Time for some real-life horror. How about disturbing mining disasters?
As difficult and dangerous as working in an underground mine is now, it was a lot worse in the 19th century. At the Snaefell zinc mine on the Isle of Man, a government inspector had passed the mine’s ventilation just two days before some 36 miners descended into the mine on May 9, 1897. 19 would never return, overcome by carbon monoxide.
Much closer to the present day, the Val Reef’s gold mine in South Africa is one of the deepest in the world. On May 10, 1995, an underground locomotive used to haul gold and other things raced out of control and plunged into an elevator shaft hauling 104 miners up to the surface after their shift, The elevator plunged more than 1,500 feet to the bottom of the shaft…where the recirculating pumps pulled in and redistributed a fine mist of the slain miner’s blood all over the mine.
That video ends with a look at another fascinating but horrifying disaster: The Great Boston Molasses Flood.