One Hundred Years of Federal Mining Safety and Health Research

1. Introduction
CONTENTS
Page
1
2. The Beginning: 1910-1925 1
2.1 Early Legislation 1
2.2 Early Mine Disasters 2
2.3 The Origins of the USBM and the Organic Act 7
2.3.1 Initial Safety Research 9
2.4 The USBM and Miner Health 10
2.5 The USBM Opens an Experimental Mine near Pittsburgh 12
2.6 Expansion of the USBM Mission 15
2.7 Expansion of the USBM in Pittsburgh 17
2.8 Early Statistics on Mining Fatalities and Production 18
2.9 The USBM and WW I 19
3. Hard Times and Maturation: 1925-1969 21
3.1 USBM Transferred to the Department of Commerce 21
3.1.1 Explosives Research 21
3.1.2 Rock Dusting Research 22
3.1.3 Safety Inspection 23
3.2 USBM Transferred Back to the Department of the Interior 23
3.3 Impact of the Great Depression on the USBM 24
3.4 The USBM and WW II 24
3.5 Significant USBM Contributions Outside of Mining 25
3.5.1 Explosives and Flammability Research 25
3.5.2 Metals Research 26
3.6 Mechanization of Coal Mining over the Course of the Century 27
3.6.1 Roof Control 28
3.7 The Federal Coal Mine Safety Act of 1952 30
3.8 Permissible Explosives Research 31
4. Public Health Service Mining Studies 32
4.1 Joint Public Health Service and USBM Studies 32
4.1.1 Silicosis 32
4.1.2 The Uranium Mining Study 33
4.1.3 Coal Miner Health Studies 33
4.2 The USBM in the 1960s 34
4.3 USBM Research Laboratories in the 1960s 36
4.3.1 Denver Mining Research Center, Denver, CO 36
4.3.2 Applied Physics Research Laboratory (Mining), College Park, MD 36
4.3.3 Minneapolis Mining Research Center, Minneapolis, MN 36
4.3.4 Reno Mining Research Laboratory, Reno, NV 36
4.3.5 Explosives Research Center, Mining Research Center, Health
and Safety Research Testing Center, Pittsburgh, PA 37
4.3.6 Bruceton Laboratories, Bruceton, PA 37
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