Show COAL DUSTING VS COAL MINE SWEEPING the recently recently y announced invention of mark hopkins of this city the purpose of which is to vacuum sweep coal mines and keep them free of coal dust thus making them safe against explosions evidently is causing much comment in coal mining circles away from hopkins home town coal age cannot ze e anything but a rock dusting scheme to make coal mines safe the t he bureau of mines is delving into the problem and just a few days ago issued a bulletin on the subject this bulletin is given space in this issue of the mining review because it is timely and becat because tse as the bulletin states requests are piling in upon it for information the awful coal mine disasters of the past few months sa esit es it imperative that coal mine operators investigate with 9 diew bew of determining what is to be done if rock dusting the mines is the solution that is the method to introduce if hopkins scheme is better yet or promises better results it should also be investigated and tried out the inventor himself submitted further argument in favor of his idea the other day and ana while he has not yet taken the matter up tip in particular detail his remarks are given so that they may be compared with the mining bureaus advocacy of rok rock dusting mark hopkins is an old coal mine expert himself and he knows knovs kno vs the game from the practical standpoint he has not yet so declared in print but he contends that rock dusting may be pretty safely relied upon to make the main haulage ways and entries to coal mines immune against wreckage in case of coal dust and b gas explosions so that when men are blown up tip their bodies can be recovered but he does not believe the method can ever be made perfect enough to ervent explosions he says the only way to prevent the accumulation of dust and gas is to clean the mines and keep them clean then there will be no ilece necessity for rock dusting he states that with his device this I 1 can call be done most efficiently and cheaply and without resort to tedious sail sampling apling and technical determinations in order to know what mixtures are necessary to make rock dusting efficacious bureau of mines experts are all right but all of the experts and men of ideas are not members of the bureau |