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AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS
INSTITUTED 1852
TRANSACTIONS
Paper No. 1171
FEDERAL INVESTIGATIONS OF MINE ACCIDENTS,
STRUCTURAL MATERIALS, AND FUELS.1
By Herbert M. Wilson, M. Am. Soc. C. E.
With Discussion by Messrs.Kenneth Allen,Henry Kreisinger,Walter O. Snelling,A. Bartoccini,H. G. Stott,B. W. Dunn,and Herbert M. Wilson.
Introduction.
The mine disaster, which occurred at Cherry, Ill., on November 13th,1909, when 527 men were in the mine, resulting in the entombment of 330men, of whom 310 were killed, has again focused public attention on thefrequent recurrence of such disasters and their appalling consequences.Interest in the possible prevention of such disasters, and the possiblemeans of combating subsequent mine fires and rescuing the imprisonedminers, has been heightened as it was not even by the series of threeequally extensive disasters which occurred in 1907, for the reason that,after the Cherry disaster, 20 men were rescued alive after an entombmentof one week, when practically all hope of rescuing any of the miners hadbeen abandoned.
This accident, occurring, as it does, a little more than 1½ years afterthe enactment of legislation by Congress instructing the Director of theUnited States Geological Survey to investigate the causes and possiblemeans of preventing the loss of life in coal-mining191 operations, makes this an opportune time to review what has been done bythe Geological Survey during this time, toward carrying out the intentof this Act.
It may be stated with confidence, that had such a disaster occurred ayear or more ago, all the entombed men must have perished, as it wouldhave been impossible to enter the mine without the protection affordedby artificial respiratory apparatus. Moreover, but for the presence ofthe skilled corps of Government engineers, experienced by more than ayear’s training in similar operations in more than twenty disasters, themine would have been sealed until the fire had burned out, and neitherthe dead, nor those who were found alive, would have been recovered formany weeks. In the interval great suffering and loss would have beeninflicted on the miners, because of enforced idleness, and on the mineowners because of continued inability to re-open and resumeoperations.
Character of the Work.—The United States Geological Surveyhas been engaged continuously since 1904 in conducting investigationsrelating to structural materials, such as stone, clay, cement, etc., andin making tests and analyses of the coals, lignites, and other mineralfuel substances, belonging to, and for the use of, the G