The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1908-02-20

L propose IN this paper to diScu IS
the cause of the recent trouble eX
plosions which have occurred in
the coal mines in the United States
and to suggest remedy to lessen
their frequency. 1t can scarcely
be expected that these heart-rend-
ing catastrophies will ever be
wholly eliminated, for it is human
to err, but with better enforcement
of the laws for the preservation of
books and the addition of some
needed legislation they can be re-
duced to Il minimum.
Men for men employed, and ton
for ton mined, we are annually
killing and manning more men in
cur coal mines than all the coal
producing countries in the world
The vast destruction of human
life, it is well to state, occur more
frequently in coal fields in which
the miners are fOrbidded, by their
employers from forming ,organiza-
tions for mutual protection.
The first explosion which occur
red in our coal mines took place on
the 24th January, 1854, at the
Crested Butte mine, in Colorado.
There were sixty seven men in the
mines when the accident occurred
and only eight Of them recovered
alive. Before this time there had
been quite a number of mine eX-
ploslons at one mine and another,
but the number of fatalities were
few and they excited only local at
tention.
Less than a month after the oc
currence of the Crested Butte dis
aster an explosion occurred at the
Pocohonats mine in Virginia, by
which the whole population of the
mine was destroyed, a hundred
and nine in number.
The mine was comparatively
new, less than twelve acres of coal
having been mined out. The sup
erlntendent and manager insisted
that fire damp had never been met
In the working. and the president
OF the coal company requested the
American Institute of Mining
Engineers to send committee of
expert members to examine the
mines to determine the cause of
the explosion.
This committee reported that
they found no fire damp in the mine
and were not certain whether the
workings made tire-damp or not;
and concluded that the explosion
was due either to coal-dust alone
or to dust quickened by an ad-
mixture Of tiredamp, too slight to
detected 10y ordinary means,
This was the first time the
question of a cUalduSt explosion
had been raised in theUnited States.
But as early as 1915, MeSSrs. Lyell
and Faraday, two eminent British
chemists, who was sent by the
government to investigate the
cause OF several recent mine eX-
ploslOnS, called the attention to
the fact that fire damp was not the
only force i'll colliery explosions,
where dry and fine coal dust exist
ed III large quantities. The mine
suprintendents and mining engi-
neers of England ridiculed the idea
tina coal-dust was capable of either
causing or extending explosions.
But the practical men were wrong
and the scientific men were right,
as has been demonstrated beyond
experience.
In 1879 the Chertertield and
Derbyshire Institute of Mining
Engineers made a series of expert
mentS with coal-dust. and came to
the conclusion, that although coal
dust can be intiamed under speci-
ally arranged conditions, only
lgnltion of the dust results. The
researches of MIR. William Gallo
way, one of the British mine in
spectors, who later made a series
OF elaborate experiments with dust
came to the same conclusion at
hrSt, but later discovered that the
dust of coal containing a higher
Percentage OF volatile conbuStl Bile
matter, would without the pres