William Cuthbert Blackett died on June 18th, 1935, at the age of 75.
He received his early education at Durham School, and thence removed to the Durham College of Physical Science (afterwards known as the Armstrong College, University of Durham) for technical study. On completing his course he worked in the fitting shops and drawing office of the Grange Iron Works, Durham, for about a year, and then was apprenticed to John Dalglish, mining engineer to a number of collieries in Durham, South Wales and Yorkshire, and served in a number of capacities such as surveyor, overman, mechanical engineer, and under manager. He headed the list of successful candidates in the examination for colliery managers’ certificates, and received his certificate of competency before he was 22 years of age, and at once entered into active management of collieries, including the Charlaw and Sacriston groups, with which he was associated during the period of his working life.
The explosion at Seaham Colliery in 1880 turned his attention to the subject of mine explosives, on which he became an expert, and thence he progressed to the design of rescue apparatus. He devised a liquid air apparatus which was adopted in a number of rescue stations, and apart from that he put his experience to such practical use that he was the recipient of a Royal Humane Society’s medal for personal rescue of a miner at Sacriston Colliery.
He invented a number of devices for use in mines, such as a new wire rope socket, a rotary tippler driven by frictional contact instead of by gearing, a cylindrical washer, and the ‘Blackett’ conveyor. His services and advice were constantly required by the Coal Owners’ Association, and particularly by the mine owners of County Durham, and in a wider field he was at the disposal of the Government for counsel with regard to new legislation and on advisory committees, chief of which, perhaps, was that formed to consider the cause and prevention of mine explosions.
Colonel Blackett was elected a Member of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers in 1876, and was President for the years 1912-14. He received the ‘G.C. Greenwell ’ medal in 1906, and in 1917 the Medal of the Institution of Mining Engineers, of which institution he was President in 1919-21. He was awarded the honorary degree of M.Sc. in 1914 by the University of Durham, the degree of LL.D. by the University of Birmingham, and was a Member of Council of the Armstrong College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
From 1880, when he joined the Northumberland Hussars, he was keenly interested in military matters, and held a commission in the Durham Light Infantry from 1896, with command of the 8th Battalion from 1912 to the outbreak of war, when, being medically unlit for service abroad, he relinquished the command and devoted himself to the enrolment of new battalion under the Derby Scheme, and other activities in connexion with the supply of troops for home and overseas service. On the other hand, he also gave valuable expert assistance in selecting the men who were recalled from the Front early in 1918 for work in coal mines. For his services he was awarded the (Military Division) and received the British War Medal.
Colonel Blackett was elected a Member of the Institution in 1916, and an Honorary Member in 1923.
Vol. 45, Trans I.M.M. 1935-36, pp. 507-8
