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similarly constituted bodies in France and Germany, all of which 
have been called into existence and have completed their labours 
within the period named. Indeed, scarcely had the ink with 
which the English Report was written been dry when the Home 
Office introduced a new Mines’ Regulation Bill which provides, 
amongst other things, that ‘* /7 all ary and dusty mines the air- 
ways and travelling roads are t be kept clear of dust OR well 
watered, and a shot is not to be fired until the place and that near 
it is clearet of dust and then weil watered” (‘‘Mining Journal” ). 
The crudeness of the idea embodied in the first alternative, 
which appears to contemplate the possibility of removing the 
dust from roadways and airways without the simultaneous use of 
water, reminds one of an incident of the interview between 
Christian and the Interpreter (‘‘ Pilgrim’s Progress ”) :— 
“*Then he took him by the hand and led him intoa very large 
parlour that was full of dust because never swept ; the which, 
after he had reviewed it a little while, the Interpreter called for 
aman to sweep. Now when he began to sweep the dust began 
so abundantly to fly about that Christian had almost therewith 
been choked. Then said the Interpreter to a damsel that stood 
by, ‘ Bring hither water and sprinkle the room,’ the which, when 
she had done, it was swept and cleansed with pleasure.” 
It has all the appearance of being a compromise between effi- 
ciency on the one hand and ignorance or prejudice on the other, 
and closely resembles, in this respect, the first General Rule of the 
Act for the Regulation and Inspection of Mines, 1860 (23 and 24 
Vic., cap. 151), according to whicha mine was required to be ven- 
tilated only in such a way as to be safe wnder ordinary circum- 
stances. But just as these qualifying words were found to be a 
cloak for all kinds of inefficiency in the matter of ventilation, and 
had to be ultimately expunged after a twelve years’ trial, so we 
venture to predict will this other unscientific alternative, if passed 
into law, cause endless trouble and disaster, and require to be 
similarly dealt with at some future time. 
To lay the dust sufficiently well to prevent the spread of an 
explosion requires a much smaller quantity of water than appears 
to be generally supposed. 
This has been stated more or less directly several times in 
describing the results of coal-dust experiments ; but it was 
very clearly brought out in the examination of the workings of 
Pochin Colliery, in Monmouthshire, after the great explosion in 
November 1884. The flame whichin that case had all but filled 
the mine, and had penetrated into the remotest parts of three 
districts of workings ventilated by separate air-currents, was found 
to have been arrested by aslight dampness on one of the roadways 
leading to several working places. A cask conveying water from 
a dip place to a point more conyenient to the pumps was hauled 
along this roadway four times every twenty-four hours, and it was 
stated by the manager of the colliery at the time that the dampness 
~ in question was due simply to accidental leakages from this cask 
and not to any intentional application of water for the purpose of 
laying the dust. At the inquest on Mardy explosion also, in 
January last, it was pointed out that a similar accidental or irre- 
gular system of watering appeared to have stopped the flame in 
four different directions, and to have saved the lives of many of 
the workmen (Western Mail, January 21, 1886). 
Systematic watering with the avowed object of preventing the 
spread of explo-ions has hitherto been practised in very few col- 
lieries in this country. Llwynypia Colliery in the Rhondda 
Valley is a notable exception. Soon after the earliest coal-dust 
experiments had been made there in 1875 the intelligent pro- 
prietors and manager constructed a number of water-tanks on 
wheels, each provided with a perforated pipe at the back like 
an ordinary watering cart. Some of these were intended 
to be drawn by horses along the less frequented roadways, others 
to be attached to the trains of waggons which are drawn along 
the underground railways by means of wire ropes actuated by 
engine-power. The result of watering by this means was satis- 
factory and remarkable. The whole mine became cooler and 
more pleasant to live in. The dust, as such, disappeared not only 
from the floor of the roadways but also from the timbers and 
from the ledges formed by the irregular projections in the side- 
walls, and became consolidated intoa firm, compact, and slightly 
humid mass under foot. 
On their first arrival in this country in 1880, MM. Pernolet and 
Aguillon, who were sent by the Commission du Grisou to study 
_ the state of the English mines, expressed the opinion then gener- } 
ally held, that watering the floor of a dry mine would leave 
ample supplies of dust on the timbers and side-walls to carry on 
an explosion once begun. But after seeing the actual results in 
Llwynypia Colliery with their own eyes they altered their views 
considerably, as will appear from the following extract from their 
Report, which describes this incident of their visit :— 
“ Ainst, d Lhuynypia, or les chantiers se développent jusqwe 
1500 metres du puits, ef ot Vextraction est de 550 tonnes par jour 
avec un seul poste, il suffit par jour de 5 wagons a’une capacité 
dun demi-méitre cube, soit de 4°500m. d'eau. Nous avons pu 
constater gue les galeries daient partout trés pr opres et Vatmosphére 
bres épurée, bien que celle mine passat auparavant pour une de 
cell-s ott l’atmosphére était le plus chargée et le botsage le plus 
recouvert de pousstores.”! 
About a year and a half ago the Home Office began unex- 
pectedly to prosecute the managers of a few widely separated 
mines in different parts of the country for firing blasting shots 
while the men ordinarily employed were underground. The 
practice of blasting under these conditions had been going on un- 
challenged ever since the passing of the Coal Mines’ Regulation 
Act, 1872, and it was with a feeling somewhat akin to conster- 
nation that the colliery owners viewed the new reading then for 
the first time seriously sought to be attached to part of one of the 
General Rules. The manager of the Standard Steam Coal Colliery 
in South Wales was selected out of hundreds of others in the same 
predicament, and a prosecution against him was begun. The 
colliery owners of the district rallied round the Monmouthshire 
and South Wales Collieries’ As:ociation, and undertook the 
defence. Happily, however, for the ends of justice, as well 
perhaps as for the cause of science, the case soon became involved 
in a whirlpool of legal formalities from which, as far as present 
appearances go, it is little likely to escape until after the passing 
of the new Mines’ Bill. 
During the earlier stages of this prosecution the representatives 
and advisers of the owners met the Inspector of Mines for the 
district (the late Mr. T. E. Wales) and asked him to represent to 
the Home Office that they were prepared immediately to submit to 
anew rule compelling them to water their mines systematically if 
the objectionable interpretation of the shot-firing rule were with- 
drawn. At the same time they expressed the opinion that the 
rule they were themselves proposing would afford a real protec- 
tion to the lives of the miners, and that the one they desired to be 
superseded had been founded upon a misapprehension of the true 
causes of explosions. This intelligent proposal was, however, 
allowed to fall to the ground, and the Juggernaut of office rolled 
on its ponderous and relentless course. 
Where simple tanks on wheels are difficult or expensive to 
manipulate, they may be advantageously replaced by a system of 
pipes bringing water from the surface, or from a reservoir at a 
convenient height in the shaft, and distributing it at different 
points of the workings, in the form of a fine spray. This 
arrangement has been successfully applied both at Llwynypia and 
Standard Collieries. At the latter colliery the pressure of water 
at the bottom of the shaft is regulated to fifty pounds on the 
square inch. The water pipes, which are one inch and a half 
in diameter, lie on the floor at one side of the roadway, or are 
supported on timber as the case may be. At distances of fifty 
yards apart upright branch pipes rise vertically from the main to: 
a height of about four feet, each provided with a leaden plug 
with one minute hole. The jets of water are directed horizontally 
across the roadway, and the spray is carried along in the air- 
current, moistening the floor, more or less, all the way from one 
jet to the next. The cost of first establishment is stated to be 
about 5/. per hundred yards, and the cost of maintenance 
to be almost z7/. 
If the dew-point of the air entering a mine were by any 
simple means raised to the normal temperature of the strata 
in which the workings are situated, it is obvious that no sys- 
tem of watering would be necessary, and that any desirable 
degree of dampness could be maintained in the roadways. 
The only objection to this method is, that it would necessitate 
raising the general temperature of all dry mines. 
A slight dampness, such as that which prevails in shallow 
mines at all times, is sufficient to lay the dust effectually ; and 
it is highly probable that, so soon as anything approaching this. 
condition is maintained also in deep mines, we shall have heard 
the very last of ‘‘ Great Colliery Explosions.” 
W. GALLOWAY 
I P. 287, ‘‘ Exploitation et Réglementation des Mines 4 Grisou en Bel- 
gique, en Angleterre et en Allemagne.’’ Rapport de Mission fait 4 la 
Commiss.on chargée de l'étude des moyens propres 4 prévenir les explosions 
de grisou dans les Houilléres, par MM. A. Pernolet et L. Aguillon, 
“Angleterre.” Paris, 1881. 
