The machinery having been rendered useless by the eruption, the rope of the _gin_ was sent down the shaft with all possible expedition. In the absence of horses, a number of men, who seemed to acquire strength as the necessity for it increased, applied their shoulders to the _starts_, or shafts of the gin, and worked it with astonishing expedition. By twelve o'clock, thirty-two persons, all that survived this dreadful catastrophe, had been brought to daylight, but of these three boys lived only a few hours. The dead bodies of two boys, miserably scorched and shattered, were also brought up at the same time. Twenty-nine persons, then, were all who were left to relate what they had observed of the appearances and effect of the explosion. One hundred and twenty-one were in the mine when it happened, eighty-seven of whom remained in the workings. Eight persons had fortunately come up a short time before the accident. Those who had their friends restored, hastened with them from the scene of destruction, and for a while appeared to suffer as much from an excess of joy, as they had a short time before from the depth of despair; while those who were yet in the agony of suspense, filled the air with shrieks and howlings, and ran about wringing their hands and throwing their bodies into the most frantic and extravagant gestures. As not one of the pitmen had escaped from the mine by the only avenue open to them, the apprehension for their safety momentarily increased, and at a quarter after twelve o'clock, nine persons descended the John pit, with the faint hope that some might still survive. As the fire-damp would have been instantly ignited by candles, they lighted their way by _steel-mills_;[26] and knowing that a great number of the miners must have been at the crane when the explosion happened, they at once attempted to reach that spot: their progress, however, was very soon intercepted by the prevalence of _choak damp_, and the sparks from their steel-mill fell into it like dark drops of blood: deprived therefore of light, and nearly suffocated by the noxious atmosphere, they retraced their steps towards the shaft, but they were shortly stopped by a thick smoke which stood like a wall before them. Here their steel-mills became entirely useless, and the chance of their ever finding any of their companions alive entirely hopeless; to which should also be added the horror arising from the conviction of the mine being on fire, and the probability of a second explosion occurring at the next moment, and of their being buried in the ruins it would occasion. [26] Steel-mills are small machines, which give light by turning a cylinder of steel against a piece of flint. Sir James Lowther had observed early in the last century, that the fire-damp in its usual form was not inflammable by sparks from flint and steel; and it appears that a person in his employment invented the machine in question.