HOW SCIENCE AIDS THE STRICKEN COLLIER
Nothing is more characteristic of the present age than the care which
is, quite rightly, expended upon the comfort and safety of those who do
the manual labour of the community. The stores of scientific knowledge
and skill are drawn upon freely for this end, and some very interesting
examples can be given of the truly scientific methods which have been
evolved, not only for preventing injuries of any kind, but for
succouring those who may, despite those precautions, fall victims to
disease or accident.
An example has already been given of the scientific investigation into
the nature of colliery explosions and the best means of preventing them.
We have seen there how expense has been poured out lavishly in fitting
up the experimental gallery or artificial pit, and how the most cunning
mechanical and electrical devices have been pressed into the service in
order to find out just what happens when an explosion occurs. It has
been related how these investigations have revealed with certainty the
true cause of the explosions and thereby led the way to their
prevention.
But with it all there is still an occasional disaster, occurring,
sometimes, at the best and most carefully managed collieries. And
therefore it is still necessary to provide for rescuing the unfortunate
men who are affected.
It is worth remark, here, that colliery explosions are, all things
considered, a very rare occurrence. Because of their dramatic
suddenness, and the number of lives which are commonly lost in a single
disaster, we are apt to magnify their severity in our minds and to
picture the life of the miner as a very hazardous one. In point of fact,
the expectation of life, as the insurance people call it, is quite as
great among the coal-miners as among any class of manual labour. And of
those who do meet an untimely end there are more lost through isolated
accidents, involving one or two men, than in the great disasters.
To meet these isolated cases science is almost powerless. For the most
part, they are due to falls of material from the roof of the mine, or
some simple accident of that kind, caused by an error of judgment or
lack of care on the part of fellow-workmen, and the only safeguard
against such is the most careful and systematic supervision, which, in
Great Britain at all events, is rigidly applied. The underground staff
are very carefully organised with this end in view, and the whole is
supervised by Government inspectors. No amount of scientific
investigation or invention will help much in these matters.
With the explosion or fire, however, it is different, for there subtle
forces and strange chemical influences come into play with which science
is specially well fitted to deal.
To a great many people the first news of organised, trained and
scientifically equipped rescue parties came at the time of the terrible
Courrieres disaster in France, when over 1000 men lost their lives. For
then a party with apparatus hurried from Germany and played a prominent
part in the rescue operations. But unfortunately the glamour of their
performance was somewhat dimmed by the fact that after they had done all
they could, and had gone home again, more men were rescued. Many,
reading of that fact, were inclined to scoff at the "new-fangled" ideas,
thinking that after all the old way of working with a party of brave but
untrained and often ignorant volunteers was better than the new way of
working with equipped and trained men. It certainly did seem as if the
former had succeeded where the latter had failed. But that was quite a
mistake, as subsequent events have shown, and in all probability it was
due to the fact that the uninstructed party were local men, thoroughly
familiar with the mine in which they were working, its geography and
its special local conditions, whereas the trained men came from far
away.
At all events the pioneer work of the Germans in the matter of rescue
teams has been amply justified by the fact that other people have copied
them, and none more thoroughly than the mining authorities of Great
Britain. Indeed we see here another instance of the remarkable way in
which the British people, though a little slow to take up a new idea, do
take it up when it has once been established, and in such a way that
they are soon among the foremost in its use. The Germans, all honour to
them, started the rescue teams, but at this moment there are rescue
teams and stations for their training in Britain second to none in the
world. Of these there is a splendid example in the Rhondda Valley, in
South Wales, supported and worked by the owners of the pits in that
district, besides others at Aberdare, in the same neighbourhood, at
Mansfield, to serve the collieries in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire;
indeed rescue stations are now dotted throughout the mining districts.
The general idea of these stations is as follows. The building is
centrally situated in the district which it is intended to serve, and in
it are kept an ample supply of the necessary appliances, in the shape of
breathing apparatus, which enables men to walk unhurt through poisonous
gas, reviving apparatus, by which partially suffocated men can be
brought round again by the administration of oxygen, together with
quantities of that valuable gas in suitable portable cylinders.
Everything which forethought can suggest as even possibly useful in an
emergency is kept in a constant state of readiness. And all the while a
swift motor car stands ready to carry them to the scene of operations.
But the appliances are of little use without men to work them, who know
them and can trust them. The case of David, who felt able to do better
work with his sling and stone than in all the panoply of Saul's armour,
because he "had not proved it," is typical of a universal human
instinct. A man feels safer unarmed, or simply armed, than he does with
the most elaborate weapons in which he has not learned to have
confidence. And therefore the men who may be called upon to work this
apparatus are first taught to have confidence in it. Each station has
its instructor, who is usually also the general superintendent of the
station, and "galleries" in which the instruction can be carried out.
Volunteers are called for in each colliery and a number of the most
suitable men are chosen to undergo training, preference being given,
very naturally, to those who are already trained, as fortunately so many
workmen are nowadays, in ambulance work.
These chosen men then repair at intervals to the station to undergo a
proper course of instruction. The instructor, often an ex-non-commissioned
officer in the Royal Engineers, accustomed, therefore, to engineering
matters, and also to systematic discipline, there puts them through a
course of drill the object of which is to teach them to work together as
a squad under the orders of a properly constituted chief. Thus when called
upon in some emergency there will be no confusion, but each man will know
what to do, and a few short words of command from the chief will serve
better than the long explanations which would be necessary with an
undisciplined body. It welds the individual men, as it were, into a
smoothly working machine, thereby increasing the efficiency of the whole.
And arrangements are made whereby, should the leader fail, another man
steps into his place of authority at once and without question.
Then, having thus brought them under a suitable discipline, the
instructor takes his men into the experimental gallery. This may be
described as a long, low, narrow shed, in which are timber props and
beams, rails on the floor, heaps of coal, all things, in fact, which may
tend to make it closely resemble the actual workings of a coal-mine
after they have been shaken and shattered by the force of an explosion.
The great difficulty, in a real disaster, arises from what are known as
"falls." The roof of the mine is normally supported by timbers, and
these the explosion moves, so that in places many tons of the earth of
which the roof of the mine consists will fall and block completely the
"roads" or tunnels which communicate from the shaft to the places where
the men are at work. These, of course, have to be removed or burrowed
through before the men imprisoned in the distant workings can be
reached. The rescue party do not, of course, wait to clear away the
whole of this debris, only just enough to enable them to crawl through
or over it, but even then it often represents the waste of precious
hours, and the expenditure of great exertions, to get past a "fall." So
at intervals "falls" are made in the gallery, in order that men may be
practised in dealing with them.
[Illustration: _By permission of W. E. Garforth, Esq., Pontefract_
AN ARTIFICIAL COAL MINE
These two photographs show the clouds of flame and smoke issuing from
the mouth of the "Artificial Coal Mine" during the experiments described
in the text]
It may be interesting to give a brief statement of the training
undergone by the men at the Mansfield Rescue Station. In that case, it
should be stated, the gallery is made double, so that men can go one way
and return the other back to their starting-point. Having donned their
breathing apparatus, they enter the gallery, which, by the way, is
filled with smoke and foul gas. Passing along it, they encounter two
falls, which they must get over or through; then they have to set twelve
timber props as might be necessary to maintain the safety of a damaged
road in the mine; all that they do three times over. Then they are
required to bring up and lay 250 bricks, a thing which might also be
necessary in an actual emergency, after which they have to fix up
"brattice cloth" in a part of the gallery. One of the first duties, of
course, for a rescue party is to restore the circulation of air in the
mine, and brattice cloth is a rough kind of cloth which is put to guide
the air currents. That done, they have to take a dummy representing a
man of 14 stone, put it on a stretcher, and carry it round the gallery
and over the falls. Finally, they restore the timber, bricks and cloth,
and their turn of work is done. The total time required for this is two
hours, and during the whole of that period they are, of course,
breathing not the natural air, but the artificial atmosphere provided
for them by the apparatus with which each man is provided. The chief
point of this part of the training, as has been remarked already, is to
accustom the men to the wearing of the apparatus and to doing work in
it. By this means they gain confidence in it, and get to know that it
will not fail them in the time of trial.
The course of instruction consists of ten drills such as has been
described, after which the men are called up twice a year, just to
refresh their memories.
One side of the gallery is glazed, so that the instructor can watch his
men at work without of necessity being inside himself, and there are
emergency doors as well, which can be opened to let a man out should the
ordeal be too much for him. The necessary "fumes" are generated in a
stove and driven into the gallery by a fan. The stations are beautifully
fitted up, with baths for the men to wash after their somewhat dirty
experience in the gallery, and everything is done for their convenience
and welfare.
The advantage of this systematic training of a great number of men is
that there are men at each colliery who can be called upon when needed.
The team of strangers, as has been remarked, partially failed at
Courrieres, largely because they were strangers, but when every colliery
has a team ready, composed of its own men, then clearly there is the
greatest chance of success. The central station of the district is the
training-ground where the men go from all the collieries to get the
experience and instruction, and where a reserve store of appliances is
kept. In many cases, of course, the collieries have their own
appliances, so that work can be begun at once, without having to wait
for that from the rescue station, but the latter forms a reserve in case
of need, and, being kept under the care of an expert, it is naturally
always in the best possible working order.
To give an idea of the cost of these stations, it may be stated that the
one at Porth, in the Rhondda Valley, cost, including equipment, L7000,
while the one at Mansfield cost L3000. This first cost and the expense
of maintenance is borne by the collieries of the district in proportion
to the quantity of coal which they raise.
And now we can turn to the apparatus itself, without which the
organisation already described would be of little value.
There are several makes of these, but a description of the particular
apparatus used at the two stations mentioned will serve as an
illustration. The purpose, of course, is to give the wearer an
atmosphere of his own, which he can carry about with him, and which will
render him quite independent of the ordinary atmosphere and quite
indifferent to the poisonous nature of the gases around him. To this end
his mouth and nostrils must be cut off from the outer world altogether.
There are two ways of doing this. In the one there is used a helmet, or
perhaps mask would be the better term. This fits right over the man's
face, an air-tight joint being made between the helmet and his head by
means of a rubber washer which can be inflated with air. The inflation
is accomplished by squeezing a rubber ball on the right-hand side of the
helmet. In the centre is a glass window through which he can see easily,
and since this is apt to become clouded by the dampness of his breath
there is a wiper inside, which can be turned by a knob on the outside,
so that by simply turning his knob with his hand he can clean the window
at any time that may be necessary. Two soft pads inside the helmet bear
one on the man's forehead and the other on his chin, and these, working
in conjunction with a strap which passes right round the back of his
head, keep the thing firmly in position. In addition there is combined
with the helmet a leather skull-cap which, being continued down behind,
gives good protection to the head and neck.
The other form of apparatus consists of a mouth-piece and nose-clip. The
mouth-piece, as its name implies, fits in the man's mouth, being
supported and kept in position by a strap passing behind the back of his
head. Combined with it is a little screw clip which closes his nostrils.
The man also wears a leather skull-cap, from which straps depend to
bear the weight of the mouth-piece and its attached tubes, so that the
weight does not fall upon his mouth.
Either of these arrangements, it is clear, cuts him off from
communication with the outer air, but that is only half the problem, for
he must be given a substitute or he will be suffocated.
This part of the appliance he carries, knapsack fashion, upon his back.
First there is a rectangular case, called the regenerator, with, below
it, two small cylinders of compressed oxygen. A suitable arrangement of
pipes connects these together, and to the helmet or mouth-piece as the
case may be.
When the man exhales, as we all know, the air which he then discharges
from his lungs is deficient in oxygen and instead contains carbonic acid
gas. The latter must be got rid of and replaced by pure oxygen. The
exhaled air is therefore led down a pipe to the regenerator, where it
comes into contact with several trays of caustic soda, a chemical which
has a great affinity for carbonic acid. The result is that the latter
gas is extracted from the impure air, finding a more congenial home in
the caustic soda. It is then necessary to restore the normal quantity of
oxygen, and so, as the air passes on, it meets, in a little apparatus
known as an injector, a spray of pure oxygen from the cylinders. Thus,
after being purified and re-oxygenated, the air passes on through more
pipes to the helmet or mouth-piece, to be breathed once more. The
apparatus contains sufficient oxygen and caustic soda for this to go on
for a space of two hours.
But during times of extra exertion a man needs more air than at others,
for which provision has to be made, and so on his chest the rescuer
carries a flexible bag divided into two compartments. Through one of
these the exhaled air passes on its way to the regenerator, while
through the other the oxygenated air flows on its way to the man's
mouth. When he is breathing hard, then, during a moment of extra
exertion, and when, therefore, he is turning out bad air faster than it
can be purified, and drawing in pure air faster than it can be
produced, this bag comes to his aid. From the store of oxygenated air in
one side of it he draws the extra which he requires, while the other
side stores up temporarily the excess of vitiated air, until the
regenerator is able to overtake its work. Thus at all times, whether
breathing ordinarily or heavily, the apparatus can respond to his
demands.
The spray of oxygen as it escapes from the cylinders into the injector
has the effect of driving the air along, so that the circulation through
the tubes and the regenerator is automatic, and the foul air flows away
from the man's mouth and the new air comes back to him quite without
effort on his part. As time goes on, of course, and the stored oxygen
becomes used up, the pressure in the cylinders falls, which fall, shown
upon a little pressure-gauge, tells the man how much longer time he has
before he must return for fresh supplies of oxygen and soda. Fresh
cylinders of oxygen can be connected up very quickly in place of the
empty ones, while a fresh regenerator can be put in, or new caustic soda
supplied, in a very short time.
The superintendent of the Mansfield station has invented what is termed
a "self-rescue" apparatus, to be used in conjunction with that which has
been described above. It is simpler and lighter than the rescue
apparatus, and will not keep a man supplied with air for more than an
hour or an hour and a quarter. Moreover, it is not automatic, since the
flow of oxygen has to be controlled by the man himself. Since, however,
it consists only of a mouth-piece, a breathing-bag and a cylinder of
oxygen, it is very portable, and may well be carried by a rescue party
for the use of any men who may be discovered alive beyond the danger
zone. It may well happen, indeed it often has happened, that a remote
part of a mine, although cut off from the shaft by passages full of
"after-damp," as the foul gases caused by the explosion are termed, may
itself contain fairly pure air in which men can live for a long time. If
such men be reached, the difficulty is to get them through the passages
containing the bad air. Consequently a rescue party which carried one
or two of these light forms of apparatus could equip such men with them
and then they could pass out with safety.
Another use, the one, in fact, from which the appliance draws its name,
is the facility with which, by its aid, a man could set right a chance
defect in his ordinary rescue apparatus. Suppose, for example, that a
fully equipped man found something wrong, whereby he was prevented from
getting his proper supply of purified air. Then, if the party had one of
the self-rescue sets with them, he could slip off his helmet or
mouth-piece, quickly replacing it, for a time, with the self-rescue
mouth-piece. This might enable him to reach safety, or even to put the
other apparatus right and then don it once more. The whole thing can be
packed up into a small tin case which can be slung over one shoulder,
and with the oxygen cylinder slung over the other one the complete
outfit can be carried quite easily by a man in addition to what he is
wearing himself.
Still another form of breathing appliance may well be taken on these
rescue expeditions, and that is the reviving apparatus, for use upon
those who have apparently ceased to breathe. In this case a mask is put
over the sufferer's mouth and nose, and then the turning of a lever into
a certain position causes oxygen to escape from a cylinder in such a way
as to cause a suction which empties the man's lungs of the bad gases
which have laid him low. That done, another movement of the lever and a
deep breath of oxygen flows into his lungs in their place. Thus by
alternating the positions of the lever an artificial respiration is set
up far more effective than can possibly be attained by the ordinary
method of moving the man's arms and pressing his chest. Indeed there are
cases, such as when his arms or ribs are injured, when the ordinary
method is impossible, but it is hard to imagine an instance when this
beneficent apparatus could not be used, and so long as there be any
spark of life left in the poor fellow there seems to be every reason to
expect a complete revival as the result of its use.
Of course there are many other places where poisonous gases are likely
to be met with, such as gas-works, chemical-works, limeworks, and so on,
where this apparatus may be kept with advantage, in case of accident.
Indeed all that has been described above has its use apart from colliery
explosions, although they are the outstanding opportunities for its
employment. Old workings, tunnels which have been empty for a time,
sewers--all these have, on occasion, to be entered, not to mention
houses full of smoke, or factories full of chemical fumes, all of which
form cases in which the rescue apparatus would find useful employment.