Scenes And Incidents From The Life Of A Practical Miner
With A Treatise On The Ventilation Of Coal Mines

18 bottom of the waste and west winning headways. It then passes through the wall north, and returning up other three boards to west, back to the working headways; again passes by the brattice end of the fourth and southernmost board of these three, to air the face of the fourth boai’d, &c. But as it was returning again from the working headways, down the next three boards, i. e., the seventh, eighth, and ninth, I wish you to understand that at six pillars down, the upper strata had fallen and exposed one of these blowers of a dangerous magnitude, which the current of air is inadequate to dilute, but which it is sufficient only to convert into inflammable gas, as you see on the plan by the blue shaded atmos- phere. Observe the three down-going boards, for three pillars in length, and the three up-going boards, nine pillars in length, are a solid mass of inflammable gas, ready for the match; and in this state it enters the working headways, when it conies in contact with a naked light and produces an explosion. Now, let me show you my approved preventative system, when you will at once discover the impossibility of such an explosion taking place, or the health and safety of the workmen being exposed to serious clanger. As the section or plan is the same as the other, I need not enter into detail, but merely show you the advantageous difference in the principle of ventilating a coal mine. The red dotted lines indicate the horseway- up west, and tramway to north along the westernmost headways. The darts indicate the course of the air, which you see is conveyed direct into the southernmost board, and from that northward from board to board; and as we proceed along, you see tight deal stoppings in each board end on the east side of the headway course. You will also observe there is not a door nor any other obstruction between, the down cast shaft and the face of each board in this district. There is the workmen, with the common pressure of the atmosphere acting upon them daily, which is necessary anti must be conducive to health. Now, as it leaves the north board, in returning eastward, it passes through an aperture or slide regulator, sufficiently large to admit compression without obstruction. From this point it is guided by the wasteman’s skill through the whole of these pillars. Suppose, now, that a fall were to occur in the upper strata, exposing one of these dangerous blowers, and converting the whole current into an atmosphere of inflammable gas; well, we need not fear, as no one can get there but the wastemen in their travels. As they proceed with lamp in hand, they arrive at this volume, and unexpectedly observe their lamp filled with hydrogen gas. They retreat, and examining the other two boards, find them all alike. There is now no time to be lost, and they return, by the way they went in. They enter into the return passages of this air for some distance to ascertain tho extent of this unwelcome visitor, when, to their great satisfaction, they will probably find no gas at all. This will give you an idea how easy it is to conquer gas, for you see that in a current of air it requires only a short run to dilute it and render it harmless It cannot be restored to sensibility while in that atmosphere, as its particles are united in the general current of air, and chemically changed into a different body. This illustration I could not give you as clearly on