How Do Mines Explode? Understanding Risk in European Mining Doctrine, 1803–1906

Murray, J.E. ; Silvestre Rodríguez, J. (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: Historians of risk and disaster have paid little attention to coal mining—an industry characterized by extreme risks and disasters—even though coal mine operators were concerned with the causes of explosions throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This article goes beyond nationally oriented mining scholarship on coal mine safety and reg-ulations to examine one form of industrial risk: how did European researchers understand the role of coal dust in mine explosions. It describes the com-plex factors involved in applying science and technology methodologies to solve industrial risk in this dangerous sector. It traces European countries shifting after 1882 to new types of mine experimentation sponsored by the state and mine owners to better mimic real-life situations, while French mining researchers continued to defend work in laboratory settings. French researchers converged methodologically with their colleagues only after the French Courrières mine catastrophe in 1906.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1353/tech.2021.0107

Año: 2021

Publicado en: TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE 62, 3 (2021), 780-811
ISSN: 0040-165X

Factor impacto JCR: 0.645 (2021)

Categ. JCR: HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE rank: 32 / 48 = 0.667 (2021) - Q3 - T3
Categ. JCR: HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE rank: 34 / 62 = 0.548 (2021) - Q3 - T2

Factor impacto CITESCORE: 0.9 - Engineering (Q4)

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 0.379 - History (Q1) - Engineering (miscellaneous) (Q1)

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA/S27
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO/ECO2015-65582
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO/PGC2018-095529-B-I00
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO/PGC2018-096640-B-I00

Tipo y forma: Article (PostPrint)

Área (Departamento): Área Hª e Instituc.Económ. (Dpto. Economía Aplicada)