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Full Details

Surname
RATCLIFFE
Forename
George
Day
15
Month
09
Year
1929
Age
Occupation
Repairer
Mine/Quarry Name
Bedlay
Mineral Worked
Coal
Owner
William Baird & Co. Ltd
Location
Glenboig
County
Lanarkshire
Details of Event
Information from the Inspectors of Mines - 1929: Suffocation by natural gases: At Bedlay Colliery, Lanark, a repairer, unknown to the fireman, entered a short steeply rising place which was up over a fault, and was temporarily unventilated, due to the removal of a ventilating screen while some plant was being moved. He carried an electric safety lamp, but had no means for detecting firedamp and, when his head got amongst gas, he was suffocated. This accident adds one more to the yearly list of those which seem fated to occur before men will learn the limitations of electric lamps as they are now made. In other respects I do not say a word against the use of these lamps; on the contrary, I wish many more of them were in the hands of the workmen.