- Title
- Beware Firedamp. How It Can be Detected by Means of the Flame Safety Lamp.
- Keywords
- coal mines | safety lamps
- Abstract
- The inflammable gas called firedamp is one of the miner's greatest enemies, and mining men should know how to detect its presence in the mine. The handiest and most reliable way of detecting it is to use a flame safety-lamp. This booklet, which contains illustrations prepared from recent photographs taken by the Safety in Mines Research Establishment, tells you how to test for firedamp with a flame safety-lamp, and what to do if you find it is present. Firedamp is a gas which is found in most coal mines. It is given off from the coal face, the undercut and from breaks in the roof and floor. Many of these breaks are well back in the waste and consequently cavities in the waste, and indeed the wastes themselves, may become reservoirs of gas, from which gas may be pushed into the workings by a sudden fall of roof, by a fall in the barometric pressure or by a sudden change in the ventilating current caused, for instance, by the opening of doors.