The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-01-16 00:00:00

THE VENTILATION OF MINES.

Deep mines are thought to be more infested with the
fire-damp than more superficial ones. There are two
causes to be assigned for this : First, in those mines
which lie near the surface, more of the gas exhales or
finds its way into the atmosphere than from deep ones ;
secondly, the pressure of the superincumbent atmosphere,
and the consequent condensation of the gas, will evidently
be greater in proportion to the depth of the mine. When,
therefore, in a deep mine, the gas becomes confined and
pressed up under an arch or vault, remaining long there-
in, it forms an explosive mixture, and on being ignited,
detonates with great violence.

Again, it appears that a considerable time is required
for the gas to mingle with air, so as to form an explosive
mixture ; as evinced by the more explosive state of the
damp in old wastes, or old excavations ; and also, by the
practice of consuming the gas in the mine, before it ac-
cumulates in great quantity, or becomes explosive by
mixing with atmospheric air. This is done by means of
ento.
These facts considered, why not, I would ask, take /
tahe candle
~aultfi or xed
roof, to
and a p
sool e '
fires-h which
of the inherent property of carburetted hydro-
gen to ascend, by allowing, from the moment of its
emission, a free and unobstructed escape out of the
works ? This requires no ventilation, or forcing of cur-
thhe thee arb workmanuret ted hyradirsoe gs
rents of air through the mine, but simply a removal of all
obstacles to its natural course; which is to be done by
cutting away all depressions in the roof so as to form a
gas-way drift or channel overhead, ascending out towards •
the shaft, or to a perforation (one or more) made by
boring down from the surface, or by an additional small
shaft, either or both being used according as local cir-
cumstances may require, the grand object being to permit
the fire-damp to pass off ind.o the atmosphere as fast as
it is generated or evolved in the works. As to the usual
system of stopping off the damp, forming other pass-ways,
and driving it about from one part of the mine to another,
often through long circuitous passages, at vast trouble
and expense, and the frequent destruction of human life ;
all this we think might be avoided by simply giving the
gas its own way.
By the method now proposed, the mines might, we
presume, be rendered not only safe, hut comparatively
healthy and more comfortable to the miners, enabling
them to work with open lamps or candles, free of all
danger from explosion (at least wherever carburetted
hydrogen forms the explosive gas), and thus avoiding the
enormous expense of a numerous retinue of attendants,
with Davy-lamps, the ventilating, brushing, stopping,
and trap-door system, together with the services of over-
men, viewers, under-viewers, and trappers, by which
system the safety of the mine, if safety it can be called,
is committed to the fearful contingencies of unremitting
care and vigilance in such attendants.—London Poly-
technic Magazine.

Captain Taylor, celebrated as a fly-fisher, caught a
trout, on Christmas-lay, near Barnard Castle, weighing
about 3 oz.

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