| Disasters - Names |
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Disasters - Names | ||
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| Date: | 24th September 1897 |
| Colliery: | Eden |
| Cause: | In Shaft |
| Lives Lost: | 1 |
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| Description | |
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No. 416 on the list occurred at Eden Colliery, belonging to the Consett Iron Company, Limited, on September 24th, causing the death of an assistant engineer.
At this colliery there are two levels from which men ride and coals are drawn, one at the Hutton Seam at a depth of 20 fathoms, and the other at the Main Coal Seam at a depth of 26 fathoms from the surface ; there is therefore a difference of six fathoms or 36 feet between one hanging-on and the other.
Just before the accident occurred the on-setter was at the lower level and deceased was at the upper one, and shouted to him that he wanted to go to bank ; the on-setter then signalled for the cage to go to the Hutton Seam, and it was sent there; deceased got into it and shouted "Right." The on-setter then signalled for the cage to be taken to the surface and it started, but almost immediately deceased fell into the bottom of the shaft. The on-setter got him out, and he was taken home, where he died without ever being able to explain how the accident occurred.
On examination afterwards there was nothing wrong to be found with the cage, shaft, or means of signalling, but there was a mark on a baulk just at the top of the arching forming the opening into the Hutton Seam, as if something had caught it. It seems probable that after deceased got into the cage his feet had slipped, and he had fallen out of the cage and been caught between it and this baulk, and then when the cage had got past he had fallen into the bottom of the shaft. Since this accident an on-setter has been kept at both landings.
| Source: | 1897 Mines Inspectors Report (C 8819), Durham District (No. 4) by R. D. Bain, H.M. Inspector of Mines, from a copy held in the Scottish Mining Museum, Newtongrange, Midlothian. |
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| Fatalities | |
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Brown, William, aged 36, Assistant Enginewright, He got into cage at Hutton Seam, and after it had gone about 14 feet up the shaft he fell out and to the bottom of the shaft, a distance of 18 fathoms, and died within three hours. There was nothing wrong with the cage or shaft and he must either have slipped or taken a fit | |
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