September 4, 1890] 



NATURE 



445 



hoped for as an outcome of the very definite results and conclu- 

 sions arrived at by the late Royal Commission on Accidents in 

 Mines (in the recent much-lamented death of whose universally 

 respected chairman, my late esteemed friend and colleague, Sir 

 Warington Smyth, the scientific world has sustained the loss of 

 an ardent worker, and the miner, of an invaluable friend). 



The fearful dangers arising from the accumulation of in- 

 flammable dust in coal-mines, and the equality of mine-dust 

 with fire-damp in its direful power of propagating explosions, 

 which may sometimes even be, in the first instance, established 

 chiefly or entirely through its as^ency, have now been ionsj recog- 

 nized as beyond dispute ; and it is satisfactory to know that per- 

 mission to fire shots in mine-workings which are dry and dusty 

 has, by recent legislation, been made conditional upon the 

 previous laying of the dust by effective watering. In some 

 mining districts, moreover, the purely voluntary practice has 

 been extensively adopted by mine-owners of periodically water- 

 ing the main roads in dry and dusty mines, or of frequently 

 vlischarging water-spray into the air in such roads, which must 

 tend greatly to reduce the possible magnitude of the disastrous 

 results of a fire-damp or dust explosion in any part of the 

 mine-workings. 



The encouragement given lo the application of the combined 

 resources of ingenuity, mechanical skill, and knowledge of 

 scientific principles, through the elaborate, but thoroughly 

 practical comparative trials to which almost every variety of 

 safety-lamp has, during the last few years, been submitted by 

 competent and conscientious experimenters, has resulted in the 

 provision of lamps to the hand of the miner which combine the 

 essential qualities of safety, under the most exceptionally severe 

 conditions, with good illuminating power, simplicity of con- 

 struction, lightness, and moderate cost. Very important pro- 

 gress has also been made, since the first appointment of the late 

 Accidents in Mines Commission, towards the provision of 

 thoroughly serviceable and safe portable electric lamps for use 

 in mines. Of those which have already been in the hands of 

 the miners, several have fairly fulfilled his requirements as 

 regards size, weight, and illuminating power of sufficient dura- 

 tion ; but much still remains to be accomplished with respect to 

 durability, simplicity, thorough portability, and cost, before the 

 self-contained electric lamp can be expected to compete success- 

 fully with the greatly improved miners' lamps which are now in 

 use, or available. 



The recent legislation in connection with mines is certainly 

 deficient in any sufficiently decisive measure for excluding from 

 mine-workings certain forms of lamps which, while fairly safe in 

 the old days of sluggish ventilation, are unsafe in the rapid air- 

 currents now frequently met with in mines ; it is, however, very 

 satisfactory to know that the strong representations on this sub- 

 ject made by the late Commission, combined with the force of 

 example and with the conclusive demonstration of the superiority 

 of other lamps, by exhaustive experiments, have led within the 

 last two years to the very general abandonment of the unpro- 

 tected Davy, Clanny, and Stephenson lamps in favour, either 

 of simple, safe modifications of these, or of other safe and 

 efficient lamps, and that one possible element of danger to the 

 miner has thus been eliminated, at any rate in many districts. 

 In one important respect recent improved legislation has failed 

 to effect a most desirable change — namely, in the substitution of 

 safety-lamps for naked lights in workings where small local 

 accumulations of fire-damp are discovered from time to time. 

 There appears little doubt that one of the three fearful explo- 

 sions which have occurred within the last twelve months — the 

 explosion at Llanerch Colliery, near Pontypool — was caused by 

 the continued employment of naked lights in a mine where 

 inspection constantly revealed the presence of fire-damp. This, 

 and two other terrible disasters, at Mossfield Colliery, in 

 Staffordshire, at Morfa Colliery, near Swansea, which have 

 occurred since the last meeting of the Association, may have 

 seemed to weaken the belief that the operation of the recent 

 Mines Regulation Act, which was based upon some of the 

 results of seven years' arduous labour of the late Mines Com- 

 mission, must have resulted in very substantial improvement 

 in the management of mines and in the conduct of work by 

 the men. Happily, however, there is a consensus of opinion 

 among those most competent to judge — i.e. the Government 

 Mine Inspectors — that very decided benefits have already accrued 

 from the operation of the new Act. Although far from em- 

 bodying all that the experienced mine-owners, miners, and 

 scientific workers upon that Commission, as well as practical 



NO. 1088, VOL. 42] 



authorities in Parliament, concurred in regarding as reasonably 

 adaptable, from the results of observation and experiment, to 

 the furtherance of the safer working of mines, this Act does 

 include measures, precautionary and preventive, of undeniable 

 utility, well-calculated to lessen the dangers which surround the 

 miner, and to add to his personal comfort underground. We 

 may hope, moreover, that the operation of the Act is paving 

 the way to more comprehensive legislation in the near future : 

 for it can scarcely be doubted, by the light of recent sad ex- 

 perience, that there are directions in which both masters and 

 men still hesitate to adopt, of their own free will, measures or 

 regulations, methods of working or appliances and precautions, 

 which are calculated to be important additional safeguards 

 against mine-accidents, and which are either left untouched, 

 or only hesitatingly and imperfectly dealt with in the recent 

 enactments. 



My labours upon the late Mines Commission represent only 

 one of several subjects in connection with which it has been my 

 good fortune to have opportunities of rendering some slight 

 public service in directions contrasting with one of the main 

 functions of my career, by endeavouring to apply the results of 

 scientific research to a diminution of the risks to which particular 

 classes of the community, or the public at large, are exposed — 

 of being sufferers by explosions, the results of accidents or other 

 causes. 



During the pursuit of bread-winning vocations, and even in 

 ordinary domestic life, the conditions, as well as the materials, 

 requisite for determining more or less disastrous explosions are 

 often ready to hand, and their activity may be evoked at anv 

 moment through individual heedlessness or through pure acci- 

 dent. Steam,- or gases confined under pressure, volatile inflam- 

 mable liquids, combustible gases, or finely-divided inflammable 

 solids, are now all well recognized as capable of assuming the 

 character of formidable explosive agents ; but with respect to 

 the three last-named, it is only of late that material progress has 

 been made towards a popular comprehension and appreciation 

 of the conditions conducive to danger, and of those by the 

 fulfilment of which danger may be avoided. Thus, the causes 

 of explosions in coal-laden ships, together with the occurrence 

 of spontaneous ignition in coal-cargoes, another fruitful source 

 of disaster, were made the subject of careful inquiry some years 

 ago by a Royal Commission, upon which I had the pleasure o f 

 working with the late Dr. Percy, whose invaluable labours for 

 the advancement of metallurgic science will always be gratefully 

 remembered. The light thrown by that inquiry upon the causes 

 of those disasters, and upon the conditions to be fulfilled for 

 guarding against the accumulations of fire-damp, gradually 

 escaping from occlusion in coal, and of heat, developed by 

 chemical changes occurring in coal-cargoes, has unquestionably 

 led to an important reduction of the risks to which coal-laden 

 ships are exposed. Subsequent official in([uiries and experj- 

 mental investigations, in which I took part with the late Sir 

 Warington Smyth and some eminent naval officers, consequent 

 upon the loss of H.M.S. Doterel through the accidental ignition 

 of an explosive mixture of petroleum spirit- vapour and air (and 

 other calamities in war-ships originating with the gradual emission 

 of fire-damp from coal), have resulted in the adoption of efficient 

 arrangements for ventilating all spaces occupied by, and con- 

 tiguous to, the large supplies of fuel which these vessels have 

 to carry. 



The thorough investigation, by Rankine and others, of the 

 causes of explosions in flour-mills, which in years past were so 

 frequent and disastrous, has secured the adoption of efficient 

 measures for diminishing the production, and the dissemination . 

 through channels and other spaces in the mills, of explosive 

 mixtures of flour-dust and air, and for guarding against their 

 accidental ignition. The numerous terrible accidents caused by 

 the formation and accidental ignition of explosive mixtures of 

 inflammable vapour and air in ships carrying cargoes of petro- 

 leum stored in barrels or in tanks, have, by the investigations to 

 which they have given rise, led to the indication of effective 

 precautionary measures for guarding against their recurrence. 

 Again, the many distressing accidents, frequently fatal, which 

 have attended the domestic use of those valuable illuminants, 

 petroleum and mineral oils of kindred character, have been 

 made the subject of exhaustive investigations, which have de- 

 monstrated that these disasters may readily be prevented by the 

 employment of lamps of proper construction, and by the obser- 

 vance of very simple precautions by the users of them ; and a 



