DOBSON ENQUIRY.

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 July 1927, Page 6

DOBSON ENQUIRY.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—Will you allow me space to reply to Mr Kennedy’s letter. He must admit that a greater force was generated in the Dobson Mine, than what arrived at the intake or the upcast. He admits that when an explosion takes place, that its force must fly to the least resistance, then its least resistance was the upcast, because it would have the pull of the fan in its favour, while it would have the resistance of the motive column against it in the intake so that the greatest force must have arrived at the upcast, while a diminished force arrived at the intake. Now, where that force was generated in the Dobson Mine, whether in the rise or dip workings, it would have to pass those men that were found alive with a greater force than that arrived at the two outlets. Now. it arrived at the mouth of the mine aftei’ passing through a stone drive over twenty chains in length, with sufficient force to hurl trucks and other materials from ten to twelve chains and two or three chains at right angles to the mouth of the mine, that would have killed any one if they had come in contact with same. According to Mr Kennedy’s theory, it would have been safer in some parts of the mine, when the explosion occurred, than to have been ten or twelve chains away from the mouth of the mine, where that material landed, as I can assure him if he had been standing in the blackberry bushes along the railway line where that truck landed, or where the body of the truck was lying along side of Dobson monument, he would not be theorising on coal dust. Now, the condition of the Brunner Mine after the explosion showed that the force was diminishing before it arrived at the top of the dip. as there was greater damage done in the workings below, than was done on top of the dip, which would be the reverse, if the coal dust theory holds good. The goof is working above the top of the dip and the return runs parallel with the intake to the mouth of the mine, a few yards apart and is about forty chains long. The blow-out shot is very common, and a daily occurrence in any mine, where a numbei* of shots are fired, and is of little importance until a disaster occurs, when it assumes a different aspect altogether, and is with the coal dust theory, a very important factor in evidence adduced by the coal mine experts at these Commissions. Now they ar.e two handy theories to have when a disaster occurs for they are very elastic theories, for no matter what condition a mine is after an explosion, these coal mine experts seem to fit them in somewhere, for they are so keen on this coal dust theory. To show how keen some of them are one said he knew that the Brunner disaster was a coal dust explosion caused by a blown out shot, before he left Westport, and according to the conditions of working places in the mine after the explosion. Ido not think that a shot was fired in that mine on the morning of the disaster. — Yours etc.,

J. WARD,

Ahaura.