Effects of Sparking from Various Classes of Tool Steel in Explosive Mixtures of Firedamp and Air with Special Reference to Sparking from Coal Cutter Picks

McCombe, John (1932) Effects of Sparking from Various Classes of Tool Steel in Explosive Mixtures of Firedamp and Air with Special Reference to Sparking from Coal Cutter Picks. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

For nearly two centuries the Ignition of Firedamp in Coal Mines has given grave concern to the Mining Industry. The causes of these Ignitions are not always obvious, and in many cases Frictional Sparks have been considered the only probable cause, after careful study of the other possible sources of Ignition. The earliest recorded Ignitions attributed to Frictional Sparking were believed to be produced by sparks either from the blow of a hand pick on hard rock or from the sparks given off by the steel mill and flint used at that time for underground illumination. The application of machinery to coal cutting has been progressively increasing during the past 50 years or so, and probably no branch of Mining Engineering is receiving more attention at the present time. The possibility of encountering the harder rocks adjacent to, and disseminated through the coal seams, and the greater amount of energy expended in cutting, accentuates the danger, if any, of sparking effects due to contact with the coal cutter picks. In recent years such sparks have been assigned as a cause of Ignition of Firedamp underground. Different opinions have been advanced by eminent Mining Engineers, but whether sparks produced from coal cutting picks are capable of igniting inflammable mixtures of Firedamp and Air seems still to be controversial. The following report gives first, an historical review of the subject and secondly, describes a series of experiments conducted with a view to deciding whether or not Firedamp-Air mixtures can be ignited by sparks from coal cutting picks on hard rock, and any conditions which may influence the incendivity of the sparks.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Mining engineering
• Date of Award: 1932
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1932-79932
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 31 Mar 2020 09:09
• Last Modified: 31 Mar 2020 09:09
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/79932