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The National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on the Protection of Coal Mines from Explosion by Means of Electricity, 1870
[The following narrative is taken from Frederick W. True’s Semi-centennial history of the National Academy of Sciences, A History of the First Half-Century of the National Academy of Sciences 1863-1913, pp. 253-254.]
In the Proceedings of the Academy mention of this committee is made under date of April, 1870, in the following terms:
“Mr. Gould reported in behalf of himself and Mr. Ferrel, the Committee on the letter of Mr. Fua, of Padua, addressed to the President of the United States, in reference to the protection of Coal Mines from explosion by electricity, and referred by him to the Academy, ‘That the same communication has been made to the academies of Paris and Berlin, by Mr. Fua, and published by them, and since the methods involve no new principle or mode of application, no action on the part of the President or Government seems to be needful.’
“The report was accepted and the Committee discharged.”
[Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. I, pp. 76-77.]
On turning to the Comptes Rendus of the Académie des Sciences, Paris, one finds this statement regarding the matter in question:
“M. Fua soumet au jugement de l’Academie quelques détails relatifs à un procédé qui’il croit propre à prévenir les accidents causés par les explosions du grisou. Ce procédé consiste essentiellement dans l’emploi de spirals de platine rendus incandescentes, à certains intervalles, par le passage d’un courant électrique; ces spirales mettraient le feu à des méches de cotton soufré, trempées dans une pâte gommé de phosphore et de chlorate de potasse.”
[Comptes Rendus, vol. 68, p. 805. 1869.] 
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