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First Live Broadcasts From Mine Disaster

One of Nova Scotia's best-known mine disasters involved only three men and only one of them died.

What gave such enormous publicity to the Moose River mine disaster was that this was the first time there were live radio broadcasts from the source of a news story.

It was 1936 and Dr. David E. Robertson, Alfred Scadding and Herman Magill were trapped by a cave-in at the 141-foot level of the mine.

Magill, a Toronto lawyer, and Robertson, Chief of Staff at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, were co-owners of the mine. Communication with the men was important so Maritime Telegraph and Telephone rushed in wire, men and amplifiers while at their Halifax workshop employees built and tested a tiny microphone that could be slipped down a one-inch-diameter pipe.

The men were trapped for 11 days during which Magill died but through those 11 days there were 93 two-minute radio flashes every half hour that went out to 58 Canadian and 650 American radio stations.

Sponsors of radio programs cut their regular shows by two minutes to fit in the bulletins.

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Moose River Gold Mines Museum chronicles the area's history of gold mining and the sensational mine disaster and rescue of 1936.