June 2016
|
World Coal
|
43
THE VOICE
IN THE
MINE
Jonathan Rowland
talks to Chris Adkins
of Strata Worldwide about underground
mine communications.
C
ommunication in underground mines has
been around for about 100 yrs. As on the
surface, it was the development of the
telephone that kicked things off. Indeed,
early mine phones were essentially the same as those
you would use above ground – just enclosed in a
cast-iron housing to protect them against the hostile
conditions found underground, making them
particularly cumbersome.
Despite this, the hard-wired nature of these phones
made them easy to install and maintain – and versions
of this technology are still in use today. But its no
longer the only game in town: the past 10 – 15 yrs has
seen a proliferation of technology developments in the
underground mine communication space, according to
Chris Adkins, Product Manager StrataConnect at
Strata Worldwide.
Adkins' family has been in the coal industry almost
as long as those early telephones. His grandfather was
a mine foreman in Penn Creek, West Virginia, while his
father also worked in West Virginia’s mines, mining
28 in. coal seams, before becoming an explosives
salesman – a job he did for 35 yrs and that took him
around the world.
Adkins himself joined the military after graduating
from high school – but ended up following in his
