The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-09-21 00:00:00

A VALUABLE SUGGEETION.

With respect to Explosions in Mines The Times of Tuesday
publishes the following letter :
Sir,—Considering the unenviable character of the
coal-miner's daily toil, carried on in cramped and
painful positions, denied the light of day and fresh air,
working the live-long day in darkness just made
visible by the glimmer of his safety-lamp, and ex-
posed at every moment to sudden and painful death
by explosion or fire, or to a slow living death by en-
tombment in the cell his industry has wrought,—con-
sidering these conditions, and this sad lot of a large and
meritorious portion of our fellow beings, it does seem
unaccountable and perverse that while labour in the
open air, with all the advantages of sunlight and uncon-
strained movement, has been benefited and elevated by
the strong arm of science, the operations of coal mining
have received little, if any, mitigation since Sir
Humphry Davy invented the safety-lamp. One would
think that long ago science and engineering ought to
have rescued this labour trom its exceptional risk
and hardship. Every renewed catastrophe harrows
the feelings and taxes the mind to think of some
expedient that may be useful. An idea has just occurred
to me, and I shall be very grateful if you will give to
it the publicity of your universally-read journal, in
order that if, as I bilieve, it has not presented itself
to others, or been tried and found impracticable, it
may stand the chance of turning out to be an expe-
dient calculated to remove some of the risks referred
to. The physician and surgeon have long been aided
in their work of exploring the hidden machinery of the
human body by the use of reflected light; by this means
we observe the deep structures of the eye, and are
able to judge of the vital conditions of structures quite
invisible to ordinary inspection. By the same modifi-
cation of reflecting mirrors, we can oblige the borrowed
ray of light to turn down right angles and reveal to us
the healthy movements or the diseased condition of
the vocal chord situated in the wind-pipe. I want to
ask why, by the same means in principle, we may not
carry into the caverns of the earth the light necessary
to work these mines?—whereby we should entirely
obviate the risks of exploding inflammable gases, for
in such reflected light there would be neither heat nor
combustion.
The method I want to suggest would in outline be
this :—At the head of every main shaft erect an
electric light of sufficient power to send down the shaft
by reflection from a mirror a stock or flood of light
sufficient to supply the various galleries emanating
from the shaft. At every point where required to
illuminate a side gallery, or a particular spot, a reflect-
ing mirror, fixed on to any surface, or held in a work-
man's hand, and turned en at the required angle,
would enable him to see the field of his operations in-
finitely better than the lamp could do, and the whole
system, both in its supply and in its detailed applica-
tion, would be perfectly safe and independent of skill
and care in the persons using it. If one stream of elec.
tric light was found in practice to be insufficient, a
distinct supply for each, gallery could be sent down the
main shaft as easily as one.
Should this suggestion be of any use towards solving
this great question, you will not regret giving it this
publicity.—l am, Sir, your most obedient servant,
THOS. HAWKSLET, M,D., Load.
September EL