Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1869-10-28
THE EVENING NEWS.
rhar.aay E,ealas as. lsss
Exhnsui.hiux Fire In nline..

Ex~Glu 3ul1nta& Ftfe IN Mluea.
In view Of the recent great Ere in the
mines Of Gold Hill, and the great La
bility existing for similar or less fires to
occur in the mines, not only along the
C%omstock, but in others rendered COM
bustible from the great amount Of dry
timbsriug, we have condensed the fol-
lowing on the subject Of extinguishing
such irss, from the Engineering and Mn
ing Journal, of October 10th. The first
page is occupied by an illustrated des-
cription of Gurney's apparatus for man
ufacturing after.dsmp," which is q
mixture of nitrogen and carbouic acid.
The principle Of this apparatus simply
consists in passing atmospheric air
through a FIRE about Is inches deep,
whereby all the oxygen Of the air is
consumed, aud the desired gas thus
produced is conducted from the ash pit
beneath the FIRE, through q large air
tight tube and driven by means of steam
iets inserted into the tube, directly into
the mine. When all the chambers and
galleries of the mine are filled with the
S.s Tim, produced, that condition is
sisnihed BY the gas issuing from an out
lei exclusively left or created for that
puruose, spoken Of as an "upcast,"
wwb;cb might be some other shalt con-
nsc,.d with the mine. This +" after
damn with which the mine is then
supposed to be saturated, is considered
an infsllibls extinguisher OF hre.
In speaking Of steam as an extin-
oui,ber. the writer gives the following
example Of its application (: In 1857, at
tho ST.. Mathew mine, near st. Etienne,
France, steam was injected after the
mine had been on FIRE for eight days
this was continued for seventy hours,
after which cold water was injected for
three days, in order to cool the sides OF
the shaft, galleries, etc, previous to de-
scending into the nine. The pit was
then opened, and a current OF air cir
culated while the men went down.
After two days, however, the niue
again caught FIRE, aud it became agaiu
necessary to close the pit. Steam was
then injected during t~wenty-four hours,
and, after an iutermission of eighteen
hours, cold water was injected for TWEEN
ty-four hours. The fire broke out a
third time, aud steam was admitted for
eleven hours, then cold water, after
which the men were enabled TO enter,
and extiuguish the FIRE completely by
throwing wafer on it.
The application of carbonie acid or
choke-damp and after-damp, is more
complicated than that Of steam, since
the materials for its manufacture are
not often on hand. The most usual
method Of manufacturing carbonic acid
is by means of chalk or limestone, or
any cheap carbonate easily d~ecomposed,
treated with one OF the cheaper acids
as ~sulphurie, nitric or ~hydrochloric.
The gas produced 10 this way has the
advantage Of possessing a low temper
ature /; it not only extinguishes the hre
but tends to cool the rocks to a point
below the temperature necessary for
ignition. i
The hre which called The apparatus of
Mr.. Quincy into use, occurred in the
Ashley pi, 1890 feet deep), near Man
chester, England, April I'd, ls49. After
injecting this after-damp (mixture OF
about f~our-6fths nitrogen aud one-hnh
carbouic acid) into the pit for two
hours, o little white cloud coming out
of the upeast showed that the mine was
full, which fact WAS easily proved by the
gas coming out Of the pit extinguishing
burning tow, etc. The quantity OF gas
injected was estimated at 5000 cubic
feet per minute, and the operation was
continued for Ave or six hours after the
gas commenced TO come out of the up
cast. The FIRE was then drawn, and
fresh air forced through the mine by the
same pits. After two hours aud twenty
minutes the cloudy appearance at the
upcas, disappeared, and q lamp would
burn in the gas coming out. The lire
was found to be ex,inguished, though 1t
had been burning for nearly two weeks
before commencing this operation. The
expense Of the apparatus was estimated
not to exceed Ave to ten pounds.
In a ere which occurred about two
months later (Juue, ls49) in the same
pit, Mr.. Darlington applied carbonic
acid made in the wet way-with lime
stone and sulphuric acid. The fire in
this case was walled of and the gener-
a,iug apparatus placed in the lower gal
lery, and a quar,er-inch steam jet placed
in a pipe inserted through the stopping
in a higher gallery. MIR. Darlington
says eve commenced injecting car.
bouic acid through the fOur-inch pipe at
A ", and at 8 A. ". the men were at
work." OF course the FIRE was a fresh
one, or the rocks would cot have had
time to cool in that time. The expense
was from Slo to sl5, or more :han that
for filing the entire mine with after
damp in the previous case, where the
gas was made with charcoal, the
waste coal round the pits, and a little
limestone"