Abstract
THE special dangers of the coal-miner's work have always aroused sympathy from the public, who have been generous in helping the families of miners killed in great colliery disasters. Preventive measures to avoid these dangers have been based on the occasional assistance of students of natural science, as when Humphry Davy invented a safety lamp, and on the continuous efforts of mining engineers. The methods of experimental science were not applied systematically until about twenty years ago, when the Mining Association of Great Britain—a body of colliery owners—set up a full-scale gallery at Altofts, in Yorkshire, to demonstrate the explosibility of a cloud of coal dust and to test the efficacy of stone dust as a means of preventing coal-dust explosions. The success achieved led the Home Office to build a more elaborate station at Eskmeals, on the Cumberland coast, for the experimental study of dust and gas explosions with the view of the development of means for preventing such disasters underground. The War brought this work almost to an end, but it was revived by the Miners' Welfare Fund Committee, which has enabled the Safety in Mines Research Board to build a largescale experimental station near Buxton and laboratories in Sheffield.
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COWARD, H. Sheffield Laboratories for Safety in Mines Research. Nature 122, 627–629 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/122627a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/122627a0