534 ANNUAL EEPOKT SMITHSOlNlAN INSTITUTION, 1916. 



men injured underground haA'e to be transported a considerable dis- 

 tance before a doctor sees them, and frequently one to two hours may 

 elapse between the time of injury and the time when the doctor first 

 sees the patient. Consequently it is highly desirable that each miner 

 should understand proper first-aid methods. 



Stationed at various mining centers throughout the country the 

 bureau has first-aid miners, men with wide mining and first-aid ex- 

 perience, who have been instructed in standardized first-aid methods 

 by the bureau's mine surgeon. These men either work from the 

 bureau headquarters in their district or are attached to the bureau's 

 mine rescue cars or automobile rescue trucks, on which they travel 

 from town to town, giving without charge a complete course in first 

 aid. The bureau maintains eight such cars and three automobile 

 rescue trucks. The miner is taught how to give artificial respiration, 

 treat shock, control hemorrhage, and bandage any part of the body 

 for fracture, dislocation, wound, or burn, and is shown the best 

 method of transporting an injured person. 



Mine rescue methods have been taught in conjunction with the 

 first-aid training. Bureau employees, designated foreman miners, 

 accompany its rescue cars and trucks and teach the miners how to use 

 the principal types of self-contained oxygen rescue apparatus. 

 This apparatus consists of a steel cylinder containing oxygen at a 

 pressure of approximately 2,000 pounds per square inch, with a reduc- 

 ing valve which allows the flow of a definite quantity of oxygen per 

 minute, at a pressure slightly above atmospheric, to pass from the 

 cylinder to a reservoir fi'om which it is breathed by the wearer. 

 The exhaled air flows to a compartment containing regenerat- 

 ing material, usually sodium hydroxide, by which the carbon 

 dioxide of the exhaled air is removed. The regenerated air joins 

 the stream of oxygen from the reducing valve, and the cycle is 

 repeated. 



The foreman miners of the bureau give instruction in recovery 

 methods, laying especial emphasis on the use of none but fully 

 manned crews and on the need of the crews having such adjuncts as 

 safety lamps, canar}'^ birds (for detecting poisonous gases), life lines, 

 and telephones. It is gratifying to note that but few lives have been 

 lost in the past year through heroic but misdirected and unorganized 

 recovery work. Before the organization of the bureau the loss of 

 lives from this cause was high. 



Experiments looking toward a more thorough understanding of 

 rescue apparatus and resuscitators have been carried on at the 

 bureau's Pittsburgh experiment station. Owing to the European 

 war. apparatus formerly made in Germany and England are now 

 made in this country, and it has been necessary to thoroughly inspect 

 and test this American-made material. As a result of these tests 



