A Grim Almanac of Shropshire by Samantha Lyon

Author:Samantha Lyon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780752489445
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2013-09-21T00:00:00+00:00

JULY

The graveyard located in Shrewsbury Abbey, which was rebuilt on the site of an old Saxon church. (Photo by Samantha Lyon)

1JULY 1899 William Knight (57), a sinker for the Wombridge Station Colliery, was working on this day and was instructed to reopen an old shaft. After doing so, he almost instantly collapsed and then perished. The cause of death was found to be suffocation due to chokedamp, a gas that is very often found when a coal mine is poorly ventilated or abandoned, such as this one was. Chokedamp happens because the coal is exposed to oxygen, which it absorbs, expelling carbon dioxide and water vapour as a reaction to this. Another factor that would have encouraged the chokedamp would have been the time of year: in July, the likelihood of hotter weather is increased, which causes the coal to produce even more carbon dioxide. Thousands of lives would have been saved in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had they the electronic gas detectors that miners make use of today.

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