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An Account of a Dreadful Explosion which took place at the Downs Pit [Coal Mining Broadside].
Publisher: W. Boag, Newcastle upon Tyne;
Date of Publication: 1836
Stock Code: 5454
Broadside 348 x 163 mm. Single sheet printed on thin paper with headings in bold type, mounted on heavier paper. Printer’s name only partially printed & near illegible. Single fold near lower margin. Very faint foxing and finger-marking; a remarkable survival in very good condition. Offprint of the Newcastle Journal article of Saturday January 30th 1836. The Downs Pit at Hetton Colliery was the setting for an explosion on 28th January in which 16 men were killed and 5 more badly burned. The cause of the calamity was unknown to the author of the broadside but evidence at the subsequent coroner’s inquest suggested that the inattention of a trap-boy (controlling the current of air into the workings) was partly responsible, along with the miners’ preference for the use of candles for illumination rather than the safer Davy lamp. This was just one in a series of mining disasters of the age and the tone of the article is sympathetic to the plight of the pitmen working in dangerous conditions. £250.00