Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1875-05-29

more or less of small stratas of slate run
ming through them. If that is sufficient
reason for not mining them commercial
interests would suffer for want of it. Ac-
cording to Capt. Douglas theory, after the
| breast coal of the present vein is mined,
which is only question Of short time, our
coal trade is gone as our lower seams all
| contain more or less small stratas of slate
! Now, | venture to say that he cannot find
/ another man in the county to believe such
a Statement, but that on the contrary, mil
| lions Of tons will be mined fit for CONNER
cal purposes long after the present genera
ton has been gathered to IFS fathers
Will Mr.. Douglas let us know how he
mines nine feet of coal with props seven
feet four trchts in length? confess that
in all my experience in mining, have new
cr seen or heard of it being done | do
not expect that a boss miner of such intel
lgcncc as John Douglas, jr, means to con-
vcy the idea to the mind OF any intelligent
miner or any person, that he gets all the
top coal that the miners prop up in driv
ing up their rooms, when he is drawing
back the pillars. If he does, must say
they are objects of pity and destitute of
common sense, The miner props the top
coal when drawing back the pillars as well
as when he is driving up the room, and
they stand there until the weight of the
strata above breaks them. Then the miner
is looking after his own safety instead of
top coal. True, have seen carload of
it gotten by fool-hardy miners rsliing their
lives in knocking out some p ops between
two slips but for one ton got this way
have seen hundreds lost. If it is by this
process, and see no other, that he gets his
nine feet of magnificent coal, it is a blind
and a first-class fraud on the public at
large If he intends the public to believe
his statement that he mines | 900 tons to
the acre, he must produce the data for
make bold to say that there has not been
over 1000 tons mined in mine on Georges
Creek where the benches are left in and
and mining only there seven and a half feet
of breast coal | desire Mr. Douglas, or
any other boss miner on Georges Creek, to
give facts to prove to the contrary. TAX
ing that height there is little over 10000
tons in an acre, and it is well known that
large amounts of coal have been lost of the
seven and half feet worked, over and
above the top and bottom coal, by pillars
being crushed.
may here state that believe the great
cause of losing so much of our coal is that
we leave too small pillars. They are not
able to bear the stratas above, and when
the crush comes it extends over sometimes
fifteen or twenty of them at once. That is,
in my opinion, the cause Of so much waste
in our mining our present vein.
am happy to say that one of the oldest
Superintendent is about adopting Il new
mode of mining which he feels confident
viii yield a much larger percentage of coal
per acre. From his long experience and
his well known practical ideas have no
doubt he will succeed.
Now, these are the facts relating to the
question under discussion | think they
prove satisfactorily to all unprecedented
minds that large quantities of our big vein
are nccdlessly wasted. MINER.