56 
experiments in a mine shaft, is readily adapted to any cage, and it possesses one 
advantage, that it is always in action, and there is no complicated machinery to get out 
of order.” 
Fleuss and Duff's Diving Apparatus .—Some time ago this department, at the 
instance of the Hon. Col. Sargood, imported four sets of the abovementioned apparatus, 
designed to enable explorations to be made in flooded mines or places filled with smoke 
or noxious gases. Two sets were sent to Maryborough, and two to Creswick, and 
placed in charge of the local fire brigade at each place. The following description of 
the apparatus is taken from a paper read before the South Staffordshire and East 
Worcestershire Institute of Mining Engineers on the 8th June last:— 
The many difficulties to be mot with in mining emergencies and submarine operations are well known 
to those who have to contend with them, and inventors of various appliances by which artificial respiration 
is maintained have made many improvements from time to time, and attempts have been made to enable the 
explorer or diver .to carry on operations without the necessity of having the air pumped down through 
flexible tubes, but nothing practical had been done in this way until Mr. Ficuss invented his apparatus for 
filtering the breath and admixing oxygen, thereby giving a regular supply of pure air. Many severe tests 
were successfully applied to the apparatus, but more recently extraordinary practical work has been 
accomplished by means of the apparatus, and thus it lias been put outside the category of theoretical 
inventions, and is to-day recognised as the most practical and valuable invention for submarine work, and 
for exploring the most intricate turnings of a mine in which there may be most deadly gases. The 
importance in mining emergencies of compact, portable, and self-contained apparatus, by means of which 
accumulations of noxious gases incidental to deranged conditions of ventilation or fire in coal mines may 
with safety and facility bo penetrated, needs only to be mentioned to bring to mind at once occasions for 
application. The advantages of such moans are obvious, particularly for purposes of observation, rescue of 
life and property, and opportunity to do, remove, place, or construct, whatever the case may require* 
Ficuss’ Patent Noxious Gas Apparatus, for breathing in irrespirablo gases, is self-contained and wholly 
independent of the surrounding atmosphere, and will supply breathing air for four hours at a time, thus 
enabling tlie wearer to breathe with safety iu the most deadly gases. The principle of the apparatus is that 
the wearer breathes liis own breath over and over again; the carbonic acid being taken from it at each 
respiration and the requisite amount of oxygen restored, the revivified breath is fit to be again inhaled in the 
form of pure air. The apparatus, which is carried upon the back of the explorer in the form of a knapsack, 
consists of a strong sheet copper cylinder 12in. by 6Jin., with domed ends, and capable of holding 4 cubic 
feet of oxygen gas at a pressure of 16 atmospheres. Above the cylinder, and attached to the side of it, is 
a square metal box 12 by 12 by 4 inches, to contain the filter, which is a box of vulcanite, divided into four 
compartments by vertical diaphragms, and with a wooden lid made air-tight by an indiarubber washer, and 
having an inlet and outlet pipe with valves attached. This box is filled with hempen tow and stick caustic 
soda. The exhaled breath passes twice up and down through the tow and soda, and is thoroughly freed of 
carbonic acid, the excess of moisture collect ing under a perforated false bottom arranged for that purpose. A flat 
bag of vulcanized indiarubber, 15in. by 12in., is fastened in front of the wearer, and is connected by an india- 
rubber pipe passing over the shoulder to the outlet pipe of the filter ; the bag is also in communication 
with the oxygen chamber, and tlie supply of oxygen can be regulated bv a jamb screw valve under the 
control of the wearer. An indiarubber mask is made to fit air-tiglit to the face, and is held in place by 
straps buckled up at the back of the head. The mask is fitted with a pair of flexible pipes, the one for 
exhaling being in communication with the inlet pipe of the filter, and the other for inhaling being in 
communication with the air bag. The exhaled breath having passed through the filter, enters the bag in a 
purified state, and there meeting with its complement of oxygen, is fit to be again inhaled. The bag being 
perfectly flexible readily expands or contracts as the breath passes in or out of it, so that no effort is 
required in respiration. Foster and Fleuss’safety mining lamp is a modification of the lime light, methylated 
spirits of wine being used iustead of hydrogen gas, aud consists of a stroug copper sphere Tin. diameter, 
and capable of being charged with oxygen at a pressure of from sixteen to twenty atmospheres. To the 
top of the sphere is attached a small spirit lamp with two wicks, between which, through a small jet, a 
minute stream of oxygen regulated by an injusting valve on the sphere, is allowed to pass, carrying the 
flame against a cylinder of lime, held on a stud placed to receive it. The light is covered in, and rendered 
perfectly safe from inflammable gases, by a double dome-shaped metal casing, having an annular space left 
between its inner and outer surfaces, which is filled with water, discs of plain glass are inserted opposite 
each other in the inner and outer casings, and a small outlet valve is fixed in the inner case near its lower 
parts for the escape of the products of combustion from the inside of the casing into the annular space 
filled with water between the two cases, through which the gases bubble nnd escape through another 
outlet valve fixed on tlie top of the outer case. The cover is attached to the lower part by means of a 
screw, an air-tight joint being made by a leather washer seating. The lamp will burn for four hours under 
water, in carbolic acid, or in fire damp, and it cannot get hotter than boiling water. The essence of these 
inventions is that all means of communication with the surface or pure atmosphere is now dispensed 
with, and the wearer of Fleuss’ dress is enabled to carry with him, not merely compressed air, but more 
compactly, and therefore lasting for a longer period, the ingredients for producing and reproducing 
breathable air. The lamp also is isolated and self-contained, giving light, that is inaccessible to the 
gases or water by which it may be surrounded without importing or sustaining injury and without any 
connexion w'itb tubing or electric wires. The novelty of the apparatus and the principles upon which it 
depends might lead .some to suppose that there would arise some difficulty in its ready use by uneducated 
or unskilled hands. It is to show that these fears arc groundless that I now detail to you the exact pro¬ 
ceedings that took place at Seaham. The first thing to be done was to instruct the men in the use of the 
apparatus, and to give them the necessary confidence in its employment which tho inventor, who was the 
instructor, already had. The oxygon gas required is usually procured direct from London in wrought-iron 
bottles compressed to 40 atmospheres, but, as on this occasion an unusually large quantity of gas was 
