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same reaching from the door to the heap, and they wanted to 
find out its nature. To do this, suppose that they fired the 
train with a match, and trusted to stamping it out with their 
feet, so as to prevent its communicating with the heap. This 
may seem a mad way of testing the nature of gunpowder, but 
it is not a whit more insane than trying a fiery coal mine with 
a lighted candle for fire-damp. 
In my mind, ignorance of the origin and properties of fire- 
damp is the chief cause of the explosions in coal mines. This 
want of knowledge of the subtle enemy they have to deal with 
is common to both officers and men. The proverb that 
" knowledge is power" is nowhere more applicable than when 
applied to fire-damp in a coal mine, for no intelligent officer 
who knows much of it will be long in removing it as soon as 
it is generated, and also be instantly prepared for its appear- 
ance in the mine when it is known to exist, or even when 
there is a mere probability of its existence. The mixed use 
of Davy lamps and candles in a mine where fire-damp is 
known to be in any part of the workings or waste is, to say 
the least of it, both reckless and dangerous. 
I am well aware that most of the coal proprietors of this 
district are anxious to do everything they can for the preser- 
vation of the lives of their men and the safety of their pro- 
perty, and that no expense is spared by them to carry into 
effect their objects ; but they have to leave all to their 
manager, and he has to trust to his underlookers ; — all these 
may be good practical miners, and yet know little or nothing 
of the nature of fire-damp, the great and subtle enemy with 
whom they have constantly to deal. As long as coal is so 
extensively worked in England as it now is, the mines will 
gradually become deeper and deeper, and consequently more 
subject to fire-damp. Inspectors may do good, as they un- 
questionably have done, in spurring on and sharpening the 
officers of mines, but the Government inspection of mines 
Y Y 2 
