II Description of the South Plane District
It is with this district that my Inquiry was almost entirely concerned, as the explosion, which originated in the East side thereof, was limited in its effects to this district.
The position of the district in respect of the rest of the mine is shown in small scale plan (Fig.1).
The district may be described as dry and moderately dusty. The coal was filled into tubs at the face with shovels (not forks as is common in some collieries in South Yorkshire) so that there would not be more fine coal or dust at the face than, is usual at collieries in the neighbourhood and rather less than at some.
The endless rope worked as far inbye as the 14# level (see Fig. 2) the haulage along the 14 level for a distance of about 150 yards being by tail rope attached to the endless rope by means of a clip. Beyond this point the haulage was carried on by horses, each horse drawing tubs which when full contained about ten cwts. of coal to the tub; that is to say, the coal was hauled by horses along 19`s cross-gate on the bottom of l9´s landing, and for 200 yards of 14´s level the haulage to and from the coal face was by means of ponies.
It will be seen that the volume of air entering the south district was 21,661 cubic feet per minute; about half of which quantity went along the 14 level to ventilate the district in which the explosions happened, returning by way of 33 level, which crosses the south plane at a point about 967 yards from the shaft, the other half going into the straight on portion of the south district to ventilate the workings there.
The south district had not a long life before it, for to the south it was not far from the boundary between Cadeby Main and Dalton Main Collieries (see Fig, l),_and·to the east it was approaching the pillar of coal which has to ‘be left to support the Dearne Valley Railway Viaduct. It will be noticed also that a fault, coursing roughly north and south, and with an up-throw to the east of from 4 feet 6 inches to 5 feet, cuts off the workings at the northern extremity of the eastern portion of the district, that the tract for coal, being worked in the eastern portion of the district was a` strip between 7 ´s and_13l´s gates (stalls) and that the continuity of this coal face was broken by a fault between 12´s and 14´s gates, coursing roughly at right angles to the fault already mentioned. This fault has a down throw from the south of about 6 feet. Parallel to this is a third fault, cutting the face at l`31´s and also down-throwing from the south about 5 feet.
* The difference in the number of persons underground in this shift as between the two days is accounted ‘for by the fact that H.M. the King visited the neighbourhood on the 8th and 9th, and many workpeople made it an occasion for a holiday in consequence;
» As throughout this report constant reference is made to the roads and parts of the mine by means of numbers, it is advisable that I should explain that such is the means of identification adopted in this part of the coalfield, the numbers being the numbers used by the workmen working in that particular part of the mine. _ Sometimes the same number will be used twice–in deferent parts of _the mine-thus, old 7´s and new 7´s–the prefix” old ” signifying that the old road is finished i.e., work , is no longer being carried on therein