1839 — March 18, Black Heath Coal Mine Methane Gas Explosion, ~Richmond, VA –40-53
–53 National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOCH, CDC). Mining Disasters.
–53 Taylor, Statistics of Coal, 2nd. Ed., 1855, p. 293.
–53 Ulery. Explosion Hazards From Methane Emissions…Geological Features…Coal Mines. 2
–53 WV Dept. of Mines. Annual Report… for the Year Ending June 30, 1910. 1911, p. 36.
–40 Barrett. “Retrospect: We’ve Come a Long Way.” MESA. 1976, p. 15.
–40 Fay. Coal-Mine Fatalities in the US 1870-1914 (Bulletin 115, DOI), 1916, p. 69.
–40 Genius of Liberty, Leesburg, VA. “The Late Explosion Near Richmond,” 3-30-1839, p. 3.
Narrative Information
Barrett: “Richmond, Virginia suffered the first coal mine fatality, the first explosion and the first major disaster in a coal mine in this country. The disaster occurred in 1839 and caused the death of 40 miners.” (Barrett. “Retrospect: We’ve Come a Long Way.” MESA. 1976, p. 15.)
Taylor: “…an explosion of fire damp occurred in March, 1839, in which 53 lives, mostly colored, were lost out of a total number of 56 persons who were in the mine at the time. The shaft of the mine, it is stated, was 700 ft. deep.” (Taylor, Statistics of Coal, 2nd. Ed., 1855, p. 293.)
Ulery: “…an explosion of methane gas killed 53 miners. The explosion was described as follows: “Nearly all the internal works of the mine were blown to atoms. Such was the force of the explosion, that a basket then descending, containing three men was blown nearly one hundred feet in the air” [Humphrey 1960]. (Ulery 2008, p. 2)
Newspaper
March 19: “Richmond, (Va.) March 19. A disastrous explosion took place in the coal mine of the Black Heath Company, in Chesterfield yesterday morning. From a note sent to the President of the Company, we learn that between fifty and sixty of the hands and two overseers had descended the shaft previous to the explosion, and that three others, who were about to descend, were killed. The last accounts from the scene state that northing certain was known of the fate of those below. The damage sustained by the company must be very great. — Enquirer.” (Genius of Liberty, Leesburg, VA. [Black Heath Coal Mine Explosion] 3-23-1839, p. 2.)
March 30: “The Black Heath Coal Mine, worked by ‘the Black Heath Coal Company,’ is one of the richest and most extensive in this country. It is twelve miles from Richmond, in nearly a western direction, and is situated in the midst of bituminous coal fields of unknown extent. The shaft from which the explosion of Monday took place has not been long sunk, and, we believe, is the deepest in the Union, being more than 700 feet to its bottom. Upwards of ten million bushels of coal had been explored in the pit reached by it; and none can conjecture how much more a further exploration would discover.
“The steam engines and apparatus for hoisting coal from this shaft ere excellent; and the system and facility with which the hoisting process was conducted, produced an average of about two thousand five hundred bushels of coal per day. It is to be regretted that these operations have been interrupted — throwing so much weight in the scale of our productions, and aiding essentially to increase our capital and commercial strength as they did — and this regret is added to by the afflicting event which has caused the interruption. However, the intelligent and active men who are superintending the mine say that it will be reclaimed in a short time.
“The explosion was one of a most violent nature. How it happened there is no telling. But that it occurred from neglect or disregard of positive orders and regulations of the pit, is beyond all doubt. The drifts and ‘air coasts’ (passages for the air from chamber to chamber) were so arranged as to keep up constant ventilation. It is the general opinion that one of the doors of the air coasts must have been closed, and that thus the ‘inflammable gas’[1] accumulated on Sunday to such as extent as to produce the explosion soon after the laborers entered the pit on Monday morning. Sir Humphrey Davy’s safety lamp[2] was regularly used in the mine, and no doubt is entertained but that it was used on Monday morning. It was commonly carried forward to test the presence of the gas. It may have been out of order; if a slight rent should have been in its wire gauze covering, it would readily ignite the gas. Other lamps were used, and one of these may have been taken into a chamber or drift where the safety lamp had not been presented. Either of these causes would have involved carelessness. The density and inflammability of the gas might have caused the wire to have become oxidated, and fall to pieces; but that could not have occurred till after indication, by flame inside the gauze, of a danger, in the face of which it would have been madness in the laborers to remain. Whatever may have been the immediate cause, the arrangements and rules of the pit, drawn from the lights of science and experience in mining, were such as to have ensured safety, if properly attended to. But, would it not be well, in order to diminish the chances of danger from even carelessness itself, to use Davy’s lamp exclusively, in all pits where there has been any exhibition of carbureted hydrogen on ‘inflammable has?’
“One of the superintendents of the operations in the pit, who was below when the explosion took place, was a man of great skill in his profession, having been many years engaged in it in some of the most famous of the English mines. He was a Scotchman, named John Rynard. It is hard to account how he should have permitted the cause of the occurrence; but even in the midst of an effort to correct the omission or neglect of Saturday night, the explosion may have taken place.
“Mr. John Hancock, a native of Chesterfield, of respectable family, was the other unfortunate superintendent.
“The laborers were all colored men. The superintendents above the shaft say that about forty were below. They cannot speak with certainty. — Many had gone to see their wives to distant plantations, and it was not known how many had returned. Those who had not do not yet appear, from terror at the news of the explosion; but forty is the maximum.
“The explosion was so powerful as to blow pieces of timber out of the shaft to a distance of a hundred yards from it. Three men were blown up it in a coal hamper to a height of some thirty or forty feet above its top; two of them fell out of the hamper, in different directions, and were immediately killed — the third remained in it and fell with it, escaping most miraculously with his life, having both legs broken. He is now doing very well.
“Much loose coal was blown from the drifts to the bottom of the shaft, and four of the bodies, as we have already stated, were taken from beneath a large bulk there, in a mutilated state. Four were taken out shortly after the explosion on Monday, one of whom died. The othrs are in a fair way to recover.
“Every exertion has been made which could be made consistently, with safety, to rescue the unfortunate beings. It appeared, upon going down the shaft, that much carbonic acid gas (the product of combustions) was present. This is called at the mines ‘black damp,’ and, though not inflammable, is destructive to human life. This, then, had first to be dispersed. The partitions, too, in the shaft, necessary for the ingress and egress of air in the pit, were much torn to pieces by the explosion, and had to be repaired as the shaft was descended, or death would have resulted to those who went down.
“In our mines, no explosion of any extent has ever occurred from the ignition of inflammable gas. Such are as certainly to be guarded against as the bursting of steam-boilers. Let safeguards in each are as simple as effective. [?]
“Let the unfortunate event which has just occurred be a lesson and warning, as we are sure it will be; and, if possible, cause a more constant and rigid observance of the rules which science and experience have pointed out as the sure and unerring guaranties of safety. — Compiler.[3]” (Genius of Liberty, Leesburg, VA. “The Late Explosion Near Richmond,” 3-30-1839, p. 3.)
Sources
Barrett, Robert. “Retrospect: We’ve Come a Long Way.” MESA (Magazine of Mining Health and Safety). 1976, pp. 12-22. Accessed 5-12-2010 at: https://arlweb.msha.gov/FocusOn/40thAnniversary/MESAArticle.pdf
Fay, Albert H. (Compiler). Coal Mine Fatalities in the United States 1870-1914 (Bulletin 115). Washington, DC: Bureau of Mines, Department of the Interior, 1916. Digitized by Google. Accessed at: https://books.google.com/books?id=R38fAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Genius of Liberty, Leesburg, VA. [Black Heath Coal Mine Explosion] 3-23-1839, p. 2. Accessed 9-3-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/leesburg-genius-of-liberty-mar-23-1839-p-2/
Genius of Liberty, Leesburg, VA. “The Late Explosion Near Richmond,” 3-30-1839, p. 3. Accessed 9-3-2018 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/leesburg-genius-of-liberty-mar-30-1839-p-3/
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Mining Safety and Health Research.. Mining Disasters (Incidents with 5 or more Fatalities). NIOSH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2-26-2013 update. Accessed at: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/statistics/disall.htm
and http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/statistics/content/allminingdisasters.html
Taylor, Richard Cowling. Statistics of Coal: Including Mineral Bituminous Substances Employed in Arts and Manufactures… (2nd Ed.). Philadelphia: J. W. Moore, 1855. Google preview accessed 9-3-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=F90nAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Ulery, James P. Explosion Hazards From Methane Emissions Related to Geological Features in Coal Mines (Information Circular 9503). Pittsburgh: Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Pittsburgh Research Laboratory, April, 2008, 24 pages. Accessed at: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/pubs/pdfs/2008-123.pdf
West Virginia Department of Mines. [Twenty-Eighth] Annual Report of the Department of Mines for the Year Ending June 30, 1910, West Virginia, U.S.A. Charleston: News-Mail Co., 1911. Google Digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=2I4lAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Wikipedia. “Davy lamp,” 6-22-2018 edit. Accessed 9-3-2018 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_lamp
[1] Today the word would be flammable.
[2] “The Davy lamp is a safety lamp for use in flammable atmospheres, invented in 1815 by Sir Humphry Davy. It consists of a wick lamp with the flame enclosed inside a mesh screen. It was created for use in coal mines, to reduce the danger of explosions due to the presence of methane and other flammable gases, called firedamp or minedamp.” (Wikipedia. “Davy lamp,” 6-22-2018 edit.)
[3] This is probably a reference to an article in the Richmond Compiler.