choke-damp

The apparatus has also proved to be of great utility in cases of explosion in collieries, enabling the wearer to safely penetrate the workings, even when they have been filled with the fatal choke-damp, to rescue the injured or to remove the dead.

Scientific American Supplement, No. 488, May 9, 1885 Various

The experiment was tried with an alarming result No sooner was the breach made than a slow stream of choke-damp flowed into the chamber, and the lights began to go out one by one.

The Making Of A Novelist An Experiment In Autobiography David Christie Murray

Fire damp and choke-damp, common names for the gases mentioned above, are produced in large quantities in the mines where Tertiary or Cretaceous lignites, or Carboniferous coals or anthracites are mined.

Scientific American Supplement, No. 362, December 9, 1882 Various

MY LORD, -- Probably your cellars will be full of choke-damp when the door is opened, from long disuse and confined air.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, August 21, 1841 Various

It is one of the most deadly poisons, and forms the "choke-damp" which too often suffocates the miner; but what we call fresh air contains such a very small proportion of this dangerous gas that it is harmless.

Twilight and Dawn Simple Talks on the Six Days of Creation Caroline Pridham

Here is an explosion in a coal-mine, and forthwith every mother's son above ground volunteers to go down into the choke-damp to snatch his buried comrades from the sleep of death.

The New Theology 1911

Before the shaft could be cleared and a way opened to the workings, all the poor fellows had died, overcome by the deadly "choke-damp."

Northumberland Yesterday and To-day 1908

When I saw the four meeting chains of the cage-roof emerge, the pointed roof, and two-sided frame, I stopped the ascent, and next attached to the knock-off gear a long piece of twine which I had provided; carried the other end to the cage, in which I had five companions; lit my hat-candle, which was my test for choke-damp, and the Davy; and without the least reflection, pulled the string.

The Purple Cloud 1906

It is present largely in the fissures of the earth and makes the choke-damp of mines.

A Handbook of Health Woods Hutchinson 1896

This is the same gas that makes the choke-damp of coal mines, which suffocates the miners if the mine is not well ventilated; and the same gas that sometimes gathers at the bottom of a well, making it dangerous for anyone to go down into the well to clean it.

The Child's Day Woods Hutchinson 1896