Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-01-22

| All Attempts to ouench the Flame.
| In 1873 fire broke out in the inside slope
of No. colliery, near Lansford, in this
| state, and it is raging still with all the
| fury which the very best of fuel can give
it. 1t is in bed of coal 1000 feet long. 30
| feet thick and $50 feet deep, and though it
| Is covered with rock and clay to a depth
ranging from thirty 20 fifty feet, the stones
| on the surface are 50 heated that a parlor
match laid on then will ignite in an in
| slant. In one spot the men employed at
the diamond drill light their pipes with
the superheated pebbles. There is very
little external evidence of the fire, save the
| constantly rising vlpor and the noNious
| gas that fills the ar and at times kills
| birds and small animals that liuger too
| long in the neighboIhood.
The early history of No. was very I'M
| eventful until about 1873. II was opened
some thirty odd years ago by "Old Jim"
Andrews and was worked on the water
level for some years without serious acct
dent, and without Producing any consider
able quantity of coal. The gangways were
| turned east and west at a point 800 wards
vertically below the surface and a num-
! Der OF breasts We're opened and continued
| TO be worked uu,l the Lehigh Coal and
! Navigation company reclaimed the place.
| The company origi lally obtained control
| of the largest tracts upon the rental of an
ear of corn per year, hut, as may readily
be imagined, in lieu of paying the great
! increase of rent demanded when the de-
velopments had been made, the COMPANY
acquired title in fee
| The workings were all opened from the
foot of the slope, and the machinery for
pumping and hosting was not only in
place, but working along smoothly when
the fire broke ont. 1t is alleged that a
handful of oily cotton waste used about
the machinery and carried perhaps by the
rats up the slope and behind the timbers.
| ignited spontaneously and caused confla-
grafton which has since cost Il fortune in
cash and coal. II ; estimated that yard
of coal in the vein weighs a ton
| The dimensions Of the area in which the
fire Is now confined, and beyond which it
cannot extend here after, indicates 10, 900
cubic yards or tons of coal involved From
this must be deducted the small amount
which "Old Jim" Andrews and his sue
cessors mined and the portion which may
eventually he savei.
OTHER FIRES IN MINES.
From all these circumstance the state
ment Will be the more readily credited that
| IN all the hundred of mine fires in the an
| thracite region the one at No. is unique
| There are Others which have burned longer
East Pine Knot, Il few miles from Potts
vile, has burned more than thirty years
| without working One-quarter so much de-
struction. At Vaudeville in the same
neighborhood, there is a mine which has
burned forty years, and at night is quite
volcanic in appearance, but which likewise
did vastly less damage and was not fought
with the persisteucy which marked the eff
forts at No. q. Nor did it exhibit the stub
born resistance and energy which this has
shown.
| There are numterless instances of inter
nal fires which mad much greater start
than this and were subdued in a short
time, but they We're below the water level.
and were quenchcd by turning a stream of
water into the blazing subterranean re-
| cesses. In the case of No. the fire started
below the water level, but it spread so rap
idly upward that while the slope fire was
soon drowned ont, there was no known
way of checking irs progress above water
level, except by shutting out the air that
Is needed to support combustion.
This was the first effort made Brattices
were built across the gangways, stopping
every hole and crevice through which air
could reach the fire. The mine was prac-
of water and air was suspended. and men
were left to watch the result. In two
weeks, when reopened, it was found that
the fire burned with increased fury. The
| attempt to smother it was Il failure. Tken
an effort was ade to draw the fire, and
men were engaged in mining the glowing
Goals until one after another they were
overcome by the heat and gas, and several
lives were endangered.
| ATTEMPTS 10 PUT OFT TIE FIRE.
| AT various times men were so far gone
that their recovery was doubtful. General
Superintendent William d. Zehner was
carried out in an unconscious condition,
and for half a day he lay in the brush with
excited men working over his inanimate
body. Another man was packed II an en-.
velope of moist clay, with no part of his
skin exposed but that which covered his
nostrils, and thus he lay for six hours be-
fore returning fe became apparent.
The third attempt was by drowning.
! Dams and brattices were constructed
across the tunnels. Two dams of brick,
laid in the best cement, were built across
! No. @, and one G n the other side across No.
Z, which cuts all the veins and extends
right through the entire mountain. Water
was poured in but year after year there
were surface Indications that the fire was
still raging. Wherever these indications
appeared it was sign that there the fire
was getting air, and clay was piled upon
the spot by men employed for the single
purpose of watching for these manifesto
tions
At one time IN effort was made to des-
troy the atmos 1heric air by the introduce
ton through drill hole of lime and nitric
acid gas, and 1T other times other gases
have been man ufactured high up on Lo-
Gust mountain side and forced in upon the
burning mass, but without having the
slightest apparent effect upon the energy
of the flames
Thus the unequal contest was waged un-
eeasingly until 1890. when all hope of ex-
tinguishing the fire was abandoned, and it
was decided to cut the fire off, or rather to
confine it to definite area, 1000 feet long
by deep cuts. transversely TO the VEIN
, Philadelphia Press.