Abstract
THE Executive Board of Mining Research of the University of Birmingham has just issued a report on the work of the Mining Research Laboratory foi the yeais 1921–1924, the report being signed by Dr. J. S. Haldane, who is the chairman of this Board. The report gives an interesting summary of the various researches which are being undertaken, some of which deal with problems of very great importance to the coal industry. Necessarily some of these researches are purely scientific, whilst others are essentially practical, but it is quite obvious that the results of even the first named are likely to find important practical applications. A great deal of work has been done upon the absorption of various gases by coal, and the effect that these phenomena may have upon the spontaneous combustion of coal has been carefully investigated. A certain amount of work has been done on the application of wireless electricity to underground problems, but no definite conclusions appear to have been reached, and the work has, for the present at any rate, been laid aside. A most interesting group of physiological experiments has been carried out by means of an experimental chamber by which it is possible to test the effect of various gases upon men at rest and at work; as the result of these experiments, accurate information as to the effect of carbon monoxide upon those exposed to its influence has been rendered available, and it has been shown that this poisonous gas is absorbed far more readily by men doing work than when they are at rest. Another series of these experiments has tested the suggested new method of treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning as well as for asphyxiation, the value of carbon dioxide for this purpose having been shown by these researches, with which the name of Dr. Haldane is closely associated.
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Mining Research. Nature 115, 477 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/115477a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/115477a0