UNITED STATES BUREAU OF MINES 
Among the important educational and research organi- 
zations of Pittsburgh is the experiment station of the United 
States Bureau of Mines. The handsome building, which 
cost $500,000 in 1917, and grounds, which were deeded to the 
Federal Government by the city in exchange for other land, 
are adjacent to Carnegie Institute of Technology, Carnegie 
Institute, Mellon Institute, University of Pittsburgh, and 
Schenley High School; in addition, close contact is main- 
tained with these institutions. Although this Federal bureau 
has been functioning here since 1910, and prior to that year 
as the Technologic Branch of the United States Geological 
Survey, many Pittsburghers are unaware of its existence and 
of what it does and accomplishes. 
This experiment station employs 100 technical men and 
165 others; in addition, a number of field engineers are 
directed from this station. It is the largest of this Bureau's 
11 stations scattered throughout the country, and the largest 
experiment station of its kind in the world. A coal mine near 
Bruceton, 13 miles from Pittsburgh, where all manner of 
tests on mining hazards, ventilation, and explosives are 
carried out every day, is part of the station. As the principal 
functions of the Bureau of Mines are safety and the most 
efficient methods in mining, metallurgy, and related indus- 
tries, the work of the Pittsburgh experiment station is 
devoted to these problems. In part of this work, the station 
has the cooperation of the industries and civic organizations 
of Pittsburgh, the State of Pennsylvania, and the other 
mining states and industrial corporations. Cooperation and 
contact is maintained with foreign countries on certain 
problems. 
In the Pittsburgh experiment station are 20 well-equipped 
laboratories with specialists to investigate problems arising 
from the following: Manufactured gas, chemical analyses, 
coal and coal products, dusts of all kinds, electricity in 
mines, explosives, first aid, fuels, gases of all kinds (includ- 
ing helium), heating and ventilating, metallurgy of iron and 
steel, microscopy, mine-rescue work, physical testing of 
instruments, and physiological effects of gases, ete.. on work-