The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1893-05-26

4
be run through the breaker before the cost of
the alterations and Improvements will have
been made. 1t runs into the thousands of
dollars The breaker has been greatly
improved. As one of the worllmen put it, it
has been turned completely inside out and
back again, Forty men are now engaged on
the breaker and are working hard to finish it
| by the first of the month, at which time, it is
reported the coliery will start again.
1t will be impossible to detail all the al
terations and improvements. Brief reference
will suffice to give an idea of what has been
done. Two sets of chain elevators have been
added to the machinery outfit One is large
and has thirty buckets 2 feet by IS inches
in size. The other, smaller one, has forty
buckets 1Ox12 inches in size. There have
also been placed in the breaker three extra
screens, four extra jigs and four extra
scraper lines, two of which are for the
steamboat coal and two for the bony coal
from the breaker to the rollers. A shaker
which looks and operates like a riddle, is
also being put in. Considerable work has
also been spent on the coal plane, 1t has
been completely remodeled and ali the old
/ timbers have been taken out and replaeed nv
new ones. The breaker engine and iip
engine have also come in for share of the
extensive repairs. So much for the breaker.
But there is the jig house, the largest in
the region aside from those which are
operated solely for jig purposes. This Jig
house was constructed as an addition to the
breaker last August, but has never been put
in use. When Indian Ridge starts up again
the jig house will start with it, 1t is
mammoth affair and cost considerable money.
During the idleness now in force this branch
of the industry has received considerable
attention, The jig plant covers an area of
5Ox9O feet and is 10 feet high. 1t contains
eight iigs and eight sets of scrapers. It will
give employment to a large number of hands
and will in no wise decrease the force that
was required to operate the breaker before |
the jig addition was built The object of |
constructing it was not to reduce the force of |
hands, but to turn out better coal. In this |
plant the jigs will be operated by ropes and |
not by BELTS which is the system in many
other jig plants. The reason for this is that |
where belts are used they must be as near
parallel as possible and as the conjunction of |
the jig house with the breaker makes
parallel lines of motor power impossible the |
other system has been adopted and the ropes
run in all directions, almost like the stitches
in a crazy patch work quilt.
1t would take one several hours to see all |
the repair work that has been done in and |
about this breaker since it has been idle. To |
say that the breaker, so far as the interior is |
concerned, is new covers the ground.
But all the Improvements have not been |
confined to the breaker. District Superin. |
tendent Bradigan has had more than that to
attract his attention. While the great struc.
ture on top was donning its spring suit of
clothes Inside Foremen Thomas Campbell
and Morgan Davis were giving the inside
workings treat in the shape of improve.
ments. The old inside slope will be dead
letter when the colliery resumes operations.
Its day of usefulness appear to have passed.
1t was instrumental in bringing thousands
and thousands of tons of the dark wealth
from the great depths to the surface but as
the locomotive has taken the place OF the
stage coach and as the telephone is fast
supplanting the mail service, so has this
veteran slope been superseded by other
openings. The men who have been making
repairs and improvements inside have driven
a gangway from the bottom of the Buck
shaft to connect with the bottom
of the Buck Mountain slope (the one above
referred to- and when the colliery is put in
operation again all the coal will be hoisted
up the inside shaft instead Of up the slope.
But to further insure the abandonment of
this old slope the men are making plane ON
the Buck Mountain vein. This plane will
take the coal from the second lift of the
Buck Mountain slope to the bottom of the
shaft. This will do away with the old slope
and it will be obliged TO take in its
business shingle.
No one this side of the Broad Mountain
knows when Indian Ridge colliery will
resume operations, unless orders have been
received within the last twelve hours. 1t