A Treatise on Coal, Mine-Gases, and Ventilation

Abstract

MR. THOMAS is known to chemists by reason of the numerous and excellent analyses of the gases inclosed in various coals which he published some time ago in the Journal of the Chemical Society. Marsilly in France, and Meyer in Germany, first broke ground on this subject, but it is to Mr. Thomas, who very greatly improved the method of research, that we owe our most exact knowledge of the character of these occluded gases. The matter is of considerable importance from a twofold aspect. It not only serves to throw light upon the scientific question of the formation of coal, but also affords us information on the very practical question of the nature of the influence of the atmosphere upon the deterioration of coal. These observations attracted sufficient attention from mining engineers and persons connected with mining to induce the author to reprint them together with other matter relating to the general subject, and the result is the volume before us—a work which it is not too much to say ought to be in the hands of the manager and sub-officers of every colliery in the kingdom. Although the subjects of gases in coal and of the deterioration of coal by atmospheric influences are treated at considerable length, the relative or connected matter occupies by far the greater portion of the book, and we have chapters on the Diffusion and Transpiration of Gases, Explosions in Mines and Ships, Combustion, Ventilation, &c.

A Treatise on Coal, Mine-Gases, and Ventilation.

By J. W. Thomas. (London: Longmans, 1878.)