1900] Means of Saving Life in Goal Mines. 469" 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 

 Friday, February 19, 1909. 



His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, K.G. G.C.M.G. 



G.C.I.E. G.C.Y.O. P.O. LL.D. F.R.S., Vice Patron, 



in the Chair. 



Sir Henry Cunynghame, K.C.B. M.A. M.I.E.E. M.R.I. 



Recent Advances in Means of Saving Life in Gocfl Mines. 



My connection at the Home Office during: the last sixteen years with 

 the administration of the statutes relating to mining has afforded me 

 a unique opportunity of becoming acquainted with various improve- 

 ments whereby that industry is rendered more safe. I propose briefly 

 to describe some of the difficulties that have been encountered, and 

 the means by which they have been met. I think it must be admitted 

 that no like period in the past has afforded an example of similar 

 progress. 



I shall have the pleasure of mentioning many names of engineers 

 and others now living. It has been one of the principal pleasures 

 of my life to have been enabled constantly to consult them, and to 

 gather from the lips of our leading experts what I could never 

 have learned from books and papers only. I propose to select 

 from the mass of material at my disposition four subjects of interest, 

 namely, improvements in safety lamps, the use of explosives in mines, 

 explosions of gas and coal dust, and apparatus for enabling men to 

 work in poisonous atmospheres. 



Before I enter into details, I shall venture to give a brief descrip- 

 tion of work in a mine, dealing only with such points as are necessary 

 to make the lecture understood by those who have no specially 

 technical knowledge of the subject. I have only a few minutes to 

 spare on this head, and therefore I hope it will not be tedious. 



In Great Britain, coal lies in the earth in layers or seams, betwi^en 

 a floor and roof. These seams are fortunately generally horizontal. 

 When coal is to be extracted, the first thing is to make two shafts 

 from the surface down to the lowest part of the seam, provided with 

 huge passenger and coal lifts worked by an engine at the surface by 

 means of ropes of hemp or of steel. 



The lifts or " cages " go with great speed. At the centre of their 

 journey they sometimes travel at the rate of half a mile, or even a 

 mile a minute ; yet they alight like a feather at the bottom. The 

 winding is done by the manipulation of a lever by an engine-winder,. 



