Mine Ventilation Made Easy; Wih an Appendix Containing Detailed Answers to 155 Questions Selected from Various American Examinations for Mine Inspecto

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 Excerpt: ...in the after damp of colliery explosions. It is present in considerable quantities in the after-damp formed in explosions where coal dust forms part of the combustible material. It is formed by the combustion of gunpowder, and in all cases where carbon is not sufficiently burnt for want of oxygen. It is to be seen over a still red fire in a furnace burning with a blue flame. It is generated spontaneously in a gob from the accumulation of slack left there. It has been found in a very small proportion, in some samples of fire-damp in Germany, and in the natural gas of Pennsylvania. Excepting possibly in a very small degree, it is not likely to be present in a mine without combustion of some kind be going on somewhere in the workings of the mine. Wind-cowl.--An iron tube made somewhat in the form of the trumpet like pipes which are to be seen on the decks of steamers for sending down a current of air into the cabins. This arrangement is used at the mines of Scotland and elsewhere for sending fresh air into a mine, but any current obtained by this means is very uncertain and irregular. This contrivance is to be seen at some of the shallow mines of South Staffordshire where it is called a horse's head. Wind-gauge.--An instrument for obtaining the speed at which air travels in a mine, the same as anemometer. Wind-way.--The same as air-way. CHAPTER III. PRACTICAL NOTES ON COAL DUST AND COLLIERY EXPLOSIONs. Any treatise on.the subject of mine ventilation and colliery explosions must necessarily be incomplete without some reference to the question of coal dust. The subject is one of great importance, considering the large number of lives which are lost from colliery explosions. The following statement shows the loss of life in Great Britain from this cause: Recent r...