HISTORY 25 



the Survey was called upon to give expert advice to other 

 branches of the government as to the fuels and structural ma- 

 terials used by them ; and the preparation of specifications and 

 the testing of fuels and materials came to be a standing fea- 

 ture of the Survey's work. 



The emphasis which had thus tended, in this field of the 

 Survey's work, toward the technologic rather than the geo- 

 logic aspect of the mineral industries was strengthened by an 

 appropriation made in 1908 (act of May 22, 1908) "for the 

 protection of lives of miners in the territories and in the dis- 

 tricts of Alaska, and for conducting investigations as to the 

 causes of mine explosions with a view to increasing safety in 

 mining." Under this appropriation the Survey, made exami- 

 nations of explosives used in coal mining in the United States, 

 of the occurrence of explosive gases and inflammable or ex- 

 plosive dust, of safety lamps and mine-rescue apparatus, and 

 of the use of electricity in mines. These investigations, like 

 the forestry surveys, necessitated the addition to the Sur- 

 vey's personnel of an entirely new staff of technical experts — 

 mining technologists. 



For the fiscal year 1908-09 the appropriations for the three 

 classes of technologic investigations just described — testing of 

 fuels, testing of ^structural materials, and investigation of mine 

 explosives — had reached a total of over $500,000, and though 

 in the next fiscal year the item for testing fuels was reduced 

 from $250,000 to $100,000, it was evident that the investiga- 

 tions of, mining accidents would continue to grow in cost and 

 importance. The lack of intimate connection between these 

 investigations and the regular geologic work of the Survey, 

 and the feeling, which, as already seen, had been expressed 

 in Congress more than ten years before, that the mining in- 

 dustries of the country should have definite representation in 

 the government, resulted in a proposal that a Bureau of Mines 

 be created as an independent bureau of the Department of the 

 Interior, and that it take over and develop the work in min- 

 ing technology begun by the Survey. By act of May 16, 1910, 



