Colored News. — London, England, 1855-09-15 00:00:00

~• '1 •- - cl . ibl CtiriA 1.'.(f10% Vol.. I.—No. 7.] SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1855. [TWOPENCE. 'ONDERFUL ESCAPE OF JOHN HARPER AND A PARTY OF PITY Sir James Lowther found a uniform current of gas in one of his mines for two years and nine months. This gas, in the state in which it issues from the coal, burns with a bright flame, like ordinary artificial coal gas ; but when united with a certain portion of the air of the atmosphere, the mixture becomes explosive, that is, the whole volume of air, upou the approach of a flame, suddenly catches fire, and goes off like gunpowder, with a tremendous explosion. If there be more than one volume or bulk of the inflammable gas to fourteen of atmospheric air, the mixture is explosive, and must not be approached with a naked flame. Great pains are taken to ventilate the mines so as to free them from this foul air, by large fires kept constantly burn ing at the mouth of the ventilating shaft, aided very often by air pumps worked by steam-engines, to quicken the draft; and which are sometimes so powerful as to draw out of the mine 1000 hogsheads of air in a minute. One mine is described as generating so much gas as to require a supply of 18,000 cubic feet of atmospheric air in a minute to keep it in a safe working state. Men can continue to work and breath in an explosive mixture of the gas without feeling any material inconvenience; and formerly such places were approached by making use of what were called Steel Mills, to give light. This machine consists of a small wheel of steel, of six or seven inches diameter, moved by a little toothed wheel with great velocity, and by holding a piece of flint to the steel, a stream of sparks is given out. Although in the day the light appears very feeble, in the darkness or the mines it is strong enough to enable one to write by it; but the use of the steel mill is not free from danger of ex plosion in certain That contrivance OF all the accidents to which coal-mines are exposed, the explosion of inflammable gas or fire-damp arc the most fre quent, and by far the most calamitous in their consequences. All coal, even the charcoal like variety called anthracite, appears to contain, in its natural state while underground, a considerable quantity of free uncombined gas, which it parts with when exposed to the air, or when it is relieved from great superincumbent pressure. The gas is evolved from the coal in great quantity at the ordinary temperature of the mines ; and instances have been known of explosions on board of ships ladened with fresh worked coals. Coals lying deep give out more gas than those near the surface, because there are openings at the surface by which it escapes ; but in the deep mines it cannot have such an outlet, and therefore it accumulates in all the fissures of the stone above the coal, and this sort of natural distillation is constantly going on. The fissures of the roof are in some places very great, and there are sometimes miles of communication from one fissure to another : they may be considered as natural gasometers, and having no outlet, and the process of distilla tion constantly going on, the gas becomes accumulated in them in a very highly condensed state, the degree of con densation depending on the thickness of the surrounding rock and the quantity poured in. In the course of pursuing the workings the miners sometimes cut across one of those fissures, or approach so near to it, that the intervening rock becomes too weak to resist the. elastic force of the compressed gas; it gives way, and then, in either case, the gas rushes out with immense force. These blowers, as they are called, emit sometimes as much as 700 hogsheads of gas in a minute, and continue in a state of activity for many months together. HORRIBLE COLLIERY EXPLOSION AT DARLEY MAINE. has, however, been now completely set aside by the impor tant and beautiful discovery of Sir Humphry Davy, the Safety-Lamp. That eminent philosopher instituted a long series of experiments on the nature of the fire-damp, and on the proportions with which it must be mixed with atmos pheric air in order to become explosive. He found that, in respect of combustibility, the fire-damp differs most mate rially from the other common inflammable gases, inasmuch as it requires a far higher temperature before it can be set on fire ; an iron rod, at the highest degree of red heat, and at the common degree of white heat, did not inflame explosive mixtures of the fire-damp, and an explosion only took plaCe when a flame was applied. He further made the important discovery, that flame will not pass through a tube with a very small bore ; and, guided by his principle, he was ulti mately led, through a train of ingenious experiments, to the construction of an instrument which has saved, and will continue to save, the lives of hundreds, and which has rendered a large extent of property productive that the proprietors were unable to turn to any profitable account. Since the discovery of the Davy Lamp accidents by explo sion have be en cons iderably diminished, although we still hear too frequently of many lives beinc , lost from this cause, as in the engraving above, which will be long remembered in the Darley district. These melancholy dis asters are partly occasioned perhaps by ve nturing into too dangerous places, but most frequently by the carelessness and criminal daring of the workmen themselves, who, in order to get a little more light, take off the wire-gauze covering. - --- 7: - .. ....,-;:-._ ---...-- 2,-7--77.---..... •-•-• , -- , --- __ ---7- - 7-7.------. 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