The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-27

either because of better walking or safer
roof. If the manways were Illuminated at
| intervals the miners would be much
reader to them as a person would
much prefer walking In a lighted entry
than in one that was not, particularly so
when first entering mines
Plenty of Clearance
"On the side entries where miners must
travel on the haulage roads there should
be a wide side having at least 21b feet
clearance between the car and the rib. In
| addition to this there should be shelter
holes feet wide and 21s feet deep, spaced
not more than 80 feet apart. If the shell
| ter holes are installed with this or less
spacing there will usually be sufficient
time for the miners to reach the shelter
/ holes which is much safer position than
in standing on the wide side, particu-
| larly In case of wrecks. Frequently, the
accidents in which miners are killed by
| trips occur because the miner through
observation-disclosures or poor hearing has
] failed to hear the trip approach until 1t is
almost upon him and then in his fright
jumps to the, wrong side of the road and
gets caught between car and rib. One of
the large companies in western Pennsyl-
vania has a white-washed strip of rib all
along the haulage road on the white side.
| Such an arrangement may assist a per-
son in recognizing quickly the wide side
/ of the road when he finds trip has got
ter very close to him unexpectedly.
| A more general use of signboards would
undoubtedly aid in having men travel the
approved roads Signs could be used to
designate the approved way to the vari-
Gus portions of the mine and also to warn
against using haulage roads where man
ways can be used instead. The penalties
! for the persons caught disobeying such
warnings should also be posted.
1o .t,,4a II
sets of rules which should be followed by
+! the various classes of employees designated
| in doing this work. Copies of these rules
are furnished to all employees. The sec
| items of such rules applying to travel in
the mine could to advantage be posted at
some prominent point outside or inside
the mine, or both, and if there were many
| foreigners employed in other languages in
addition to English.
Illustrating By Photographs
Several companies have made photo-
graphs Illustrating good and bad mining
practice. The plan followed has been to
make set of three or four pictures illus
] trating good and bad practice with refer
! ence to a particular point For instance,
the first picture of a set might show a
driver riding on/the front end of his trip.
second picture shows him falling after
he has jumped from the trip presumably
third picture would show him partly under
the trip. The fourth picture of the set
would show him riding the rear end, a
safer position.
"The first picture of another set might
show a man turning aside from the man.
way and going out the haulage way In
, preference. The next picture shows the
man under trip with the parts of his
dinner pail his cap and lamp scattered
over the road; the man has been run down
While travelling a forbidden road.
THE number of these slides is being
constantly increased. When a fatal acci-
dent occurs, If it was due to some bad
practice, or is of such a nature that a
I epetition might occur, the accident is
staged and three or four slides made to
point the lesson An Illustration of this
kind is probably very effective in dscour-
aging the same practice by those in that
locality. particularly If they were ac-
quainted with the man killed,
! "One of these companies has made a re-
markable record in decreasing the number
of their accidents by taking many precau-
tions underground and by such a CAM
paign of education. The deaths from all
! accidents per 100000 tons mined in 1911
was LIZ for this company. while for the
United States it was 54S The deaths
from car accidents per 100000 tons mined
was Al, as compared with 70 for the
whole United States
Again it is possible that hauage ac-
| cidents might be reduced by distributing
among the miners copies of the state laws
which forbid certain practices likely to
lead to accident and also copies of Bureau
of Mines Miners Circular No. II on 'Ac-
cidents Due to Mine Cars and Locomo-
tives' The latter publication reviews the
route by which the miner goes to his
working place and the precautions he
| CHI oh in, oil tao
| the precautions which various other un-
foreground workers ought to take so that
accidents to themselves and others may be
| avoided