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Disasters - Names | ||
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| Date: | 24th April 1856 |
| Colliery: | Kibblesworth |
| Cause: | Boiler explosion |
| Lives Lost: | 2 |
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| Description | |
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On the 24th of April, a boiler explosion occurred at Kibblesworth Colliery, whereby one person was killed, and another afterwards died of his wounds. In this case five boilers were connected together, each boiler having a steam safety valve and ordinary float apparatus; an uniform steam pipe and water-feed pipe, with branches to each boiler, supplied the steam and water, each branch being furnished with a screw valve, by which means the attendant could regulate the feed according to the requirement exhibited by the safety valve and the float apparatus; it being perfectly understood, that when one boiler was feeding, the valves belonging to the other should remain shut, in order to avoid the very common and dangerous circumstance of one boiler discharging its water into its neighbouring boiler, which is technically called "priming".
In this case the evidence bore strongly upon the boiler being in a very proper state a short time previous to the explosion, but that the attendant was in the act of working the valve at the period of the explosion, and from the condition of the valve, it was concluded that two of them must have been open at the same time; also that, as each boiler was furnished with one water float without any glass tube or gauge cocks, the float might have stuck fast, and so misled the engineman as to the state of his boilers.
The result of the investigation was to cause duplicate steam valves and floats to be adopted, whilst I circulated some instructions regarding the dealing with boilers suddenly discovered to be in a dangerous state.
| Source: | 1856 Mines Inspectors Report |
See also: A1856-51
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| Fatalities | |
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