Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-09-10

Old King Coal is a cruel old soul
And a cruel old soul is he.


Indeed there is more terrible monarch! He has
yHOO, 900 slaves, who are compelled to delve in the
darkness, and during the last twenty years he has
sacrificed upon his affairs the lives of
more than 900 He killed more than 5000 in
1907, and he is numbering upward Of 2.4OO
wear. In every coal camp of 1000 miners four or
five heads of families annually lose their lives, and
this to say nothing of the much larger number, who
wounded and MANNED In 1907, in addition to the
killed, almost 1000 injured and Director Holmes
of the bureau of mines estimates that from 5000 to
10000 wounded killed by mine accidents every
year and that this continues year in and year OUT
as the decades go
The worst of 1t is that our death and accident
In excess of those of the coal regions OF
Europe where the mines are much deeper and the
workings far more dangerous. In Belgium, which is
noted for its deep mines, the death rate per
900 from 1901 to 1906 only little more than
one whereas we lost more than three miners out
OF each 1000 employed during every one OF those
years. The death rate in Belgium is now consider
ably less than one, and it has had steady decline
since 1850. when It was something like ours Great
Britain kills about and three-tenths OF a
man to its each 900 miners. Russia and eight
tenths and France least of all, only about nine
tepths of one man per 1000.
This is so Notwithstanding coal mining con-
uitions favorable to the safety OF the work
men employed than those of any other part OF the
world. The great loss of life from careless
ness Of mining from the OF improper explosives
and from q lack of the for the prevention Of
accidents It is remedy these things that the bu-
Of mines created.
The Big Pittsburgh Cylinder.
The bureau OF mines is a branch of the Interior
department. 1t occupies new building back of the
patent office here at Washington, but it's chief
pertinent stations scattered throughout the min
ing regions The most important of these is at Pitts
burgh where there all sorts of arrangements for
testing explosives and studying the work, both
above and below ground One Of the most interesting
pieces OF apparatus there is great steel cylinder
100 feet long and thick that without stoop-
ing stand upright within it, This is TO represent
mine tunnel.
At end OF the cylinder is cannon embedded
in concrete which closes the mouth of the cylinder
and at the other end is paper diaphragm, which
holds in the gas, fire. damp OF dust, which may be
forced into it, When the cylinder is filled with ma
tursl it has practically the conditions al
though it full of fire damp. The natural gas
plodes the and by watching its explosions
the effect OF the various mediums be II
the top of the cylinder at six feet apart manhole
with lids which fly open each explosion to let the
Kmoke and gas out
Different kinds OF powders are tested, the purpos
being TO find which explosives may be safely used Il
the mining of different Goals The result is that VI
use not safe. and that the miner who lights fus
attached to them takes his life in his hands whei
he does so.