SOUTH KELLOE. Kelloe, Durham. 20th. March, 1859.

The colliery was owned by Mr. R.W. Jackson and there had been another boiler explosion at the Kelloe Colliery which was about half a mile from the South Kelloe Colliery and owned by someone else, about six months previously. This boiler explosion claimed the lives of six people.

The colliery had eight cylindrical boilers with four at high pressure and four at low pressure which was all connected together by two distinct sets of pipes. Each of the boilers had two safety valves and two water gauges and there was also a gauge connected to them to show the pressure. The engine had been working for two hours before the disaster and had been at rest for a very short time and the floats and safety valves gad been examined only a short time before when they showed that there was enough water in the boilers and the valves were functioning and blowing off steam. The pressure gauges read 32 or 33 lbs. per square inch. The boiler that exploded had been fed about half an hour before the explosion.

The boiler had been examined by the colliery blacksmith three days before and he considered it to be in good working order. The boiler was working under its normal working conditions at the time of the accident. After the calamity, the fragments of the boiler was examined and were seen to be in good condition and not far off their original thickness. One of the plates of the boiler was found to be laminated as if made from two plates of metal. The edge of this laminating terminated at the inside of one of the rivet holes which further weakened the structure. The lamination extended over twenty inches of the plate and it was impossible to discover the flaw on inspection and could only have been seen by the removal of the inner plate.

Those who lost their lives were:

  • M. Brunskill, aged 37 years a trimmer,
  • Thomas Froud aged 20 years a fireman,
  • Joseph Welsh aged 16 years a fireman,
  • Thomas Jackson, a fireman,
  • Joseph Rees aged 35 years and not employed at the colliery.

 

REFERENCES
Mines Inspectors Report, 1859. Mr. John Atkinson.

Information supplied by Ian Winstanley and the Coal Mining History Resource Centre.

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