An explosion occurred on the morning of the 15th August in the Brockwell seam of the Brandon Colliery, belonging to Messrs. Strakers and Love, which caused the death of six men and injuries to four others.

It was evident that the explosion had originated in some "broken" or pillar workings about a mile and a half from the shaft, in a district known as the Jubilee way, but for some time it was doubtful what had caused it.

The colliery is worked with locked safety lamps, but does not give off much explosive gas, and there is a good ventilation ; the last recorded measurement, taken on August 8th, showing a total of 64,931 cubic feet in the Brockwell seam.

A considerable area, as will be seen on the accompanying plan, was affected by flame and heat, several of the props showing signs of charing and coking. There was nothing, however, to indicate distinctly from which direction the blast had come, as some timbers in close proximity to each other showed burning or coking on one side and others on the other.

A shot hole was eventually found in Broadbent's working place — No. 4 on the plan — having the stemming still in, but on inserting a pricker no explosive was found, and it was arranged to hew the stone down with a pick, with the result that the hole was found discoloured with powder and yielding a taste of saltpetre, compressed powder being the explosive then in use.

The hole was found to have been stemmed with small coal, but clay is provided and taken into the working places by the owners, so this can only be put down to pure carelessness on the part of the man himself, and it had no effect on the accident.

All the lamps but one were found locked, and with the exception of a broken glass in one, caused no doubt by the explosion, not seriously damaged. William Carr, the deputy, was the only man who was authorised to fire shots. He was found at No. 3 on plan, a considerable distance from the shot, with the top of his lamp properly screwed on, but the lamp was not locked, leading to the supposition that he had lighted the fuze and had time to retire to where he was found and screw on the top of his lamp before the explosion occurred ; and this being so, it would be impossible for him to have ignited some gas in front of the hole when lighting the shot, as was at one time conjectured.

On examining the old headway on the inside of the shot some gas was found, being given off either from the goaf close by or from the leader of a fault which there was some little distance in front, or from both places, and a closer investigation showed that there was a horizontal space where the stone had naturally settled or sconged which communicated with the back end of the shot hole ; this was also stained with powder smoke, and this, coupled with the fact that about seven inches of stemming remained in the front end of the hole, shows that the powder expended itself through the crack in the stone, and no doubt ignited some gas which was lying in the old headway beyond.

William Carr was the deputy overman in charge of the district. He went down that morning at about 2.45 to make the statutory examination before the men went in, and his report stated there was no gas. Whether he had neglected to examine on the in-bye side of the shot hole before firing, or whether the gas was forced out of the goaf by a fall, or other cause, after he had made an examination, will never be known, but that some gas was present seems not to be doubted.

There was not much dust, and practically no fine dust anywhere in the district, but notwithstanding that, some of the timber showed distinct signs of coking. The place where the shot was found was distinctly damp, and the stones immediately in front of the hole left your hand appreciably wet when passed over it.

With reference to this, theory was propounded that wet powder, if fired in the ordinary way, would fizzle off through the pricker hole and emit sufficient flame and sparks to ignite gas if any were to be given off after the squib was lit, and without blowing out all of the stemming.

By the courtesy of the manager, some experiments were tried in the Liverton Ironstone Mine in Yorkshire which entirely bore out the truth of this theory ; but for this to have been the cause of the explosion, it is necessary to assume a sudden influx of gas near the mouth of the hole after the squib was lit and within the 60 seconds which the squibs generally burn.

It is certainly possible, but from indications left on the stone at the back of the hole, I consider the most reasonable explanation is the firing of some gas in the old headway.

As the experiments referred to above are of some interest, I give the results of them.

A hole was drilled about two feet in the bottom of the seam of ironstone pointing towards the face, so that it could be watched without going out of the place. The powder was damped by being wrapped in some sacking and plunged into water for a short time so that it would just break when pressed between the fingers and thumb.

1st Shot. Two damp pellets of powder were put into the hole and stemmed fairly tight with coal, slightly damped, and fired with an ordinary squib. The powder was ignited, burnt and came through the pricker hole, giving off much flame and many sparks. A little of the stemming — about an inch — was blown from the front of the hole. The pricker hole in this instance was down to the bottom of the hole.

2nd Shot. Two damp pellets were put into the same hole and stemmed loosely with dry coal, the pricker only being put to the top of the charge. The first squib did not ignite the powder, a second one did, and the stemming was blown out, accompanied with much flame and sparks.

3rd Shot. Two pellets of damped powder were put into the same hole and stemmed with coal tighter than in the test shot ; the stemming was blown out with much flame and sparks.

4th Shot. Two damped pellets were put into the same hole and stemmed with ordinary mine stemming, consisting of small stone and the drillings from the hole, fairly tight, and fired as before with a squib ; about 14 inches of the stemming was blown out, and five inches left in the hole. The powder burned and came out through the pricker hole.

Roburite has now been substituted for compressed powder.

An inquest was opened by Mr. Coroner J. T. Proud, of Bishop Auckland, and adjourned until the 12th October, to suit the convenience of the persons interested, and to allow time for the injured persons to recover. At the adjourned inquiry Mr. J. Strachan, Q.C., represented the owners, Mr. I. Isaacs, of Sunderland, the Miners Union, and Mr. E. Bell, the Deputies’ Union ; Mr. John Wilson, M.P., Mr. Foreman, and Mr. Cann were present on behalf of the men. A considerable number of mining engineers were also present, as well as Mr. Plummer, Mr. Walker, and myself.

After an exhaustive hearing the jury returned the following verdict : That Griffiths and Murphy came to their deaths by the force of the explosion, and the other died from pneumonia contracted from the burns caused by the explosion ; the explosion having been caused by natural gas ignited by a flame passing from the shot hole into the old headways course, and that the explosion was purely accidental.