Bisbee daily review., 1907-05-26
MORE SAFEGUARDS
 FOR THE MINERS
Federal Government Will Ex- pertinent with the Differ
 ent Explosives.

The coal mine death roll in Penn syivania during 1906 was 500: 200 died as the result of gas or dust ex- plosions. In West Virginia in the same year mine explosions cost SS lives. and in the early months of 1907 the list of fatalities was increased oy more than a hundred more.
 That the United States is tar bs. hind European countries In safe-snald- ing the lives of it's miners has aITeady become evident from the inyestiga- tions now being carried on under the direction of J. A. Holmes. of the United States Geological Survey; but determined efforts are to be made to bring about better conditions at the coal mines, to stop the appalling sac rifice of human life. and incidentally to lessen the waste of fuel in mining operations.
 A series of unique experiments is about to be undertaken by the fuel division of the Survey. with view to determining the safety of the various 5;Gzza.nite and powders used in blast ing in the presence of the deadly fire damp and perhaps equally deadly coal gas. The explosives which stand the severe tests for which plans are being made will be classed as permissible explosives and their use will be urged upon the mine owners of the country.
 The experimental station which is to be established as the basis ot the proposed tests will be under the dt- rection of Clarence Hall, the eNplo- sives agent for the Government. Mir. Hall has recently returned from Eng land and Belgium, where he examined the splendid experimental stations that have there been maintained for years. In these and other European countries the miners, the government, and the manufacturers of explosives cooperate in the effort to prevent such casualties as those by which this country has recently been horri- fled. The English experiments have resulted in establishing a number of permissible explosives, whose use by the miners is compulsory. English miners are also restricted to a limit charge, for exceeding which a severe penalty is imposed. Tn the coal mining States of this country pro tectiye regulations for the use of blasting materials are few, and in many States no attempt is made to control the kind of powder used.
 The experimental station Is Bel gium was intensely interesting to Mir. Hall the gas used in the tests coming from an abandoned mine. In a test of safety lamps witnessed by Mir. Hall at this station the lamp most general ly used in the mines of the UnIIed States behaved the worst, IgnIIlIg the gas each time. A Self-ignitiug lock lamp made in Germany proI ed the 6s1t.
 Another line of investigations co be carried on by the Survey will relate to rescue work. It is declared that in serious gas explosions in mines n1ny lives could be saved were 1t possible for the rescue party to enter immedi- ateiy after the accidents. As il is now, the deadly fire-damp often holds the men back for hours while their comrades are slowly being suffocated or burned to death. At the Belgium station Mir Hall found an apparatus capable of sustaining life In the midst of fire-damp or among, tho poGCnous vapors that follow mine explosions. This apparatus will be tested in ;hs miniature coal mine which will be fit ted up as a part of the experimental station, and if the tests are suc~ssS ful it's use will be strongly ul Sed.
 It will not be possible, of course, to compel the adoption of safety rcguIs- tions or appliances; but miners and operators will be invited 3O witness the tests, and the results of tho inyes. tigations will be given to the public in the hope that great gUUd may fol low.
 The location of the eXpermertdI plant has not been definitsly decided on, but it will probably be iC the Pittsburg district, and MT IJOlmes states that the work Of erection will be begun within few weeks.