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Improvements in ventilation and safety.
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With the firing of shots in coal mines came a new hazard: exploding coal dust.
Disaster followed disaster; in a two year period 600 men were killed in Tyne and Wear. In 1812 at Felling Colliery 92 men were killed; something had to be done.
The Sunderland Society was formed for the sole purpose of finding a remedy. It appealed to Sir Humphrey Davy for help and within a year he had produced a lamp which he and others who believed in it took underground to prove to the miners that it could be used in a fiery pit without igniting the gas.
"It is", he said "the best thing I ever did".
A local magistrate however commented "I have always been of the opinion that although Davies lamp was a valuable invention it has in practice been much abused for it has enabled colliers to work where they otherwise should not".
The only safety is a perfect ventilation.
Fire baskets were the first means of ventilation.
They were lowered down a shaft (the upcast shaft) and as hot air rises caused the air in that shaft to rise and in doing so drew air down the second shaft (the downcast shaft) and so to circulate throughout the workings.
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These firebuckets were later replaced by huge furnaces located at the bottom of the upcast shaft and were in use until the coming of mechanical fans.
As the mines became bigger working faces only were supplied with a flow of air but this left large parts of the mine unventilated causing them to fill up with large pockets of dangerous gas. Then with the use of ventilation doors and brick stoppings the air was made to circulate the whole of the mine but in doing so it became highly charged with gas and it would often explode when it reached the shaft furnace.
A remedy for this danger was to divide the mine into a greater number of independent systems of ventilation so arranged that each wagon road formed part of an air course. At last the safety of the men who won the coal was slowly catching up with other advances. Below ground ventilation became better and safety lights were improved but travelling in the shaft was still terrifying and dangerous.
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In Scotland women still climbed over one hundred feet using ladders.
Men descended clinging to ropes like a living chandelier but guide rails brought greater safety and two shafts became the rule.
For the next 50 years invention followed invention all adding to safety in the shaft.
The 19th century drew to an end with the steam engine still supreme.
In the year 1900, 225 million tons of coal were won by a million workers although they still used their hands and simple tools but they were still working in good seams and now the good seams were beginning to run out. Horses were no longer adequate, steam engines were immobile and compressed air had seemed to be the only answer.
Then electricity entered the mine lighting faces and promising a means of cutting the coal.
Engineers had already invented machines to do this all they were waiting for was an energy to drive them.
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