Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-06-09
The safety lamp IL the great protection

The SAFETY lamp 10 the great pnOCeCuOn
against fiTe-damp. which the miner cam
otherwise detect, al it has no odor.
But an experienced worker a tell at
once by the condition of his flame not only
the presence of the fire-damp, but It's
quantity. With this invention the name
of Sir Humphrey Davy Is identified. al
though the Davy lamp has long been
superseded for test purposes by better
It is still used, however, as a work.
ing lamp by many miners. II the flame
happens to penetrate It's gauZe at amy
time and strike gas on the outside there
is liable to be In explosion, q danger
which later lamps avoid. The bituminous
mines are not as a general thing SO ex-
plosive as the anthracite, because they
are nearer the surface and SO not subject
to much pressure.
When a fire breaks out the first thing
the miners do is to try to stife it; hand
grenades N other chemical devices are
next employed, all in the endeavor to
sohat the flame and fight it down. As a
last resort the mine Dis flooded, provided
that is possible as it usually Is. Nearly
all mines are constantly filling in with
water anyway, and can only be worked
when the pumps are steadily drawing
1T away. To stop the pumps and let the
mine fill up is of course an effective way
OF checking the fire, although accom-
panied oftentimes by considerable de-
struction of property. Where this method
of flooding is not possible or sufficiently
effective, the bed of a stream has some
lines been turned in. In fact, the stub
bornness of underground fires is only ex-
ceeded by the persistency and ingenuity
with which they have been fought.
How long is our coal going to last?"
asked the Transcript correspondent of the
coal mining expert of the geological sur
vey, who had furnished most of this in
Fo.s>, - . s~, c---
%turies," he answered, perhaps many
centuries, but that the coal supply will
sometime be exhausted cannot be denied.
This is inevitable with the stored prod
uct, and especially n used for fuel in
distinction from the metals like copper
and iron that are used over and over
again. The speed with which the worlds
upon the rapidity with which other
sources of power light and heat, come in
to it's relief. They will come, through
electricity, in manufacturing n rams
portation in the not remote future. The
manufacturing regions of the world are
to be those which are supplied with water
power. Few scientists fear anything from
the exhaustion Of the coal supply for they
feel that the energy of the sun is sufficient
for all our needs. In water power we are
utilizing a single form of the suns ac-
tlvlty; 1t takes up water from the ocean,
deposits it on the hills and let's it run
down to the sea again, giving us while or
it's way a tremendous source of light,
heat and power. Coal is, of course, a
stored up sunbeam. We are at that stage
in the worlds progress where the use of
coal seems the most economical supply
of these things, but a more direct utiliza-
ton of the SUMS power will probably be
our supply i'm the future.
Natural gas has already given out to a
considerable extent; petroleum while not
yet exhibiting serious signs of diminution
is quite likely to be the next one, al
though that canno with certainty be
predicted. Our anthracite mines here and
abroad are going to show an increasing
cost of production in the diminishing re-
turns first, while the bituminous supply Is
ample for a long time to come. The con-
stant improvements in mining machinery
are likely to give us a lowering coal cost
for some time to come in spite of it's
diminishing supply and inevitable ex-
haustion. In enc sense the coal problem
as a question of the ages is much simpler
than that of the metals. We can see in
the sun a substitute for the coal, but if
the copper of the world, or the iron,
should ever give out it looks as if the
worlds progress in industrial lines would
be very severity handicapped"