Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-09-21
DOWN IN A SALT MINE
WHAT MEN DO THERE OVER rHol.
SAND FEET UNDER GROUND.

AS our readers are aware we have been
working for the past three or four years to
Set pass down into to the Retsof salt
mine at York. 1t SO happened one day
recently that two personal friends had
business down in the mine and meeting
US arterward they gave us a very graphic
description OF the trip, so much so that we
almost imagined we were with them from
the time they left the top until they re-
turned again. and for the benefit of our
readers we will give their description Of
what they experienced and what they saw
They said:
You may imagine that you would like
TO go down that shaft, but let us tell you
that when you once stood on the verge of
that yawning hole waiting for the car to
let you down, it is two to one that your
courage would fail you. and you would
inform the guide that you would postpone
the trip until some other day. Superin-
tendent Chaqin was the one who went
with us, and of course there was no cause
Tor alarm, as he knows the workings of
the whole plant from one end to the other
Well, we jumped into the car and waited
for the signal to start, and we did not
have to wait long before the gong sounded
and that was the signal to let her 60
From that time until we reached the bot
tom no man will ever be fully able to de-
scribe the experience.
After the first 200 or 300 feet there is a
feeling it would be hard to explain sort Of
goneness, as it were, and you don't care
much whether school keeps or not, and the
changes are 80 different and varied that
one begins to wonder what will come next
When near the bottom the car ON which
you are riding begins to slow up, and then
comes the most peculiar experience of all.
You imagine that you are shooting up
ward and that you will soon be among the
stars. You can imagine the sensation
| from going down at the rate of about 100
| miles a minute to going up at about seven
times that rate. Finally the car lands at
| the bottom of the shaft, and you breathe a
| sigh of relief you step out.
Well, the first thing you do is to look for
| salt; its there, all around you, above, be-
meath, on all sides, but it don't look much
| like salt near the bottom of the shaft, as
| lights are burned constantly and the
smoke has blackened the walls. You look
away to the east, through a long, dark
tunnel, and you discern in the far distance
some Pickering lights, and you are in
| formed that they are lights used by the
workmen who are engaged in mining the
| salt. Your guide steps up to a man near
where you land and says, Three lights,
| please" and three tallow candles are hand
ed out. 1t may seem little strange that
| tallow candles are used in this age of kero-
| sene. gas and electricity, but such is the
| case, and they are the only lights used in
| the mine, and each man carries one, and
| they are hung up from the ceiling where
the mining of salt is going on, and they
are the hsndiest lights that can be used.
They don't purchase these lights by the
dozen or hundred, but by the carload.
The candles were lighted. and with
them in hand we followed the guide and
| proceeded to make tour of the mine, we
might add partial tour, for it would take
| a person something like week to walk all
| over the mined territory. We followed
| the guide along through dark and winding
| pathways until we reached point where
the workmen were busily engaged mining
| the salt They were not at work with
picks picking it out, as might be supposed,
but were breaking up the large Jumps and
shoveling it into the cars the salt having
| been blasted out ahead of them. While
| some were engaged in shoveling the salt,
others were drilling holes into the solid
mass. making ready for a blast, machines
| run by compressed air being used for this
purpose.
| As before stated, the main tunnel runs
| directly east and is nearly half mile in
| length. Near the shaft two other tunnels
| branch off from the main tunnel, one on
| either side, and run parallel with it. These
we believe are termed airshafts. From
| these shafts rooms branch off both north
| and south, and in these rooms is where the
| salt is mined. These rooms are nothing
more nor less than short tunnels, and in
| time will probably be heightened out as
| far as the main tunnel or even farther, rs
| they can go miles in any direction and
| still be in the salt. The rooms are perhaps
| twenty or thirty feet wide, and from seven
| to eight feet in height A section of salt
| some thirty feet in thickness is left be-
| tween each room a support to the solid
mass above. A thickness of five six
| feet is left above a roof, and a substan-
tial roof it makes, as the salt in it's natural
| state is almost as hard as rock. There are
no other supports than the columns of salt
| that are left.
Of these rooms mentioned there are fifty
| or sixty at the present time, and the work
men are distributed about, working in
| several rooms at a time. There is no neces-
| sity of a foreman in each room, as the num-
| Der of carloads of salt delivered at the
| shaft tells the tale as to whether the men
are Sinking their duty or not A railway
runs through the main tunnel and branches
| extend in all directions. The cars are
hauled from the several rooms by large
powerful mules, and there are some thirty
of these in the mine.
There is a blacksmith's shop in the mine
where the tools are repaired and the mules
are shod, and there is also a large stable
where the mules are sheltered during the
night. OF course they would be well shell
tered in the mine, anyway, but if allowed
to roam about they could find nothing to
| eat but salt and the railroad track, and the
average mule cannot exist on a diet of this
kind This stable is far ahead of the or
binary stables about the country, aud
there is every convenience and luxury for
his muleship. The stables are some forty
or fifty feet in length and twenty or thirty
feet wide, with wood floor and wooden
stalls and managers. This is the only con-
bustible substance there is about the NINE