14 
POPULAK SCIENCE EEYIEW. 
ON EXPLOSIONS OF FIEE-DAMP IN COAL MINES ; 
THEIK CAUSES AND MODE OF PKEVENTION. 
By a. H. green, M.A., F.G.S. 
W HEN the old Hebrew poet wished to fix upon a class of 
men who were exposed more than their fellows to 
danger, and who had to face nature under her most terrible 
aspects, he selected, with admirable fitness for his day, those 
“ that go down to the sea in ships and occupy their business in j 
great waters : ” should a Tennyson or a Browning wish now- 
adays to handle a similar theme, he would find illustrations 
still more apt in the perils of those who pass their lives in the - 
chambers and galleries of deep mines. And coal-miners are ; 
exposed to a larger amount of risk than any others of the craft'; 
for, while they share with the rest of the mining population 
perils from falls of rock overhead, from sudden rushes of water, 
from accidents in shafts, and other similar sources of danger, 
they haveTn addition, always hanging over their heads, a hazard 
peculiarly their own, in the possibility of a sudden outburst of 
the gas known popularly as fire-damp, to be followed, should 
any one of a series of delicate precautions go wrong, by an 
explosion, which will first burn and shatter whatever comes in 
its way, and then leave behind it a deadly vapour that stifles ! 
out any life that the previous fire and havoc may have spared. j 
We propose to attempt a short description of this ever- \ 
present source of danger to the coal-miner, and of the methods 
which have been suggested for guarding against it ; to point 
out where these methods have succeeded, and where they have 
failed ; and to add a few hints as to how failure may have been 
caused, and how it may be avoided for the future. 
It may be as well first to give our readers a few figures, 
showing the number of lives lost every year in Great Britaip 
by explosions of fire-damp. The table below is taken from the 
Reports of the Colliery Inspectors. 
