The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1865-12-25

Ytfhntond 4lspatfh.
MONDAY. .......DECEMBER %. 1865.
Mining and the Miner.
In these cold and nipping days, when the
GOOD people Of Richmond and Petersburg put
their toes on the fender and poke their coal
fires into blaze, they rarely think where that
co,, comes from, or Of the labor, the courage.
abe patience and the skill required to bring
;,s chserfulness and glow to their hearth
stones. + ~
The eoalS nsssSS - of Chesterfield are worked
80 .,,,, rri,is. resG,oints One near Coalfield
station, on the Lanville road, and the other
q. Glover Hill. At the latter place the works
are quite extensive. The strata of coal out
+ crop there and dip to the westward, descend
ing At about the angle of twenty three de-
svees These seams or layers Of coal-al-
ternating with layers of stone like the cake
and jelly Of jelly -cake-diifer much in thick
Tess The richest is about twenty seven
feet through. Some are so thin that the
working OF them would not be productive
The mines are Of two kinda. One kind begins
at the outcrop. where the coal comes to the
surface, and follows down tho bed with
long shaft. called al ''incline," sometimes steep
and sometimes nearly horizontal, according TO
the Inclination Of the stratum. Thus shaft
fifteen Aundred feet long becomes at the lower
end about SIX or seven hundred feet below the
surfac, Up this shaft runs double railroad
track, each travsrsed by a small car, drawn
by rope or chain passing over q drum at the
mouth Of the shaft. Thus one car descends "a
the other rises. A steam engine above ground,
ton IF fha oh n n,
rs the pumping end ventilating of the mine
Running At right angles with this shaft are
long galleries called levels. These keep very
nearly horizontal by winding and turning as
the dip of the seam changes in inclina ton
These have also railroads running through
them, the ears Of which are drawn by mules
poor animals that never see the blessed sun
light, nor ever MUNICH q mouthful of fresh
herbaSs from one years end TO another. No
wonder that they get a little obstinate some
times, or bray out note Of complaint to a
fellow-sufsrer in an adjoining drift-but this
is pathetic. These levels are nearly parallel
and about hundred feet apart, all coming
into the main shaft, of course, at lower points
as the shaft descends. These in their turn are
in,ersected by another set of drifts about
forty feet apart, running at right angles with
them, and OF course parallel with the main
shaft or "inclins." Thus the whole bed Of
coal i. cut through with passages crossing one
another, leaving large masses Of coal, called
"Villars," to support the roof. When the
whole seam is thus explored, and the drifts
have struck rock all around, then commences
the work Of - robbing ''-cutting away the
pillars of coal-of course beginning at that
part Of the mine farthest away from the shaft,
for the roof tumbles in a. they are cut, one by
one, away. Dangerous work this.
The other mine sinks a perpendicular shaft
eight or nine hundred feet deep, and of course
q long distance OF from the out-crop. The
levels strike Off from the foot Of this, and the
mining is carried on in the same manner, ex-
cept that the first is carried dolcau2'5 from
the surface, and this is carried from the bot
tom OF the shaft 1psoard toward the out-crop.
The FOOT OF The shaft is the deepest part of the
mine. Of course these levels cannot always be
parallel. or eQui-distant, or. the intersecting
drifts straight and at right angles. The varying
CUP Of the strata, the disappearance Of some
veins, the discovery Of Others and, most of all,
the masses of rock, called " troubles all
tend to change the regularity Of the mine A
high grade of science and experience are called
into play to circumveEt these troubles, or to
tell where and how to cut through them, and
10 follow the vein Of coal through all its faults
and turnings
The draining ol the mines is frequently a
problem of great difficulty, as enormous veins
of water often burst out, sometimes flooding Il
Whole mine. The ventilation, too, is most i'm
portsnt, as the lives of all in the pit depend
npon it. perfection. The system of sending
fresh pure air through all the labyrin th of
passages is too complicated to be explained
here. 1t is sufficient to say that strong cur
18th
great rapidity, which expels the foul gases
nnd brings the wholesome air down from the
open world.
One can easily Gee that this is hard work.
and dangerous too. Dangers exist, hard to
anticipate, and difficult, if not impossible, to
provide against. The ceiling of brittle coal
slate sometimes crushes through all it's props,
and its black Jumps made red with the
blood Of the mangled miner. A blast might
open communication with some vast reservoir
81 water, and the narrow drifts and galleries
ill so fast that escape would become impossi-
bic, Sometimes the gas-the same gas that,
tanned and civilized, lights our houses-accu-
mulates here his natural savage strength,
and gathering too rapidly for the ventiiator
10 purify, explodes with force compared
with which glIpowder is 4 triile. Every
thing is sklvexad and splintered by its fury
Then fellows the "black damp"-air from
which all the DEMONSTRATING principle is burnt
rat-and if any escape unhurt from the con-
cussion, they are droUned in the lifeless air.
And this work. with all its severe labor and
danger, begets class Of men who take in it a
strange delight. When Shelley spoke of men
ieaner than feshless misery, who waste
their lives in far down darksome mines" +" he
surely never could have seen the Welsh Cor
hlsh and Newcastle miners. The Chester
Held mines are worked chiefly by these men,
and sturdy set Of fellows they are. They
prefer the pit to any other work, and have
ihe same kind of scorn of surface men that
sailors have OF land g lubbers, ;, or that trap
pers have Of civilized folks. They feel that
high qualities, that energy, courage and pa
1ience are called into play here, and that they