v_charneau
Registered: December 2004
Posts: 4,164
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No. 571 —37.9 x 54.0 cm. Watercolour and Ink.
What the text says:
Flood in the colliery
Whenever a flooding disaster happens, the old wisdom said that the deserted drives collapsed.
No matter what the size of the mine, water is always an issue in coal mines, partly because they
pierce the old mine drives that are flooded with water.
Miners dug into the water table. When breaking into the water source with a pickaxe water would
start flowing from the point of impact. If the pick was left in the hole it had made there was a
chance to escape, if only a small amount of water flowed out. If the wall was thin, it could not
sustain the water pressure and miners rarely had a chance to evacuate the area before the wall
burst. In the case of large water sources, blasting with dynamite could break a two metre thick wall, and an instant flood could occur. Such an outburst could be very strong, breaking the timber mine props and killing many miners.
Text upper left: Article 395 in Mining Act tried to regulate to reduce the risk, but the exact location of the water sources was unclear. When no Cap Lamp was available, darkness occupied
the drives.
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