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H. ©. Hovey—Danger from Coal-dust in Mining. 19 
even in cases where no fire-damp was present in the work- 
ings.” The influence of coal dust in spreading the effects of gas 
explosions is one of the subjects of investigation by the royal 
commission on accidents in mines, now sitting in England. 
My object in this article is to lay before the public, by per- 
mission of Mr. Edwin Gilpin, Inspector of Mines for Nova 
Scotia, the results of his investigation into the part played by 
coal dust in spreading and augmenting the late explosion in 
the Albion mines. 
_ The seam is well-known as one of the largest in the world, 
being thirty-seven feet in thickness, and spreading over a large 
extent of ground. Many million tons of coal have been ex- 
tracted from the various pits, since work was begun in 1807, 
and the mining establishment has long been regarded as one of 
the most complete that could be devised. The pit in which 
the explosion occurred on the 12th of November, 1880, was 
nearly 1000 feet deep, and was ventilated as thoroughly as 
possible by a large Guibal fan, capable of circulating 120,000 
cubic feet of air per minute through the ramifications of the 
mine. Shortly before the accident referred to, I went entirely 
through the colliery, in company with Mr. Gilpin and the over- 
man, and we remarked the perfection of the ventilation, and 
the consequent absence of deleterious gases, even in the re- 
motest bords. On the morning of the disaster, the night 
watchman reported the mine to be free from gas, except in 
small and harmless quantities. From what source, then, origi- 
nated the series of explosions, that began within an hour from 
the time when this report of entire safety was made, and con- 
tinued at intervals until the mine became a furnace, whose 
flames could be subdued only by emptying into its burning 
chambers the waters of an aiacsie river? Was there some 
sudden exudation of gas from the solid coal, or was this explo- 
sion due to the firing of coal dust from a safety-lamp or the 
flame of a blast? 
None of the forty-four men who witnessed the beginning of 
the catastrophe escaped to explain the mystery; those rescued 
the shaft; and the point reached by the party was only about 
600 yards in that direction. They found several dead bodies 
others by the after damp, but none bore the marks of fire, nor 
_ was the splintered woodwork of the broken timbers charred ; 
