Preventing 'the Needless Peril of the Coal Mine': The Bureau of Mines and the Campaign against Coal Mine Explosions, 1910-1940

摘要

The year 1907 had been a bad one for mine explosions: by November 200 men had been killed in ten major disasters. But as matters turned out, this was merely a tune-up. Pennsylvania inspector Henry Louttit worried about the Naomi mine, just south of Pittsburgh. It was gassy and worked with open-flame lamps and bare electric wires, even on the return air current. In November 1906 he read a letter from Francis Feehan, president of United Mine Workers (UMW) District 5, forwarding a miner's complaint that the mine needed better ventilation and that there was a "constant danger of serious explosion." Louttit visited the mine in February, May, and August 1907 and repeatedly wrote the management, warning that it was indeed gassy and poorly ventilated. On November 18, Louttit again wrote the foreman, calling his attention especially to ventilation. The foreman replied the same day, informing him that "the law is being complied with." On the evening of December 1, at about 7:45 p.m., Naomi exploded. The normal workforce was about 350 men. Fortunately, December 1 was a Sunday, and the evening force was small, only thirty-four men. Everyone was killed.