Show lArgio argonaut miners probably could have been saved 0 D sc the argonaut mine fire ire I 1 in california in which 47 lives lost T A rickard contributing editor of the engineering and min ing journal press of new york who personally investigated the batas declared that the failure to stop the huge ventilating tan fan at the mouth of the muldoon shaft abao lately shut the men oft off from their ony possible path of escape he says the argonaut has two shafts the main shaft Is used for hoisting and pumping by means of it the miners go to and return from their work vor v k the muldoon shaft Is a secondary exit it has a hoist thit I 1 can be operated to a depth del ot feet only below that the shaft la Is no more than a system of linked ral raises s down to the toot foot level rr from 0 el the bottom level feet deepe the only secondary exit Is by means of the raises that connect the sue I 1 levels on the south of the main shaft A system of ventilation is maintained by means of a sirocco tan fair at the muldoon shaft this tan fan has a normal capacity of 60 cubic feet of air per minute it sucks the air out of the mine and thereby makes the main shaft a downcast in order further to dl di the fresh air into the bottom workings the upper levels where they connect with the shaft on the south side are closed doors whereas ithe the and levels are left open so that the air Is forced down the main shaft past the upper levels into the deepest three levels up the raises to the foot level along that level and up the e muldoon shaft the 47 men were working on the lowest three levels south of the main mail shaft 1 it Is evident that aa soon as th the tire fire started in the main shaft thal the system ol 01 ventilation would cause the to go where the men were at work and to enter the only other exit the muldoon shaft the question arises immell abely should the tan fan have been stopped or even reversed 1 this iq 1 already a subject of earnest con troverse tro versy to me it seems obvious that the stopping ot of the fan and the reversing of 0 the ventilation offered the only chance tor for the escape of the men at the bottom of 0 the mine 1 the heat of the ire fire would cause the air to ascend in the main shaft and any OP opposite momentum left from the artificial ventilation after the tan fan had been stopped could be checked promptly by closing the top of the muldoon shaft for a time it would w 0 uld not be necessary to reverse the tan fan to do that I 1 find would have required many hours because the tan fan is not constructed so as to be re ver sible quickly it if then the air cur i rente rents had been turned the men might have climbed out of the mine through the muldoon raises pro vided the ladders were in good re pair it would have been no easy escape for to climb feet of ladders would require six or seven hours and could bo be done only by an athletic man but at least they could have reached the bottom of the mul doon at the toot foot level and there awaited food and succor if the fan was not stopped the lower level levels of the mine would become a deadly 9 trap the men would be caught even worse than a rat in a trap tor for many of the rats in the argonaut mine di all I 1 escape through the shaft |