A Primer on Explosives for Coal Miners #260720

The accidents resulting from the improper use of explosives in mining can be most certainly prevented (1) through the use of the best and safest explosives; (2) through the handling and firing of these explosives in the safest manner by carefully selected and trained men; and (3) through the strict and competent oversight of these men. This little book on explosives is published in the hope that it may aid in preventing such accidents. The aim has been to tell what explosives are and how they should be handled, with a view to greater safety; and to do this in language free of unnecessary technicalities. It has been prepared by Charles E. Munroe, con sulting chemist, and Clarence Hall, explosives engineer of the Bureau of Mines. It has been revised in the light of suggestions made by the mining engineers associated with the bureau, by several mine managers, by experts associated with the manufacture of explosives, and by Col. B. W. Dunn, chief of the bureau for the safe transporta tion of explosives, who has also kindly added a brief chapter on the transportation of explosives. Much of the information in this primer has been obtained from experiments conducted by the technologic branch Of the United States Geological Survey at the mining experiment station at Pitts burg, Pa. This station, which is now part of the Bureau of Mines, was authorized for conducting investigations as to the causes of mine explosions. These investigations have shown the recent development of a new type of short-flame explosives, which can be used with greater safety than black powder in mines where there is dangerous gas or inflammable dust, because the flame from the explosion of black powder lasts from to times as long as does the flame from these newer explosives, and is therefore more likely to ignite the gas or dust in such mines.