The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-05-05

! for instance, out here, where it is true
that every mine is furnished with a
barometer to record the weight of the
air. and a thermQmeter to test the
| heat. hydrometer is very seldom seen
around a colliery Most miners are
aware of the fact that a change of
weather affects the mine, but they
can't tell you why"
Captain Tibbey Calculates.
Here Captain Tibbey produced a pen
Gil and proceeded to indulge in mathe-
matical calculations.
Every school boy knows" he con-
| tinued the pressure of the air is
! fifteen pounds to the square inch. Null
tiply that by 144 and you get the total
to be 2.16O pounds TO the square foot.
Supposing the mercury drops an inch
in the NINE That means that there IS
| .. $50 pounds less atmospheric pressure
in drift of thirty feet. which means
a great deal, as anyone can see, to the
successful ventilation of that chamber.
All bituminous coal contains from 81
to 40 per cent volatile matter, which
rises from the seam.
without successful ventilation it
stands to reason that the noxioua
gases must soon predominant. In an
thracite coal there is only from > to 3
per cent volatile matter in evidence.
and one never hears of a dust exDlo-
sion in an anthracite mine Dust too,
plays a great part in the ventilation
of a mine. Dust absorbs the moisture,
and consequently the even balance Of
the atmosphere is not maintained.
ITO successfully operate mine. all
these things must be taken into con-
sideration, and the dust should be
thoroughly wetted down from time to
time. If this is not done there is sure
to be an explosion sooner or later. and
after the explosion of dust, the oxygen .
being all consumed in the drift. it is
naturally impossible for any living
thing to exist under the circumstances /
"a coal dust explosion is similar in .
it's effects to that which occurs from /
time to time il large flour mills which .
are badly ventilated, and if it were .
possible to have flour dust explosion .
under similar conditions to that in d
coal mine the effects, of course, would .
be the same
THE men who perished in this ex-
plosion at Winter Quarters died from
the effects of after-damp. which is an
other name for the absence Of oxygen
in the air"
Captain Tibbey's Career.
Captain Tibbey for seventeen years
held the position of superintendent of
the Parrot mine near Butte. during
which period there were only three men
killed. In explanation Of this fact he
last night stated that when he took
the position in the mine he inaugu-
rated the rule that any man who got
hurt would he discharged This, he
said, had the effect of making the men
careful. with the result that there were
only three casualties, and that in the
majority of cases it was the action Of
some careless fool that caused these
disasters.
In speaking of the precautions which
he invariably took before entering
mine, he said that he always carried
a close meshed ladies' veil. and minia-
ture pair of bellows in his pocket. On
several occasions he had saved his life
through these means He asserted that
if the nozzle of a pair of bellows had
been inserted in the nostrils of those
who were found in the mine who gave
evidence of retaining a spark of life
N their anatomy, that their lives
might probably have been saved. He I
had seen this remedy tried on several
occasions with successful issue.
He related the circumstances in the
explosion in the Cleveland mine at Lu-
as, Ia, when he successfully brought t
men out from the mine,
lfter lying on their faces with a wet ;
7eil tied across their nOstrils for the 7
space of five hours
The two largest catastrophes which a
lave happened in coal mining in Great !
Britain, ne said, were al the Oaks col j.
iery, Dec. L. 1866, on which occasion l.
81 lives were lost, and on Feb 1s. t
S57, at Lund bill, on which occasion
SO souls perished- Both these mines .
re situated in north England