The Davy lamp is a safety lamp for use in flammable atmospheres, invented in 1815 by Sir Humphry Davy. It consists of a wick lamp with the flame enclosed inside a mesh screen. It was created for use in coal mines, to reduce the danger of explosions due to the presence of methane and other flammable gases, called firedamp or minedamp.
Firedamp is flammable gas found in coal mines. It is the name given to a number of flammable gases, especially methane. It is particularly found in areas where the coal is bituminous. The gas accumulates in pockets in the coal and adjacent strata, and when they are penetrated, the release can trigger explosions. Historically, if such a pocket was highly pressurized, it was termed a "bag of foulness".
A mining accident is an accident that occurs during the process of mining minerals. Thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially from underground coal mining, although hard rock mining is not immune from accidents. Coal mining is considered much more hazardous than hard rock mining due to flat-lying rock strata, generally incompetent rock, the presence of methane gas, and coal dust. Most of the deaths these days occur in developing countries, and rural parts of developed countries.
Carbide lamps, or acetylene gas lamps, are simple lamps that produce and burn acetylene (C2H2) which is created by the reaction of calcium carbide (CaC2) with water (H2O).
A safety lamp is any of several types of lamp that provides illumination in coal mines and is designed to operate in air that may contain coal dust or gases both of which are potentially flammable or explosive. Until the development of effective electric lamps in the early 1900s miners used flame lamps to provide illumination. Open flame lamps could ignite flammable gases which collected in mines, causing explosions and so safety lamps were developed to enclose the flame and prevent it from igniting the surrounding atmosphere. Flame safety lamps have been replaced in mining with sealed explosion-proof electric lights.
On December 8, 1981, 13 coal miners lost their lives as the result of an explosion at the No. 21 Mine, an underground coal mine near Whitwell, Tennessee.
The Courrières mine disaster, Europe's worst mining accident, caused the death of 1,099 miners in Northern France on 10 March 1906. This disaster was surpassed only by the Benxihu Colliery accident in China on 26 April 1942, which killed 1,549 miners. A coaldust explosion, the cause of which is not known with certainty, devastated a coal mine operated by the Compagnie des mines de houille de Courrières. Victims lived nearby in the villages of Méricourt, Sallaumines, Billy-Montigny, and Noyelles-sous-Lens. The mine was 2 km (1 mi) to the east of Lens, in the Pas-de-Calais département.
The Moweaqua Coal Mine Disaster happened on December 24, 1932, in Moweaqua, Illinois. The disaster was caused by a methane gas explosion killing 54 miners. The explosion occurred shortly after the day shift started, sometime between 7:30 and 8:00 Christmas Eve morning.
The Ulyanovskaya Mine disaster was caused by a methane explosion that occurred on March 19, 2007 in the Ulyanovskaya longwall coal mine in the Kemerovo Oblast. At least 108 people were reported to have been killed by the blast, which occurred at a depth of about 270 meters (885 feet) at 10:19 local time. The mine disaster was Russia's deadliest in more than a decade.
The Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site is an inactive coal mine in Alberta, Canada that operated from 1936 to 1979. Located in East Coulee, it is considered to be Canada's most complete historic coal mine and is home to the country's last standing wooden coal tipple, and the largest still standing in North America. It was designated an Alberta Provincial Historic Resource in 1989 and a National Historic Site of Canada in 2002.
The 2007 Zasyadko mine disaster was a mining accident that happened on November 18, 2007 at the Zasyadko coal mine in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk.
The 2008 Ukrainian coal mine collapse occurred at the Karl Marx Coal Mine in the city of Yenakiieve, Donetsk Oblast (province) of eastern Ukraine on June 8, 2008. The mine collapse was said to have been caused by a gas pipe explosion. The explosion occurred at a depth of about 1,750 feet (533 m). 37 miners were trapped underground at the time of the collapse, located 3,301 feet (1,006 m) below the surface of the earth. Additionally, five surface workers suffered from burns and other injuries in a blast that they described as one of the most powerful in the industry.
The 2009 Handlová mine blast occurred on 10 August 2009 roughly 330 metres (1,080 ft) underground in Trencin Region, Slovakia at Hornonitrianske Bane Prievidza, a.s.s (HNB) coal mine located in the town of Handlová. 20 people were killed, nine others suffered minor injuries and were taken to hospital for treatment. Some historians have called the disaster the largest mining tragedy in Slovakia’s history. The deadly explosion, probably caused by flammable gases, occurred after mine rescuers had earlier been deployed to extinguish a fire in the Eastern shaft of the mine.
The Upper Big Branch Mine disaster occurred on April 5, 2010 roughly 1,000 feet (300 m) underground in Raleigh County, West Virginia at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch coal mine located in Montcoal. Twenty-nine out of thirty-one miners at the site were killed. The coal dust explosion occurred at 3:27 pm. The accident was the worst in the United States since 1970, when 38 miners were killed at Finley Coal Company's No. 15 and 16 mines in Hyden, Kentucky. A state funded independent investigation would later find Massey Energy directly responsible for the blast.
The Raspadskaya mine explosion was a mine explosion in the Raspadskaya mine, located near Mezhdurechensk in Kemerovo Oblast, Russia, which occurred on 8 May 2010. It was believed to have been caused by a buildup of methane. The initial explosion was followed by a second approximately four hours later which collapsed the mine's ventilation shaft and trapped several rescue workers. By 18 May 2010, 66 people were confirmed to have died with at least 99 others injured and as many as a further 24 unaccounted for.
The Sukhodilska–Skhidna coal mine is a large underground coal mine located in Southeast Ukraine in Luhansk Oblast. Sukhodilska–Skhidna coal mine represents one of the largest coal reserves in Ukraine having estimated reserves of 157.4 million tonnes. The annual coal production is around 712,000 tonnes.
The Eccles mine disaster was an explosion of coal-seam methane that took place on April 28, 1914, in Eccles, West Virginia. The explosion took the lives of at least 180 men and boys.
Mine safety is a broad term referring to the practice of controlling and managing a wide range of hazards associated with the life cycle of mining-related activities. Mine safety practice involves the implementation of recognised hazard controls and/or reduction of risks associated with mining activities to legally, socially and morally acceptable levels. While the fundamental principle of mine safety is to remove health and safety risks to mine workers, mining safety practice may also focus on the reduction of risks to plant (machinery) together with the structure and orebody of the mine.
Between 25 and 29 February 2016, a series of explosions caused the deaths of 36 people, including 31 miners and five rescue workers, in a coal mine near the city of Vorkuta, Komi Republic, Russia. The explosions were believed to be caused by ignition of leaking methane gas.
The Hlobane Coal Mine Disaster occurred at the Hlobane Collery, Natal on 12 September 1983. The mine was the scene of another mining disaster 39 years earlier, an event that occurred on same date. A methane explosion in the mine caused burns and poisonous gas that killed 68 miners.
