Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1894-04-23
PICKED UP BY THE WAY.
THINGS SEEN AND HEARD IN THE
TOWN AND VICINITY.

TOWN AND VICINITY.
Matters of Local Nature Written Up |
and Placed Before the Readers of the
Tribune" by the saunteror- something
Here May Interest You.
The primitiveness of the coal mining
industry is fast passing away, and is be-
ing superseded 10y an era of modernity |
calculated to excite great interest among
students Of human labor, as we'll as COM
pei the admiration Of the world of science.
The many crude implements con-
nected with the preparation of coal,
so familiar to our fathers as a result of
painful experience, may be looked for
in vain in most breakers Of modern con-
shuction. The progress of the world |
moves toward simpifcaton, which is
the logical deduction of genius and the |
coal region can now boast of having en-
tered on the first stages of this condition.
No longer does the miner wait to re-
ceive all his impressions from metropoli-
tan centres. We have often viewed our
selves, as We stood attired, our clothes,
our hats, our hats, our shoes, our but
tons, all of the humble things which 60
to make up an important item of the
sum and substance of human endeavor
and have wondered at the probable per
fection of the machinery and the extra
ordinary ingenuity required to turn them
out in all their various designs and sizes
Often have we stood and looked at the
monster steam engines roll into our little
villages and gazed at them awe-struck as
the product Of the great skill of the city.
No longer do we think this way. They
We're the wild fantasies of youth. To
them we have given so much time that
their familiarity has worked their own
contempt and we have at length cast
them off and stand forth to observe
what? That the era of perfection which
we ascribed solely to the mystical city
was dawning upon us and only asked US
to open our eyes and behold it.
The little breaker boy was the first to
be supplanted by machinery. Several
years ago the appartus known as the JIG
was invented and was found capable Of
separating slate and dirt from the Goa
with the accuracy of the human hand
At first these machines were worked
only on the ordinary sizes, but in recent
years have been improved to such an
extent that they are applicable to nearly
all grades of coal. Electric light has
taken the place of the mining lamp
for night work about the breaker and in
the shops. The omni present slate-b bank
mule, which for many years has been a
familiar sight, issuing spasmodcally
from an entrance in the breaker, is now
back number in many places, as well
the little push buggy used to supply pea
coal to the boiler houses.
And now the time is here when the
old-fashioned tire-grate finds its days
numbered and is replaced by one of au-
tomato motion. This is one of the latest
inventions in the line of labor-saving
machinery, and is product of the firm
of Coke Bros. q Co., that remarkable
corporation which has set the pace for
its contemporaries in much of the best
breaker machinery of today They are
the orignators of the gyrating screen,
which in few years will no doubt be
adopted generally throughout the region
- 40 ,l1 L..
The travelling crate is the invention of
Eckley b. Coke. The first of the kind
which he has erected, and on which he
has done considerable experimenting is
located near Eckley, l had an oppor-
tunity of examining the CRATE one day
last week and shall endeayor to give my
readers brief description Of it,
The boilers are built substantially in
brick, in a manner similar to which they
are erected generally. The CRATE bars
are fastened to an endless chain, which
is moved by wheels that fit on the chain
between every two bars. These wheels
are turned by a cog, which is revolved
by worn" on a bar extending down
from the main shaft overhead A small
engine drives the main shaft, from
which short belts extend, so that each
CRATE is operated independently Of the
other. The coal is carried from a dump
on the outside by means of conyeyors,
also attached to an endless chain, which |
run IN long schultz, and deposited in
hopper at one end Of the CRATE. This
hopper feeds the coal to the fire The
draft is furnished by a large fan, which
discharges into a pipe, having a connec-
tion for each fire. The CRATE is entirely
under cover, being necessary on account
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