United States or Jersey ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
In these old rambling passages one smelt a stink as of all the rotten eggs in all the barn-yards of the world; and this sulphuretted hydrogen was the least dangerous of the gases against which a miner had to contend. There was the dreaded "choke-damp," which was odourless, and heavier than air.
Jack at once sent off two men along each of the roads to find how near the choke-damp had approached, and to block up and seal the doors. It was necessary to strike a light to relight some of the lamps, but this was a danger that could not be avoided.
The waters barred our further descent into the mine, but there was a belief that by breaking through the earthy wall of the stable a continuation of the old airway would be found. The experiment was tried with an alarming result No sooner was the breach made than a slow stream of choke-damp flowed into the chamber, and the lights began to go out one by one.
"Some of us thought we felt a suck of air a quarter hour since, but we weren't sure; and then came another, which blew out the lights. Come along, lad; there is no time for talking." "It's of no use going on," Jack said; "the shaft's choked up. I came down after the first blow, and I fear there's no living soul in the new workings. By this time they must be full of the choke-damp."
Now, when you described the Wigan coal explosion last month, could you not have gone down and helped those people, in spite of the choke-damp?" "I did." "You never said so." "There was nothing worth bucking about." "I didn't know." She looked at me with rather more interest. "That was brave of you." "I had to. If you want to write good copy, you must be where the things are."
The Crops Doing Chores The Sights and Sounds of Winter Road-making The Spirit-rapping Craze Tuberculosis among the Settlers A Cruel Brother The Rights of the Indians Put to the Plough at the Age of Twelve In the Harvest-Field Over-Industry among the Settlers Running the Breaking-Plough Digging a Well Choke-Damp Lining Bees.
Here is an explosion in a coal-mine, and forthwith every mother's son above ground volunteers to go down into the choke-damp to snatch his buried comrades from the sleep of death. A few months ago one such disaster took place in a Durham colliery.
The apparatus has also proved to be of great utility in cases of explosion in collieries, enabling the wearer to safely penetrate the workings, even when they have been filled with the fatal choke-damp, to rescue the injured or to remove the dead.
They had not gone far when they came upon several men, some had fallen, overcome by the choke-damp; others were sitting down, pointing, with looks of terror, at a mass of brick-work which had fallen in, stopping their advance; while through it came a stream of gas, which it was clear would soon fill the passage. The stench was every moment growing stronger and stronger.
It removes the quickly used-up substances from every part, and the choke-damp or carbonic acid which would stop the whole machine, and kill us, were it not got rid of through the lungs as the blood hurries through the walls of these air-sacs, whilst other used-up materials are carried by it to the kidneys and passed out of the body through them.
Word Of The Day