Morning journal and courier., 1881-07-06
Fafr Haven.

The Porter boy who was shot while cele- brating on the Green, and whose condition was such as tS excite fears that the wound would prove fatal, was much improved yes terday.
 Parties interested in the projected exten- sion of Jackson street over the N Y, N. H. $ H. R. R. track are called to meet at the City Hall, room 13, next Tuesday at a. m, when the Railroad Commissioners hold meeting on the subject to hear testimony pro and con.
 Work onithe Ferry street public school building is going forward, and the builders calculate to get the edifce completed by the close of the present vacation. The whole building will be completed by the original contractors, Bates & Townsend, masons, and Loveland, carpenter builder, who contracted also for the additional rooms which the Board of Education recently ordered com pleted with the rest, in view of the probable early demand for them owing to the large number of pupils in the Woolsey district
 The needed repairs are being made upon the other school buildings in the Woolsey district, which are slight. The East Grand street requires trife more than the others.
 Rev. MT. Hovey, A. M., of the Second Congregational church, has an able and sue gestive article in the July number of the American Journal cf Science on 'sCoal dust as an element of danger in mining" The article grew out of observations made by the author during a visit to Nova Scotia. He gives the result of Investigations of Mr. Ed xvin IDi,,
 Scotia, into the part played by coal dust in spreading and augmenting the late explosion in the Albion mines. Millions of tons of coal have been extracted from these mines since 1907, when work was begun in them The pit in which the explosion occurred on November 12th last was nearly 1000 feet deep, and ventilated as thoroughly as possi- ble by large Guibal fan, capable of circu- latlng 10000 cubic feet of air per minute through the ramifcations of the mine Shortly before the accident referred to MT. Hovey. in company with Mir. Gilpin and the overman, went entirely through the colliery They remarked the perfection of the Yentila- tion and the consequent absence of delete rlous gases, even in the remotest spots. This freedom from gases was the case on the morning of the disaster. Whence, then, came the explosion? Was there some sud- den emulation of gas from the solid coal, or was this explosion due to the firing of coal dust from safety lamp or the flame of a blast None of the forty-four men who witnessed the beginning of the catastrophe escaped to explain the mystery those res cued in more distant galleries had but con- lectures to offer. MT. Gilpin, at great risk, led an exploring party, short ly after the original explosion, into the pit, and penetrated as far into the workings as the after damp would allow. The locality where the unfortunate workmen. whom they tried to save were known to be was 3,6OO feet south of the shaft, and the point reached by the party was only 1,s00 feet in that direction. They found several dead bodies of men and horses, killed in some cases by concussion and in others by the af- ter damp, but none bore the marks of fire nor was the spintered woodwork or the broken timbers charred, and the conclusion was plainly justihable that the flame of the explosion had not extended thus far The article forcibly proceeded to demonstrate that all the evidence pointed, not to sustain the old theory, but the new, taking the fact and evidences pertaining to the second explosion as the basis, and setting forth that the second explosion was caused by the ignition of coal dust from the flame of an oil lamp kept burn ing in place close to the shaft, where the air was tolerably pure. The article concludes: sT have only aimed to publish the facts, hoping that some one else may explain on chemical principles the re- markable exhibition of force, as well as of heat, accompanying the ignition of an im- palpable and homogeneous powder. Profes- Aholsc hor cIr xl,o4 finely powdered slate will spread the flame of gas explosions; and it is alleged that there have been frequent explosions of four dust in large mills in some of the western States. In view of these facts the matter, though confessedly not well understood, is worthy of attention from scientific men, and perhaps tnone the less so for that very reason.