The BBC1 Documentary A Story of Detection 1,000 feet Down
Narrated by FRANK WINDSOR
Mining disasters still hit the headlines, although today they're on nothing like the scale of only 60 years ago, when a growing industry was still fighting for the answers.
The story starts further back, and it's a story of detection. The search for safety has been a search for clues ... and vital ones were missed. Experts were baffled as explosion followed explosion with increasing violence and over 1,000 men were being killed every year underground.
Engineers had concentrated on fighting gas, but there was something else down there, something that would have explained why wholesale destruction followed underground explosions if it had been recognised. For over half-a-century, experts missed the vital clues.
Written and produced by BARRY BEVINS BBC Manchester