Coal-dust explosions: a continuing menace

An account of the early history of coal-dust explosions in the United Kingdom indicates how the pioneering investigators developed methods of analysing these disasters as early as 1886. The logic of their conclusions was not readily accepted, but their work led to the development of coal-dust research facilities in the United Kingdom and later worldwide. The progress of legislation to bring the hazard under control is traced: the early legislation, however, produced poor results and coal-dust explosions continued in the United Kingdom after the nationalization of the coal industry. The work of the working party set up by the Coal Industry National Consultative Council in 1959 is reviewed; its final report, produced in 1967, appears to have been a turning-paint in the United Kingdom experience of coal-dust explosions. An examination of coal-dust explosions in recent years in Germany, the U.S.A., Australia and southern and South Africa demonstrates the continuing reluctance of coal-mining industries worldwide to accept the importance of coal dust as a fuel for mine explosions. Some of the actions that are necessary if coal-dust explosions are to be avoided in future are listed.