Now! Then! Sheffield miners are reminded of the dangers of working without one of Humphrey Davy’s new safety lamps

1 July 1822: Sheffield miners are reminded of the dangers of working without one of Humphrey Davy’s new safety lamps

Leeds Mercury. 1822/07/06. Dreadful Accident at the Intake Colliery, near Sheffield. Leeds. Get it:

Excerpt

At an early hour on Monday morning, a most fatal accident, occasioned by the firedamp, took place at the colliery of Messrs. Newboulds, about three miles from the town of Sheffield. Ten of the workmen descended the pit, where the destructive gas accumulated, about one o’clock in the morning, with a lighted candle, which ignited the vapour, and the whole blew up with a tremendous explosion. The fatal result was, that five of the men were instantly killed, and three others so dreadfully burnt and mutilated that their recovery is deemed hopeless. Two out of the ten escaped with little injury. The mangled bodies of three of the unhappy victims remained among the burning rubbish the whole of Monday and part of next day. What renders this event more truly calamitous, most of the poor sufferers have left large families; it is impossible to give an adequate idea of the distress of the women and children, and indeed of the whole neighbourhood where the misfortune occurred. It is strange, so frequently as accidents happen, that colliers will thus expose their lives by descending into foul pits with a naked candle, instead of using Sir Humphry Davy’s Safety Lamp. The pit where the present accident occurred had been suspected for more than a month.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.
Abbreviations:

ER: East Riding
GM: Greater Manchester
NR: North Riding
NY: North Yorkshire
SY: South Yorkshire
WR: West Riding
WY: West Yorkshire

Comment

Joseph Stanley comments:

The main cause of explosions in Yorkshire collieries was naked flames meeting firedamp. This danger was peculiar to coal mines: there was no explosive gas in Cornish tin and copper mines. Before the miners went to work they would lower a lighted candle into the shaft to explode the firedamp that had accumulated. Colliers worked with naked lights before the introduction of the Davy Lamp. This often let to explosions. For instance, seven men were burnt in an explosion of firedamp at Middleton Colliery in 1806. In 1808 George Hague, Thomas Hague, John Jarvis and William Firth were killed by firedamp in a pit at Kimberworth. It was reported in the Gentleman’s Magazine that ‘[t]he two former were father and son; and were found fast locked in each other’s arms’. The earliest reference to the use of the Davy Lamps in Yorkshire was in March 1817 when they were introduced at Rothwell Haigh Colliery. Their use, however, did not take off possibly because miners had to purchase them out of their wages. In 1818 the Leeds Intelligencer lamented that ‘[s]everal colliers, at Beeston Park Side, near this place, have been much injured by the fire damp’. ‘[I]t seems’, they continued ‘unaccountable that miners cannot be induced to use the Safety Lamp!’. In 1822 a firedamp explosion at Newbould’s Intake Colliery near Sheffield killed five men. The Leeds Mercury lamented the frequency of firedamp explosions and questioned why ‘colliers will thus expose their lives by descending into foul pits with a naked candle, instead of using Sir Humphrey Davy’s Safety Lamp’. The Sheffield Iris also stated that safety lamps were ‘seldom used’ at the pit. Candles were cheaper and emitted a brighter light than safety lamps. Even when lamps were used colliers would often remove the gauze to light their pipes. They often brought tobacco and matches into the pit to smoke underground. Only at Earl Fitzwilliam’s pits were colliers provided with safety lamps. (Stanley 2020)

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Original

Dreadful Accident at the Intake Colliery, near Sheffield. At an early hour on Monday morning, a most fatal accident, occasioned by the fire-damp, took place at the colliery of Messrs. Newbolds, about three miles from the town of Sheffield. Ten of the workmen descended the pit, where the destructive gas accumulated, about one o’clock in the morning, with a lighted candle, which ignited the vapour, and the whole blew up with a tremendous explosion. The fatal result was, that five of the men were instantly killed, and three others so dreadfully burnt and mutilated that their recovery is deemed hopeless. Two out of the ten escaped with little injury. The mangled bodies of three of the unhappy victims remained among the burning rubbish the whole of Monday and part of next day. What renders this event more truly calamitous, most of the poor sufferers have left large families; it is impossible to give an adequate idea of the distress of the women and children, and indeed of the whole neighbourhood where the misfortune occurred.-It is strange, so frequently as accidents happen, that colliers will thus expose their lives by descending into foul pits with a naked candle, instead of using Sir Humphry Davy’s Safety Lamp. The pit where the present accident occurred had been suspected for more than a month.

225 words.