Galloway, W. (William), 1840-1927

Person

Galloway, W. (William), 1840-1927

• Galloway, William, 1840-1927
• Galloway, Sir William

1840-1927

Sir William Galloway (1840-1927) was a mining engineer, university professor and industrialist who is notable for his contribution to the prevention of explosions and other accidents in coal mines.

Born in Paisley, Scotland, he studied in Germany at the University of Giessen and the Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, as well as University College, London. He became a colliery manager at Cambusnethan in Lanarkshire in 1861, and subsequently worked as a mining inspector in Scotland.

In 1870, during the course of his duties as an inspector, Galloway began to investigate the cause of explosions in mines, and he continued this work after being transferred to south Wales in 1874 as an Assistant Inspector of Mines. He became convinced that coal dust, as well as gas, was responsible for the violence and spread of colliery explosions, and in the 1890s he also asserted that coal dust would not explode when mixed with quantities of stone dust. Although neither of these ideas found favour among mining engineers at first, they were extremely accurate and came to be universally adopted in 1893 and 1908 respectively, lowering the death rate in colliery explosions by 90% from what it had been in 1870.

Galloway’s work on coal dust also included tests with safety lamps, and he patented many safety devices for mines, including a cradle, a water tank, guide ropes, doors and compressed air engines.

He was appointed Professor of Mining at the University College of Wales in Cardiff in 1891, and resigned in 1902 to become a consultant engineer, working in Britain and abroad, sometimes with his youngest son Christian (C. F. J. Galloway, 1880–1960), who was also a mining engineer. In 1923 he became the chairman and a director of the East Kent Colliery Company and director of the Snowdown colliery.

William Galloway published extensively, and his contribution to mining safety was widely recognised later in life. He served as President of both the South Wales Institute of Engineers and the Institution of Mining Engineers, and was invited to present his work to many professional mining organisations, the Royal Society and a parliamentary commission. He was knighted in 1924.

Mining engineer

Carlyle, E., & Brown, R. (2004, September 23). Galloway, Sir William (1840–1927), mining engineer. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 3 Mar. 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/33312.