Dahlbusch Bomb
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A Dahlbusch Bomb is an
emergency evacuation Emergency evacuation is an immediate egress or escape of people away from an area that contains an imminent threat, an ongoing threat or a hazard to lives or property. Examples range from the small-scale evacuation of a building due to a storm ...
device for use in
mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...
. In its original form it is a torpedo-shaped cylinder with a length of 2.5 metres (8.2 ft), developed to transport trapped miners through boreholes after
mining accident A mining accident is an accident that occurs during the process of mining minerals or metals. Thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially from underground mining (hard rock), underground coal mining, although accidents al ...
s. It does not contain
explosives An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An exp ...
: it was called a "bomb" because of its shape. The Dahlbusch Bomb was developed in May 1955 at the Zeche Dahlbusch
coal mine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...
in
Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; ) is the List of cities in Germany by population, 25th-most populous city of Germany and the 11th-most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher, Emscher River (a tribu ...
in
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
's
Ruhr area The Ruhr ( ; , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr Area, sometimes Ruhr District, Ruhr Region, or Ruhr Valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 1,160/km2 and a populati ...
to rescue three miners. Thirty-four-year-old engineer Eberhard Au sketched it on a leaflet. Au, who never applied for a patent, was quoted as saying "the main thing is, the lads get out". Its distinguishing feature was the small diameter of only 38.5 centimetres (15.2 in), which allows miners to be evacuated through significantly smaller boreholes than using other evacuation devices, and whose shape also helps in raising and lowering the device across long distances. At Zeche Dahlbusch, the device was successfully used to rescue three miners, trapped at a depth of 855 metres (2,805 ft) after a mine collapsed, through a vertical borehole drilled 42 metres (138 ft) from the next-higher mine level. The 15.2-inch diameter would need its passenger to have his shoulders hunched up or his arms vertical above his head, and not be obese or very muscular. The device was used again in 1956 and 1957, but gained further prominence on 7 November 1963, when eleven miners were rescued after two weeks trapped at a depth of 58 metres (190 ft) in the
iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the f ...
mine in
Lengede Lengede () is a municipality in the district of Peine, in Lower Saxony, Germany, some 18 kilometers southwest of Braunschweig and 40 kilometers southeast of Hanover. It became known to the world in 1963 because of a mining disaster and the subsequ ...
, Germany, in what is known in Germany now as the
Wunder von Lengede On 7 November 1963, 11 West German miners were rescued from a collapsed mine after surviving for 14 days, an event that later became known as the Wunder von Lengede ("miracle of Lengede"). On 24 October 1963, the Lengede-Broistedt Iron Mine near ...
("Lengede Miracle"). The "Phoenix" (''Fénix'') evacuation devices used in the rescue of 33 miners after the
2010 Copiapó mining accident The 2010 Copiapó mining accident, also known as the "Chilean mining accident", began on 5 August 2010, with a cave-in at the San José copper–gold mine, located in the Atacama Desert, north of the regional capital of Copiapó, in northern ...
, in
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
, are an enhanced version of the Dahlbusch Bomb."Earth Times, 'Phoenix' to pull Chilean miners out of the dark"
Earthtimes.org.
File:Deutsches_Museum_-_Bergbau_-_Dahlbuschbombe_Lengede_1.JPG, The original Dahlbusch Bomb on display at the
Deutsches Museum The Deutsches Museum (''German Museum'', officially (English: ''German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology'')) in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of science museum, science and technology museum, technology, with a ...
,
Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
File:Deutsches Museum - Bergbau - Dahlbuschbombe Lengede 2.JPG, Closeup view


References


External links

{{Commons category, Dahlbusch Bombs
Dahlbuschbombe
at the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum in Bochum (German) 1955 introductions History of mining Mining equipment Mining rescues