November 7, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



759 



to a minimum this loss of life that in 1835 a 

 committee of the House of Commons was ap- 

 pointed to inquire into the cause of the acci- 

 dents that were taking place. That committee 

 reported, with regret, that the result of their 

 inquiry had not enabled them to lay before the 

 House any particular plan by which the acci- 

 dents might be avoided with certainty, and 

 consequently they made no decisive recommen- 

 dation. In spite of subsequent committees 

 and investigations, both official and private, 

 the loss of life from accidents in mines did not 

 decrease, and it was under these circumstances 

 that a meeting of mining engineers and gen- 

 tlemen connected with the working of the 

 mines in the North of England was held at 

 ISTewcastle on July 3, 1852, for the purpose of 

 forming- a society to meet at fixed periods and 

 discuss the means of ventilation of coal mines 

 with a view to the prevention of accidents and 

 for general purposes connected with the min- 

 ing and working of collieries. The society so 

 formed was the beginning of the Mining In- 

 stitute. He held that by an interchange of 

 practical experience and by a united and com- 

 bined effort to improve themselves in the 

 science of their profession they had raised the 

 art and science of mining engineering to a 

 higher state of efficiency than it was in 50 

 years ago. The good work of the institute 

 was recognized by the government in 1876, 

 when it was granted a royal charter. Similar 

 institutions were formed in various mining 

 districts of the country, and iia 1889 these 

 were federated under the title of the Institute 

 of Mining Engineers. He referred to the 

 great part taken by the institute in the forma- 

 tion of the Durham University College of 

 Science in 1871, and said there had been an 

 enormous reduction in the number of fatali- 

 ties in mines in consequence of the proceedings 

 of the institute and to the education of its mem- 

 bers. During the last 50 years the coal trade 

 of the country had greatly increased, the out- 

 put having more than quadrupled in the 

 period. Erom 1851 to 1855 the number of 

 deaths caused by explosions in mines averaged 

 231 per annum, whereas the average of the 

 last five years was 64; if the difference in the 



number of men employed was taken into con- 

 sideration, the deaths, calculated at the same 

 rate as in the earlier period, would have been 

 765. The number of fatal accidents from the 

 falls or roof and sides and from accidents in 

 and about the shafts had also greatly de- 

 creased. The total loss of life from all sources 

 on the average of the five years from 1851 to 

 1855 was 985 per annum, whereas the average 

 of the five years from 1896 to 1900 was 1,001 

 per annum, or 16 more than in the first period, 

 although there were 525,297 more men and 

 boys employed in and about the mines. If 

 the earlier death-rate had continued during 

 the latter period there would have been a loss 

 of 3,146 lives. There was still much to be 

 accomplished, however, particularly in the re- 

 duction of the number of accidents due to falls 

 of roof and sides in mines. 



Ix a recent paper published by the U. 

 S. Geological Survey, on Wells and Wind- 

 mills in Nebraska, mention is made of the 

 phenomena of the breathing or blowing wells 

 which are found distributed throug-hout a 

 large portion of the State of Nebraska. . These 

 wells are of the driven type mostly in use upon 

 the Plains, biit are distinguished from those 

 of ordinary character by a remarkable and un- 

 explained egress and ingress of currents of air 

 which produce distinctly audible sounds and 

 give the names variously applied to them of 

 breathing, sighing, blowing, or roaring wells, 

 according to their characters in different 

 places. The air currents are readily tested 

 with the flames of candles, or by dropping 

 chaff or feathers into the well tubes. There 

 are periods when these wells blow out for sev- 

 eral days, and equal periods when their air 

 currents are reversed. It has been observed 

 that the blowing occurs with changes of the 

 barometer. Some wells are found to be most 

 audible when the wind is from the northwest, 

 with a rise in water level; but with a change 

 of wind air is drawn in and the water is ob- 

 served to sink. During the progress of a low- 

 barometer area over one of these regions, wind 

 is violently expelled from the wells, with a 

 noise distinctly audible for several rods. Pro- 

 fessors Loveland and Swezey, of the University 



