The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-08
WORK ID PREVENT
 MINE EXPLOSIONS.
Dr. Holmes Discusses Les sons of Recent Disasters
USE EXHAUST STEAM
etone Dust is Also Being Considered As Valuable Aid in Lessening Danger of Explosive
 Coal Dust

| Washington, March T.-(Special0-'tWe are not making satisfactory progress in reducing the loss of life in our mines" " said pr. Joseph A. Holmes, director of rhe United States bureau of mines, to- day. And we will never make this progress until we get away from theory and get down to actual practice, and de- nelop that hearty, determined co+opera- hion between the mine owner and the mine worker. which Is absolutely esentiali to eucoess.
 "It would be unfortunate and unpar- f1onable if from the many American mine disasters of the past few years we have mot learned some lessons that may help Ito prevent or minimize future disasters, or reduce the loss of life resulting from them. Mine disasters have resulted from mine fires. gas explosions, or dust eX- plosions, or combination of two or all of them. The two most notable recent disasters from mine fires were the Cherry disaster of November 13, 1909, where 259 men lost their lves-the fire having start Id from the burning of hay in the mine stable-and the Pancoast mine disaster, near Scranton, Pa, where .R men lost their lives from a fire which appears to have started from the inflammable ma teriaI at one of the underground power btations.
 "In neither of these two mine fire dis listers does there appear to have been any accompanying gas or dust explosion. It is evident that the men were suffo- hro fol r.rjc Inv from the fire, excepting, of course, the few who were killed from the heat of the fire itself
 ''The two most important lessons taught by these two disasters were the risks that always attend the practice. en- tirely too common, of carrying intlamma- ble materials into the mines and keeping them in the mine, and the inadequacy of the methods and equipment for fighting and extinguishing mine fires Of course, we must have timber in the mine. and no economical method is now known for y apt1 ing this timber. As long as we hea8 jules in the mines, certain materials .lar be carried with which to feed them, ali N baled hay must be taken into the aiiass for feeding purposes, 1t can be ay and superficially wet either by
 nkling or dipping 1t quickly into a
 k of water, and it can be carried in Jsed cars. By all means the easiest way to prevent the risk of fires in mine stables is to keep these stables outside of the mine.
 ''In the prevention of gas explosions in the mines, the lesson which all past ex- perience teaches as being of first impor- tsnce is to sweep the gas out of the mine by means of adequate ventilation In connection with such a ventilating system it is important that there should be du- plicate fans, that if in any way one is destroyed another is immediately avail able. In order to prevent the destruc- tion of the fans they should be placed where they will not be in line of force of any explosion in the mine.
 Safety lamps and permissible or quick Hame explosives each contribute to safe ty. The keeping of electricity out of gas eous mines Is a further wise precaution. There are a number of other minor pre- cautions that important, but all will agree that the first essential is adequate ventilation. An unexpected outburst of gas from breaking into an old gas we'll or from the smaller hidden reservoirs in the coal itself, each contributes a danger which it has been found difficult to pro- vide against in many cases, but against which every precaution should be taken In quite a number of mines the danger from gas has been, reduced by an exten- sion of the entries far in advance of ordi- nary working operations, and taking the gas from the coal in advance of the ordi- nary mining work without overloading g with 1t the ordinary return air currents.
 ''The lessons taught in the recent study of dust explosions are that the dust from practically all of the bituminous coals will explode under favorable conditions with