Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-10-12

can be opened should they become neces-
sary to meet the demand. There is no
assignable limit to the capacity of the
mines. There is already practically "in
sight" total of 50,000,000 tons of coal,
which has certainly no superior. perhaps
no equal, in the United States.
Experienced coal miners will not be
| required here. The coal will be cut by
machinery, the Jeffrey Goa! cutter being
used, and the Jeffrey power drill for
boring holes in the mass above for
blasting. The machine first named cuts
about five inches in thickness, and three
feet in width under the mass, and the
blast inserted at the top throws it down,
tons at time. In one hour work will
be accomplished by these machines
which under the old system, would
require the labor of two equipped
miners for three days, except that the
hand work would never have sufficed
here, on account of the hardness of the
mass. The coal will be dispatched on
cars run by electricity 10 the mouth of
the tunnsl. where double engine. the
Ramsay car loader with projecting
arm, will distribute il into the cars fifty
feet below to the amount if necessary, of
Il
will be two tunnels on each side of the
canyon, one of which will be working
and the other a ventilating tunnel. At
the mouth of the latter will be erected
ventilating furnace and apparatus. The
towers will be nine feet in diameter and
seventy-fve feet high, and the machiene-
ry will give circulation through the
tunnels oi 10000 cubic feet ofai per min
ute. The entire machienery including
the hoppers and coal chutes across the
canyon will bo completed within forty
days.
The canyon here is several hundred
feet in width, giving ample space for all
necessary buildings aud machinery
and for eight tracks which will be laid.
Above, the canyon separates into two, in
each of which tracks will be extended
for the storage Of empty cars The
woks will give immediate employment TO
500 men including clerks, etc. which
number will represent a presence OF fully
5000 people at the mines. There is
ample room, above and below, for the
housing of more than that number
Owing to the perfection of the system
of mining which have briefly describ-
ed, absolutely no coal will be lost. Coal
will be shipped in different sizes,
uniform in quality and dimensions
run-of-mine large masses). lump, nut
and pea, while the residium Of fine
material will be used here for the man
ufacture ofcoke. From the mines down
to Newcastle, the grade cut of the road
will be from two to four ,eet in hundred
the maximum being l30feet to the mile.
The road is located we'll upon the side
of the canyon, securing it against all
possible danger of food. At Newcastle
space 200 feet in width and half mile
in length, comprising ten acres, has been
leveled off for depots and tracks.
The coal weighs 2.2l4 pounds per
cubic yard. This gives 1000 tons per
acre one yard in depth, or about IL 900
tons per acre for the entire thickness of
the vein. The 4,500 acres will at this
ratio produce some 50,000,000 tons.
With the output Of 5000 tons a day,
one years production would be 100000
tons, and it would require fifty years
consumption at this rate to exhaust the
deposit. The Union Pacific coal fields
comprise about $500 square acres. The
product of the Rock Springs coal has in
creased from $50 tons in 1868 10 about
100000 tons annually, at which rate
these Newcastle mines would last for
one hundred years.