Bellevue Underground Mine Tour
Crowsnest Pass, Alberta
www.crowsnestguide.com/bellevuemine
Learn About Our Mantrip Project
Underground Mining in the Crowsnest Pass
by Bob Price, Vice-Chairman, Ecomuseum Trust Society
Published in the Pass Herald and Pass Promoter, January 10, 2006
Early underground coal mining was a risky occupation. Roof falls, moving cars, coal bursts, bumps, asphyxiations sent many miners to an early grave. Methane and coal dust explosions claimed the most lives. More and more miners had gone underground to mine the coal needed by the Industrial Revolution.
From 1798 to 1816 in Great Britain, 477 miners died in explosions. The "naked flame" light supplies such as candles and torches easily ignited the methane being released by the coal seams.
Around 1817, three Englishmen - Davy, Clanny, and Stephenson - set about to invent lamps which would burn safely in methane. These first safety lamps had many shortcomings. The methane would explode inside the lamps, causing them to fall apart, thus compounding the danger. In the first 18 years of their use, 538 miners died in explosions.
By 1886, the "Davy" lamp, as it became known, had evolved into a safe, dependable source of light which hardly resembled the prototype lamps. Over 300 companies worldwide were producing their versions of the safety lamp. The basic principle in all remained the same ... to allow the methane from the mine to burn inside the lamp, not outside.
The flame safety lamps used in the Crowsnest Pass until 1983 or so were mainly Wolf and Koemler in manufacture. They were generally soot free, economical, tamper-proof, clean burning, brilliant, relightable, and safe. While first used for illumination, the advent of the Edison electric cap lamp changed that. The safety lamp was then used by the fireboss to test the mine air.
Today, by law, the safety lamp can only be used to test for oxygen. There are far superior electronic devices to test for methane, such as the MP 40 electronic tester made by I.S.C., which Wendy Davies, our Mine Operations Safety Coordinator uses daily at the Bellevue Mine.