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Fire-damp
Firedamp is any flammable gas found in coal mines, typically coalbed methane. It is particularly found in areas where the coal is bituminous. The gas accumulates in pockets in the coal and adjacent strata and when they are penetrated the release can trigger explosions. Historically, if such a pocket was highly pressurized, it was termed a "bag of foulness". Name Damp is the collective name given to all gases (other than air) found in coal mines in Great Britain and North America. As well as firedamp, other damps include ''blackdamp'' (nonbreathable mixture of carbon dioxide, water vapour and other gases); whitedamp (carbon monoxide and other gases produced by combustion); poisonous, explosive ''stinkdamp'' (hydrogen sulfide), with its characteristic rotten-egg odour; and the insidiously lethal ''afterdamp'' (carbon monoxide and other gases) which are produced following explosions of firedamp or coal dust. Etymology Often hyphenated as fire-damp, this term for a flammable ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackdamp
Blackdamp (also known as stythe or choke damp) is an asphyxiant, reducing the available oxygen content of air to a level incapable of sustaining human or animal life. It is not a single gas but a mixture of unbreathable gases left after oxygen is removed from the air and typically consists of nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water vapour. The term is etymologically and practically related to terms for other underground mine gases such as fire damp, white damp, and stink damp, and afterdamp. Etymology The meaning of "damp" in this term, while most commonly understood to imply humidity, presents evidence of having been separated from that newer, irrelevant meaning at least by the first decade of the 18th century, where the original relevant meaning of "vapor" derives from a Proto-Germanic origin, ''dampaz'', which gave rise to its immediate English predecessor, the Middle Low German ''damp'' (with no record of an Old English intermediary). The proto-Germanic ''dampaz'' gave rise to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Afterdamp
Afterdamp is the toxic mixture of gases left in a mine following an explosion caused by methane-rich firedamp, which itself can initiate a much larger explosion of coal dust. The term is etymologically and practically related to other terms for underground mine gases—such as firedamp, white damp, and black damp, with afterdamp being composed, rather, primarily by carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen, with highly toxic stinkdamp-constituent hydrogen sulfide possibly also present. However, the high content of carbon monoxide is the component that kills, preferentially combining with haemoglobin in the blood and thus depriving victims of oxygen. Globally, afterdamp has caused many of the casualties in disasters of pit coalfields, including British, such as the Senghenydd colliery disaster. Such disasters continue to afflict working mines, for instance in mainland China. Etymology The meaning of "damp" in this term, while most commonly understood to imply humidity, presents e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whitedamp
Whitedamp is a noxious mixture of gases formed by the combustion of coal, usually in an enclosed environment such as a coal mine. The main, most toxic constituent is carbon monoxide, which causes carbon monoxide poisoning. Hydrogen sulfide, also called stinkdamp, may co-occur. Coal frequently starts to Coal seam fire, burn slowly in mines when it is exposed to the atmosphere; partial combustion produces carbon monoxide. The term is etymologically and practically related to terms for other underground mine gases such as firedamp, black damp, stink damp, and afterdamp. Etymology The meaning of "damp" in this term, while most commonly understood to imply humidity, presents evidence of having been separated from that newer, irrelevant meaning at least by the first decade of the 18th century, where the original relevant meaning of "vapor" derives from a Proto-Germanic origin, ''dampaz'', which gave rise to its immediate English predecessor, the Middle Low German ''damp'' (with no record ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Davy Lamp
The Davy lamp is a safety lamp for use in flammable atmospheres, invented in 1815 by Sir Humphry Davy.Brief History of the Miner's Flame Safety Lamp at minerslamps.net. Accessed 7 July 20121 It consists of a wick lamp with the flame enclosed inside a mesh screen. It was created for use in coal mines, to reduce the danger of explosions due to the presence of methane and other flammable gases, called '' firedamp'' or '' [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Safety Lamp
A safety lamp is any of several types of lamp that provides illumination in coal mines and is designed to operate in air that may contain coal dust or gases, both of which are potentially flammable or explosive. Until the development of effective electric lamps in the early 1900s, miners used flame lamps to provide illumination. Open flame lamps could ignite flammable gases which collected in mines, causing explosions; safety lamps were developed to enclose the flame and prevent it from igniting the surrounding atmosphere. Flame safety lamps have been replaced in mining with sealed explosion-proof electric lights. Background Damps or gases Miners have traditionally referred to the various gases encountered during mining as damps, from the Middle Low German word ''dampf'' (meaning " vapour"). Damps are variable mixtures and are historic terms. * ''Firedamp'' Naturally occurring flammable mixtures, principally methane. * '' Blackdamp'' or ''Chokedamp'' Nitrogen and carbon diox ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flammable
A combustible material is something that can burn (i.e., ''combust'') in air. A combustible material is flammable if it ignites easily at ambient temperatures. In other words, a combustible material ignites with some effort and a flammable material catches fire immediately on exposure to flame. The degree of flammability or combustibility in air depends largely upon the volatility of the material - this is related to its composition-specific vapour pressure, which is temperature dependent. The quantity of vapour produced can be enhanced by increasing the surface area of the material forming a mist or dust. Take wood as an example. Finely divided wood dust can undergo explosive combustion and produce a blast wave. A piece of paper (made from wood) catches on fire quite easily. A heavy oak desk is much harder to ignite, even though the wood fibre is the same in all three materials. Common sense (and indeed scientific consensus until the mid-1700s) would seem to suggest that ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mostyn
Mostyn is a village and Community (Wales), community in Flintshire, Wales, and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward lying on the estuary of the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, located near the town of Holywell, Flintshire, Holywell. It has a privately owned port that has in the past had a Mostyn Colliery, colliery and ironworks and was involved in the export of commodities, and in present times services the offshore wind industry and ships the wings for the Airbus A380 which are manufactured at Broughton, Flintshire, Broughton. History Mostyn was mentioned in the Doomsday Book of 1086. Henry Bolingbroke (later Henry IV) landed here in 1399 before attacking Richard II at Flint Castle. Coal was mined at Mostyn Colliery and iron production started in the mid nineteenth century. The combination of a colliery, iron works and the docks made this a profitable enterprise. Nineteen hundred people were employed at one time. The coal eventually became exhausted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir James Lowther, 4th Baronet
Sir James Lowther, 4th Baronet, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (1673 – 2 January 1755) was an England, English landowner, industrialist and Whig politician who sat in the British House of Commons, House of Commons for 54 years between 1694 and 1755. His ownership and development of coal mines around Whitehaven in Cumberland gave him substantial revenues, and he was reputed the richest commoner in England. Early life Lowther was baptised on 5 August 1673 at St Giles in the Fields, London, the second son of Sir John Lowther, 2nd Baronet, of Whitehaven, Sir John Lowther, 2nd Baronet and Jane Leigh. Educated privately in London, he attended Queen's College, Oxford and the Middle Temple. On the death of his father in 1706, the baronetcy was inherited by James's elder brother Sir Christopher Lowther, 3rd Baronet, Christopher, but Christopher (whose drinking and gambling had led his father to disinherit him) was cut off with an annuity of about £100 a year and the family propertie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whitehaven
Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake District National parks of England and Wales, National Park in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies by road south-west of Carlisle, Cumbria, Carlisle and to the north of Barrow-in-Furness. It is the administrative seat of the Copeland, Cumbria, Borough of Copeland, and has a town council for the parish of Whitehaven. The population of the town was 23,986 at the 2011 Census in the United Kingdom, census. The town's growth was largely due to the exploitation of the extensive coal measures by the Lowther family, driving a growing export of coal through the harbour from the 17th century onwards. It was also a major port for trading with the Thirteen Colonies, American colonies, and was, after London, the second busiest port of England by tonnage from 1750 to 1772. This prosperity led to the creation of a Georgian architecture, Georgian planned town in the 18th century which has lef ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Humphry Davy
Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet, (17 December 177829 May 1829) was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several elements for the first time: potassium and sodium in 1807 and calcium, strontium, barium, magnesium and boron the following year, as well as for discovering the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine. Davy also studied the forces involved in these separations, inventing the new field of electrochemistry. Davy is also credited to have been the first to discover clathrate hydrates in his lab. In 1799 he experimented with nitrous oxide and was astonished at how it made him laugh, so he nicknamed it "laughing gas" and wrote about its potential anaesthetic properties in relieving pain during surgery. Davy was a baronet, President of the Royal Society (PRS), Member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA), Fellow of the Geological Society (FGS), and a mem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Stephenson
George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was a British civil engineer and mechanical engineer. Renowned as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson was considered by the Victorians a great example of diligent application and thirst for improvement. Self-help advocate Samuel Smiles particularly praised his achievements. His chosen rail gauge, sometimes called "Stephenson gauge", was the basis for the standard gauge used by most of the world's railways. Pioneered by Stephenson, rail transport was one of the most important technological inventions of the 19th century and a key component of the Industrial Revolution. Built by George and his son Robert's company Robert Stephenson and Company, the ''Locomotion'' No. 1 was the first steam locomotive to carry passengers on a public rail line, the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825. George also built the first public inter-city railway line in the world to use locomotives, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wallsend Colliery
Wallsend is a town in North Tyneside, England, at the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall. It has a population of 43,842 and lies east of Newcastle upon Tyne. History Roman Wallsend In Roman times, this was the site of the fort of Segedunum. This fort protected the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall, which did not terminate at the western wall of the fort, but continued from its south-eastern corner down to the shore of the River Tyne. As David Breeze writes, "In the early nineteenth century, as recorded by Bruce, John Buddle the Younger had often seen the Wall foundations extending far into the river when swimming there as a boy." Pre-Conquest The withdrawal of the Romans from the Wall immediately brought the Picts from the north and shortly afterwards the Angles, sailing from near the mouth of the River Elbe with frequent raids both from sea and from land. Ida the Saxon laid waste to the whole of the north in 547 and Wallsend doubtless suffered in the general devastation. It was not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
