The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1885-12-31
monitomof pilot.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 81, 1885.
A CRY FOR BETTER LIGHT.
The Risks Miner Runs Because He Can
Not See.

A CRY FOR BETTER LIGHT.
The Risks Miner Runs Because He Can
Not See.
For every fifty thousand tons of coal
mined in the anthracite regions. writes
Scranton, Pa, correspondent, one hu-
man life is lost. This is at the rate OF
fifty lives a month, or almost an average
of two day for every working day in
the year. When the price of coal is
adjusted for the season the cost of pro-
duction and transportation is all care
fully summed up in the estimates, but
this one factor of the cost of human life
in mining the coal does not get into the
calculations, and is never reckoned in
the price current. The chief causes OF
fatality IN the mines are explosions of
gas and falls of roofing. While the most
dreaded form OF destruction, that of ex-
plosion, does not appear from statistics
to be the most fatal numerically, yet it
is attended by fact that adds to the
melancholy of the fate of its victims.
Every life lost in mine explosion is a
sacrifice to carelessness, either the care
less and culpable act of a miner or to
the more deliberate careleSsness of mine
owners in emitting to provide better
light and ventilation in the mine.
Scarcely a week passes in the coal
region without news of some disaster
from explosion or the falling of mine
roof, and every accident is followed by
the cry, that has been made ever since
coal-mining began in the region, that
there must be better light for use in
mines. The cry is soon forgotten, be-
cause it has never been followed up by
any practical effort on the part of the
men most interested to make it of prac-
teal effect.
Accidents in mines are enormously
increased by the darkness. A danger
greater than that from a gas explosion
constantly menaces a miner. OF the
deadly presence of the fire-damp he may
frequently trust his sense of smell to
warn him, but the other danger he can
only discover with his eyes. This dam
ger is that from the fall of face-coal in
the roofs, and one-third of the lives lost
in the coal-mines are lost by these falls
of coal.
A blast in a mine may shatter larger
area of coal than is thrown down. If
the miner sees a crack in the wall ahead
of him, or in the roof above him, he
knows he is in danger, and he can tell
whether it is imminent by his never
failing test of the piece of wet clay. This
clay, plaStered over the crack, will
shortly tell him whether the crack is
stationary or is slowly but surely en-
larging and advancing toward the time
of the fall of rock or coal. If the crack
is charging the clay will soon show a
crevice in itself Then there is danger
swift and near.
The miner has the reputation of be-
ing a most reckless and needless person,
| and the evidence of many mine acct
dents show plainly that except for some
careless act of workman it would not
have happened. The danger of fire.
the fact that he is alive, and such an
act of bravado or thoughtlessness as
striking a match to light his pipe or the
going forward with naked lamp or a
burning candle while there was strong
suspicion that the deadly fire-damp was
| lurking at his side would seem to be the
| madness of self-destruction. Not even
the most reckless would be supposed
capable of thus deliberately inviting a
horrible death or doom himself TO see
his chance of life and escape slowly
wear away while he is imprisoned in a
locked-up gallery. Yet the interior of
| a mine after an explosion too often bears
| the mute but unmistakable witness as to
| the cause. 1t may be a half-burned can
| die, sometimes still clutched in the care
| less miners hand, or box of matches
half emptied, or naked or unlocked
lamp 1t is "A common thing to hear
| the report of mine accident of this
kind ending up with the statement:
Caused by miner working with a
naked lamp"
But in making the clay test to dis
cover the danger that may be present in
a cracked roof there is not much Won
der that the miner risks one danger to
the more surely determine the immi-
nence of another His lamp is dull, and
the testing clay is surrounded by dark
ness. The miner, to note more certain.
| ly the working of the clay, frequently
removes his candle, and holds it nearer
the crack to give him better light, thus
imreriling his own life and that OF
others by the danger of exploding gas in
the effort to more surely escape the Other
danger that he knows may be present.
If instead of the FREELY lamp the miner
is now compelled to use because of the
| still backward state and scientific neg
lect of invention in regard to the bet
ter and safer lighting of mines he had
a light by which he could see clearly
what was threatening him in the con-
fines of the gloomy chambers he would
not, as now, constantly be tempted to
brave the risk of fire-damp.
The electric lighting of mines has
been suggested and experimental with,
but it does not seem to be practical in
! the winding galleries and isolated cham
bers of the anthracite mines. The lights
| would have to be so numerous that the
cost would place the lighting of mines
| by electricity, as rule, beyond the con-
| sideration of the mine-owners, What
| is needed" says an old Scranton mine
boss, lis portable lamp, easily carried,
and capable of brilliancy so great that
the necessary safety-screen can not re-
duce it to dullness that will tempt the
miner to bring the naked flame of a
match or candle in contact with mine
gases in order that he may insure him.
self against the one danger he fears
more than an explosion. ! believe that
kerosene can be made to become the
medium of producing the light. 1t is
cheap and safe. To the person who
will invent an appliance by which ii
may be used will surely come fame and
fortune, and the blessings of his fellow
men. If some brilliant inventive ge-
MUS could only experience even for Ii
short time the sensation of a miner
when, in the absolute and lonely dark
ness of a mine passage. he hears the
ominous sound of cracking beams ana
rafting stones and coal overhead. the
horror of which no repetition of the
sound can lessen, and should feel, as
he must, the irresistible instinct that he
must have light, even at the risk of 9TH
er peril. he would certainly turn his
thoughts and invention to the poor work
men toiling underground until he dis
covered and applied the boon for which
| L 4