A mine cage was supposed to carry workers safely down into the darkness and back again, but when something went wrong, it could become a falling trap.
In 1902, nine union miners at the Heidelburg colliery in Pittston, Pennsylvania, were badly injured after the engineer operating the hoist lost control while lowering their cage.
According to the report, the cage dropped several hundred feet, while another carriage attached to the same cable shot upward with terrifying speed toward the hoisting room.
Then the accident grew even worse. The steam cylinders exploded, tearing through the engine room and wrecking the hoist. In a grim twist, that destruction may have saved the men from an even more terrible death by stopping the plunging cage before it could fall farther.
The blast, escaping steam, and chaos sent other miners rushing out of a nearby shaft in panic. By the time the danger had passed, nine men were injured, the hoist was wrecked, and the engineer had vanished.
Nine Hurt in a Mine
PITTSTON, Pennsylvania. — In the Heidelburg colliery in Pittston this morning, nine union men were seriously injured through the engineer becoming panic stricken.
The engineer, who was a non-union man, lost control of his engine in lowering the cage which contained the unfortunate miners and it dropped several hundred feet.
The carriage in the adjoining shaft, with several men inside, controlled by the same cable, was shot up into the fly wheel hoisting room with frightful rapidity.
To add to the horror of the situation, the steam cylinders exploded with terrific violence and, tearing away the engine room, wrecked the hoist, the rapidly falling cage being thus stopped and its occupants saved from a frightful death. As it was, all were injured by the terrific concussion.
The escaping steam and the noise of the explosion caused a panic among the miners generally and they streamed out of another shaft badly frightened.
The engineer disappeared.
Source: The Spokane Press. Spokane, Wash. November 10, 1902.
