The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-09-04
A BURNING MINE.
Acres OF Anthracite Coal In Flamex-A
Splendid Piece OF Ensineerink.

Acres OF Anthracite Coal In Flamex-A
Splendid Piece Of Ensineerinf.
Passengers on the 1ehigh and Sus-
quehanha Road, q little to the southeast
of Pittston, Pa, are frequently puzzled
to see issuing from the earth through a
number of cracks and cave holes numer-
GUS wreeths. Of smoke. These are &C.
%oonpanied by oppressive clouds of sui
phur that impress the visitor who tarn
ries in their vicinity most forcibly with
an idea OF the ferocity of the fire which
is raging in the mine beneath. This
crater-like and costly curiosity has lodged
itself in the ~fourteen-feet vein of the
Butler coal works, where it has been
burning for more thru a year, and where,
despite the efforts of the most e1-
perienced engineers, it threatens to con-
tinue for some time to come. Its head
way has been obtained from the work
inga Of the Butter coal mine, and the fire
is fed by the pillars, wooden props, and
the work Used in supporting the roof.
AS is we'll known to every n versed
in coal mining, nearly one.third of the
solid anthracite is left standing to keep
up the roof and protect the workmen.
This it is which, famed by the Currents
that rush through the old chambers,
makes it impossible to extinguish the
flames by the steam principle so success.
fully employed in the case of the Empire
shaft at Wilkesbarre, while the elevated
location of the workings, which are stu
ated in a hillside several feet higher than
the town, renders the work of introduce
ing water with any degree of success an
impossibility.
The only practical way, therefore, in
which this great danger can be success
fully combated is to surround the fire by
an immense cut, sufficiently deep and
| wide to isolate it from other and more
valuable workings. With this object in
view MI. G. F. Conrad, whose plans the
company accepted in preference to many
others submitted to them, commenced
to make n survey of the locality O. the
Goth of December last, with a view Of
compromising the limits of the burn
ing spot at that time, and also allow for
the additional area likely to be compre-
hended in the scope of the fire before
the work of surrounding it could be
completed. His report, with the map
accompanying, was filed in the com.
pany's Office on the 18th of last January,
and showed at that time that the fire
from three acres in the May preceding,
when it was discovered, had extended to
fifteen acres. He discovered that in all
other directions the flames were con-
fronted by natural barriers which would
eventually check their progress, except
ing on the southwest and south, where
they were sweeping forward rapidly,
with nothing to hinder their final contact
with the coal works of the Pennsylvania
Coal Company and those of the Della
ware and Hudson Canal Company, as
well as several lesser works. The par
ties who own the threatened property
notified the Butler Goal Company that
in case of the fire reaching their mines
they would look to the Butler Coal
Company for indemnifcation for any
loss that might be sustained, and this
fact made it doubly important that
the destructive element should be
checked as early and effectively as pos
sible. Accordingly the cut was COM
menced under the supervision of En-
gineer Conrad on February 4 with a
force Of $50 men, who worked in relays
night and day.
Some idea of the magnitude Of the
work may be obtained from the fact that
this immense cut, which strikes from
the surface down through the rock over
hanging the coal vein itself to the clay
beneath, is lined on each side with a
solid wall of stone six feet in thickness.
It is constructed in the shape Of horse
shoe, and owing to the yielding nature
Of the earth in some portions of the sur
face the task has been a herculean M
from the beginning. 1t is nowapproach-
ing its completion, and is o splendid feat
of engineering, having set up a formida-
BILE barrier against the progress of a fire
that could not fail to carry its under
ground destruction throughout an i'm
portant portion of the Wyoming coal
field. As it is, no less tnan $50 acres
have succumbed to the seething element,
and it is estimated that nearly half q
million tons of coal have been consumed,
much of which, were it not for the fire,
could have been recovered by the system
known in mining ~parlance as "robbing
pillars" or taking out the coal left to
support the roof during the first process
of mining. This is but a mere bagatelle
as compared with the total loss involved
in the work Of solating the flames.
This destructive fire owes it's origin to
an outcast named Maggie Toole, who in
the spring of 1877, having NO other
place of shelter, made her home in an
abandoned tunnel or ''drift" leading to
the mine. Here she was visited during
the evenings by a number of fellows,
who made the placed sort of rendezvous,
and eventually became known as the
stunnel gang" At last she suddenly
disappeared, and it was found that the
fire which she had to keep''warm and do
her cooking had extended to what is
known as the "gob" or refuse, and from
there to the woodwork and coal pillars
used in keeping up the roof.
The appearance of the surface OF the
burning mine presents q weird picture
of desolation. Vegetation haswithered,
and numelous "cave holes" dot the hill
side, marking out the path of the fire.
From these the smoke and sulphur is
sued in sitting volumes, giving some
faint idea OF a Vesuvian scene, and show
ing how fercely the fire must be raging
in the mine beneath at a depth OF fifty
feet. Mine Inspector Jones, n of the
most experienced men in this section,
gave it as his opinion that one of the
results which was likely to attend the
fire, had it not been combated by some
such plan as that Of MI. Conrad, was
that of penetrating through the works
of the Pennsylvania Coal Company, "and
consequently under the town of Pitts
ton," so that it will be seen we have
virtually been standing on the verge of
a volcano, and a greater calamity than
the burning of the Butler mine has been
neutrality-suspicious. New York
Herald.
One Of the Seven Wonders.
Pharos is the ancient name of a small
island off the coast Of Egypt, less than
a mile from the ancient Alexandria, con-
nected with the mainland by q mole,
-1 .--- r. - 1-1l I--,a -l.o1,