They lowered antiquated listening devices into the depths, set off explosions to attract attention, and listened in vain for the men to reveal their location by tapping the roof with hammers in response.

The Crandall Canyon miners carried PEDs - Personal Emergency Devices - that allow messages to be sent to miners. And the mine employed a standard hard-wired telephone communication system. Both failed when equipment was destroyed in the mine collapse, leaving rescuers, and the miners, in the dark.

In a world where we can communicate from the depths of the oceans and the far reaches of outer space, where global positioning satellites can pinpoint your precise location on the surface and animals can be tagged and tracked for their entire lives, we use hammers and microphones to find missing miners, and Ma Bell telephones to communicate underground. And that's inexcusable. There has to be a better way, and U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, is determined to find it.

Matheson has wisely sponsored legislation that would give $1 million to the National Institute of Standards and Technology to work with private firms and other agencies to develop underground communication and tracking technology. The legislation was approved by the House this week and sent on for the Senate to consider.

The bill augments the Miner Act of 2006, which requires that a wireless, two-way communication system, or the best technology available, be installed in American deep mines beginning in 2009. But the best available technology - essentially the same systems that were already in use at Crandall Canyon - is inadequate. And due to the exorbitant cost of research and development, and the limited market provided by the mining industry, there's no incentive for private, profit-driven firms to come up with something better on their own.

That's not a knock on capitalism; it's just the nature of the beast.

So, without the healthy dose of tax dollars that Matheson's bill would provide, rescuers will continue to rely on hammers and microphones to find missing miners. And missing miners will continue to die.

The Senate should approve the bill. Lives depend on it.