The principal sources of danger to the collier, as distinguished from other miners, are explosions of fire-damp and falls of roof in getting coal; these together make up about 70% of the whole number of deaths. It will be seen that the former class of accidents, though often attended with great loss of life at one time, are less fatal than the latter.
Authorities.—The most important new publication on British coal is that of the royal commission on coal supplies appointed in 1901, whose final report was issued in 1905. A convenient digest of the evidence classified according to subjects was published by the Colliery Guardian newspaper in three quarto volumes in 1905-1907, and the leading points bearing on the extension and resources of the different districts were incorporated in the fifth edition (1905) of Professor Edward Hull’s Coal Fields of Great Britain. The Report of the earlier royal commission (1870), however, still remains of great value, and must not be considered to have had its conclusions entirely superseded. In connexion with the re-survey in greater detail of the coalfields by the Geological Survey a series of descriptive memoirs were undertaken, those on the North Staffordshire and Leicestershire fields, and nine parts dealing with that of South Wales, having appeared by the beginning of 1908.
An independent work on the coal resources of Scotland under the title of the Coalfields of Scotland, by R. W. Dixon, was published in 1902.
The Rhenish-Westphalian coalfield was fully described in all details, geological, technical and economic, in a work called Die Entwickelung des niederrheinisch-westfälischen Steinkohlen Bergbaues in der zweiten Hälfte des 19ten Jahrhunderts (also known by the short title of Sammelwerk) in twelve quarto volumes, issued under the auspices of the Westphalian Coal Trade Syndicate (Berlin, 19O2-1905).
The coalfields of the Austrian dominions (exclusive of Hungary) are described in Die Mineralkohlen Österreichs, published at Vienna by the Central Union of Austrian mineowners. It continues the table of former official publications in 1870 and 1878, but in much more detail than its predecessors.
Systematic detailed descriptions of the French coalfields appear from time to time under the title of Études sur les gîtes minéraux de la France from the ministry of public works in Paris.
Much important information on American coals will be found in the three volumes of Reports on the Coal Testing Plant at the St Louis Exhibition, published by the United States Geological Survey in 1906. A special work on the Anthracite Coal Industry of the United States, by P. Roberts, was published in 1901.
The most useful general work on coal mining is the Text Book of Coal Mining, by H. W. Hughes, which also contains detailed bibliographical lists for each division of the text. The 5th edition appeared in 1904.
Current progress in mining and other matters connected with coal can best be followed by consulting the abstracts and bibliographical lists of memoirs on these subjects that have appeared in the technical journals of the world contained in the Journal of the Institute of Mining Engineers and that of the Iron and Steel Institute. The latter appears at half-yearly intervals and includes notices of publications up to about two or three months before the date of its publication.
(H. B.)