The Grit Advocate

GAS IN COAL MINES.
Dangerous Explosive Accumulates In Spite of Greatest Care.

Being reminded of some of his own experiences by the recent disaster in the Cambria mine, Frederick E. Saward of the Coal Trade Journal gives the following account of the phenomena in a gaseous mine.

"I had been invited," said he, "to visit a property which was said to possess a seam of coal of unusual thickness and purity. It was, nevertheless, a notoriously gassy mine, in so much that the fire boss made regular rounds to test the working places and calk up warning signs if too dangerous vapor was discovered.

"Going down a 300-foot shaft on a platform elevator without sides (simply the guide rods), in company with the fire boss, I walked along the main entry for one-half a mile, viewing the coal by the light of our little tin-cup lamps. Presently, on approaching a visibly cracked roof, my guide said that he would show me what gas was and how it was put out. He held his lamp up near the crevice in the roof and forthwith there was a floating of blue gas along the roof near the crevice, like burning alcohol in a basin of water.

"'We will not let it get ahead of us,' said the guide, and with that he took off his coat and brushed out the flaming gas, driving it away from the crevice. If he had driven it toward the crevice the roof might have come down. As if this were not enough, the guide said: 'I will show you where it is not even safe to go with an ordinary lamp.' He thereupon lit his safety and blew out the other tin-cup lamps. We walked along the entry until we came to a place which led up the face of the coal. Climbing upon that which had been broken down the guide lifted his safety lamp and the blue flame began to dance around the gauze.

"This daily tour of the fire boss no doubt saves many lives, but there is often a quick accumulation in places where he has found nothing dangerous."