While the tallow dip used as an illuminant below ground is not yet extinct, the safety lamp is all but supreme. In 1910 there were 705,482 of these in use, including 2,055 electric portable lamps. The total number of safety lamps in use in 1919 was 833,880 and of these 197,722 were electric lamps. In 1920 the number of electric lamps in use had risen to 245,900. The caution which necessarily marks the extended use of electricity below ground for lighting and power-is less observable in the increased use of portable electric lamps, but there are limits to the universal use of electric lamps in mines where the risk of finding gas is great.
Accidents, Safety Measures and Health. The usefulness of governmental control of industry is exemplified to an exceptional degree by the notable reduction which has taken place in the number of fatalities and injuries to the workers at coal-mines. In the years 1851-60, the earliest for which complete information is available, the number of deaths from accidents at coal-mines was 4-07 per 1,000 persons employed per annum, while during the years 1910-20 the number reported was only 1-27 per 1 ,000 persons per annum. In the United States 3-40 deaths per 1,000 persons employed occurred through accidents at coal-mines during the years 1910-9, or nearly three times as many as in the United Kingdom.
The period from 1910 opened with a series of disasters, two of which were exceptionally severe. The principal disasters occurring in the years 1910-20 include the following:
Name and Situation of Pit
Number of Lives Lost
1910 1910 1912
1913
1918
Wellington Pit, Whitehaven Colliery, Cumberland ..... No. 3 Bank Pit, Hulton Colliery, Lan- cashire (Pretoria Pit) .... Cadeby Main Colliery, Conisborough, Yorkshire Sengheneydd Colliery, near Caerphilly, Glamorgan Minnie Pit, Podmore Hall Colliery, Newcastle, Staffs. ...
136 344 88
440 155
The Royal Commission on Mines, which was appointed in 1906, dealt exhaustively with the health and safety of miners and the administration of the Mines Act. The chief recommendations of the Commission related to the augmentation of the staff of mines in- spectors; alteration of the system of inspection and the appoint- ment of practical miners on the inspectorate; fixing of responsibility upon owners and their agents; qualification by examination or experience of firemen and deputies; greater regularity and frequency of inspections; a higher standard of ventilation; investigation of the methods of minimizing the quantity of coal-dust in mines; precau- tions to be adopted in shot-firing; rules for the proper testing and use of safety lamps; effective timbering of mines; regular medical inspection of winding enginemen; organization of rescue stations and the provision of rescue appliances; provision for pit-head baths and dressing-rooms; and the accurate keeping of colliery plans. Practical effect has now been given to the majority of these recom- mendations, which were embodied in the Coal Mines Act, 1911. This Act consolidated and codified the law in regard to safety at coal- mines and was at the time of its promulgation the most detailed of any form of Government regulation of industry.
The most notable additions made in the decade to the provisions for the safety of mine workers were the organization of measures for effecting rescues from accidents below ground due to gas, fire or ex- plosions, which was brought into operation in 1910, and the intro- duction of preventive measures against explosions of coal-dust.
Fairly complete arrangements had by 1921 been made for the organization and^training of rescue brigades and the provision of appliances at mines. At the end of 1919 there were 49 central rescue stations each with its trained rescue brigade, a minimum provision of breathing apparatus and other appliances, and able to supply the oxygen or liquid gas required for the use of the former. These stations provided the rescue service for 610 mines, or groups of mines, and there were in addition 553 mines or mine groups at which 1 ,263 rescue brigades were maintained with A suitable propor- tion of breathing apparatus and appliances. These brigades are recruited from the mine workers and each consists of five or six men who are required to qualify by prescribed courses of training and practice, to be familiar with mine plans, the use and construction of breathing apparatus and skilled in the detection of poisonous or inflammable gases.
Following upon the recommendation made by the Royal Com- mission on Mines, experimental work with regard to the origin of coal-dust explosions in mines and the measures to be taken for their prevention was carried out at Altofts in Yorkshire by the Mining Association of Great Britain, the mine-owners' organization. In 1911 the Home Secretary appointed a committee of experts to control and direct an experimental inquiry at Eskmeale, near Barrow-in- Furness, in continuation of this work.
The main conclusions arrived at as a result of these experiments were that by stone-dusting or by watering mines, or by a combination of both methods', the risk from- explosions would be very greatly
minimized, if not prevented, and a preliminary communication in this sense was sent to colliery owners in 1912. Owing to the war, statutory effect was not given to the recommendations of the Home Office Committee until July 1920.
The number of deaths and injuries to persons caused by accidents at all mines of coal, stratified ironstone, shale and fireclay in the years 1910, 1913 and 1920, distinguishing the place and cause of injury or death, is shown below. Injuries involving an absence from work for less than seven days are not recorded :
Cause of Death or Injury
1910
1913-
1920
NUMBER OF P Below ground Explosions of firedamp Falls of ground .... Shaft accidents .... Haulage accidents Other accidents
Total : Below ground
Surface On railways, sidings or tram- ways Elsewhere on surface
Total: Surface . . . .
Total : Below and above ground
Per 1,000 persons employed Excluding deaths due to ex- plosions of firedamp .
ERSONS KILLED
501 462 636 620 89 98 286 251 i 10 149
26
544 40
237 118
1,622
1,580
965
7i
82
81 92
54 84
153
173
138.
i,775
i,753
1,103
1-69
I-IO
i-55 1-04
0-88 0-85
NUMBER OF P Below ground Explosions of firedamp Falls of ground .... Shaft accidents .... Haulage accidents Other accidents
Total : Below ground
Surface On railways, sidings or tram- ways Elsewhere on surface
Total: Surface . . . . Total : Below and above ground
Per 1,000 persons employed
Number of persons employed 1 : Below ground Above ground .
Total ....
ERSONS INJURED
167 131 55,967 62,094 851 825 47,o83 43-993 43,063 56,441
105
4L358 486 28,937 35,844
I47,i3i
163,484
106,730
4,315 7,596
4,102
9,603
2,946 7,626
11,911
13,705
10,572
159,042
177,189
117,302
152
156
94
848,381 201,026
909,834
218,056
990,359 257-865
1,049,407
1,127,890
1,248,224
The accident experience at coal-mines in the years 1919 and 1920 is similar and differs widely from that of 1910 and 1913 whether the disastrous explosions of the earlier years are included or not. Having regard to the exceptional conditions of the industry in 1919 and 1920, however, it would be premature to conclude that a permanent reduction of the magnitude indicated by the figures above had taken pla-e in the number of deaths and injuries caused by accidents.
The staff of inspectors in 1921 numbered 81, or twice as many as in 1910; but greater regularity and frequency of inspection would appear to be a less adequate explanation of the diminished number of accidents than the growing self-consciousness of the workers as a class. This growth is the outcome of the improvement in the general standard of education, and it has been stimulated by the measure of responsibility with which certain classes of workers have been invested since the year 1910. Indications of this may be seen in the partial satisfaction of the demand for the appointment of practical miners as inspectors, in the number of apprentices, work- men and colliery officials who obtain certificates of competency each year as managers and under-managers of mines, and in the provision made in the Coal Mines Act, 1911, for the certification of firemen, examiners, and deputies. Altogether 115,000 candidates had up to
1 Including persons employed at stratified ironstone, shale and fireclay mines.
