Having begun using compressed air drills at the end of January 1870 (with
black powder) and experimenting with gun-cotton, the miners at Sir Francis
Level in Swaledale, Yorkshire, began using dynamite in March 1873.
I also have, but cannot put my hands on it, a reference to an accident at
one of the mines on Greenhow Hill in the late 1870s or early 1880s. In that
case the miner, who had been warming the dynamite on a shovel over a fire
(instead of using the 'kettle' supplied for the purpose), was blown up and
seriously hurt.
Mike Gill
A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man (J. Springfield, c1796).
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