AND ON PREVENTING ITS EXPLOSION. 57, 
December 1815,) that the lamps burn with more brightness: 
near the floor than near the roof of the mine; the lamp, 'there-) 
fore, with the tube, will be adapted to such situations, or/at 
least the cireumstance of the air being brought from the: floor: 
will counterbalance any obstacle from its being inclosed, and 
will allow it to burn as well as an exposed lamp would. Inthe: 
Scotch coal-mines in general, the system of ventilation appears 
to be even less perfect than it is in the mines in the»northsof 
England, probably from ‘the same necessity not having ‘existeds) 
for rendering it equally perfect, as the production of fire-damp’ 
is so much less abundant. The circulation of the air im them 
is often so languid, that a method of lighting by a close lamp 
would perhaps be attended with difficulty, at least if it were 
necessary to place the lamp in such situations, which, however, 
the contrivance of employing a lantern with .a lens, in some 
measure would obviate. The English mines present the com- 
bination of a more perfect ventilation with. the constant pro- 
duction of enormous quantities of fire-damp ; the object, there- 
fore, is to guard against explosions from the accidental accu- 
mulation of the gas, while, at the same time, the general plan 
of ventilation admits of this being more easily carried into ef- 
fect. A singular method, which shews both the imperfect 
ventilation, daid the moderate extent within which the gas is 
generated i in the Scotch mines, has been practised,—that of fi- 
ring the quantity accumulated at a stated. period,—in some © 
mines daily. A miner enters the mine with a lamp inclosed 
in a.lantern ; he advances as far as is proper, holding it as low 
as possible, sel lying down on the ground, or sometimes even 
in atrench dug i in the ground; he remoyes the lamp from the 
lantern, and raising it, or advancing it towards the closed ex- 
tremity of the working, where the gas is collected, fires it. Mr 
Scorr, in the a achrivicatieu referred to, proposes a plan of 
Vou. VIL P. I. H eee 
: 3 
