The Twin Shaft disaster occurred in the Newton Coal Company's Twin Shaft

Colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extra ...

Pittston Pittston is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city lies in the Wyoming Valley on the east side of the Susquehanna River and on the south side of the Lackawanna River. It is approximately midway between Wilkes-Barre, Pen ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, United States, on June 28, 1896, when a massive

cave-in A cave-in is a collapse of a geologic formation, mine or structure which may occur during mining, tunneling, or steep-walled excavation such as trenching. Geologic structures prone to spontaneous cave-ins include alvar, tsingy and other ...

killed fifty-eight miners.

Disaster

At 3:00 in the morning on Sunday, June 28, 1896, ninety miners were at work in the Red Ash Vein of the Newton Coal Company's Twin Shaft Mine in Pittston when the roof quickly caved in. It was believed at the time that all of the men perished. The concussion from the explosion was so great that it was heard for miles around. The foundation of nearly every building in Pittston was shaken and windows and doors were rattled as in a tornado. In the houses nearer to the mine, persons were thrown from their beds, thinking an earthquake had occurred. Immediately after the boom, the colliery whistle and town

fire alarms A fire alarm system is a building system designed to detect, alert occupants, and alert emergency forces of the presence of fire, smoke, carbon monoxide, or other fire-related emergencies. Fire alarm systems are required in most commercial buil ...

sounded. Families ran to the mine works. Newspapers reported "havoc everywhere," from grief-stricken wives to frantic efforts at impenetrable tunnels of collapsed top rock and crushed timbers. Two rescue tunnels were attempted, though volunteers sometimes removed only 20 feet a day. Hope faded for the victims of the disaster, most of whom were Irish and

Lithuanian Lithuanian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Lithuania, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe ** Lithuanian language ** Lithuanians, a Baltic ethnic group, native to Lithuania and the immediate geographical region ** L ...

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...

. Their names were compiled later because the list of those working was also underground. There were 58 men and boys who died during the cave-in, buried below ground. In their wake, they left 31

widows A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has Death, died and has usually not remarried. The male form, "widower", is first attested in the 14th century, by the 19th century supplanting "widow" with reference to men. The adjecti ...

and 101

orphans An orphan is a child whose parents have died, are unknown, or have permanently abandoned them. It can also refer to a child who has lost only one parent, as the Hebrew translation, for example, is "fatherless". In some languages, such as Swedis ...

. None of their bodies were ever recovered. It was one of the largest coal mining disasters in

history (even larger than the Knox Mine disaster many decades later in nearby Port Griffith).

Aftermath

On July 10, 1896, testimony began in a formal investigation ordered by Pennsylvania's Governor

Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...

to learn why the disaster happened, whether mining laws had been obeyed, and what might prevent future

tragedies A tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character or cast of characters. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsis, or a "pain ...

. Testimony revealed that there had been an audible "squeezing" of the

pillars A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

about two weeks prior to the accident — a sure sign that a wall or shaft was about to crumble. A miner named Edward Hughes defied his boss and left his shift early the night of the disaster because "the crackling grew worse." The superintendent ordered extra props put up to provide additional support. Apparently, however, these props were not placed strategically and once a section of the wall gave way, the others collapsed like a house of cards. In total, about had caved in. The investigating committee suggested that pillars of coal should be left standing for safety and not "robbed" of their coal, especially when two seams are mined at once, and that maps of mine workings and air tunnels be provided to mine inspectors. Rescue operations at Twin Shaft were slowed by the absence of such maps. The Governor's investigative commission first issued its safety recommendations on September 25, 1896. These recommendations would often be ignored in subsequent years. The disaster played a major role after 1900 in the stronger

unionization Unionization is the creation and growth of modern trade unions. Trade unions were often seen as a Left-wing politics, left-wing, Socialism, socialist concept, whose popularity has increased during the 19th century when a rise in industrial capit ...

Northeastern Pennsylvania Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA or Nepa) is a region of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania that includes the Pocono Mountains, the Endless Mountains, and the industrial cities of Scranton (the area's largest city), Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Ha ...

under the leadership of John Mitchell. Today a marker stands in the area where the event occurred.

References

{{coord, 41, 20, 29.6, N, 75, 47, 9.36, W, region:US-PA_type:event, display=title 1896 in Pennsylvania Coal mining disasters in Pennsylvania Engineering failures History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania 1896 mining disasters 1896 disasters in the United States Pittston, Pennsylvania June 1896 in North America Disasters in Pennsylvania

Disaster

Aftermath

See also

References