The Universal Colliery, Senghenydd was owned by the Lewis Merthyr
    Consolidated Collieries Ltd. It was part of a huge mining empire run by
    Sir William Thomas Lewis, the first Lord Merthyr of Senghenydd. Lewis
    was the most powerful coal owner in Wales. He had founded the Sliding
    Scale and the Monmouthshire and South Wales Coal Owners Association.

    The sinking of the colliery had begun in 1891 Two shafts were completed,
    the York and the Lancaster, both almost 2,000 feet deep. The workings
    were divided into two areas, the West side and the East side. Each side
    was divided into a number of districts. The West side districts reflected
    the times of sinking for they were named after battles in the Boer War,
    Pretoria, Maleking, Kimberly, Ladysmith, Bottanic and West York.

    When people talk of the Senghenydd disaster, they usually refer to the
    1913 disaster but it should be remembered that two disasters have
    occured in this pit, the first in 1901.

     24th May 1901

     The first disaster took place on the 24th of May 1901. Mercifully it happend
     at the end of the night shift when many of the miners had been brought to
     the surface. There were 82 left underground at the time of the explosion.
     Of these, only one survived. The real tragedy of this explosion was that the
     lessons learned at such a cost in human life never used to prevent the scale
     of the 1913 explosion.

     Professor W. Galloway of Cardiff University, a former Inspector of Mines, had
     been asked by the Homes Secretary to report on the explosion. The report
     showed that fire coal dust and air produced a deadly mixture which could be
     ignited without a methane gas explosion. Senghenydd was a hot, dry, dusty
     pit with temperatures some 25 degrees higher than surface readings. The
     quantities of dust were greatly increased because of the open framework
     ends of the drams. Galloway urged all owners to thoroughly water roadways
     to prevent the  danger of explosion and to spray all dusty areas.
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