blackdamp

The other gases with it may be firedamp or blackdamp.

In the blinding blackdamp, unseen sinuosities of fire uncoiled like snakes.

Blackdamp is encountered in enclosed environments such as mines, sewers, wells, tunnels and ships' holds.

Coal in contact with air will oxidize slowly and if unused workings are not ventilated pockets of blackdamp may develop.

Blackdamp is primarily nitrogen and carbon dioxide and kills via suffocation (having displaced oxygen).

The toxic mixtures of gases found in mines included afterdamp, blackdamp and whitedamp.

This demonstrated the rapid accumulation of blackdamp (carbon dioxide and low levels of oxygen incapable of supporting life).

The presence of toxic levels of blackdamp made rescue efforts much more complicated, as nobody could stand the increasingly foul air for long periods of time.

The overwhelming presence of lethal levels of blackdamp augured little hope for the 108 trapped miners; rescue attempts yielded to recovery operations.

Miners would try to alert themselves to dangerous levels of blackdamp and other gases in a mine shaft by bringing a caged canary with them as they worked.

Contains varying proportions of blackdamp and whitedamp and is therefore suffocating, toxic or explosive or any combination of these.

The brattice was constructed by the desperate trapped miners attempting to stop the infiltration of blackdamp, in the hope of surviving on cleaner deep mine air until rescue.

Blackdamp is considered a particularly pernicious type of damp (especially in a historical context), due to its omnipresence where exposed coal is found, and slow onset of symptoms.

Blackdamp (also known as stythe or choke damp) is an asphyxiant, reducing the available oxygen content of air to a level incapable of sustaining human or animal life.

In active mining operations, the threat from blackdamp is addressed with proper mineshaft ventilation as well as various detection methods, typically using miner's safety lamps or hand-held electronic gas detectors.

William and John Ivill (father and son) came to his aid, but during the descent down the shaft were overcome by Blackdamp and fell 300 feet from the cage to their deaths.

Since normal ventilation had been blocked by debris in the shaft and main gangway, blackdamp and whitedamp (carbon monoxide from incomplete combustion) continued to be produced at lethal levels by the furnace.

The Davy lamp could also detect high levels of blackdamp (which collect near the floor) by burning less brightly, while methane, another suffocating gas and explosion risk would make the lamp burn more brightly).

In addition to the danger inside the mine, blackdamp can be "exhaled" in large quantities from mines (especially long-abandoned coal mines with few outlets for escaping gas) during sudden changes in atmospheric pressure, potentially causing asphyxiation on the surface.

Although its use as a light source was superseded by electric lighting, the flame safety lamp has continued to be used in mines to detect methane and blackdamp, although many modern mines now also use sophisticated electronic gas detectors for this purpose.

Bad Air: Old mine workings may be hazardous due to pockets of blackdamp (still air with low oxygen levels), or high concentrations of methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide or hydrogen sulfide which can displace oxygen, poison someone outright, or create an explosion.

The amount of blackdamp exuded by a mine varies based on a number of factors, including the time of year (coal releases more carbon dioxide in the summer months), the amount of exposed coal, and the type of coal, although all mines with exposed coal produce gas.

Redolent of desert grit, of cactus pollen, of diesel fumes, of hot blacktop, the air curdled as Dylan drew near to the restaurant, thickened with the aroma of long-used deep-fryer oil, with hamburger grease smoking on a griddle, with fried-onion vapors nearly as thick as blackdamp.