Gents Mag 1747 p.327

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	Gentleman's Magazine 1747 p.327 manner, it may be proper to publish the truth. - Some of the coal-pits near this town are probably the deepest of any in the world, and therefore subject to fire-damps; so that, if a great deal of foul or inflammable air, by neglect or mischance, is collected together under ground, and is set on fire, it goes off with a very great explosion, and does great damage to what it meets with in its way to vent itself at the pit's mouth. - Where the foul air is very strong, as it is often at the sinking of new pits, it is brought up in pipes along the sides of the pit into the open air, and a candle, or lighted paper, being put to the end of the pipe, it will break out into a flame, one or two feet in breadth, and several feet in height, more or less, according to the quantity of foul air that is vented, and will burn day and night for months and years. The flame of it may easily be seen at the Isle of Man, which is ten leagues off, and affords a better light to shipping than the light-house; and yet may be generally extinguished by laying a wet sail over it. - Sir James Lowther, to whom this colliery belongs, had thoughts of making a fire-engine with it, had there been occasion for one where it arises: it therefore may be esteemed one of the greatest natural curiosities which is any where to be met with † This colliery is the most curious and extensive in its kind; it hath been wrought above 100 years, and above a million sterling hath been expended in carrying it on; some parts of the works are carried under the sea, and are 200 yards deeper than the surface of the sea, which is probably nearer to the earth's center than any miners have penetrated in any other place. On the 6th of April last, by means of some defect in the partitions, or pipes to carry off the foul air, there happened a very great explosion, which beat down a good deal of the partitions, and some of the stops under ground, and a part of the coal took fire by the damp, which kept burning as it issued out of the crevices, and several other blasts or explosions happened for a day or two, but not so violent. For several days afterwards there was no explosion, nor any thing to be observed, but a little smoak and a sulphureous smell at one or two of the pits, till the 20th of April, when there were two more explosions, and two more on the 22d, some of which were so violent, the blast carried all that was loose before it, and threw up to the top of the pit, tho' 160 yards deep, a strong wooden stage, covered with earth, clay, stones, &c. and let down to stop the air going down the pit, and to resist a smaller explosion; since that day such methods have been taken, that there has been no explosion, and nothing to be observed at the top of the pit but a little smoak, and a sulphureous smell, so that there can be at worst but a small fire, if any, which there is little doubt will soon be extinguished. It has pleased God, this whole affair, which was set forth in so terrible a manner (see p.246 E) has not cost the life or limb of any one person.
	† This fire-damp, or thick mine air, may be contained in bladders, and has been sent in that manner to London, &c. It is a true kind of air, tho' inflammable, being a subtile and permanently elastic fluid, which is easily rarified by heat, and condensed by cold, as may be proved by holding a bladder not quite fill'd with it to the fire. By its elastic spring it also expands itself as soon as the pressure of the incumbent atmosphere is taken off; thus the bladders, which were not quite fill'd with it at the bottom of a deep pit, are violently distended when brought to the top in a lighter air. The same may be demonstrated by putting some of it in a bladder close tied, under the receiver of an air-pump, and exhausting some of the air contained in the receiver. In regard to its inflammability, contrary to gun-powder, it will not take fire at a red-hot iron, or at the sparks made by the collision of a flint and steel, but is readily kindled by a lighted candle, or any other flame; and if pressed out of a bladder thro' a pipe stopple, and so set on fire, it continues burning at the end of the stopple as long as it is pressed out. But if the flame of a candle be suddenly introduced into a bladder fill'd with it, so as to fire it all at once, it goes off with a considerable explosion like gun-powder; and thus resembles what the miners call a blast; which sometimes proves destructive to them, when a large quantity of this inflammable air is collected together in the mines, and there, by some accident, set on fire. ... ...
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