IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF SAVING LIFE IN PITS AND MINES
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles James Pownall at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 7th
January 1867.
], CHARLES JAMES POWNALL, of the Union Club, London, Gentleman, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MEANS OF SAVING LIFE IN PITS AND MINES," to be as follows:-
My said Invention is for the purpose of preventing accidents to and saving.
the lives of miners and others engaged in coal pits, mines, or other sub-
terraneous excavations from the effects of carbonic acid gas generally known
as "choke damp," "after damp," "black damp," etc., and other injurious or
fatal vapours or gases.
For this purpose I cause to be constructed or erected
in various parts of the underground workings of the mine a number of chambers
which shall be easily accessible and capable of holding a number of men;
these chambers to be hollowed or tunneled out of the sides of the seam or
workings, or to be of wro't or cast iron, timber, brick, stone, or other suitable
material, which shall be so placed in recesses hewn or excavated at the sides
of the workings that they shall be exposed as little as possible to the violence
or force of any explosion or fire. These chambers and the door or entrance
to them can be, if found necessary, fire and water proof, and are to be
rendered as air-tight as possible, and to have a loaded valve to each for the
escape of the vitiated or superfluous air from the inside. Each of these

page_text: chambers is to be supplied with pure or fresh air by means of air pumps, fans,
or blowers driven by the winding or pumping engines of the pit, or other
suitable motive power, and this pure air is to be conducted to the chambers
through wro't iron, cast iron, india-rubber, or other pipes, which should
be laid under the floor or surface of the workings and carried in at the back
of the air chamber to protect them from injury by explosion or otherwise.
Wires properly insulated can be laid through or alongside of the air pipes for
affording the means of telegrafic communication from the chambers to the pit
bank. When it is expected noxious or fatal gases are accumulating, or when
they have accumulated in the pit from the effects of an explosion or otherwise
instead of the miners to whom the explosion has not already proved fatal
having to make their way to the bottom of the shaft, in doing which they are
generally overcome by these gases, I intend that they shall take shelter in
those chambers which are suitably placed to be most readily reached by them.
In these chambers they could remain for a considerable period (fresh air
being continually supplied by the pumps or fans) until relief was afforded to
them, or until they could with safety reach the bottom of the shaft; and for
this purpose I further propose that there should be kept in each chamber a
number of ordinary air belts or elastic bags already charged or which could.
be charged with air when required for use from valves or taps on the air
supply pipe in the interior of the chamber, and from these belts or bags each
man could inhale pure or fresh air while making his way through any noxious
gases towards the shaft.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention I declare that I do.
not confine myself to the precise details mentioned; but what I claim is, the
construction of air chambers in the underground workings of the mine, which
chambers are supplied with fresh air by mechanical means.