A Brief History of Mine Ventilation

Observations of the movements of air in underground passages have a long and fascinating history. Between 4000 and 1200 BC, European miners dug tunnels into chalk deposits searching for flint. Archaeological investigations at Grimes Graves in the south of England have shown that these early flint miners built brushwood fires at the working faces—presumably to weaken the rock. However, those Neolithic miners could hardly have failed to observe the currents of air induced by the fire. Indeed, the ability of fire to promote airflow was rediscovered by the Greeks, the Romans, in medieval Europe and during the Industrial Revolution in Britain.