DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70266#0050
36
kirby’s wonderful museum.
In the absence of horses, a number of men put their shoul-
ders to the starts or shafts of the gin, and wrought it with
astonishing expedition. By twelve o’clock, thirty-two per-
sons, all that survived this dreadful calamity, were brought
to day-light. The dead bodies of two boys, who were mi-
serably scorched and shattered, were also brought up at this
time ; three boys, out of the thirty-two who escaped alive,
died within a few hours after the accident. Only twenty
nine persons were, therefore, left to relate what they observ-
ed of the appearances and effects of this subterraneous thun-
dering : 121 were in the mine when it happened, and eigh-
ty-seven remained in the workings.
They who had their friends restored, hastened with them
from the dismal scene, and seemed for a while to suffer as
much from the excess of joy, as they had lately done from
grief; and they who were yet held in doubt concerning the
fate of their relations and friends, filled the air with shrieks
and bowlings ; went about wringing their hands, and threw
their bodies into the most frantic and extravagant gestures.
The persons who now remained in the mine, had all been
employed in the workings, to which the plane-board was the
general avenue, and as none had escaped by that way, the
apprehension for their safety began to strengthen every mo-
ment. Mr. Straker, Mr. Anderson, and some others, there-
fore descended the Jolin Pit, in expectation of meeting
with some of them alive. As the fire damp would have in-
stantly ignited at candles, they lighted their way by steel-
mills, small machines which give light, by turning a plain
thin cylinder of steel against a piece of flint.—Knowing that
a great number of the workmen would be at the crane when
the explosion happened, they attempted to reach it by the
plane-boards, but their progress was intercepted at the se-
cond pillar, by the prevalence of chcak-damp; the noxious
fluid filled the board between the roof and the thill; and the
sparks frgin the steel fell into it, like dark drops of blood
kirby’s wonderful museum.
In the absence of horses, a number of men put their shoul-
ders to the starts or shafts of the gin, and wrought it with
astonishing expedition. By twelve o’clock, thirty-two per-
sons, all that survived this dreadful calamity, were brought
to day-light. The dead bodies of two boys, who were mi-
serably scorched and shattered, were also brought up at this
time ; three boys, out of the thirty-two who escaped alive,
died within a few hours after the accident. Only twenty
nine persons were, therefore, left to relate what they observ-
ed of the appearances and effects of this subterraneous thun-
dering : 121 were in the mine when it happened, and eigh-
ty-seven remained in the workings.
They who had their friends restored, hastened with them
from the dismal scene, and seemed for a while to suffer as
much from the excess of joy, as they had lately done from
grief; and they who were yet held in doubt concerning the
fate of their relations and friends, filled the air with shrieks
and bowlings ; went about wringing their hands, and threw
their bodies into the most frantic and extravagant gestures.
The persons who now remained in the mine, had all been
employed in the workings, to which the plane-board was the
general avenue, and as none had escaped by that way, the
apprehension for their safety began to strengthen every mo-
ment. Mr. Straker, Mr. Anderson, and some others, there-
fore descended the Jolin Pit, in expectation of meeting
with some of them alive. As the fire damp would have in-
stantly ignited at candles, they lighted their way by steel-
mills, small machines which give light, by turning a plain
thin cylinder of steel against a piece of flint.—Knowing that
a great number of the workmen would be at the crane when
the explosion happened, they attempted to reach it by the
plane-boards, but their progress was intercepted at the se-
cond pillar, by the prevalence of chcak-damp; the noxious
fluid filled the board between the roof and the thill; and the
sparks frgin the steel fell into it, like dark drops of blood