On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
THE CAUSES AND PREVENTION OF .('OAJ.-J.UT EXPLOSIONS.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
[ Ladies we think , would do well to remember that human nature at the best is made of poor , weak stuff , and that it is foolish , nay worse , cruel and wicked , to . make . that hard life more ascetic rind unnatural than it need fairly be . You hired a servant for service , and here you are enforcing- slavery , not quite in the Bkownkigge way , ifc is true , for that way has its penalties , but still often harshly , capriciouslv , unfeelingly , hardly , tyrannously ; and then , forsooth , you Wonder that the creature ' is soruthtess , unprincipled , and selfish as to crack a tumbler , burn ; a muffin , send the beef up raw , of'boil the fish to a rag . ,. i . [ Master
The remedy for this social evil is not easily to be found . and servant get'further apart than -they used to do . A great social Atlantic rolls between the parlour and kitchen doors , and kindness is the onlv spell . tli ' at can be found to dry it up . When servants were treated as foster-children-of the . house , they loved as children ; now that they are treated like enemies , they act like enemies . It is sad to see ' the city man . sn . ub ' bhiu- the poor tradesman ,. and the " swell" snubbing both , sowing-, the seeds for a thorny crop of hatreds and sot-iaf jealousies ; but the suspicion and dislike growing up daily between master mid servant is more dangerous and painful still . Tbero must be . confidence and mutual , forbearance ; or our ' servants will grow still more like Arabs , both as to their love lor change and plunder , than they are even now . _ servants ist
One of the most frequent complaints . against , hat they are generally found incapable of discharging : the duties -they have undertaken to perform '; that , in tact , they ; tre mere uneducated labourers , not worth their wages .. ¦ ¦ Well ,, indeed , if they are . not also , in addition , idle , vicious , bad tempered , or drunken . - If there is any more , truth in this complaint now than there- was thirty years ago , we imagine it arises from the simple law of markets . An insufficient ' . --supply has forced , inadequate competitors to obtain situations , " who , years ago , would have . married . , labourers and stave . l . at . home in their villages . There is such a- demand for servants that . there is .. ' nothing- , to hinder the capricious from changing at their own wild will their line of employment . The good-cook , misled by a miserable ambition caricaturing that of onr nice and . age , ¦ 'becomes a clumsy lady ' s-maid ; ¦ tlie neat , nurse girl becomes a slovenly cook ; and , so abundant , are situations , that such foolish ambitions often escape their natural retributions . '
Much more might be done to secure the elnciencyot servants . Every national school in England should have a class of'intended servants , who should be trained specially for domestic duties ; and there isne reason why the kitchens of workhouses ¦ slipUhl not be a training . school for the more steady and inTclligent of the -pauper ; girls , who , on . leaving-, mig-bt be presented with testimonials of efficiency , which might bo useful in obtaining them situations . There , is also great room " for an elementary - training 1 school f : nservants- of sill kinds , vvhp , on passing ' , successfully through certain examinations , might be registered as A . 1 . for any applicant who sought for . the " n ' i ' ; and to obtain those certificates , which would ensure good and lasting employi . neut and high wages , there might be a system of short apprenticeship with families , who for low wages would consent to the arrangements on condition of raising the pay to
the ordinary level , when the girl could take her b . a . or il . A . degreoin domestic labour . What we want . is some proof less painful and expensive than experience , that the servant we are engaging to cook oun really cook , has been taught to cook , / and understands the why and wherefore , just as we are able to Hud out that swaggering Captain KoirxCKU is really in the army , or that our Family Doctor has passed the College of Siir # opns- and is a lawful practitioner . If we can sj'et also a proof of . skill and worth all the better ; as for the present system of characters they are worse than useless . Ag"irl branded as bad , as si thief , and u drunkard , goes onobtaiiiingexcelleut places ^ —one every three months—by either a forged character or a testimonial obturned from ' her first place . What we w « nt is a servants' training school ; for we have all found by this time to our cost , that the dntie $ of domestic service avo not to bo learnt by mere instinct .
Untitled Article
rrurE terrible explosion in liurruclon pit has occasioned greater J . interest than moat preceding- explosions , and a very influential mooting has been -held at Newcastle , during which' 2 M > . Pattinson , a , gentleman of high chemical reputation , has attributed this iiud similar cutastrophea to the inadequate provisions of the coal-owners and managers . This charge has . been-on many occasions boldly niiulo and strongly denied . Tho public cannot judge at aU upon this matter , as they know nothing- of the eausos of thoso fearful catastrophoa . Wo shall endeavour , in a brief sp ' nco , to put our roadora in the possession of suoh flwts as may enable thorn to form an impartial opinion on the anbjeot . It may bo as well to observe in starting 1 , that wo apeak from local knowledge of the Northern
coal-fields , and from personal exnimnatu . n of the c 6 al-pits , while wo avo so circumstanced as to Jbo entirely . uninfluenced by Miy motivo besides that of anxiety to make known the truth . We might-apeak in technical and scientific hmg-uftg / o , but we prefer to adopt the- most popular stylo of whieli the topic admits . A largo north or England coal-pit is a very onerous charge . Its financial management is somewhat laborious j its scientific management < sfcill more ao ; and tho moral responsibility of ensuring 1 its safety ia of more moment than both finance and seioneo . All this rests primarily upon tho viatwr , us the lioad iniui of the manng'Omonfc ia locally termed . Tho bend-viewer is generally a man of much mining pxporience , and some scientific acquaintance with
Untitled Article
eminent , he may have the charge of two , three , or four collieries ; and it is evident that , in such cases , he must perform much of- his work by deputy . His chief deputy is hia underviewer , who should reside at the mine of which he is-in charge- ; and nearly every , mine has such a resident officer , who is in fact , though not in name , the manager of the mine . Under him are overmen , deputies , w astern en , lamp-keepers , and several subordinates , all of whom have to report to and take orders from the resident viewer , or underviewer , who is to them all that the colonel is to his regiment in the army . The financial department is commonly in charge of another person , who has clerks at his bidding in an adjacent office .
A viewer ' s or underviewev ' s business is not difficult in some mines ; very arduous in others . This arises from the circumstance that some mines are " fiery , " and others less or scarcely at all so . In . the latter cases the management is mere routine _ work ; in the former it has to deal with far more unmanageable things than stone and coal beds , or than even crotchety and discontented workpeopleviz ., the dangerous gases which exude from the coal . A man who has to keep a-perpetual watch for " firedamp" must always sleep , as the snyintr is . with one eye open ; for his enemy is never totally destroy e < C but only defeated , and kept back by the constant agency of ' -superior force . In fact , fire damp in a fiery pit is much in the condition of the Roman people at llome—Icept down by the French troops , bat ever ready to spring up in ruthless attack nt the moinarch and les
ment when the French soldiers away . Home Napare the Italian counterparts of Newcastle fiery pits . Ui-ic ' easing vigilance and unfailing : eounterfbrces alone can prevent an c . Nphision in all . Chemically , the fire damp is light carbureted hydrogen g-as , and is akin to the . heavier gas of the same nature / which , is il is tilled from coal ih our '' gasometers , and burnt in our streets and public places . The explosions which sometimes happen in shop *; cellars ,, and confined places , in consequence of an escape of gas , are not far different from those of which we tire now speaking . Very much the sai ' ne-insidious enemy has to be dealt \ Vith in the shop or cellar as in the coal pit . The latter is a natural gasometer , rn whicli . nature is herself . perpetually distilling fiery g ; is ; so that in a-very slu-r . t ppace of time the long -and lvunitrpus passages of . an extensive pit become charged with fire damp , and as the pitman says , . " . fouled " throughout .
Notwithstanding researches , into the natural condition of this , gas ( they have not been many or extended ) in the . coal strata , it . is impossible to . say -in what form it really- exists there . Certain it is , that some seattts of coal are filled with it to excess , and-wo ourselves have stood-by portions of coal whence it wns heard to issue with a low hissing or seething . noi § e . It-is probable-that it exists in these seams in a high state of tension , and that the operations of the coal hewer , by diminishing' the pressure upon it , and removing- the strata that cover it , give it a freedom which oftentimes proves fatal to himself or . his fellows . The old story in the " Arabian Nights , " respecting the lisherinan who set at liberty the //< •¦>// , or spirit of ' the sealed caslcet , is realized iu the mines of the- north . Unhappily , the spirits of the coal pit are always noxious and malevolent . 1
One of the . most striking' proofs of the power of this . jvn . s . npart from an esplo > i . ,. , that on certain occasions and in certain pits , it comes forth in the form of "blowers . " A blower seems to bo occasioned by the sudden escape of carburetted hydrog-en in a ltiryer qu .-intity than usual ., in consequence of its liberation b y falls-of : roof or removal of matter . What the blowing-oil' steam from a locomotive is at a railway station , a yas blower seems , to be iu a pit . It is a turji of tlio natural valve-handle in the shape of the movement of a mass of stone or coal . Such is the tension of the gas in its orig inal reservoir , ' and such its force iu issue , that great blocks of stone or shale have sometimes been thrown off violently to a distance ; and in one-instancetwo or three tons of matter were thus hurled forth into
, the gallery of the mine . The outburst of a blower is one oi' the most dangerous of all pit changes , as the issup of gas is fiu- too rapid and too ample I'ov dilution in tho ordinary manner . To this cause many of the fatal explosions in the northern pits are attributed . A fall from the roof is namod at Burradou pit-The amount of fire dtunp exuding 1 . by ordinary processes is generally capable of being neutralized by a jhio admixture with atmor spheric nil 1 . Certain proportions of firo dump and common air arc explosive upon the contact of Hume , and certain others are not . These proportions arc known , and the aim of managers is to secure these commixtures by aa efficient system of ventilation . Nowhere
has ventilation been so systematically practised as in the Newcastle coal pjtH , Though formerly . very much inflected and ill umlei'stood , itiluw , within the last twenty or thirty . yours , been greatly improved . The system proceeds upon tlie simple principle of the dilt'crenee betweon two columns of air In two jiepamto shafts of a mine , one ol > v ) rich columns is at its ordinary-temperature , and tho other at a higher'temperature . Manifestly tho warmer of tho two columns , or shafts , will draw to itself the colder nii ? , and thus cause ventilation , justna tho chimney of our parlours being hottor than the doorway , draws to itself air from tho latter . The larger our parlour fire , the grantor the amount of air it sinks in towards itself , and the increase
greater the draft of tho chimney , So m tho coal pit , to the upward draft an immense lire is kindled nt the bottom of the upward ( called the " upcast" ) shaft , and tho interior of that shaft becomes so - rarefied that it acts as a large ohinwoy to the whole interior , while the other ( called " tho downcast" ) shaft Jictn as the doorway to lot in air . IS the tomporature in tho up « u » t shaft be from forty to eighty degrees , we can toll what tho amount of the doscondin ' ff and ascending 1 current of air will be , So fur all ia simple , n » d t . hn , nit-. n miirhfc bo easily ventilated .
Untitled Article
252 The Leader mid Saturday Analyst . [ March 17 , I 860 .
The Causes And Prevention Of .('Oaj.-J.Ut Explosions.
THE CAUSES AND PREVENTION OF . ( 'OAj " -J . MT EXPLOSIONS .
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), March 17, 1860, page 252, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2338/page/8/
-