Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	5th August 1883
Colliery:	Gillhead
Cause:	Explosion of boiler
Lives Lost:	1

No. 37 in list. This was a vertical boiler with three Galloway tubes in fire-box. It was six years old, but had only worked about 18 months during that period. When made it was tested to 120 lbs. per square inch, and the usual pressure at the time of the explosion was about 40 lbs. per square inch. It had all necessary fittings, and all appeared to be in good order. Several witnesses spoke to a sufficiency of water having been shown by the gauge glass immediately before the explosion, and the plates in no place indicated any over-heating.

The deceased man had been firing "hard" just previous to the explosion. There was not any corrosion of plates visible at the fracture, and altogether the boiler appeared to be a good one, and quite capable of bearing the pressure at which it was working. The fracture was in the fire-box, about 3½ inches long, and a "bulging" about 9 inches in diameter. From all the evidence I could obtain I was unable to satisfy myself as to the cause of the explosion.

Source:

1883 Mines Inspectors Report (C 4078)

	Nixon, Joseph, aged 25, Engineman, explosion of steam boiler
	All names found

 

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