The Courrières Colliery Disaster, 1906
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10073311 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert G Neville (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1978 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 33-52 |
| Publication date | 1978-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Contemporary History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-0094 • E-ISSN: 1461-7250 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/002200947801300103 |
| OpenAlex | W2002403160 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
Violent death and injury occurred with remarkable and depressing regularity in the coal industries of Europe during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but the magnitude of the Courrieres disaster, which claimed 1,100 lives (1,057 Frenchmen and 43 Belgians), was unprecedented and undoubtedly constitutes one of the world's worst recorded pit disasters. The death toll at the Courrieres mines, for example, was two and a half times higher than at the Senghenydd Colliery, Glamorgan, in 1913 when 439 miners perished in Britain's greatest colliery tragedy.' For many years the French catastrophe remained the most dreadful in mining history, although eventually even the slaughter at Courrieres was exceeded when on 26 April 1942 a coal dust explosion at Honkeiko Colliery, in Manchuria, killed 1,549 miners. The Courrieres disaster, however, was not only remarkable because of the appalling number of fatalities; it also produced astonishing feats of human survival and generated an industrial dispute which one writer has described as 'one of the most violent yet seen in France.2 It is the aim of this article to recount the principal events of the catastrophe, to assess its international importance, with particular reference to the lessons which were learned relating to mines' safety, and to examine the resultant labour unrest. By comparison with England and Germany, French coal production in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was small. In addition, the costs of production and transportation were higher and France lacked certain types of coal, particularly coal which could easily be used for making gas, and for metallurgical purposes. The country's consumption of coal always exceeded domestic output, and between 1827 and 1900 annual imports of combustible fuel represented from between 25 and 45 per cent of its needs
Archaeology · Coal · Coal mining · Forensic engineering · Mining engineering · Political science · Engineering · History · Occupational Health and Safety Research
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,29 |
| Citation span | 2009 - 2023 (15) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |