1816.) ~ On. the Ventilation of Codl-Mines. ~ 299 
fast as it is produced. It does not seem necessary to enter into any 
detailed account of the various contrivances in use for the purposes 
of producing, or quickening, a current of atmospheric air through 
the workings of coal-mines. It may be sufficient to say generally, 
that they are simple and efiicacious, and cannot therefore admit of 
much improvement. Those who may wish for minute details on 
this point are referred to Mr. Buddle’s letter in the Report already 
quoted, wltich contains much useful information, and which is so 
much the more valuable, as it is the only thing of the kind before 
the public. They will not, however, be able to discover from it, 
that any one part of a coal-mine is higher than another; or that 
fire-damp possesses any other property than that of inflammability. 
They may likewise be startled on hearing from Mr. Buddle, (page 
21,) that he considers the existing system of ventilation ‘ to have 
arrived at an admirable degree of perfection ;” and that “ on the 
strength of his own experience (page 22,) he freely hazards his 
opinion, that any further application of mechanical agency towards 
preventing accidents in coal-mines (which are infested with fire- 
damp ina high degree,) will be ineffectual.” Mr. Buddle’s expe- 
Tience ought to have guarded him against supposing further im- 
provement impossible. When he himseif has invented perhaps 
the greatest improvement in the system, viz. that of the swing 
door, which is both simple and ingenious, and which Mr. Buddle 
will perceive, if this should meet his eye, admits of a far more 
extensive application than he has made of it. 
Your readers will find (page 21,) that ‘* the improved system, 
(as it is called) was introduced into the collieries on the Tyne and 
Wear, about éhe year 1760, and has ever since continued in gene- 
ral use in collieries abounding with inflammable gas, without any 
rival method being thought of, or any improvement, except the 
~ mechanical auxiliaries detailed in the descriptions of sections three, 
four, five.” * 
This fact of itself will, in the opinion of many people, amount 
toa proof that there must now be room for improvement; this 
proof will be further strengthened by the recollection that almost 
all the knowledge we possess respecting gaseous fluids has been ac- 
quired since the year 1760. If any doubt should remain on this 
point, it will be entirely dissipated on finding that, notwithstanding 
“the admirable perfection to which the improved system has 
arrived,” its arrangements have not the slightest reference to the 
well-known levity of carbureted hydrogen gas. 
Thus, Sir, have I endeavoured to place before your readers, in 
the plainest manner 1 could think of, a general outline of what £ 
conceive to be a material improvement in the mode of ventilating 
coal-mines. I am persuaded that ventilation has at last become a 
* These auxiliaries are merely different modes of accelerating the atmospheric ° 
eurrent through the workings, by exhaustion and rarefaction of the air, The 
#pparatus for which are all alove ground. 
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