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ELECTRIC LIGHTING.

The shaft sidings at the Busty seam, and the hauling engine house and the staple top in the Towneley seam were lighted by incandescent lamps. Twenty lamps in the Busty seam, and fifteen in the Towneley.

The only other lights in use were safety lamps. Of these there were 637, of which 526 were of the Marsaut and 111 of the Donald type. All of these were lighted, and locked by lead rivets, in the lamp room on the surface prior to being taken down the mine. No relighting of lamps was allowed underground; all lamps extinguished were sent to the lamp room on the surface to be re-examined, re-lit, and re-locked.

The oil used in the lamps was :–

In	175	Marsaut	... Colza
	111	Donald	... Colza
	351	Marsaut	... Petroleum (Homelight).

Only those engaged on the haulage roads – putters, drivers, and others – used the Donald lamps. The coal hewers and stonemen were provided with Marsaut lamps with double gauzes.

NATURAL CHARACTER OF SEAMS.

The workings in each of the four seams were more or less dusty throughout. The workings in the lower section of the Busty seam were wet, and there was also a wet area in the Tilley seam ; and part of the Towneley seam was damp. The upper section of the Busty seam, consisting as it did of old crushed pillars, produced considerable quantities of dust.

DUST CARRIED FROM SURFACE.

The screens are close to the shaft and formerly considerable quantities of dust were carried in the air down the downcast shaft from them and from a shoot down which coals were delivered to the boilers. In order to lessen this source of dust the downcast shaft, from the ground level to the heapstead, and the shoot to the boilers, had been recently boxed in.

WATERING OF ROADS.

The main roads in each seam were frequently watered by means of water tubs fitted with a semi-rotary pump and spray arrangement to reach the roof and sides.

The evidence at the Inquest was to the effect that the Towneley seam was watered every other day. The Straight West and South West Districts were naturally damp. A section of the Busty was watered every night, an alternate section each night, commencing at 4 p.m., and finishing at midnight. That is to say, a length of from 500 to 600 yards of the haulage road was watered in two days. Besides this, the road near the bottom of the downcast shaft was swept once or twice a week, the sweeping taking place before watering

The South side of the Brockwell seam was watered on Monday night, that is to say, the day before the explosion, right up to the flat, within about 200 yards of the face, the North side of the seam being watered from the shaft to the flat, or to within about 130 yards of the face on the Sunday night. The Tilley Drift was watered also on the Sunday night. The rest of the Tilley did not require to be watered because of its being naturally wet owing to water dropping from the roof. In the ordinary course of events the Brockwell seam would have been watered again on Tuesday night, i.e., the night of the day of the explosion. A week before the occurrence of the explosion the dust was removed from the Brockwell seam by shovelling.

If the seams were thoroughly watered as and at the times stated they should have been fairly damp at the time of the disaster, for the temperature at the face was not great, namely about 56° F. in the Busty and 50° F. in the Townley. But it is questionable how far watering, as usually practised in collieries, is really effective as a means of preventing or allaying dust. The floor is never perfectly smooth, the water quickly runs into pools, and the dust on the intervening hills is quickly dried by the air current. Short of the actual drenching of the roof and sides, which is hardly practicable, it is not possible to ensure the wetting of the dust on the timber and in the interstices of the stone and coal. Certainly on our examination of the workings subsequent to the explosion, though we observed occasional pools of water, there were large quantities of dry dust in all the seams, and in some instances dry dust on the surface of pools of water.

SHOT-FIRING.

Shot-firing was carried on in the various seams under the following conditions :–

Towneley Seam. – The stonemen, and no others, took explosives into the mine. They obtained the explosives at the magazine on the surface in a locked box. The deputies, and they only, had each a key with which to open the boxes containing explosives in the mine, and they fired the shots during the night shift.

The stonemen in the Straight South District in this seam went down the pit at 3 p.m. For other districts at 4 p.m., a deputy being with them.

In the Straight South District, the backshift deputy, as soon as he had seen the men and boys on their way outbye, which would be about 3.30 p.m., would start to fire shots if the stonemen had then arrived in the faces and were ready.

Tilley Seam. – All shots in this seam in stone were fired between the hours of 4 p.m. and 4 a.m. The explosive was taken down the mine at 4 p.m. in boxes locked at the magazine on the surface as above described, and a further locked box of explosive was taken in at 10 p.m. by the night shift deputy. This last lot of explosive was used, when required, for blasting down the coal on the longwall face.

Busty Seam. – All shots in this seam in stone were fired between 4 p.m. and 4 a.m. There was no shot-firing in the coal at all.

Brockwell Seam. – The restrictions which existed with regard to the firing of shots in the Tilley Seam, also applied to this seam.

Briefly, all explosives were taken into the mine in boxes which were locked by the man who issued them from the magazine on the surface.

The deputies, who were appointed shot-firers, fired every shot. They, and they only, had keys for opening the boxes containing the explosives.

Detonators were issued to, and kept by, the deputies, in locked boxes.

All shots were fired electrically.

The explosives used were Monobel powder in the coal and Saxonite for bringing down the stone.