6. Every entrance to any place which is not in actual use or course of working and extension shall be properly fenced across the width of the entrance, so as to prevent persons inadvertently entering the same.
7. If at any time it is found by the person for the time being in charge of the mine, or any part thereof, that by reason of inflammable gases prevailing in the mine, or that part thereof, or of any cause whatever, the mine or that part is dangerous, every workman shall be withdrawn from the mine or part so found dangerous, and a competent person appointed for the purpose shall inspect the mine or part so found dangerous, and if the danger arises from inflammable gas shall inspect the mine or part with a locked safety-lamp ; and in every case shall make a true report of the condition of the mine or part ; and a workman shall not, except in so far a.s is necessary for inquiring into the cause of danger or for the removal thereof, or for exploration, be readmitted into the mine or part so found dangerous until the same is stated by the person appointed as aforesaid not to be dangerous. Every such report shall be recorded in a book which shall be kept at the mine for the purpose, and shall be signed by the person who made the inspection.
8. No lamp or light other than a locked safety-lamp shall be allowed or used i (a) In any place in a mine in which there is likely to be any such quantity of inflammable gas as to render the use of naked lights dangerous ; or (b) in any working approaching near a place in which there is likely to be an accumulation of inflammable gas. And when it is necessary to work the coal in any part of a ventilating district with safety-lamps, it shall not be allowable to work the coal with naked lights in another part of the same ventilating district situated between the place where such lamps are being used and the return airway.
9. Wherever safety-lamps are used they shall be so constructed that they may be safely carried against the air current ordinarily prevailing in that part of the mine in which the lamps are for the time being in use, even though such current should be inflammable.
10. In any mine or part of a mine in which safety-lamps are required by the Act or by the special rules made in pursuance of the Act to be used : (i) A com petent person appointed by the owner, agent, or manager for the purpose shall, either at the surface or at the appointed lamp station, examine every safety-lamp immediately before it is taken into the workings for use, and ascertain it to be in safe working order and securely locked ; and such lamps shall not be used until they have been so examined and found in safe working order and securely locked ; (ii) a safety-lamp shall not be unlocked except either at the appointed lamp station or for the purpose of firing a shot, in conformity with the provisions hereinafter con tained ; (iii) a person, unless he has been appointed either for the purpose of examin ing safety-lamps or for the purpose of firing shots, shall not have in his possession any contrivance for opening the lock of any safety-lamp ; (iv) a person shall not have in his possession any lucifer match or apparatus of any kind for striking a light, except within a completely closed chamber attached to the fuse of the shot.
11. Where safety-lamps are required to be used, the position of' the lamp stations for lighting or relighting the lamps shall not be in the return air.
12. Any explosive substance shall only be used in a mine below ground as follows :—(a) It shall not be stored in the mine ; (b) It shall not be taken into the mines except in cartridges in a secure case or canister, containing not more than five pounds. Provided that on the application of the owner, agent, or manager of any mine, the Secretary of State may by order exempt such mine from so much of this rule as forbids taking an explosive substance into the mine except in cartridges ; (c) A workman shall not have in use at any time in any one place more than one of such cases or canisters ; (d) In the process ot charging or stemming for blasting, a person shall not use or have in his possession any iron or steel pricker, scraper, charger, tamping rod, or stemmer, nor shall coal or coal dust be used for tamping ; (e) No explosive shall be forcibly pressed into a hole of insufficient size, and, when a hole has been charged, the explosive shall not be unrammed, and no hole shall be bored for a charge at a distance of less than six inches from any hole where the charge has missed fire; (f ) In any place in which the use of a locked safety-lamp is for the time being required by or in pursuance of this Act, or which is dry and dusty, no shot shall be fixed except by or under the direction of a competent person appointed, the owner, agent, or manager of the mine, and such person shall not fire the shot or allow it to be fired until he has examined both the place itself where the shot is to be fired and ad contiguous acces sible places of the same seam within a radius of twenty yards, and has found such place safe for firing ; (g) If in any mine, at either of the inspections under rule 4 recorded last before a shot is to be fired, inflammable gas has been reported to be present in the ventilating district in which the shot is to be fired, the shot shall not be fired—(1) Unless a competent person, appointed as aforesaid, has examined the place where gas has been so reported to be present, and has found that such gas has been cleared away, and that there is not at or near such place sufficient gas issuing or accumulated to render it unsafe to fire the shot ; or (2) unless the explosive employed in firing the shot is so used with water or other contrivance as to prevent it from inflaming gas, or is of such a nature that it cannot inflame gas ; (h) If the place where a shot is to be fired is dry and dusty, then the shot shall not be fired unless one of the following conditions is observed, that is to say—(1) Unless the place of firing and all contiguous accessible places within a radius of twenty yards therefrom are at the time of firing in a wet state from thorough watering or other treatment equivalent to watering, in all parts where dust is lodged, whether roof, floor, or sides ; or (2) in the case of places in which watering would injure the roof or floor, unless the explosion is so used with water or other contrivance as to prevent it from inflaming gas or dust, or is of such a nature that it cannot inflame gas or dust ; (i) If such dry and dusty place is part of a main haulage road, or is a place contiguous thereto, and showing (lust ad hering to the roof and sides, no shot shall be fired there unless—(1) both the conditions mentioned in sub-head (h) have been observed ; or (2) unless such one of the conditions mentioned in sub-head (h) as may be applicable to the particular place has been observed, and moreover all workmen have been removed from the seam in which the shot is to be fired, and from all seams cominunicating with the shaft on the same level, except the men engaged in firing the shot, and such other persons, not exceeding ten, as are necessarily employed in attending to the ventilating furnaces, steam-boilers, engines, machinery, winding apparatus, signals or horses, or in inspecting the mine ; (k) In the Act a ventilating district " means such part of a seam as has an independent intake commencing from a main intake air course ; and " main haulage road " means a road which has been, or for the time is, in use for moving trams by steam or other mechanical power ; (0 Where a seam of a mine is not divided into separate ventilating districts the provisions in the Act relating to ventilating districts shall be read as though the word "seam '' were substituted for the words " ventilating district "; (m) So much of this rule as requires the explosive substance taken into the mine to be in cartridges, and so much of the provisions of subhead (f ) as relates to a dry and dusty place, and the provisions (g), (h), (i), (k), and (1) shall not apply to seams of clay or stratifica ironstone which are not worked in connection with any seam, and which contain no coal in the working.