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	Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	10th November 1860
Colliery:	Hurlford
Company:	Allan, Gilmour, and Co.
Cause:	Cage accident
Lives Lost:	1
Category:

No. 39. Shaft Accident.

The deceased was a young boy about 12 years of age, son of the under ground oversman. He had not been forward at the pit to be lowered to his work with the rest of the workmen on the morning of the accident, and after the "cleek" had commenced, he had got into an empty hutch on the cage to be lowered to the bottom.

It was known to the engineman and others that the boy had gone on to the cage in the "rise" division of the shaft. An upper seam of coal is worked from this division, and when the cage is required to be rested at that level it is the practice to signal to the surface, and the person making the signal closes the "folding boards" or "shuts" for the cage to rest upon.

A young lad about 17 years of age was engaged in this seam on the morning of the accident ; he had signalled to the surface for the cage to be lowered to that level, and accordingly the engineman did stop the cage at that seam. The deceased was sitting in the hutch upon the cage, but as the cage was rested at the "mid-working," according to the signals given, the lad stationed there commenced to take it off, and while he was in the act of doing so the engineman raised the cage, which first canted the hutch, and afterwards allowed it to pass under and down the shaft, a distance of 30 fathoms.

The suggestion made regarding accident No. 26 is equally applicable in this case.

Source: 1860 Mines Inspectors Report, by William Alexander, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 143

	Strachan, Peter, aged 12, Boy, Was thrown out of the cage by the engine raising it unexpectedly
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