EXPLOSIONS IN COAL MINES. 20i 



not, aware that this fire-damp is composed of about one third hydro- 

 gen and two thirds carbon. He may be ignorant that the proportions 

 of admixture of fire-damp with ordinary air which are such as to cause 

 explosion are, when the former is more than one fourth, and less than 

 one sixteenth, of the quantity of the latter. But he knows that when 

 he enters a fiery mine his life is in his hand, lie may not know that 

 the barometer indicates a more or less dangerous condition, as a rule, 

 in every fiery mine. But he does know that any blow of his pick may 

 open a "blower," or jet of fire-damp, in the mine ; that if this jet 

 meets a naked light it will take fire ; and that unless the ventilation 

 sweeping through the mine be such as to maintain a complete control 

 over the issue of the fire-damp, which is always to a certain extent go- 

 ing on, the workings will be wrapped in a blast of flame, and none will 

 be left alive to tell how it occurs. He knows, too, that the " Geordie," 

 the invention of an old miner, whose name should be held in honor by 

 the British workman as that of a family saint or household god, in- 

 stead of setting the "fire-jack" alight, will indicate its presence by a 

 harmless explosion within its own tube, and will then become extin- 

 guished. Or if the mine in which he works be one in which the 

 " Davy " lamp is used, instead of the " Geordie," he knows that the 

 little cage of wire gauze will become filled with flame if placed near a 

 " blower " or held in the top of a working where there is too much gas 

 to be safe, but that the flame will not pass through the meshes of the 

 protecting shield. His is not the class of mind which can be brought 

 to regard the safety-lamp as a talisman, giving protection to the miner 

 who works with a naked light close by his fire-proof companion. It is 

 more than probable that the increased safety from explosions to which 

 we have referred may be mainly, if not altogether, due to the action of 

 the Government inspectors in preventing the use of powder in fiery 

 mines. Where blasting is allowed, the onus of responsibility is taken 

 from the shoulders of the miner, and thrown on those of the superin- 

 tendent. But, in the last two terrible casualties which have brought 

 desolation to so many homes in the Black Country, there has been no 

 question of blasting. A sudden outpour of fire-damp must, in each of 

 these cases, have come in contact with a naked light. In cases where 

 no miner has been left alive to tell the tale, there has often been found 

 a mute but unimpeachable witness. A lamp has been found unlocked, 

 a candle half burned, a box of matches half consumed. One or more 

 of the miners, in spite of regulation, in spite of inspection, in' spite of 

 peril of his life, has had a naked light in his possession. What can 

 have induced him to run the risk ? 



It is not surprising that the question should have proved utterly 

 insoluble to those who have never been underground ; nay, more, to 

 those who have never worked underground. In the absence of that 

 personal experience which throws a very strong ray of light on the 

 obscurity of the question, it is easy to take a leaf out of the book of a 



