The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-03
MINE RESCUE WORK
By ETHEL ARMIES. c Story of Ceal and Iron in AIabaman

charging the apparatus. taking 1t apart and building it up again, and must be- come expert in all the various minute de- tails of the rescue work. Description of Apparatus -
 The famous Draeger helmet consists of a steel headpiece completely covering the head, but leaving the ears exposed. A mask of heavy mica protects the face and the helmet is fmade air tight by , means of a pneumAtic washer which en- circles the face and is inflated by a rub Der bulb. In front hangs the breathing bag, simply large rubber sack, like a pelicans -1oouch, protected by a leather apron. Strapped to the back is the 40 pound knapsack consisting of a steel cyl l inder, containing enough oxygen to sup l.port life for two hours one large potash cartridge and various other sections. All are connected by continuous circuit. l The entire apparatus, on first impression,
 so thoroughly complicated and ~"bunger- some'' looking is in reality very simple,
 a most ingenious and effective device. l Then, too the wonder and the glory of 1 it all is that here is a device that actually
 enables a man to go into hell mouth itself for that is what a mine is directly after a. fearful exploson-and bring forth his dead and dying comrades. Here at last, | after all the centuries of coal mining, is | an armour that fits man to fight the | fires. the posons, all the savage elements | of the underground world and grapple with death itself, and be victorious. 1 A first lesson in it all has, however, its l terrors-there's no denying that. The prospect of being locked up in such an absolutely air tight, outlandish looking arrangement, conjures a shivering mem- ory of medieval days-a victim of the 1 Iron Maiden of Nuremberg.
 l But the mining engineers proceed so nonehalantly about it all that you smoth- l CT your own hesitation and try and do
 likewise. The heavy knapsack and rub
 Der lungs" are adjusted as you take
 some long, deep breaths, and the steel
 helmet is camped tight around your head
 and you are harnessed in. While the
 mouthpiece is left open you feel sense | of security and you suggest:
 Suppose we don't go into the gas-tight
 room today. but wait until the next time.'
 A twinkle comes into the instructors s
 eyes: ''You won't know it,i' he says;
 you won't be able to breathe those
 Rmes you know-not bit! It will be l just the same as if you're out here'
 Just Naturally Can't Believe | None the less you are a doubting
 Thomas. Not that you consider Captain
 Brown ever says anything that isn't so, 1 but you simply feel that he probably speaks merely from his own individual l experience and that your individual ex- perience may prove entirely different Be- sides it appears unreasonable-on the face of tito suppose that if formalde- hyde gas, sulphor carbon monoxide. car bon dioxide, burning horns and hoofs and everything else deadly and abominable should be set right under your nose, that you couldn't breathe them, smell them and faint, die, under them, helmet or no hemet
 So you say it again: q don't want to go in the gas tight room-until the next time"
 "Al right" says MT. Brown, "but tho others will"
 You look at the others-dmly through the mica disk. They're turning on their