Single Record

Full Details

Surname

ORKNEY

Forename

Thomas

Day

04

Month

11

Year

1907

Age

46

Occupation

Hewer

Mine/Quarry Name

Morpeth Moor Pit

Mineral Worked

Coal

Owner

Wansbeck Colliery Co. Ltd

Location

Morpeth

County

Northumberland

Details of Event

Deceased worked with a naked light in a bord or stall 6 yards wide in the Bandy seam. There was a rib of coal on one side of the place and a small hitch on the other; it had advanced 14 yards and canvas brattice cloth was led into it for a distance of 5 yards. It was practically the last working place in this seam, in this working of which a good deal of gunpowder is used, and as there was only one current of air it received all the powder smoke from this other places as well as what was produced in itself. The workings are wet. A current of air amounting to 9,310 cubic feet per minute when measured on the 14th October circulated in this seam, induced by a Waddle fans recently erected on the surface, and if properly conducted to the faces should have been sufficient, as the workings were comparatively limited in area. Deceased wasworking in this fore shift and when his marrow came to relieve him about 10am he was ill and said he had been trying to vomit. He was put in a tub and taken to the shaft and then home where his died about 11.10am.in. His marrow returned to the face and finished his shift in an adjoining place. The under-manager had been in the place at 9.10am and he stated at the inquest that the ventilation was then good although deceased complained to him of the powder smoke. Deceased was then stemming a shot which he said contained ¼lb. of gunpowder and this shot he had fired earlier in the shift his had also fired a shot. The deputy had reported this ventilation as satisfactory. This manager was in the place an hour or two after deceased bad left it and be stated at this inquest that be found the ventilation all right. There had been some complaint made as to the air before November 4. A doctor by the Coroner’s order made a post-mortem examination and stated at the inquest that he found all the organs healthy except some adherence of the lungs due to former attacks of pleurisy; he found the blood, both venous and arterial, very fluid and of a bright cherry red colour which his attributed to carbonic oxide poisoning. He further stated that deceased had a fourth lobe to the right lung which was very unusual and which would improve his breathing. When Mr. Nicholson inspected this place the day after the death his found a very feeble current of air but it was not in an unworkable state. The Local Inspectors reported ‘Found wind slack, plenty of canvas and a proper road in and out for wind.’ The Jury found that death was caused by inhaling carbonic oxide gas through want of proper ventilation.