CORRESPONDENCE.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1850, 27 June 1874, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

PREVENTION OP MINE ACCIDENTS. To the Editor ol tho Thames Advertiser. Sib, —Seeing of late the number of accidents from falling away off stages in shafts, I have often wondered that the mine mauagers have never asked for a preventive. I know nothing of the fixing or finishing] of shafts, I beg to say before starting, but I think if we (at sea) can save life through a few preventors, surely our mine managers may try the same, A plan such as I humbly suggest to them can be carried out in such a way that the workmen may work with a greater degree of confidence than they do at present. It is this, that a net (not a pilchard net) be made the size of the shaft, of either log, lead, whale, flambro, or rattling stuff, with a mesh say of six to nine inches. This not could bo roped with any size rope. (I am told that at every set of timbers are a set of bolts, I presume at the four cornors of the shaft.) This net could be worked to those bolts at such a depth below the men as not to interfere with any work they may bo doing, yet, at the same time, will give them confidence, knowing that at a safe distance below them is a preventor to a tumble into death. Mauy might say it will interfere with the working of the shaft; I say no. If men are working where their lives are in danger, it is timo for others working in the same shaft to stop, if, as may happen, it interferes with cage work. Should the bolts be of sufficient strength, I would safely guarantee that a big lump of wood or iron, falling. from a height, would make a passage for itself, and yet leave but a small hole for a man to get through; and I will undertake to say that a weight of half a ton falling flat on the net would be effectually stopped, and end on would only break a few meshes, through which a man, unless stunned, could not pass, If he had any senses left-, the first thing he touched, like a.drowning man, he could and would cling to, and what so easy as a netP Again, it might be said, " But we have pump columns (or any other sort of columns) down our shaft, how then ?" Fit your net to your shaft If one piece will not do, make it so that it can be lacjcl together easily. All I say is, do ething to keep us from these friguti'ul accidents which might, with care be avoided. In my humble opinion, there is too much rush and hurry in carrying out work here—too little eare of life. People seem to be somewhat of the same opinion asa Dutch boatswain I was once shipmates with; when a countryman of his was killed by a fall from aloft, his expression was, " That there vas plenty more Dutchmens in Holland,"—l am, &c., .8. L. Milieu.