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Show IS DEATH TO MINERS. THEIR DISLIKB POP) THE SAFETY SAFE-TY LAMP INVENTED DY DAVY. irmrt iighi rip.. it.aiij Aa i. ta.llj lllown Out lor All ot TVhleh llraaona tli tt.t, I ratal- to BUk Thalr Lltea l)oubtl(H Sir Humphrey Davy would liato been greatly astoulshed when ho Invented the lately lamp for coal mln-crt mln-crt eighty-three years ago It ho could have foreseen thai nearly a century later accident would still be occurring In tho depths ot the coal pit due to tho us of ordinary open lamp In tho prcence of the death-dealing flre-diflnp, flre-diflnp, says tho New York Tribune The lntentor would have been forced to concludo that hla lamp had In some way failed to proo Us efficiency and yet auch la far from being tho truth Bo well liai the Davy lamp maintained Ita vnluo ns a safeguard for tho coal miner that In eplto of many later device de-vice In the nay ot mining lights It naa aiwa)a been found, on tho whole, tho most MtUfactorj, and, with slight modlflcatloni, Is the one used wherever wher-ever a safety lamp Is desired. Hut Just here lies tho point mentioned men-tioned In tho first sentence A vast number of coal miners Mill lightly disregard dis-regard tho dangers they work In dally, prefer an ordinary tamp or candlo and cannot bo Induced to uto any othor In tho report ot tho explosion In tho nmplro mine at llronnsvllte, Ta., whero several lite were lost, there was this simple but significant sentence) sen-tence) "The nien More open lamps, such as , nre used In nil the llonongahela river mines," No explanation or excuse accompanied accom-panied the statement. It merely tie-oeribe tie-oeribe a state of things which has long oxlsted In that part ot Pennsylvania. Pennsyl-vania. The mine ot Tayetlo county, along the Monongahela, and also those rt few mile to the northeast. In Westmoreland West-moreland county, have been regarded for many )eara as being comparatively freo from firedamp. This reputation baa caused even more thin tho usual carelessness among tho minora who work there and tho safety lamp Is an article, seldom aeen Yet tho occurrence occur-rence a few weeks ngo shows that oven mines w hlch nre not ' flerj ," ns tho mon say, nre subject to occasional explosions explo-sions and that the deep caerns and pawwge from which coal Is excavated aro nocr to bo reckoned safe. Tho lltownsvlllo disaster Is only the last ot a series of the sama kind In Its neighborhood 8trn jenr ago last January enme the frightful explosion of the Mammoth mine near Young-wood, Young-wood, about twenty-fit o miles from tho sccno of tho recent accident At that time 107 charred nnd mangled bodies were taken out of the galleries nftor the explosion, Tho Mammoth was another an-other "aafo" mlno nnd all Its men used open lamps, though they had plenty ot "davles" furnished to them freo by tho company. How llttlo confldcnco Is to be placed In the fsrt that a mlno has always hitherto enjoyed freedom from noxious vapors may bo Judged from this particular case. Every morning nu Inspection ot the galleries ot tho Mammoth for purity ot air was made by the fire boss As be finished with each section he scratched upon Its wall his mark signifying that It was sate to be worked that day. At 3 o'clock In the morning of Jan. 27, 1S81, the flro bowt made his rounds as usual, and tho men, coming to work at 0 o'clock, at onco began work whero his "27" assured them of safety. Ten minutes later thcro vas a tremendous shock, which made tho mountain tremble for miles Ot tho 133 miners at work In tho fatal gallery 107, Including Includ-ing tho fire boi himself, wcro killed It was supposed that n miner's pick had chanced to open an unsuspected pocket ot firedamp And tho report from llrownsvlllu can glvo only the samo theory regarding this accident: "Tho explosion Is said to havo been caused by tho loosening ot a largo block ot coal, which opened a pocket ot gas" So there are pent-up masses ot firedamp fire-damp oven In "safo" mine, and yet It Is not at all probablo that the miners tlong tho Monongnhela will be fright-incd fright-incd Into abandoning their open lights. Miners, as a class, aro superstitious regarding their work. They havo a " belief that they will not dlo "until their tlmo comes," nnd that ft greater or lees amount ot dally risk does noC mako any difference Then, again, they hate certain objections, for one or two ot whloh there Is somo slight ox-cuno, ox-cuno, to the safety lamp llefore mentioning these, tho general gen-eral feature of the "day" and Its Im-Itators Im-Itators may be given The lamp consists con-sists of a metalllo cistern for the oil and a cylinder ot line wlro gauie, about slant Inenes In height and an -Inch and a bait In diameter, which protects) the Haute from direct contact with the outside air. Thus any gas which this air may contain cannot be fired by tbe lamp It there Is any considerable quantity ot firedamp present, pres-ent, however, tune of It finds Its way In through tbe gauie and causes tho flame to expand slightly and to burn with a weird, pale-blue light This ought to be a warning to the miner, but often he Is loo busy or too careless to noUes It, nnd If ths damp continues to Increase tbe gauss) becomes hot and glowlgf. In some esses It may burst or bewm Incandescent enough to act like an exposed flamo, but generally the miner does not allow the danger to proceed quite so far as this before bo retires from the gallery. Various devices to atold this danger of Incan descence havo been tried, but they have bgen too clumsy to bo popular. Indicators, Indi-cators, to glte warning ot the presence of gas by means ot a little bell, have also been Ingeniously contrived, but they were open to the samo miners' objection ot being too complicated, and It wns difficult to arrange them so that they would work neither too quickly nor too slowly So the plan of tbe "dav" still remains tho most practical, practi-cal, and It Is that ono which Is meant by the term safety lamp, and against which the miners' criticisms aro directed |