Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 298, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1911 — PERIL OF COAL DUST [ARTICLE]

PERIL OF COAL DUST

Expert Demonstrates Contention of Explosion. Pennsylvania Mine Is Wrecked by Touching Off Badiy Placed Charge of Ordinary Black Powder—'Test la Object Lesson. Pittsburg. Pa. —“No , amount of writing or talking could be so forcible in the teaching. of great lessons,” said Dr. Joseph A. Holmes, director of the bureau of mines, when he returned the other night from the demonstration at the government experimental mine at Bruceton, Pa. Covered with mud and looking almost like a veritable miner. Or. Holmes was most enthusiastic over the experiment, notwithstanding many delays In the preparations. It was not until after dark that this first’ “made-to-order” mine explosion took place. < Standing alone in his laboratory, back in the hills of Allegheny county, a chemist twice touched an Innocentappearing button. The explosion failed to materialize. Investigation found the source of trouble, which was readily remedied. The last shot was touched off by Dr. Holmes. Instantly there was a dull nimble far down in the bowels of the earth. Flames burst from the drift and spurted from the air shaft. The fanhouse went dpwn with a crash. Dense volumes of black smoke poured into the open and the heavens were ablaze. It was terrifying to the laymen. Fire bosses, mine foremen and superintendents who had heretofore escaped those things unexpected saw what they, believed they would some day experience, but would never be able to tell—a real mine explosion. The government effort bad apparently been successful. It was a test of the explosive properties of the “deadly” coal dust So enthusiastic was Dr. Holmes, the gov-

ernment’s expert, that be made this public statement: “The great value of this experiment to the mining Industry was In demonstrating to more than 1,500 coal operators and mine managers from every coal mining district of the United States the fact: “That ordinary bituminous or soft coal dust will explode from a charge of black powder badly placed in a mine; “That dest will explode with a violence sufficient to wreck the mine and kill every person working in the mine, and “That poisonous gases are giVen off from such an explosion in sufficient quantity to suffocate and poison any persons in the mine who may have escaped the violence of the explosion. “The fact that the explosion did

not take place until after dark was a disappointment to the photographers and many of the visitors; but the effect 'Of the explosion with the enormous flame which penetrated and rose above the forest trees of this region was so much more imprlpsive at night than it possibly ’could have been during the daytime that it was held to be fortunate that it had occurred at night rather than during the day. ‘The explosion at the experimental mine means further that, having been actually witnessed by so many coal mine operators and managers from the different coal mining states, these men will return to their respective mines impressed not only with the fact that dust will explode from the improper use of black powder, but that many of the explpsions that have already occurred in the mines in other regions have been dust explosions and ’not gas explosions, as they were formerly supposed to be. It, therefore, opens up new lines of treatment looking to the prevention of such mine i explosions in the future.”