-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 
- particular classes of the community, or the public at large, are 
ADDRESS. 41 
exposed—of being sufferers by explosions, the results of accidents or other 
causes. 
1 During the pursuit of bread-winning vocations, and even in ordinary 
domestic life, the conditions, as well as the materials, requisite for deter- 
_ mining more or less disastrous explosions are often ready to hand, and 
their activity may be evoked at any moment through individual heedless- 
_ness or through pure accident. Steam, or gases confined under pressure, 
volatile inflammable liquids, combustible gases, or finely-divided inflam- 
mable solids, are now all well recognised 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 of 
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 
fire-damp, gradually escaping from occlusion in coal, and of heat, 
developed by chemical changes occurring in coal-cargoes, has unquestion- 
ably led to an important reduction of the risks to which coal-laden ships 
are exposed. Subsequent official inquiries and experimental 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 warships 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 contiguous 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 disas- 
trous, has secured the adoption of efficient measures for diminishing 
the production, and the dissemination through channels and other spaces 
