Dark as a Dungeon

by Chris Mark

When Merle Travis sang that “It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mines,” he wasn’t exaggerating.  In fact, mines are even darker than dungeons, because there is no light at all.  Bringing enough light to see has been a problem for miners since they first ventured underground.  In Greek and Roman times, miners used oil lamps that burned plant oil, fish oil, or animal fat.  Such lamps were also used by the early Christians and others who dug the catacombs beneath ancient Rome.

In the late 1800’s, coal miners in the US were using spout oil lamps that were not much different from those of the ancient miners.   The fuel was typically bacon grease or lard oil, which gave off an unpleasant smell in addition to smoke and soot.  Ventilation was minimal in those days, and oil lamps worsened the already poor air quality.  Oil lamps also gave off relatively little light, about the same as a candle.  (Candles, by the way, cost miners about four times as much per day as the spout oil lights, so they were seldom used in coal mines.)

The shortcomings of oil lamps led miners to welcome carbide lamps when they were introduced around the turn of the last century.  Carbide lamps operate on the principle that when calcium carbide comes in contact with water, acetylene gas is produced.  By carefully controlling the drip rate of the water, the lamp creates a steady stream of gas that burns with a bright flame, without smoke or nasty odors.  When combined with a polished metal reflector a carbide light also produces 5-10 times as much light as a single candle.

Carbide lights arrived just in time for the coal industry’s rapid expansion in the Central Appalachian coalfields of Southern West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, and Western Virginia.  By 1915 at least 300,000 carbide lights were in daily use, and nearly every miner in Central Appalachia had one.  Carbide lights had one big disadvantage, however.  Like oil lamps or candles, they were “open lights,” which meant that when they came in contact with methane gas they could ignite an explosion.  Between 1910 and 1930, the era of the Mine Wars, 5,982 US coal miners were killed by explosions.  About half of those explosions were triggered by open lights.

To give just one example, 32 miners entered the Yukon-Pocahontas No. 2 Mine in McDowell County near Bluefield, WV on March 28, 1924.  A mantrip carrying some of the miners to their workplace went off the track, so three of them decided to walk instead.  They took a shortcut through some old, poorly ventilated workings where their carbide lights encountered a pocket of gas.  The resulting explosion killed all three instantly, and 23 of their workmates also perished either from the explosion or the bad air (carbon monoxide “afterdamp”) it created.  

Inspectors had checked the Yukon mine for gas just several days earlier, and none had been found.  But perhaps the miners should have been concerned about gas anyway.  Seven years earlier the same mine had exploded, killing 18 men.  That earlier explosion was also triggered by a miner’s lamp.

By the time the Yukon mine tragedies occurred, explosion-proof lights had actually been available for more than a century.  After a series of gruesome explosions in the deep, shaft mines of Great Britain, the famous chemist Sir Humphrey Davies invented the flame safety lamp.  Davies found that when a flame is encased in fine wire gauze, it can burn in a methane-air mixture without causing an explosion.  Throughout Europe flame safety lamps were subsequently the only light source allowed underground in gassy mines, even where the mining technology was so primitive that the miners did not even have boots.  

Gassy mines in the US also used flame safety lamps, but the near-surface coal seams of Central Appalachia usually had little gas.  Carbide lights were preferred over flame safety lamps because they were brighter, light enough to be worn on a miner’s hat, and much less expensive to purchase.  Flame safety lamps were used in Central Appalachia, but only by mining officials to check for gas, and these “possum lights,” remained in service until replaced by electronic gas detectors in the 1980’s.

The problem of mine lighting was eventually solved by the electric cap lamps.   By 1915 the Edison cap lamp included all the components of a modern miner’s light: a bulb with a tungsten filament, a reflector, a battery carried on the miner’s belt, and a lamp cord connecting the bulb assembly with the battery.  Electric cap lamps were explosion proof, they never blew out in strong air currents, and within a few years they were far brighter than even a carbide light.  They were (and are) expensive, however, so some small mines kept using carbide lights into the 1960’s.

Chris Mark is a former West Virginia coal miner and a mine safety specialist. He lives in Pittsburgh.

Sources

Bartos JP (2009).  A Light in the Darkness: U.S. Mine Lamps, the Early Years—Candlesticks, Oil Lamps, and Safety Lamps.  Mining History Journal.

Bartos JP (2010).  A Light in the Darkness: Modern U.S. Mine Lamps—Carbide and Electric Cap Lamps.  Mining History Journal.

Humphrey HB (1960).  Historical summary of coal mine explosions in the United States, 1910-1958.  US Bureau of Mines Bulletin 586, US GPO, 280 pp.

Paul JW (1915).  Notes on Miner’s Carbide Lamps.  US Bureau of Mines Miner’s Circular No. 18, US GPO, 10 pp.

US Mine Rescue Association (n.d.).  Mine Disasters in the United States, Yukon-Pocahontas Coal Company, Yukon No. 1 Mine Explosion, December 15, 1917.  https://usminedisasters.miningquiz.com/saxsewell/Yukon1.htm, accessed 16 July, 2022.

US Mine Rescue Association (n.d.).  Mine Disasters in the United States, Yukon-Pocahontas Coal Company, Yukon No. 2 Mine Explosion, March 28, 1924.  https://usminedisasters.miningquiz.com/saxsewell/yukon.htm , accessed 16 July, 2022. 

Wheat G (1945).  The Story of Underground Lighting.  Proc. 53rd IL Mining Institute, pp. 71-79.