The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-29
PLANS ID PREVENT
 MINE ACCIDENTS Terrible List of Disasters Stirs
 Up Engineers LEGISLATION IS SOUGHT Experts Declare That Dust and Gas Are Principally To Blame and
 the Point Is To Find Out
 How Danger Arises.
LEGISLATION IS SOUGHT

New York, December 2S.-(Special.)- Recent coal mine disasters in the United States have so aroused government au- thorities that steps are being taken by officials of the geological survey to in- vestigate causes and suggest not only preventatiyes to mine owners, but to cause state and national legislation that in the future will tend to decrease loss of life. Dr. J. A. Holmes, chief of the technological division of the geological
 survey, Is in this city to consult with prominent mining engineers, and will go to Pittsburg, where he will see mine owners and lay his plans before them.
 Three scientists from Doctor Holmes department already are in the field look ing Into conditions under which miners work and seeking to learn what causes most contribute to casualties in American coal mines. Considerable progress has been made, enough, in fact, for Doctor Holmes to base recommendations which ! he will lay before the Secretary of the Interior In a report to be submitted Jan uary 1.
 .Loss of life in American coal mines is three times as great" Doctor Holmes
 said, "as in the coal mines of Europe. The only reason for this Is that we do not supervise conditions under which | miners work as carefully as the foreign governments do. Twenty-three thousand
 persons have been killed in American mines since 1889, while in the same pe- | riod 5O,OO0 men have been so seriously iniured as to become a matter of record. l The chief cause of the disasters here are that practical miners do not understand the conditions under which they are work ing. They can be made to appreciate these conditions only by having them pointed out to them by scientists, who will go into the matter thoroughly We cannot have the proper legislation until conditions are known. As miners go deeper into the earth each year the chances of accidents become greater and in most of our mines in the principal coal districts a depth has been reacneo where conditions are beyond the reach of practical miners to grasp or to remedy.
 Dust and Gas To Blame.
 Practically all mine disasters are the result of explosions of coal dust or coal gas, or combinations of both. Explosion Is the result of use oe the open lamp worn in miners caps, of firing shots or of sparks from electric wiring All these causes are subjects that should be regu- lated by legislation as in foreign coun- tries In Europe they use safety lamps. There also careful government tests are made of all explosives used, so that dan ger from the flame element is reduced to A minimum. In America there IS no | supervision of explosives. Neither nave we in America investigated the quality of the gases that form in mines In certain gases there are qualities more explosive than in others.
 "There should be some system by which employers could prevent habitually care- less persons from working where they might endanger the lives of others Just uhat lepIslatlon Is necessary is a matter that public opinion must decide"