Dec. 23 1S80] 



NA TVRii 



171 



number of the Nineteenth Century, under the title of " Ex- 

 plosions in Collieries and their Cure," he lays before the 

 readers of that magazine an account of the praiseworthy 

 motives which impelled him to seek some means of pre- 

 venting these horrible disasters ; he tells them plainly that 

 he knows little or nothing about the subject, and he recounts 

 what steps he took for the purpose of supplying the want 

 of that knowledge to some extent. He says:— "In my hope 

 that the resources of chemistry might supply a solution 

 of the problem which has so long perplexed everybody, I 

 have made it my business from time to time to seek the 

 society of practical chemists as well as of purely scientific 

 men whose business it is to teach chemistry. I have 

 seen several amongst the former w-ho are engaged in 

 calico-printing works, lead-works, &c., and have sought, 

 by getting them to talk about chemistry, and by so to 

 speak lying in wait myself for some hint in their conver- 

 sation, for something which might supply the missing link." 



Mr. PlimsoU then gives an account of how he travelled 

 over the painfully disappointing road of trying to " un- 

 mask" the fire-damp, to "make it visible to the eye like 

 smoke or steam," and to indicate its presence by means 

 of a collodion balloon filled w-ith the light carburetted 

 hydrogen and put into a vertical recess glazed in front 

 where it "would float upon the stratum of common air 

 because filled with the lighter gas, but would remain at 

 the bottom of the stratum of gas because kept down by 

 the weight of the envelope inclosing it." 



He says of the fire-damp indicator :—" A delicate 

 instrument has been invented, constructed on the prin- 

 ciple of the diffusion of gases ; but as this would require 

 the application and careful observation of anybody using 

 it, and as all it shows can be equally ascertained by 

 watching the elongation of the flame on the safety-lamp, 

 I pass it by." 



He next asks, " Can this gas be absorbed ?" and gives 

 an example of what he means by describing the strong 

 affinity which quicklime has " for hydrogen in the form of 

 water " ; and lastly, he puts the question : " Supposing 

 all these branches of inquiry to result unsatisfactorily, 

 whether this gas should be loaded or neutralised in some 

 manner that should render it non-explosive?" 



We will pass over th.e incentives which our author 

 brings forward with the view of stimulating men of science 

 to undertake the work of discovery. That these incentives 

 are strong enough in all conscience we who heard the 

 dreadful sound of the explosion at the Naval Steam-Coal 

 (Penygraig) Collieries as we lay awake shortly after mid- 

 night on Friday last can testify from experience. A few 

 hours later we breathed the fatal after-damp in a suffi- 

 ciently diluted form to produce only headache and nausea : 

 we looked upon the blackened remains of the victims as 

 they lay or knelt on the ground, some having been hurled 

 from a distance and having nearly every bone in their 

 bodies broken, others having their coats tightly drawn 

 over their necks and mouths and their faces buried in 

 the dust, and still others actually kneeling, having their 

 knees drawn more or less closely up under them, their 

 hands pressed on their mouths and their faces also 

 in the dust. We saw nine fine horses that had been 

 struck down where they stood in their stable never 

 to rise again ; one that had started off at a mad gal- 

 lop, and been arrested in six yards by a fall of roof 

 due to the blast which startled him, his legs and his 

 whole body in an attitude of fierce action resting on the 

 top of the fall, and his head laid gently on one side ; two 

 others lying on their backs with their legs in the air ; 

 another that had turned round in his shafts by some extra- 

 ordinary convulsion, so that he faced the load he was 

 drawing, while his body, with head erect, was twisted in 

 between two props at the side of the road ; and, lastly, 

 a little donkey denuded of harness and tossed like a 

 rag on to a heap of rubbish. We saw many of the 

 bodies carried to the bottom of the shaft and sent to the 



surface, and others being carried from the pit to the 

 homes where they lately dwelt ; we heard the weeping of 

 the bereaved ones ; we saw one little knot of mourners 

 from our very window, and since we began to write, as 

 they gathered at the end of a row of houses, were joined 

 by others bearing a coffin on their shoulders, and pro- 

 ceeded slowly down the road and out of sight, while the 

 plaintive Welsh hymn that never fails to accompany such 

 a procession rose and fell on the ear, and died away 

 fitfully amongst the hills. 



If any one can see and hear all this and more and 

 remain unmoved, his natural aft'ection is dead, and Mr. 

 PlimsoU's appeal will be made to him in vain. Happily 

 there are many whose hearts are wrung when they see or 

 hear of the sufferings of their fellow-men, and who are 

 always ready and willing to respond to such a cry. 



We will now turn to the second part of Mr. PlimsoU's 

 article, where we find his account of the manner in 

 which he proposes to prevent " half, or it may happily 

 prove even more than half, the number of explosions." 

 He describes it in the following words : — " I do not pro- 

 pose to alter anything in existing arrangements in the 

 suggestion I am about to offer, but only to supplement 

 them. Let the present system of ventilation remain as 

 it is in all its vigour, but in regard to the gas which 

 escapes it, gets behind it, and accumulates in the upper 

 and the waste portions of the pit, can we not go arm in 

 arm with Nature in this matter, as we do in the others, 

 and follow the gas whithersoever it goes and thus, in 

 Lord Bacon's words, by obeying Nature learn how to 

 concjuer her ? 



" It goes to the highest part of the pit, therefore into 

 the exhausted spaces. I would work with this tendency, 

 and, as in the case of water, a large hole is dug called a 

 ' sump,' to collect the water at the bottom of the pit and 

 so facilitate its removal by the pumps, so I would make a 

 hole or sump for the accommodation of the gas ; but as 

 the water is heavy and lies upon the floor, and has the 

 sump for it made in the floor, so my hole or ' sump ' to 

 gather the gas should be in the roof of the mine, and 

 that in the highest accessible places. 



" If it were certain that the water will run into the hole 

 or sump dug for it in the floor or the lowest part of the 

 pit, then it is equally certain that the light carburetted 

 hydrogen would rise in the 'sump' or hole dug for it in 

 the highest part of the workings of the pit. 



" I would then place a vertical tube with an open trum- 

 pet-shaped mouthjsomcthing like the funnel or chimney of 

 a locomotive, in this place, and of such a length that the 

 open mouth(which should be protected with a louvre cover- 

 ing or cap to keep out the dirt) should reach up very near 

 to the roof ; the bottom end of this pipe or tube I would 

 continue to the bank of the pit ; and as in the case of 

 water you proceed to remove the accumulation by a 

 water-pump, so in this case I would pump out the accu- 

 mulation of light carburetted hydrogen by means of an 

 air-pump ; probably a small fan like that used in foundries 

 would do as w'ell, or even better. 



" This air-pump or fan could easily be worked by a 

 strap from the winding-engine, or by hand. It would 

 require assistance during the daily drawing out of the 

 pipe the atmospheric air which would fill it when the gas 

 was exhausted from the mine. I ask your common sense, 

 could you not as certainly in this way draw off every 

 cubic foot of gas in the mine as you now can certainly 

 remove the water from it ?" 



Mr. PlirasoU summarises in the following manner : — 



" I. Is it not a fact that the light carburetted hydrogen 

 does and will seek the highest place of refuge open to it 

 in the pit .' 2. Is it not a fact that at this moment there 

 is scarcely a coal-mine which has not gas in its goaves 

 and highest parts ? And 3. Is it not clear that by thus 

 tapping the highest places it can as surely be drawn off 

 as water can be pumped out of a pit ?" 



