Report to the secretary of state for the home department on the causes of death in colliery explosions and underground fires, with special reference to the explosions at Tylorstown, Brancepeth and Micklefield / by John Haldane.

  • John Scott Haldane
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report to the secretary of state for the home department on the causes of death in colliery explosions and underground fires, with special reference to the explosions at Tylorstown, Brancepeth and Micklefield / by John Haldane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    oxygen was consumed and carbonic acid and moisture formed, so that it issued as black-damp. ite - 6> • • Eire-damp - 7*47 100-00 When diluted with ordinary return air in the most favourable jnDportions, this gas might show a cap, but it could never become inflammable. No. 4. Gas from an abandoned road, Talk o' th' Hill Colliery, 11th April, 1895. f Oxygen - 11*93 ] Air J Nitrogen - 45*13 V - - - 57*03 [_ Carbonic acid - 0*02 J m i , f Nitrogen - 35*291 OQ ,n Black-damp | Carbon-acid . &nj- -38*40 Fire-damp - 4*52 100*00 When tested with an ordinary lamp at the entrance to the road, this gas extinguished the flame without previously showing any noticeable cap. The gas had thus the distinguishing property of black-damp, but was lighter than air, the lamp being extinguished when it was raised towards the roof. The sample was collected (by the light of an electric lamp) at a point along the road, where even a Clowes hydrogen lamp was extinguished. Previously to extinction the hydrogen flame showed a very long (3 per cent.) cap. No. 5. Gras obtained as it issued from an opening communicating with old workings in Burghlee Pit, Loanhead, Midlothian, 11th October 1895. f Oxygen - - 13*751 Air J Nitrogen - 52*02 U - - 65*79 Carbonic acid - 0*02 J ■d, , , [Nitrogen 29*73 1 Q101 Black-damp | CarbonPac.d ^j- - 34*21 Fire-damp .... - 0*00 100*00 That excess of fire-damp tends to accumulate in any high place is a fact familiar to all connected with collieries. There may be a thin layer of fire-clamp, or of air con- taining fire-damp, running for considerable distances along the roof of a level airwav. It is surprising how difficult it is to cause this gas to mix with the fresh air below, or to dislodge fire-damp from corners in a roof. The following is an illustrative case. A heading with a slight rise was being driven, and fire-damp could be heard coming off pretty rapidly from the face, though there were no blowers. To cope with this gas a wide ventilating pipe had been carried in from the intake airway, and an abundant stream of air was playing just over the heads of the men at the face. A lamp held at the ordinary level showed no trace of a cap, and from the direction in which the air- current was playing I could hardly believe that any appreciable amount of fire-damp could be present in the roof. Nevertheless, when the Manager, who was with me, slowly raised his lamp to test for gas, it was suddenly, and without the slightest previous indication of a cap, filled with flame and extinguished. The gas in this case was said to be very sharp. A sample obtained from a pipe inserted into the coal at the same place was found to consist of— Fire-damp - 85*85 Nitrogen - - - 9 93 Carbonic acid - - -1*07 Oxygen - 0*15 100*00