Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 21 May 1921

Goldthorpe Deputies Death

Adjourned Inquest at Mexborough

the adjourned inquest on George Briggs (54), a colliery deputy, of 87, Barnsley Rd, Goldthorpe, who died in the Montagu Hospital on April 13, following burns and other injuries sustained in the Hickleton Main Pit on March 31, as a result of a safety lamp becoming ignited was held on Friday.

At the opening of the inquest in a full 15, evidence was given by the lamp room charge man Amos, and by two witnesses present at the time of the accident. Deceased, it appeared, carried a deputies oil lamp, ascended a ladder that had been made in a newly made drift, and encountered a pocket of gas, the lamp becoming ignited.

The inquest was adjourned for the purpose of receiving a report from a Government lamp testing station.

Doctor R.V. Wheeler attend on Friday, and reported upon an examination he had made of the lamp. He had discovered five defects as follows:

(1) A faulty seat for the air admission ring due to the oil vessel having received a severe blow on the side.

(2) absence of cemented washer – a technical defect

(3) absence of strands in the inner gauze

(4) cover of magnetic lock prevented oil vessel screen home properly and

(5) spring ring absent above the glass.

Numbers one and four together would have rendered the lamp safe.

Doctor Wheeler said he had tested the lamp in explosive mixture of firedamp and air, and in the rich mixture of from 15 to 16% firedamp he obtained an explosion. In his opinion the damage to the gauze and to the all vessel must have been obvious, and should have been detected by a competent examiner. The damage to the latter could not have been done while the lamp was assembled.

Answering Mr R Slater, Doctor Wheeler said that it was possible for the strands in the goals to become part of my heat after the lamp had been assembled.

In summing up the evidence, the coroner (Mr Frank Allen) said that the defects of the inner gauze was in itself a serious thing and might have caused an accident at anything occurred in the outer walls. There were two very obvious defects in the lamp, and it was for the jury to consider whether they were defects that the lamp room charge man ought to have noticed before the lamp left his possession. The jury considered that these defects should be apparent before the lamp left the charge, and there was no excuse for the charge men, whose position was a very responsible one, and whose duty was to see that all lamps left his charge in perfect condition.

After a consultation in private, the jury returned a verdict of “Accidental death,” and exonerated the charge man from all blame.

A vote of sympathy was passed with the widow and relatives of the deceased man, and the motion Mr J Minikin, Mr Claytor, and Mr M L Noakes and the Coroner associating themselves with the motion.