194 The Ventilation of Coal Mines. [April* 



current of air. Men, though forbidden, will smoke ; and the fact 

 of finding lucifer-matches in the pockets of men who haye been 

 killed, tells us how reckless a man the collier is. 



Professor Phillips, in his " Report on Colliery Explosions," has 

 the following remarks : — 



" Abundant currents of air may be so misdirected as to yield 

 bad ventilation ; the safety-lamp may be so unwisely handled as to 

 endanger the lives it should protect ; the best regulations may, if 

 not strictly carried out, become sources of mischief. The general 

 remedies for these errors, or crimes, are instruction and responsi- 

 bility ; increased knowledge, and stronger motives to use it rightly 

 — knowledge is nowhere more powerful, obedience nowhere more 

 necessary, than in a coal-mine." 



Until the young miners are instructed in the necessity of 

 observing, with all strictness, the rules which superior knowledge 

 has proved to be essential to their safety, we cannot hope to pre- 

 vent those calamities, which we so much bewail. 



A larger number of miners perish from the effects of the " after- 

 damp," or " choke-damp" — carbonic acid — than from the actual 

 explosion of fire-damp. When the mixture of carburetted hydrogen 

 and air is exploded, the carbon combines with oxygen to form car- 

 bonic acid, and the levels become filled with this deadly vapour. 

 Carbonic acid kills by asphyxia : the action of the heart ceasing with 

 the inhalation of irrespirable gases. Now, could those who were 

 rendered insensible by the after-damp be speedily removed to pure 

 air, they might be, by a little careful attention, restored to anima- 

 tion. It therefore becomes of the first importance to have at hand 

 the means which would enable men to penetrate the dangerous 

 gases and rescue then comrades. The most simple method is to 

 place in a coarse bag a mixture of powdered Glauber salts — the 

 sulphate of soda — and lime. This tied over the nose and mouth, 

 effectually absorbs the carbonic acid, and prevents its exercising 

 any injurious effect on respiration. 



Many plans have been devised for enabling men to penetrate 

 dangerous gases. One was by a well-known colliery-viewer of 

 Newcastle, Mr. T. Y. Hall, which partook of a permanent character. 

 Safety-pipes of any satisfactory material were to be laid down in the 

 (i thill," or floor of the main galleries of the mine, in the direction 

 taken by the air, from the top of the " downcast " shaft into the 

 workings, and back through the " return " to the " upcast " shaft. 

 These pipes to be provided with boxes or joints, at intervals of about 

 40 or 50 yards — such is the permanent arrangement. An air-tight 

 dress or casing is constructed, which can be so secured, — as is the 

 diver's dress — that the man wearing it breathes only the enclosed 

 air. Flexible tubes from the dress can be connected with the boxes 

 or joints on the safety-pipes, and these tubes removed at will by 



