Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 July 1890 — A. Safeguard for Workers in Compressed Air. [ARTICLE]

A. Safeguard for Workers in Compressed Air.

It has been found by sad experience that work in compressed air, such as has to be done sometimes in sinking foundations or in driving subaqueous tunnels, often results in serious injuries to health and sometimes even causes death. The danger does not appear to lie so much in the application of the pressure as in its too rapid removal, especially after being exposed to it for too long a time; tnd it has been observed that ff a workman who has collapsed on coming out of- the airlock is prom) tly pot back in the chamber, and then the pressure reduced verygradually, he will suffer little, if any, ill effect from what might otherwise piove a serious matter. Noticing this circumstance, and finding frequent occasion to employ 6uch treatment for the men engage 1 under his charge on the Hudson Kivtr Tunue', the resident engineer in charge of the work, E. W. Moir, determined to make a special arrangement for such cases, aB the gradual reduction of the pressure in the airlocks often consumed so much time as to interfere with the progress of the work. He has, therefore, designed a separate pressure chamber, in which any man who shows symptoms of suffering from too rapid release of pressure on coming out of the air-locks can be at once placed, and the pressure relieved as slowly as need be, while at the same time opportunity is given for the entranc3 of a physician, and no interference with the working air-locks is necessary. The apparatus consists of a cylinder of jj-inch boiler plate some 6 feet in diameter and 16 feet long, lying on its Ride. The air-tight door opens inward at one end, and in the middle is a partition, with a similar door. Light is given by some bull’s-eyes in the sides, and the structure is designed and braced for a pressure of 40 pounds per square inch. The patient is carried in on a stretcher and placed in the inner chamber, the middle door is then closed and the air pressure turned on, which is afterward! allowed to slowly escape. Should it be j necessary for a physician to enter, tbe; outer chamber will answer for an air-; lock for that purpose; or, in case of emer-! gency, it can accommodate another patient | on a stretcher. The chamber is being built by the • Cbckburn Barrow Company, of Jersey' City, and it seems rea-onable to expect that it will materially increase the safety 1 and comfort of work in the tunnel.