Salt Works Accident
Kentucky Gazette-Tuesday June 12, 1804
An account of an accident at Colonel Johnson's salt well at Grants Lick on the Licking.
"We have been informed that on the 4th instant, a Negro man was sent down into Colonel Johnson's salt well, at Grants Lick on the Licking River, for the purpose of bringing up a bucket which had fallen from the rope. Finding a light necessary, a candle was let down to him, when the air in the well immediately took fire, and the flame ascended ten or twelve feet above the mouth of the well. After the fire was extinguished, the Negro was taken up, burnt in a most shocking manner, and it is supposed that he cannot long survive this unhappy accident. The air in the well, it is believed consisted of a mixture of hydrogenous gas with atmospheric air. The fire damp, well known to miners, takes place in the same way. Great quantities of sulphurated hydrogenous gas are continually arising from many of our salt wells and springs."