HEROIC MINER

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 65, 9 December 1937, Page 12

HEROIC MINER

Dangers of New Coal Seam WOMENFOLK NOT T0LD LONDON, Oct. 23. To open up a rich new coal seam, at Whitehaven, Cumberland, twenty miners faced death in gas-filled tunnels, their womenfolk kept in ignorance o£ what they were doing. After eighteen months of idleness, the Whitehaven pits were enabled by Lord Nuffield's £2,000,000 industrial trust to reopen this year. The new company formed to opeeate the pits knew at the outset that nnless fresh eources of coal were fonnd its futnre beyond ten years waa nncertain. Existing seams would then be exhausted. Now, as the result of the heroism of twenty miners, accese is possible to millions of tons of coal, Its existence was already, known, but also known was the faet that deadly gases and terrific heat had firet to be penetrated before a single ton of tho new eoal could be sent 000 feet to the surface, Pians were made for overeoming these obstacles. Apparatus in which men could live in the deadly atmosphere was devised. Could men be found to volunteer for the work? Despite a fearful record of death beneath an ocean bed, volunteero for the work were found, but it was decided to say little about what they were doing. Whitehaven women and the rest of the miners understood vaguely that the men were "on repai? work." A colliery official said; "The perilous nature of the work will be seen when I tell you that the men could work only for two hourg a day in thp actual danger atea and two hours on rehef duty just outside that area. "They worked in a temperature of betweea 90 degrees and 100 degrees. Eaeh man had tp endure for two houre the discomfprfc qf having hig nostrils plogged with cotton wool, and oaeh man's nose was for two hours tightly clarnpad as aa. additional precaution t« prevent hig inhaling the poisonons g?s, "Aia? ia eylinders was breathed Ikrpugh thp mputh. The area that We plannqd to develop ljes to thp west pf thp district wherp sp many pf our 1^4^ have been killed. Two roadways extending 800 yards and leading to It had been sealed np fpllpwing the last disaster, because of gas and heat. Theee roadways had to be won back Py^the introduetipn of ventilation. "Thp volunteers werp divided into four teams of flYe men. Each team apppipted a captain to take fPcisioas in the event of an acciaent."