1900 - Coalmininghistorypa.org

No. 11. MINING LAWS OF PENNSYLVANIA. cxix
to be drilled diagonally not more than eight feet apart, and any
place driven to tap water or gas shall not be more than ten feet wide,
and no water or gas from an abandoned mine or part of a mine and
no bore holes from the surface, shall be tapptd until the employes,
except those engaged at such work, are out of the mine, and such
work to be done under the immediate instruction of the mine foreman.
Section 4. The fire boss shall at each entrance to the mine or in
the main intake air-way near to the mine entrance, prepare a permanent
station with the proper danger signal designated by suitable
letters and colors placed thereon, and it shall not be lawful for any
person or persons, except the mine officials in cases of necessity, and
such other persons as may be designated by them, to pass beyond said
danger station until the mine has been examined by the fire boss as
aforesaid and the same, or certain parts thereof, reported by him to
be safe, and in all mines where operations are temporarily suspended
the superintendent and mine foreman shall see that a danger signal
be placed at the mine entrance or entrances, which shall be a sufficient
warning to persons not to enter the mine, and if the ordinary
circulation of air through the mine be stopped each entrance to said
mine shall be securely fenced off and a danger sigual shall be dis
played upon said fence and any workman or other person, (except
those persons hereinbefore provided for,) passing by any danger
signal into the mine before it
has been examined and reported to be
safe as aforesaid, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and it
shall be the duty of the fire boss, mine foreman, superintendent or
any employe to forthwith notify the mine inspector, who shall enter
proceedings against such person or persons as provided for in section
two of article twenty-one of this act.
Section 5. All entries, tunnels, air ways, traveling ways and other
working places of a mine where explosive gas is being generated in
such quantities as can be detected by the ordinary safety lamp, and
pillar workings and other working places in any mine where a sud
den inflow of said explosive gas is likely to be encountered, (by reason
of the subsidence of the overlying strata or from any other causes),
shall be worked exclusively with locked safety lamps. The use of
open lights is also prohibited in all working places, roadways or
other parts of the mine through which fire-damp might be carried
in the air current in dangerous quantities. In all mines or parts of
mines worked with locked safety lamps the use of electric wires and
electric currents is positively prohibited, unless said wires and machinery
and all
other mechanical devices attached thereto and connected
therewith are constructed and protected in such a manner as
to secure freedom from the emission of sparks or flame therefrom
into the atmosphere of the mine.