The President said, the next subject was the reading of a paper by himself on the Hetton Explosion. He thought it desirable, as the subject was of very great importance, that the evidence given at the inquest bearing upon the cause of the accident and on the scientific enquiry should be given in full, and with the view of obtaining it as accurately as possible, he had got Mr. Maynard, the coroner, to give him a copy of the official minutes taken by himself at the inquest. The question was, whether these minutes should now be read. It had also been suggested that the evidence being very voluminous it might be undesirable to publish the whole, but that extracts might be given. On the other hand it was very desirable that all the facts should be before the public, and, therefore, there was some difficulty in abridging them. Some facts that might appear to some persons to be of no importance might be of importance to others. What he proposed was that Mr. Thos. John Taylor and himself should sit down and go through the whole of the evidence, and whilst they should make it as full as possible, they should, at the same time, strike out all extraneous matter, and so reduce it to moderate bounds. We could not take any general discussion of the paper to-day. It was a subject of great importance, and as it might be taken up at the meeting which it was intended to hold at Birmingham, it was desirable, in the first instance, to get in print the opinions of gentlemen who gave evidence at the inquest, the discussion could then be taken at the April or May adjourned meeting, and printed and circulated previous to the meeting at Birmingham, when the adjourned discussion might be taken. He (the President) after reading the paper, remarked that he had received a pamphlet published by the Manchester Geological Society, from which it appeared they had been discussing the subject at Manchester.

Mr. Bell said, if he was not out of order he would mention a circumstance which occurred to him after giving his evidence as to the cause of the accident. The difficulty they had in accounting for it was this; they attributed it to a coincidence of circumstances. But that was the thirty-fourth year in which the flue had been used, and there was the difficulty of specifying any reason why these same causes should not sooner have been coincidently brought together. In going into the flue, he had stated how he had found the damper. It was broken in two, one half was lying at the bottom, and the other was resting at the top, to which it had been drawn by the counterbalance. He could not help thinking that this damper had been in its place intact at the explosion, seeing that the explosion went through the furnace, and then blew down such inconsiderable work in front. Necessarily the first operation, as far as the timber was concerned, would have been to blow down this diaphragm. This was not the case. The timber was placed as if it had been cut in two by a millwright. After giving his evidence, amongst other gentlemen, Mr. Reid had sent him some facts which had taken place in boiler explosions under circumstances where no gas could have been brought into operation, because they were above ground. There were frequent explosions in boilers of a certain construction. In one case it killed the fireman. This always took place immediately after the fireman opened the door to fire again. Having these facts in view, his impression was, that the damper, being made of cast iron, cracked, and as soon as the top was relieved of the lower portion, which kept it in its place, it went to the top. Instantly a very great influx of air took place over the fire place. This mixed with the gas in the flue, probably took fire, and caused the explosion. If this were so, it accounted for the abnormal state of things which, probably, never took place before in the history of this flue — the cracking of the damper, and letting in a great quantity of air. Perhaps the gentlemen taking part in this discussion might take this as an addendum to the evidence he had already given. lie thought this would account for the explosion. He was quite of opinion that the quantity of gas and the conditions of the flue were such as would account for every appearance that was seen either by himself or others.

Mr. Reid said, the information he had given to Mr. Bell came from Mr. R. B. Longridge, of Manchester.

Mr. Atkinson — Mr. Longridge stated the same thing in the Manchester discussion.

Mr. Bell — Mr. Forster told me that one of the engineers who was down the colliery afterwards, said there were traces of an old crack across the damper.

The President — He never heard of that. We had the damper examined and we could not see that.

Mr. G. B. Forster said John Hedley, the engineer of South Hetton, had informed him of it.

The President — At the meeting at Manchester, at which Mr. Longridge was present, he said, "I know a similar case of an explosion that occurred with a multitubular boiler, and there was also a flue underneath the boiler, with a damper in front. The gentleman to whom the mill belonged went to the back end and opened the smoke-box door to show a friend how low the temperature was in the smoke-box, and while he was there the fireman, not knowing of his presence, threw on his coal as usual, and went to the next boiler; but observing that his damper, which worked on a swivel, had shut, and that the smoke and gas were coming out at the fire door, he stepped back and turned the damper to give the draught as usual." He then states, that an explosion took place which burnt both the gentlemen very severely. The Chairman asked him if these were the only instances he knew, and he replied, "I know another instance of an ordinary two-flue boiler; but then they were making use of sawdust as well, and the gas got mixed with it." At the next meeting, when we come to discuss the subject, any gentleman who has heard of any cases would, he trusted, bring them forward.

Mr. Atkinson — There was a case at Tursdale Colliery.

Mr. Cochrane said it blew away the front of the brick work. He would get the particulars.

Mr. Reid said, he had heard of one or two more in the Glasgow district.

The President said, Mr. Daglish had letters from various parties on the subject. If any gentleman would send him any facts he would incorporate them with the proceedings.