How it started

The reputation that MSA has developed over three quarters of a century is unmatched. The small two-man adventure that started as Mine Safety Appliances Company in 1914 has grown to world leadership.

The story began when a young rescue engineer, John Thomas Ryan, haunted with the memory of dozens of mine disasters, shared his concern with another Bureau of Mines engineer, George Herman Deike, who also wanted to fight the tragedies underground. On June 14, 1914, Ryan and Deike watched a small sign go up over a doorway in a downtown Pittsburgh office building; it read "Mine Safety Appliances Company". From that one-room office and basement store, the partners began their crusade for safety.

One of their first achievements was to persuade Thomas Edison to scale down his heavy nickel-iron alkaline battery to a size small enough to be worn on a miner's belt. Soon, open-flame lamps disappeared in favor of electric cap lamps, a step that made a giant advance towards eliminating the fiery mine explosions and saving lives.

MSA found no limits to the need of its kind of expertise. Long ago, MSA expanded its first horizon of mine safety into industrial plants, construction jobs, transportation, utilities, the military and fire departments -- in fact, everywhere that life and health is exposed to hazards.

The product offering expanded: respirators and gas masks to enable crews to work amid gases and fumes, self contained breathing apparatus, V-Gard helmets, faceshields, goggles, clothing, earmuffs -- the miner's lamp had plenty of new companions on the MSA shelves.

The canary, once used to detect the presence of deadly carbon monoxide, has been replaced by a wide line of MSA instruments designed to detect and monitor combustible or toxic gases and oxygen deficiency. It started with the Explosimeter®,  Combustible Gas Indicator from MSA. These devices range from hand-held gas detectors to permanently installed, computerized air monitoring systems for mines and chemical plants. Today, MSA instruments are used by virtually every major industry.