Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1863-07-25

The list volume of the transactions Of
the North of England Institute of Mining
Engineers" contains some particulars which
would make an interesting paper on tho
curiositics of coal mining. Men cannot
read without astOnishmcnt of the difficulties
which have been overcome by miners in
pursuit of coal, and the vast amounts of
money laid cut-sunk, go to spcak-in
mines.
"What is called Murton Pit, not far from
Durham, is remarkable for the difficulties
overcome in sinking to the coal In the
process ofcXcavatiOn the sinkcrs encountered
probably the largest body of water over
met with in any one mining adventure.
The estimated quantities seem incredible.
No less than nine thousand three hundred
gallons of water were lifted every minute
from a bed of quicksand which lay at a
depth of five hundred and forty feet from
the surface. This bed was forty feet in
thickness, and for its whole extent thorough
ly saturated with water. Any person may
conceive of the difficulty of sinking through
such a quicksand. To encounter and defeat
not far short of ten thousand gallons of
flooding springs, minute after minute and
day after day, might well have appalled,
any engineer But the engineer fought tho
floods with their own weapons; he made
use of the vapor generated from water
stcnm-and added horsepower to horse
power until, in all, he placed steam engines
around that one pit to the extent OF no less
than one thousand five hundred and eighty
four horse power. Night and day those
pumping-engines were at work in pumping
up the floods cranks, crabs and all kinds
Of requisite engineering were added and
the water was obliged to give in-or, rather
to come out. Murton Colicry is now a
thriving concern, and sends up tubs of coal
instead of gallons of water every minute to
the surface But at what cost was this
water pumped out At an expenditure OF
no less than :f2, 900, 600.
SIT is remarkable that in another sinking
| for coal, about a couple of miles from the
same locality, the same enemy was again
encountered, and in continuation of the
| same bed Of quick sand. The collicry-
viewer, however conducted his campaign
SO adroitly that he was able to insulate each
separate feeder of water as it was met with
in each stratum of sand and limestone
so that, while an aggregate amount OF up
wards of five thousand gallons OF water per
minute was met with in passing through
the various beds, so ceyerly was the whole
passage accomplished that at no time were
, there more than five hundred gallons in one
q quantity sufficient to friGhten some; but
in comparison with the nine thousand and
odd gallons at Murton it was nothing.
There are pits where, long after coal
has been for many years extracted from
them, the waters break in and flood the
mine. In these instances, again, great
enterprise is Manifested. In the case Of the
drowned collicry at Jarrow an attempt
was made few years ago to draw oil the
water and to resume ordinary operations.
But the sum of enc hundred and ten thou
sand dollars was spent truitlcssly in this
attempt, and it was ultimately abandoned
without drawing up single ton Of coal.
! "Whencc all. this subtcrrancan water
comes is an interesting question, but scarcely
capable Of receiving satisfactory reply.
Its amount must be immense to afford
nearly ten thousand gallons per minute at
one sinking-and probably it is the accu-
mutation of numberless centuries of surface
waters which have pcrcolated through the
porous strata. 1t is always threatening,
and never materially diminished, as respects
its vast aggregate, by any efforts of man :;
/ on the contrary, it is always gaining on
man and filling up his excavation. No less
than thirty-six cOllieries near the river
Tyne have been, in mining phrase, drowned
out or rendered unworkablc by an ire
sistible irruption OF water, after the best
main Wallsend scam had been nearly
exhausted. These staUd in the coal district
like closed factories in the cotton towns,
with this difference, that the cotton factories
may be reopcncd and busity at work again,
while the drowned colicrics are probably
drowned until the world shall be burnt up.
The late Nj. Thomas John Taylor, indeed,
devised plan for drawing oil the water
from the whole of the drowned pits, and
gave notice of his intention to apply to
Parliament for an act empowering its eX-
ecution Death, however, overlook him
and his plan"