Everything about Fire Damp totally explained
Firedamp is a
flammable gas found in
coal mines. It is actually the name given to a number of flammable gases, including
methane. It is particularly commonly found in areas where the coal is
bituminous.
Firedamp is explosive at concentrations between 4% and 16%, with most violence at around 10%, and caused much loss of life in coal mines before the invention of the
Davy lamp. Even after the safety lamps were brought into common use, firedamp explosions could still occur from sparks produced when coal contaminated with
pyrites was struck with metal tools. The presence of
coal dust in the air increased the risk of explosion with firedamp, and indeed could cause explosions itself.
The
Tyneside coal mines in
England had the deadly combination of bituminous coal contaminated with
pyrites, and a great number of lives were lost in accidents due to firedamp explosions, including 102 dead at
Wallsend in
1835.
Rather than the
Davy lamp, Tyneside miners used a
Geordie lamp, a similar safety lamp designed by
George Stephenson.
Damps
Gases (other than air) in coal mines in England were collectively known as
"damps". This comes from the German word
Dampf (meaning "vapour"), and was probably introduced when German miners and mine engineers were brought to England in the
17th century to help in the development of deep mining.
Other damps included
blackdamp (
carbon dioxide and other gases), and the insidiously lethal
afterdamp (
carbon monoxide and other gases) produced following explosions of firedamp or coal dust.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Fire Damp'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://firedamp.totallyexplained.com">Firedamp Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
