The Hartley Colliery Disaster was a disastrous

Disaster

A disaster is a natural or man-made hazard that has come to fruition, resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment...

 mining accident

Mining accident

A mining accident is an accident that occurs during the process of mining minerals.Thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially in the processes of coal mining and hard rock mining...

 in Northumberland

Northumberland

Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 in 1862 in which 220 lives were lost.

Cause

In an age when methane

Methane

Methane is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is the simplest alkane, the principal component of natural gas, and probably the most abundant organic compound on earth. The relative abundance of methane makes it an attractive fuel...

 or coal dust

Coal dust

Coal dust is a fine powdered form of coal, which is created by the crushing, grinding, or pulverizing of coal. Because of the brittle nature of coal, coal dust can be created during mining, transportation, or by mechanically handling coal.-Explosions:...

 and firedamp

Firedamp

Firedamp is a flammable gas found in coal mines. It is the name given to a number of flammable gases, especially methane. It is particularly commonly found in areas where the coal is bituminous...

 explosions were common, the tragedy at Hartley

New Hartley

New Hartley is a village in South East Northumberland, England, adjacent to Hartley, Seaton Delaval and Seaton Sluice. The village is just off the A190 road about north of Tynemouth and south of Blyth...

  Colliery, Northumberland

Northumberland

Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...

, England was different because it was caused by fracture of a steam engine

Steam engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...

 beam. The accident happened on 16 January 1862 when the huge beam used to de-water the mine suddenly broke, and one end plunged into the shaft of the pit. The colliery was worked by a single shaft, divided into two halves vertically by a brattice

Brattice

A brattice is a partition used in mining. It is built between columns of a sub-surface mine to direct air for ventilation. Depending on the type of mine and how the operation is run, brattices can be permanent or temporary . Temporary installations are also called curtains....

 consisting of a wooden, airtight partition so that ventilation

Ventilation (architecture)

Ventilating is the process of "changing" or replacing air in any space to provide high indoor air quality...

 air could be drawn down one side and exhaled up the other. When the broken half of the beam fell, it demolished the brattice, and created a pile of debris towards the base of the shaft. It entombed 204 men and boys, who could not be rescued, and so suffocated and died.

Metal fatigue and overload

The loss of life was extreme, even by Victorian era

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 coal mining

Coal mining

The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...

 standards, and remains one of the worst mining accidents in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The cause of the fracture in the beam was attributed at the time to overload from the pump rod system to which one end of the beam was attached. However, it was well known at the time that cast iron

Cast iron

Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...

 was susceptible to sudden brittle failure, often from internal defects like blowholes. Several are visible in the fracture surfaces shown in the engravings at right. It was also susceptible to metal fatigue

Metal Fatigue

Metal Fatigue , is a futuristic science fiction, real-time strategy computer game developed by Zono Incorporated and published by Psygnosis and TalonSoft .-Plot:...

where repeated loading was involved.

A further contributing factor may have been accidental impact damage to the beam when it fell from its supporting jacks during replacement of the main bearings only days before the accident.

The tragedy led to a change in the law, requiring all collieries be worked by two shafts.

Further reading

- contemporary news report and analysis - subsequent, more detailed analysis with diagram - report of the coroner's inquest

External links

• The Hartley Mining Disaster at BBC Legacies, Tyne
• Brief history of disaster Near-contemporary account published by T.Fordyce, 1867; at Durham Mining Museum
• Dreadful Colliery Accident in llustrated London News, Jan-Feb 1862 issues