ABSTRACT
Educated opinion in the early nineteenth century had clung to the assumption that ‘colliery accidents must have their causes known and determinate’, and that science would provide the solution, particularly to colliery explosions.1 This belief was reflected in the early emphasis the Home Office placed on the investigation of major mining disasters. Whereas this strategy had originally offered a means of deflecting criticism for non-intervention, by the late nineteenth century the Home Office had become much more proactive and regulation was brought in line with the ‘best advances of science and good mining practice’.2 This shift in attitude originated in the late 1870s when Home Secretary Richard Assheton Cross initially approached the Royal Society to investigate the extent to which scientific knowledge could be applied to saving lives. This new proactive stance became manifest in attempts to both understand and pre-empt the potential dangers that new technologies and changes in working practices brought before, rather than after, they were manifest in injuries and diseases.
