The Development of the Coal Industry

The Development of the Coal Industry

1) Light

As a beginning, workers had problems of lighting their work. Several

methods were used, none of them were particularly attractive. It was

not safe to light in a mine. They first used rotten fish, which gave

off a phosphorescent glow (besides the dreadful smell). Candles, which

exploded the methane flint mills, which produced sparks of light but

could also ignite the methane. After 1815, the Davy lamp was

available, but it cost money and employers were reluctant to buy them.

The risk of explosion was reduced by the invention by Sir Humphrey

Davy of a safety lamp in 1815 which meant that a miner could have

light underground but without having to use the exposed flame of a

candle. The lamp became known as the "Miners Friend". It gave off

light but a wire gauze acted as a barrier between the heat given off

and any gas it might have had contact with.

2) Ventilation

The main problem in ventilation was to get the bad/used air out and

the good air in. There were problems of ventilation particularly as

mines became deeper. Gas was an eternal problem in mines, and

included: methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide. For miners,

ventilation was a matter of life or death. Some solutions were found

like :

· taking canaries into the mine. If the canary died, there was gas and

the miners needed to leave the pit.

· cutting two shafts and lighting a fire at the base of one of them,

to draw fresh air down the other. This could exploded the methane.

· John Buddle invented an air pump, but it was expensive and pit

owners were reluctant to pay for a pump

To clear mines of gas, a crude system of ventilation was used. Young

children called trappers would sit underground opening and shutting

trap doors which went across a mine. This allowed coal trucks through

but it also created a draught and it could shift a cloud a gas.

However, it was very ineffectual.