- Why Mining Matters
- Jobs
- Safety
- Environment & Operations
- FAQ
- Links
- Fun Stuff
You are here
Gowrie Mine
River Hebert
Joggins 1904 Fire
Port Hood 1911 Flood
Lamp Cabin Memorial Park
Drummond 1873 Disaster
1872 Accidents
Springhill’s Novaco Mine
1860's Accident
New Glasgow's Linacy Mine
1913 Drummond Fires
1908 Princess Fire
Albion Mines 1913 Fire
DOSCO Miner
Cape Breton's TNT
The McCormick and Turner families
Payday Drunk
John Croak’s Victoria Cross
Atlantic Slag Company
Sydney Cement Company
1914 Coal Mine Cost
Dominion No 2
Canary in a Coal Mine
Draegermen
James Dinn
Pit Ponies
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
1877 Accidents
Allan Shaft 1912
William Fleming
The Story of Peat
T. G. MacKenzie
Trenton Steel
1930 Stats
MacGregor Mine Explosion
MacGregor Flood
Torbanite Products Limited
Abraham Gesner and Kerosene
1860 Prince of Wales Visit
Dominion No 5
The Royal William and Stellarton Coal
Tom Pit
Terminal City
1875 Accidents
Cannons in Coal Mines
Princess Mine Explosion
Dominion No. 26
A Tale of Two Mines
Franklin Colliery
Robert J. Grant
Springhill No. 1
Mother Coo
Submarine Mines
Barrachois Mine
Fundy Coal Seam
Dominion #14
Dominion #12
Dominion No 4
Child Labour
Joggins Colliery
Safety
Bootleggers
Richmond County
Mabou Mines
Stellar Coal
English Slope
Maccan/Jubilee
The Foster Pit Fire and the Poop Solution
Thomas Edison and the Chignecto coal mine
Henry Whitney and the Dominion Coal Company
Foord Pit
Hiawatha Coal Mine
Coalburn
Springhill Disasters
St. Rose-Chimney Coalfield
Stellarton, Dorrington Softball Complex
How Does Coal Form?
Drummond Coal Mine
Sydney Coalfield and the Princess Mine
Port Morien, 1720
Port Hood
General Mining Association
Thorburn
WWII and Nova Scotia Coal
Nova Scotia's First Railway
Samuel Cunard
Stellarton’s Mining Connections
Sydney Mines
Point Aconi
Victoria Mines
Sullivan Creek
New Campbellton
Inverness and Cabot Links
The Ghost Town of Broughton
Tobin Road, Sydney Mines
Flint Island Coal Mine?!
What does Colliery mean?
Cottam Settlement
Allan Mine
Allan Shaft 1912
In 1912, there were four fatal accidents in Stellarton’s Allan Shaft, sad examples of why the modern mining industry is so committed to safety. Nothing is more important than ensuring our friends and colleagues get home safely to their families each night.
The provincial Department of Mines’ 1912 annual report described the Allan Shaft accidents:
William Archibald Cameron, 23-year-old carpenter, was working with other men on installing a shaker screen, part of the system of sorting extracted coal. He was holding a piece of lumber when he stepped back and “his clothes caught on a wheel on the main driving shaft of the screens and picking tables. This shaft was running 120 revolutions a minute. He was carried around until the machinery was stopped, but the man was dead.”
William Mueller, 34 years old, was killed on January 23 when “a fall of coal partly covered him. When taken out, he spoke but died about twenty minutes later. The doctor could not find a bruise on any party of the body. The jury of inquest’s verdict was that he died of shock.”
On July 13, Arthur Hayman, 25 years old, was sent for timber. “He started to the surface, and was not seen alive afterward, on being missed, search was made for him and his body was found about two hours later, in the sump in the 962-feet bottom.” He had fallen down the shaft.
On July 30, James D. McDonald, 24, was clearing a place to install a prop to help support a tunnel’s roof. Coal fell on him, breaking his leg above the knee and crushing him. “He was immediately taken to Aberdeen Hospital but died before reaching there.”
Despite these tragedies, the Acadia Coal Company’s management was not reckless with the lives of its workers. For example, the mine’s production in 1912 was lower compared to the previous year because one of the mine’s best-producing sections was shut down for months due to concerns about a potential fire.
A Department of Mines inspector visited the mine on February 8 and did not find any indications of fire. The section in question had “a strange odour” but its temperature was a normal 53 degrees Fahrenheit and there was “no smell of coal smoke.”
The inspector visited again on February 13 and found conditions were the same. On February 19 he visited and found that management had walled off the section suspected of having the fire. The mine’s general manager and chief engineer said the miners refused to work there and that the temperature had risen to 66 degrees. “They thought it better to wall off the place, and take no risks,” according to the inspector. “I insisted on getting into the section, as I was sure no fire existed at a temperature of 66 degrees. They thought it better since it was walled off, to let it remain so for a period of three months.”
During those three months, the temperature in the section averaged 53 degrees.
After three months, the inspector ordered that an opening be made in the walls so the area could be examined. Company management were reluctant so instead, pipe was inserted into the section so the air could be tested. “A very large quantity of fire damp [methane] came out of the return air-way but no odour of any other kind. This test was conclusive. There was no fire in the section.”
It was not until July 28 that a 4X4 foot opening was made so the section could be inspected visually. This confirmed that there was no fire and work resumed in the section.
Nova Scotia’s mining and quarrying industry has reduced its injury rate 90% since the Westray public inquiry report was released in 1997. We believe the most important thing to come out of a mine is the miner. We honour those hurt in past mining accidents by making every effort to prevent accidents today.
Today, the Allan Shaft is the site of Sobeys’ headquarters, an example of how former mines and quarries go on to serve communities other ways after extraction is done. See the mine’s story at https://notyourgrandfathersmining.ca/allan-mine