Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/99

Rh ACCIDENTS-, i C A L underground hand was about 243 tons for the former and about 600 tons for the latter. The larger comparative yield in lignite mines is due to the fact that a very large proportion are worked as quarries. The annual production of coal throughout the world may be roughly estimated at about 260 millions of tons for 1874, which quantity includes about 17 million tons of lignite and coal from formations newer than the coal measures in Europe. Nearly one-half of the total is raised in the United Kingdom, the approximate quantities of the different countries being as follows : Tons. United Kingdom 125,000,000 United States of America 48,000,000 Germany 35,000,000 Lignite, 9,000,000 Belgium 17,000,000 France 17,500,000 320,000 Austria 4,700,000 ,, 5,700,000 New South Wales 1,300,000 Russia 1,000,000 Spain India Smaller European States. British North America. . . Chili Other Australian Colonies 30,000 50,000 750,000 700,000 125,000 105,000 750,000 200,000 50,000 There is no trustworthy information as to the produce of China and Japan, but these probably do not exceed 100,000 tons. In the larger coal-producing European countries the output was very high in 1873, the following year having shown a slight falling off, but in America the annual increase was maintained. According to the official mineral statistics, the produce of coal in the United Kingdom for the years 1873, 1874, 1875, classified according to districts, was as shown in the following table, from which it will be seen that the check in 187^ was followed by great increase of production in 1875 : 1873. 1874. 1875. N Durham Tons. Tons. ( 6,180,000 Tons, Northumberland Cumberland 1 12,204,340 1,747,064 1,102.267, 12,640,789 1,226,737 Westmoreland 1,972 1,200 S. Durham 17,436,045 17,900,250 19,456,534 Yorkshire 15,311,778 14,812,515 15,425,278 Derbyshire ( 7,150,570 7,091,325 Nottinghamshire Leicestershire 11,568,000 ) 3,127,750 ) 1,100,465 3,250,000 1,154,619 Warwickshire 851,500 799,750 S. Staffordshire Worcestershire 8,389,343 9,251,791 Shropshire 1,570,000 1,187,950 1,229,785 N. Staffordshire Cheshire 3,892,019 1,150,500 4,313,096 615,105 4,496,213 658,945 N. and E. Lancashire W Lancashire 9,560,000 7,500,000 8,095,570 7,442,950 8,825,798 8,250,246 N. Wales 2,450,000 2,425,300 2,337,308 Gloucestershire ( 1,147,272 1,273,080 Somersetshire . ( 1,858,540 ( 609,684 654,878 Monmouthshire . 4,500,000 5,038,820 3,525,975 S.Wales 9,841,523 10,184,885 10,632,597 Scotland E. 10,142,039 10,182,326 11,419,619 Do. W 6,715,733 6, 606, y 35 7,177,888 Ireland 103,435 139,213 127,750 Total 127,016,747 125,067,916 131,908,105 Amount exported, including coke and patent fuel 12,748,390 14,045,325 14,544,916 Leaving for home ) consumption .. .. ) 115,268,357 111,022,591 117,363,189 Value at pit s mouth. . 47,629,787 45,848,194 43,969,370 The quantities of coal consumed by the different branches of manufacturing industry as well as for lighting, heating, and other purposes, was investigated by the Royal Com mission on Coal, from vol. iii. of whose Report, published in 1 870, the following summary is taken. The figures refer to the year 1869. Tons. Total quantity of coal raised 107,427,537 Do. exported 9,775,470 Leaving for home consumption 97,652,087 1. Coal used for iron manufacture ...., 32,446,606 2. Do. producing power and general manufacturing purposes. . . 26, 327, 21 3 3. Do. domestic purposes 18,481,527 4. Do. gas and water supply 7,811,980 5. Do. mines and collieries 7,225,423 6. Do. steam navigation 3,277,562 7. Do. railways 2,027,500 8. Do. smelting metals other than iron 859,231 9. Do. miscellaneous purposes 195,045 97,e;52 z OS7 The above quantities may be proportionally classified as follows : Mineral and metallurgical industries (1, 5, 8) 44 percent. Domestic consumption, including gas and water (3, 4) 26 ,, General manufacturing purposes (2) 25 ,, Locomotion by sea and land (6, 7) 5 ,, 100 Coal-mining is unfortunately a dangerous occupation, Accidents, more than a thousand deaths from accident being reported annually by the inspectors of mines as occurring in the collieries of the United Kingdom. The following table shows the number of lives lost during the last five years, classified according to the inspectors returns : Year. Explo sions of fire-damp. Falls of ground. Other under ground acci dents. Accidents in shafts. Accidents at sur face. Total. 1871 269 435 176 123 72 1075 1872 154 456 217 155 78 1060 1873 100 491 221 171 86 1069 1874 166 413 214 154 109 1056 1875 288 458 227 172 99 1244 The principal sources of danger to the collier, as dis tinguished from other miners, are explosion of fire-damp and falls of roof in getting coal, these together make up about 70 per cent, of the whole number of deaths. It will be seen that the former class of accidents, though attended with great loss of life at one time, are le.ss fatal than the latter. The great increase in the deaths from explosion in 1875, over the preceding year, is to be attributed to the Swaithe Main explosion at Barnsley on December 6th, when 143 lives were lost. The following return expresses the relation between the fatal accidents and the total number of miners employed, and the amount of coal raised for each death. The latter quantities are in some degree conjectural, being dependent upon estimated returns of produce, and are probably some what too large. Tear. 1 death for 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 345 miners employed 394 479 ,, 510 430 109,246 tons coal raised 116,409 133,667 ,, ,, 133,251 ,, ,, 118,730 ,, ,, In Prussia, in the year 1874, there were 484 deaths from accidents, which corresponds to about three deaths per thousand hands employed, or, according to the above
 * 6,463,550
 * 9,463,539