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Show HOW TO PREVENT MINE EXPLOSIONS Safety Lamps Should Be Used In Coal Fields and Vigilance Maintained, Says Chief Mining Engineer Rice. WAHIIINOTON. I C. Atlg That Wlilesprend innl mine expti slon with their lrg lo of life enn lx pre-vented pre-vented If the rrcummentlHlkirM of the bureau of mine re used nnd If pore I taken rit ll lime by pveryon In the mine Is the assertion mnde by (leorge K Itlce i hlef mining engineer of the biireHii. In a rejHirl made pub-ll pub-ll lod Ittce goes further nnd declare de-clare that mine explosion eon no longer be romddercd "net of Ood," for whleh no one I resMiiwlble. lie r thnt mine matwRetnent nre not using the mentis tlmt are nt lintul to prevent explosions, eepeetn1l eunl dust explosions Despite nil that hn Imhii Mid nnd written during recent yeors about tho prevention of expliwlons." mpi lllee. It must lie admitted thnt unmtlsfne-tor) unmtlsfne-tor) proRre4 tin been mndn In this rountrj In leesenlng the number of dust expliHilon. Out of n hundred tvil(fll mine exnmlneil In ono stntc onl fifteen were taking nny precautions, precau-tions, nnd In onl) n few of those was there enough stemntlc humldlf)lng or watering to rIvc rensonnblo nssur-mice nssur-mice thnt the eon I dust, nlwn present pres-ent In n coal mine, wns rendered non-Ignltable, non-Ignltable, "Perhaps the reason better protection protec-tion I not sought In bituminous mines In general Is that con! dust I everywhere every-where nnd It presence nnd danger nrc frequently forgotten. The risk of nn explosion seem to n mining mnn like the chnme of being struck by lightning, )et the dinner nra greater than tlmt, a Indicated by the toll of mine explosions In this eountr) which tins varied In recent year from four hundred to eleven hundred death per nnnum. IU'IrIiiii Miner Cnrvfiil. "No better Illustration of the advantage ad-vantage of enrefutnes can bo found than In the mine of llelglum. In those mine great Instantaneous out-lurt out-lurt of Inflammable gn from the measure Into the mine working nr frequent, mmictlme smothering the men, et for the Inst twenty wir no explosions of nn magnitude have oi-i oi-i urred through Ignition of gas, thoiiRh prior to IS'JJ, when less pre'nutlon were taken, there had In en many great disaster. The adoption of preventive pre-ventive measure largel) Is In the hand of mine operators, but In the earning out the provision every mine emplo)i Is concerned "Without open flame of somo sort there would be no mine oxptoslon. Permissible exploslvi ns recommended recommend-ed by the bureau for uso In gaseous mines produce some flnme, but their flame I so mnll and n duration I so brief that If properly used they "IU not Ignite gas or dusts, nnd if thv were employed throughout tho coal mine to the exclusion of blink powder, pow-der, dnumlte and other explosive of n character dnngerou to use In coal mining. It Is believed by bureau engineer en-gineer that nenrly one-half of the explosion would be prevented. If safety lumps or permissible electric Inmp were used, even In socalled non-gaeous non-gaeous mines, It Is thought that over one-third of all tho explosions In this toiintry would bo prevented. "It I observed by the field enxln-ecr enxln-ecr of the bureau that the unexpected unexpect-ed presence of gn Is a most Important factor In tho starting of mine explosions. explo-sions. In many n soculled non.gnHC-on non.gnHC-on mine, rum Issued In small feeders nt tho face In somo pnrt of the mine, n u matter of dally occurrcmc, it open light are used In uuh n mine. This Is particularly u source of danger In those Alabumu nnd Oklahoma mini.. In which much firedamp Is found. Also there ara man) mines, doubtless more than hulf of tho mine In tho UnlUd Ktutts, In which small bodies of ga lire occasionally reported, )et these mine are rated us non-gnseou und open light uro freely used, despite the fact that a consider-utile consider-utile proportion of the explosion have occurred In Just such mine through the Ignition of n pocket of gn by long flame explosives or by ill open light, Vlgllumv Not Ittlaxcri, "Comparatively few of tho coal mine of the country are frankly nc-know nc-know lodged to be gaseous, and singularly singu-larly tnough, slnie the bureau' work was Inaugurated In 190S, only a single explosion disaster hn occurred in n mine In which safety lamp wire being be-ing used prior to un explosion. The reason for greati r Immunity from explosions ex-plosions In mines that are ordinarily considered dangorou beiuuso of the presence of firedamp Is that greater care la taken In all respect. Vigilance Vigil-ance In not relaxed, open light and the uso of matche Is forbidden, permissible per-missible explosives aro exclusively used, nnd the ventilation nt tha working work-ing places nt thu face, I curefull) maintained " 1LW,Y AUTUMN HAT. One of the autumn hata with wide transparent brl.n and crown. iiak allk net I uaed, and the dropped edgo Is trimmed with n narrow band of sable sa-ble fur. Large white allk water llllea surround the crown. lib outlines In hi report n series of nn ailed rtx k dust harriers n h . means of stopping explosion thnt Imve started These Iwrrler consist of helven filled with stone dust und placed t certain point In the mine rne Idea I that the force of the x-phslon x-phslon will raise the stone dust into n eioinl Mini mm there I nothing In the sione dust to burn. I lie exploalon will be i linked and smothered Itlce, who refer to these devh'c a secondarv mfegunrd. has nlrend) tried them out with succes In the buretii' experimental ex-perimental mine, nnd the) Imv.' been patented for the bmcflt of the mining publh |