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Full Details

Surname
DINNING
Forename
Joseph
Day
19
Month
06
Year
1907
Age
52
Occupation
Stoneman
Mine/Quarry Name
West Wylam
Mineral Worked
Coal
Owner
Mickley Coal Co. Ltd
Location
West Wylam
County
Northumberland
Details of Event
Deceased, who was rather near sighted, had broken up into the roof of a coal seam 3 feet 3 inches thick, so as to make a road above the coal into an adjacent shaft. During the previous shift he had fired a hole inclining upwards at an angle of 45 degrees and he continued what was left of this hole, charged it with probably about 14 inches of compressed gunpowder and stemmed it with pigged sagre clay brought from the surface, using a pricker, as although he had fuse with him he preferred using a squib. A putter had left him when he was nearly ready to fire and was only 7 yards away when the shot exploded and killed deceased on the spot, but the putter could not say what deceased was actually doing at the time. Possibly in drawing the pricker some grains of powder had trickled forward and caused the premature ignition on deceased holding the candle to the squib or more probably owing to the inclined position of the squib he had ignited the powder in it when intending only to light the sulphur end. It would have been safer to use fuse under the circumstances. The Local Inspectors reported ‘In our opinion found it to be a pure accident.