Post by daz on Jun 7, 2005 14:38:55 GMT -5
The fact that a barometer was/is used as a primary safety tool at a coal mine is known to everyone that has worked underground and the fact that a low barometer reading would be an early warning of possibly increases in methane release. In the days of less than adequate mine ventilation systems the barometer recordings would have been critical in actioning temporary precautions in order to safely dissipate methane build up. I can remember as a teenager being in a cinema when a message was flashed onto the screen to inform Cortonwood colliers not to bother going into work on the following dayshift because of an expected fall in pressure..........I thought it was a joke at that time but grew to realise in later life that at least two local collieries Cortonwood and Barrow were occasionally prone to massive "inrushes" of methane more often than not influenced by sudden pressure drops. All Silkstone seam workings in the Barnsley area were eventualy kitted out with compressed air "Fresh Air Stations" specifically for such events, (a 3/8” hose on a swivel valve that you had to turn 90 degs. to release a jet of air, your helmet was held over the flow and two miners could receive sufficient fresh air to survive even in a 100% methane atmosphere. There were two such hoses in one box which meant that four face workers could share one station, nobody ever explained how four eighteen stone colliers could force themselves into a gap two feet wide by two feet high and get four heads into two helmets in times of ultimate panic).
A further thought that I have carried with me for a while but never really attempted to investigate is the possible correlation between recorded explosions and the time of year, I recall thinking that historically, at least around the Barnsley area that some of the bigger disasters took place in the “winter months” and I have just been reading about scientists investigating the relationship between seasonal atmospheric pressure and sea level variation, I then wondered if it was an accepted fact that historically explosive disasters had occurred more frequently in certain months of the year.
If I had thought about this before I finished work I feel sure that all of my holidays would have been taken in the November, December and January months.
A further thought that I have carried with me for a while but never really attempted to investigate is the possible correlation between recorded explosions and the time of year, I recall thinking that historically, at least around the Barnsley area that some of the bigger disasters took place in the “winter months” and I have just been reading about scientists investigating the relationship between seasonal atmospheric pressure and sea level variation, I then wondered if it was an accepted fact that historically explosive disasters had occurred more frequently in certain months of the year.
If I had thought about this before I finished work I feel sure that all of my holidays would have been taken in the November, December and January months.
