Federal Investigations of Mine Accidents, Structural Materials, and Fuels

The mine disaster, which occurred at Cherry, Ill., on November 13th, 1909, when 527 men were in the mine, resulting in the entombment of 330 men, of whom 310 were killed, has again focused public attention on the frequent recurrence of such disasters and their appalling consequences. Interest in the possible prevention of such disasters, and the possible means of combating subsequent mine fires and rescuing the imprisoned miners, has been heightened as it was not even by the series of three equally extensive disasters which occurred in 1907, for the reason that, after the Cherry disaster, 20 men were rescued alive after an entombment of one week, when practically all hope of rescuing any of the miners had been abandoned.