The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1864-04-08
Curiosities of Coal Mining.

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The last volume of the translation O
the North of England Institute of NIinint
Engineers oontains some particular!
which would MAKE au Interesting pane,
on the curiositics of coal mining. Mer
cannot-read without establishment of tht
difficulties which have been overcome by
miners In pursuit of cual, and the vas,
amounts of money laid out--sunk, SO d
speak--in mines .......,f. 40 "a.
What is called Murton Pit, not far
from Durham, is remarkable for the diff
cuites overcome in sinking for the coal.
In the process of excavation, the sinkers
encountered probably the largest body Of
water ever met with in any one mining
adventure. The estimated quantities seem
Incredible No less thati nine thousand
three hundred gallons OF water were lift.
ed every minute from bed of quicksand
which lay at the depth Of tive hundred
and forty feet from the surface. This bed
was forty feet in thickness, and for its
whole extent thoroughly saturated with
water. Any person may conceive of the
difficulty Of sinking through such quick
sand 10 encounter and defeat not far
short of ten thousand gallons of flooding
springs, minute after minute aud day after
day, might we'll have appalled, any engi-
neer.
But the engineer fought the floods
with their own weapons he made use of
the vapor generated from water-steam-
aud added horsepower to horsepower,
until in all he placed steam engines round
that pit to the extent of one thousand five
hundred and eighty-four horse power
Night and day these 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 Colliery 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 I At an expenditure of no
less than $2,000,000
1t is remarkable that in another sinking
for coal about couple of miles from the
same locality, the same enemy was again
encountered, and in continuation of
the same bed of quicksand. The colliepy-
viewer, however, conducted the 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 whilst an aggregate
amount Y, 9t 1qpTa . ct 9s tbQqsaRdl qa
passing through the various beds, so clev-
erly was the whole passage accomplished,
that at no time were there more than five
hundred gallons in one minute to pump
away. This, indeed, was quantity sufi-
cient 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 10 aud flood the
mine. In these instances, again, great
enterprise is manifested. In the case of
the drowned colliery at Jarrow, an at
tempt was made few years ago to draw
off the water and to resume ordinary ope-
rations. But the sum Of $4,000 was
spent fruitlessly in the attempt, and it
was ultimately abandoned without draw
ing up single ton of coal.
Whence all this subterranean water
comes from, is an interesting question, but
one hardly capable of receiving satistac.
tory reply. Its amount must be immense
to afford nearly ten thousand gallons per
minute at one sinking-and probably it is
the accumulation of numberless centuries
of surface waters which have percolated
through the porous strata. 1t is always
threatening, and never materially dimin-
ished, as respects its vast aggregate, by
any efforts of man On tue contrary, it is
always gaining on man, and filling up his
excavations. No less than thirty-six col
lieres near the river Tyne have been, in
mining phrase, drowned out" or render
ed unavoidable by an irresistible Eruption
of water, after the best main Wallsend
seam had been nearly exhausted.
70 These stand in the coal district like
with this difference, that the cotton facto-
ries may be reopened aud busily at work
again, while the drowned collieries are
probably drowned until the world shall be
burnt up, The late Mr.. Thomas John
Taylor, indeed, devised plan for drawing
off the water from the whole of the drown
ed pits, and gave notice of his Intention
to apply to Parliament for an act empnw-
ering its execution. Death, however,
overlook him in his plan.
There have been many unsuccessful
attempts. The owners of the Haswell
coliery sunk in a quicksand $500, 900,
and had to give up after all. So long ago
as 1920, at another colliery, an equally
fruitless attempt was made. Not far from
the abandoned Haswell pit a company
sunk half a million dollars, but they have
got rich mine.
Another highly aud generally interest
ing topic is the probable duration OF the
great northern field in relation to its sup
plies of coal. The crudtst notions are
current upon this point; nor, indeed, does
Ill, n .pnII f,nn lal ,,nininp oau