firedamp

IPA: fˈaɪɝdæmp

(mining) An inflammable gas (mostly methane) found in coal mines; forms an explosive mixture with air.

Examples of "firedamp" in Sentences

If the firedamp were not burned off, the pit would close.
Ratchett. as manager of the pits, had come to report the firedamp blast.
Mack wrapped the boy in the wet blanket, saying: "There's firedamp, Wullie, we've got to get out!"
Formerly the concentration of firedamp had been much lower, a slow seep rather than a sudden buildup.
A continuous struggle against the dangers of landslips, fires, inundations, explosions of firedamp, like claps of thunder.
As they had expected, there was no explosion, but, what was more serious, there was not even the slight crackling which indicates the presence of a small quantity of firedamp.
Most likely, firedamp had accumulated in a sealed-off area of exhausted workings, then an old wall had cracked and was rapidly leaking the dreaded gas into the occupied tunnels.
On May 27, 1812, while Napoleon Bonaparte was in Paris planning his disastrous campaign into Russia, there was a gigantic firedamp explosion at Felling Pitt near Sunderland, England.
When the firedamp had accumulated in the air, so as to form a detonating mixture, the explosion occurred without being fatal, and, by often renewing this operation, catastrophes were prevented.
I immediately recognised in this gallery the presence of a considerable quantity of the dangerous gas called by miners firedamp, the explosion of which has often occasioned such dreadful catastrophes.