HEART-RENDING SCENES.
Around the mouth of the pit the families of the miners were congregated. As each body was brought to the surface, there were shrieks and loud lamentations that could be heard for a long distance. A more terrible sight cannot be seen in the whole world, than at the mouth of a mine shaft after an accident of this kind.
A story is told of an explosion, in one of the Welsh mining districts, which caused the death of forty-seven men. Only two men that were below at the time escaped with their lives. These men were brothers. When the explosion was heard, one of the brothers rushed towards the other, who was a short distance away. A second explosion followed, more severe than the first, and threw the men down. Both were stunned, but they gradually recovered their senses, and were able to move. The air was thick and hot, and they could only move with great difficulty. The older brother had his can of tea, and bathed their faces with the liquid, so that they revived. Supporting each other, they tried to reach the entrance to the mine. They crawled on their hands and knees in the midst of darkness, over the bodies of their late companions, some of whom were still breathing, while the rest were silent and dead. After many narrow escapes, they reached the end of the gallery, near the shaft, and were saved.
AN INGENIOUS APPARATUS.
An apparatus has been invented by which a man can enter places filled with choke-damp, either to carry aid to suffering men after an explosion, or to make explorations. A bag, or case of leather, or metal, is carried on the back, into which air has been driven under a heavy pressure. A rubber tube extends from the bag, and is fastened to the mouth and nose. It is furnished with two valves, one opening inward, to carry the air to the lungs, and the other outward, to carry off the air after it has been breathed. For long journeys extra bags filled with air may be taken. Some of these reservoirs, made of sheet iron, will resist a pressure of thirty or forty atmospheres. Another apparatus, fastened to the back, like a soldier’s knapsack, has a kind of valve, placed above the reservoir, allowing the air to enter the lungs at the ordinary pressure only.
A similar apparatus is made by filling an air-tight goat-skin with air. The same kind of tubes are employed, and sufficient air can be carried to last the bearer fifteen or twenty minutes.
To guard against gas explosions, Sir Humphry Davy invented a safety lamp. He protected the flame with wire gauze, on the principle that flame cannot be made to pass through a tube, however short, unless it is driven through. The wire gauze is in fact a number of short tubes close together, and thus, while the explosive gas may pass through, the flame cannot do so.
An improved lamp of this class has a glass cylinder around the flame, with gauze at the top and below. The glass is protected by stout wires. A great many forms of these lamps are in use in mines, but all are constructed on the same principle. By the use of this safety lamp, many mines that had been abandoned were re-opened; and Sir Humphry Davy is regarded as one of the greatest benefactors of this age. His lamp might well be called, like Aladdin’s, the Wonderful Lamp.
Sometimes, when fire-damp is very abundant, and is steadily given out, it is utilized for lighting purposes; the gas is collected, and by means of a pump a jet of gas is poured from a tube and is ignited. One of these jets has been burning for more than twenty years in an English coal mine. In the same mine the gas was collected in pipes, and carried outside, where it was used to run a steam engine.