seams.

The colliery was worked by means of two shafts – the downcast, known as the Busty Pit, 12 feet diameter, and the upcast, known as the Lamp Pit, 9¾ feet diameter. Both were sunk to the Brockwell Seam.

The seams passed through by the shafts were :–

Shield Row	39	fathoms from the surface.
Five Quarter	52½	"
Brass Thill	62	"
Low Main	93	"
Towneley	123	"
Tilley	133½	"
Busty	139	"
Brockwell	163	"

All these seams had been worked at one time or another, but at the time of the explosion only the last four were in operation; our remarks, therefore, will almost wholly refer to the conditions existent in them.

The average thickness of the four seams being worked is as under :–

Towneley	2	feet	2	inches.
Tilley	2	"	3	"
Busty	3	"	0	"
Brockwell	2	"	5	"

and their chemical composition

	Towneley	Tilley	Busty	Brockwell
Fixed carbon	65.08	67.75	67.30	69.84
Volatile hydrocarbons	27.63	26.73	24.80	24.73
Ash	5.10	3.35	7.90	3.80
Sulphur	1.09	0.84	0.96	0.63
Moisture	1.10	1.33	0.62	1.00

From which it will be seen that the coal is of the character known as "bituminous."

A report on the examination of seven samples of coal dust taken from different points in the mine is given in Appendix B.

The coal from the Towneley Seam was lowered down a staple to the hanging-on of the downcast shaft at the Busty level, and that from the Tilley Seam was run down a stone drift to the same level at the opposite side of the shaft. Thus the coal drawn up the downcast shaft, from the Busty level, was that from the Towneley, Tilley, and Busty Seams, whilst the coal from the Brockwell Seam was drawn up the upcast shaft from the Brockwell level.