Question:
Such markers have been mandated and in place in US coal mines for at least
the last 40 years (where the hell do you think the "amateurs" that screw
around in caves got the idea?)! Why would you assume that people that work
underground for a living, rather than simply play there, are dumber than
you?
Answer:
Obviously not from someone as adversarial as you seem to be. Chill please.
Marking the walls of caves to find the way out came a lot earlier than
recreational cavers or underground mines. Probably the Pleistocene.
Probably back when people were burning wood, back before they figured
out that black rocks would burn. Oh, I forgot, the people shivering
underground in the Pleistocene weren't getting a paycheck, therefore
they had no right to be there.
Actually, they smoked black smears and dots on the walls with cane, reed
or pine knot torches. Not a method which would work well in a coal mine.
Sometimes they used cairns. Or maybe, that what all that rock art was
really about. "Auroch horns point out." *|:-)
I actually don't know any dry cavers who use any marking method except a
bit of fluorescent flagging at a junction, which is picked up on the way
out, or a spot of paint or soot to mark a permanent survey station. None
of these are useful in the zero visibility which we discussed in the
previous thread.
A mine, particularly a coal mine, is NOT a cave in many profound ways.
Those differences are leading you and others to some, without putting too
fine a point on it, absurd assumptions. Mine engineering, specific to coal,
is largely concerned with adequate air-handling.......coal mines are VERY
windy places (there are low-vol met coal mines in Southwestern Virginia that
require chin-straps to keep your heavy "MSHA Approved" hardhat and light
from being blown off!), and millions of dollars are spent annually making
them that way. Yes, there are signs that provide both visual and tactile
directions to the mine opening....but your best and most
easily-used-in-a-crisis method of finding your way out of a coal mine is to
"walk into the air"....as long as you have wind on your forehead, you're on
your way out, even if it means a 10 mile underground hike!
