Again, a complex question with many complicated answers.
Okay, this requires a bit of a vocab lesson with a special focus on how they used certain terms back then versus now. Mostly because, I think if we address it this way, I can help you comprehend some of these terms and their context a bit better without having to bring a lot of numbers and percentages into the mix too.
A lot of the same terms are still in use; we just use a few of them a bit differently now. If you are doing active research on this event, these terms are going to be critical literacy for you and your search engines.
So, the 2 most important terms to comprehend first are “gassy” versus “gaseous”.
- “Gaseous” was/is used to describe a constant and consistent presence of a certain high quantity of flammable/combustible/noxious gases posing imminent threat or danger.
- “Gassy” was/is used to describe the occasional or constant natural presence of flammable/noxious gases in smaller, random quantities which are typically of little to no threat. These small, non-threatening amounts when discovered were referred to as “trace” amounts of gas.
There was also a classification called “non-gaseous” at the time. This could describe a mine that had never so much as detected even trace gas in its workings to a moderately “gassy” mine. As you can likely determine on your own, that term left way too much free space for interpretation. However, it is worth noting that they knew at any moment an undetected pocket, or “bleeder”, could occur so, good ventilation and constant mindfulness was considered “Common Sense” by bosses and owners, even in “non-gaseous” mines.
In 1907, these two words were used distinctively and only advanced miners in specific jobs were thoroughly trained in them. General miners of then were not educated in these gases or what levels made their spaces merely “gassy” or dangerously “gaseous”. Nor were they trained in detecting and measuring these gases to the extent that general miners are now. They were expected to learn on the job and were mostly just taught how to use safety lamps to check for a sudden release of gases before and after shooting down coal in their general area.
Today, these two terms are still used to describe certain levels of gas that are naturally present, with “gaseous” still implying that the levels present are a dangerous or imminent threat. However, “gassy” no longer implies that the amount or type of gases present hold little to no threat, just that they are *not yet* to the threshold of becoming a threat and won’t/shouldn’t become a threat if they are monitored and controlled immediately.
This is where specific vocabulary comes up again, particularly on what miners generally called “bad air”. If you are not already familiar with the different mixes of marsh gases, the “damps” are very plainly explained in page 2 of this post.
For a mine to be classified as “gaseous” as opposed to just “gassy” in West Virginia in 1907, the type of gaseous mixture presented and being measured mattered just as much as the amounts consistently present.
This is the part of the answer where things could get very complicated – lots of physics, chemistry, percentages and all that. Regurgitating numbers and formulas won’t necessarily help with comprehending how inspectors reasoned and came to the conclusions the way they did in 1907, so let’s stick with the narrative-style explanation.
Though, a reminder, I am simplifying this portion for fundamental literacy purposes. Surveying properly for gases in underground workings was/is an advanced and skilled process which involves a lot of conditional factors and variables. We are going for very, very basic comprehension here, nothing too advanced.
Quite simply, if there is coal, then there is water and there is gas. If you are lucky, such as mines #6 & #8 were known to be up to this point, water will be your biggest contender underground and gas but a simple nuisance.
So, the question in 1907 was not *if* there is gas present in a coal mine but rather, very simply:
- How many cubic feet of dangerous gases is released per ton of coal mined which is then vented through & out of the mine? (This is gas that is, basically, getting forcibly released by the larger mining process and will, therefore, emit and accumulate within the workings in greater quantities and volumes. This man-made release is often referred to specifically as “Coal Mine Methane”.)
AND
- How long & often and what type of gases are naturally released and present in the air of the mine workings? (This is more about measuring the residual gas that naturally emits and accumulates from the unmined coal which makes up the infrastructure of the workings more than anything else. This natural release is often referred to specifically as “Coalbed Methane”.)
How much of what you found, when and how you found it was pretty much a “crapshoot”. Yeah, they had surveying tools and certain technological means to extract gas & water which were advanced for their time, but they were still quite rudimentary in comparison to the standards we would or should expect since.
Today, miners are trained and educated on these conditions in advance. Miners are now taught that all mines are to be considered “inherently gassy”, always holding the potential of elevating to “gaseous” at any moment, as a matter of over-precaution; a mindful nod to the Union motto of “Safety First”. In 1907, the general miners who were working most directly with these gases were left vulnerable to their naivete as general mining work was considered the “entry-level” job of its time, equivalent to the jobs which we still expect to be exclusively filled by inexperienced teenagers & young adults today, btw.
So, in review:
- The mere presence of marsh gases in a mine is natural and does not make a mine “gaseous”. Not then, not even now.
- There’s “gassy” and “gaseous“. “Gassy” is natural, often implying there are small “trace” amounts of gases which are little to no threat if managed quickly and appropriately. “Gaseous” is natural too, but now there are large dangerous amounts of gases in the workings posing an imminent threat.
- How and why your mine was classified as “gaseous” in 1907 had to do with the type of “damps” the mine naturally emitted, how much was released per ton of coal mined, and to what extent these gases lingered in the air and were vented through the workings.
For more:
- Canairi indoor detecting device
- Vocabulary: What are “damps“?; The Most Dangerous Gases in Mining; Basics of Coal Mine Methane (PDF); Coal Mine Methane (YouTube)
- Report of Hearings before the Joint Select Committee of the Legislature of West Virginia
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