The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-18
"Windy Shot" Caused Ill Men to Lose Lives. DEAD MAN IS BLAMED Operators Repeatedly Warned of Condition of Mine. Acting Governor Cunningham Satished With Lengthy Statement submit- ted by Messrs. Gray, Kuffnir
 and Hillhouse of their
 investigation.

The report of Chief State Mine In- spector J. w. Gray and Associate In- spectors M. M. Kuffner and James Hillhouse, giving in lengthy detail the causes of the disastrous explosion in Virginia Mine, near Birmingham, FeD- rGary 20, was yesterday submitted 10 Acting Governor Cunningham. The in report, conferring for some time with the Governor in his private office. They returned last evening to Birmingham. spectors ns snia is that the explosion was caused by what is known in mining science as a windy shot," The windy shot" ignited the accumulated dust in the vicinity and the terrific explosion cling from entry to entry and room to room. claiming III victims.
 Taking into consideration the find ings of our investigations and the tes. timony of the witnesses we examined, says the report, we believe first, that lit was a dust explosion. and second, that Mt was ignited by windy shot fired in the first left entry. No: 1 room. on the right hand rib of the room, about fifteen feet from the face"
 In their investigations the inspectors were accompanied by W. M. Herbert. a man of wide experience in coal min mining sections of the United States. | By special request, T. H. Tinney. a lcheck-weighman, and Joseph Hoskins. a representative miner. All of them
 Operators Had Been Warned. The report shows that from Decem- Der IS, 1902, to December 12, 1904, Chief Inspector Gray and Inspectors Hillhouse and Kuffner made thorough examina- tions of the Virginia Mine. Copies of letters they wrote to the Alabama Steel and Wire Company and A. w. Reed nf thA nfnn which are made part of the inspec- tors report to the Governor, show that there were periodical warnings against such an accident as the one under in- Ivestigation.
 Virginia Mine is hardly over two years old. There were numerous in- spections made for the purpose of get tng the mine boss and the fire boss acquainted with the laws regulating
 In October, 1903, the result of an in- spection by MT. Hillhouse told the mine operators about his having detected the mine. MT. Hillhouse at this inspec- tion advised the bank boss of the mine to sprinkle, as there is danger at any time of a windy shot to make an ex- A fire boss was appointed immediately Iafter this inspection to guard against laccidents.
 It appears that in many particulars
  were compiled with but the general tenor of the report indicates that there was repeated negligence in the mine at times. For instance, in violation of 1903. revealed that the mine foreman had no certificate. There are criticisms of poor "latticing," which was noticed by the inspectors at different times. l Dead Man Was at Fault. | There are no efforts by the inspectors to fix the responsibility for the disaster. If it were attempted to fix the respon- sibility it would most likely go upon the shoulders of the unfortunate dead man who fired the fatal shot. This was the firer in the first room of the fifth l. left entry where 1t was shown that the windy shot occurred. The body of this track from the original point of the lexplosion, showing that he had run a Considerable distance.
 Acting Governor Cunningham, few minutes after his interview with the Inspectors, made public the report, and said that he was satisfied with the work of the inspectors both in tho investi- gation and in the previous discharge of their duties.
 | statement by Governor.
 "Such accidents as that which oc- | cured at Virginia City," said the Gov
 ernor. "are of the gravest consequence | and excite of course universal interest
 and sympathy. Such accidents occur | in coal mines and of course are only | explained by the explosion of some ex- plosive material. Of these there are l three of special importance.
 | "First-Fire damp or corbonated hy- | drogen, which is the same practically
 as Illuminating gas, which when 1t ex- | plodes forms water by the union of | oxygen with hydrogen and carbon di-
 oxide, or black damp by the union Of oxygen with carbon.
 "Secofd-Carbon oxide. which when
 it explodes forms carbon dioxide, or | black damp. The third has fine parti-
 oles of coal dust. The dangers of an explosion Is first the mechanical effect. | such as being struck by timbers. etc,
 and by being thrown against the wall after damp or 7 carbon dioxide. which is not a poison. but which excludes oxygen. The latter being largely con-