(ca.1901- ? ),
Located on the Cheswick & Harwick Railroad, Harwick, Springdale Twp., Allegheny Co., PA
Owners: (ca.1901- ? ), Allegheny Coal Company,
(ca.1940- ca.1970), Duquesne Light Company, Pittsburgh, PA
|A portion of the USGS New Kensington, PA 15 min. Quad.
map ca.1910 showing Harwick Mine and the Railroad connections to the Colfax
Power Plant and the Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad.
(Courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, D.C.)
| Undated photo of the Allegheny Coal Company's Harwick
Mine tipple and power house, Harwick, Springdale Twp., Allegheny Co., PA
|Tipple of the Allegheny Coal Company's Harwick,
Pa., Mine, soon after the explosion on Monday, January 25, 1904, at 8:15a.m.
It was "...as if the earth suddenly parted and had broken in two."
(Photo courtesy of Allegheny Kiski Valley Historical Society,Tarentum, Pa.)
|January 25, 1904
Harwick Mine Explosion,
179 Miners Killed
From the Pennsylvania State Mine Inspectors Report, 1904.
I had not thought it possible that a catastrophe so awful in proportions could occur in a mine like the Harwick, which was new and reported to be relatively safe. The explosion was of terrific force, the tipple, built of iron, was wrecked, and a mule was blown out and over the tipple from the bottom of the shaft.
The coal is mined by compressed-air machine of the Puncher type, blacsted down with dynamite. The shots were prepared and charged by the men who loaded the coal, and the shots were fired by shot firers. Each shot firer carried a Davy lamp; to fire, he inserted a wire through the gauze of the lamp, until it was the proper temperature and would then apply it to the fuse. The shots near the roof required an extremely heavy charge.
Nearly all advanced workings were very dry and dusty. Locked safety lamps were used exclusively in all working places, except at the bottom of the shaft.
The cause of this explosion at about 8:15 A.M., was a blown-out shot, in a part of the mine not ventilated as required by law. Sprinkling and laying of the dust had been neglected; firedamp existed in a large portion of the advanced workings. The explosion could be transmitted by the coal dust suspended in the atmosphere by the concussion from the initial explosion, the flame exploding the accumulations of firedamp and dust along the path of the explosion, carrying death and destruction into every region of the workings.
The fireboss did examine part of the mine; his last report
was made on January 23. Insufficiency of ventilation was partly
due to accumulation of ice at the airshaft.
|A makeshift morgue was setup in the railyard outside near
the Harwick Mine tipple as rescue workers recovered the bodies of the miners
killed in the explosion. Friends and relatives of the miners came to
identify their remains.
(Photo courtesy of Allegheny Kiski Valley Historical Society, Tarentum, Pa.)
|The mass grave for many of the miners killed in the Harwick
Mine disaster, on the west bank of the Allegheny River, adjacent old St.
Mark's Lutheran Church, Springdale, Pa.
In Memory of the Harwick Miners Erected May 30, 1905 Subscribed by Members of Local Unions of District No. 5 United Mine Workers of America in memory of 180 miners & mine laborers, who lost their lives in the Harwick Explosion Jan. 25, 1904.
(Photo courtesy of Allegheny Kiski Valley Historical Society, Tarentum, Pa.)
|TWO HUNDRED MEN
Imprisoned at Bottom of a Burning Coal Mine.
EXPLOSION BRINGS DISASTER
Rescue Parties Are Making Desperate Efforts to Extricate the Men With Little Hope of Success Believe All Will Perish.
PITTSBURG, Pa., Jan 25, 1904
Between 125 and 150 men were entombed by an explosion in the shaft of the Harwick Coal company near Cheswick this morning, shortly after 8 o'clock. None of the men had been rescued at 11 o'clock and it is believed that many of them were wither killed outright by the explosion or have been suffocated by the gas. Several hundred men are at work trying to liberate the imprisoned miners. There are employed at the mine 200 men, 150 working inside and the remainder on the tipple. Three men on the tipp