History of coal miners inventiveness in clothing their families. Mining has always been dangerous, because of methane gas explosions, roof cave-ins, and the difficulty of mines rescue. The worst single disaster in British coal mining history was at Senghenydd in the South Wales coalfield. On the morning of 14 October 1913 an explosion and subsequent fire killed 436 men and boys. It followed a series of many extensive Mining accidents such as The Oaks explosion of 1866 and the Hartley Colliery Disaster of 1862. Most of the explosions were caused by firedamp ignitions followed by coal dust explosions. Deaths were mainly caused by carbon
Lighting in libraries were too unstable; open flamed lighting was just too risky because of the fire implications. Books could not be near open flames, since one accident could destroy the whole building, and its collection. There was gaslight technology available, though, before electricity came around. It created light in dark spaces, but it was not a stable source. The issue of carbon dioxide poisoning, since its light was fed by natural gas to keep it running, was a huge problem. The issue of intoxication by gas, and the instability of the gas (which could result in explosions), led to the popularization of