APPENDIX.
No. I.
To Messrs. THOS. FENWICK, GEO. JOHNSON, NICHOLAS WOOD, MATTS. DUNN, JOHN FORSTER, and THOMAS MORRISS.
GENTLEMEN,
I have to request, on the part of the Owners of this Colliery, that you will be so good as to examine the plan of the Workings of the Bensham Seam, and investigate the system which has been pursued for ventilating the same, to enable you to pronounce an opinion as to its adequacy, so far as depends on ventilation for the safe working of the Colliery.
You will also please to inquire into the nature of the mine, as to the heavy and regular discharge of inflammable air, to which it is subject, and more especially as to the sudden bags or bursts of that element, which are incidental to the working of the Bensham Seam, and, finally, you are requested to investigate every circumstance relating to the unhappy catastrophe of yesterday, and to state your opinion, without reserve, as to its probable cause, and also the measures you would recommend to be pursued for recovering the dead bodies of the sufferers.
In pursuance of the annexed request of Mr. Buddle, we, the undersigned, have examined the Wallsend Colliery plan, and have heard the statements of Mr. Buddle and Mr. Atkinson, as to the system of ventilating the colliery, which was pursued previous
to the accident; the system that had been practised appears to us to have been to convey all the air from the pillar workings into pipe drifts, and from thence up the shafts without passing on the furnace; and that the air from the workings in the whole mine only, passed over the furnace; this system of ventilation, in our opinion, is very proper and judicious, and well calculated, under all circumstances, to effect the desired object.
We have also ascertained that the working places were frequently rendered dangerous by the sudden eruption of gas, both from the coal and stone, and also from the pillar working.
