The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1895-01-30
HOW COKE is MAZE.
STORY OF THE LEADING INDUSTRY
OF CONNELLSVlLLE.


the World Grown From Two 60 Twenty
Thousand ovens In Fifty Years--Enor-
nous Amount of Water Necessary.
Some one has called coke immoral char
coal. He meant that coke was soft coal
from which the gases had been expelled
by heat out of contact with air, just as
wood is made into charcoal by being
burned without air.
The crushed coke, which is becoming a
favorite fuel with housewives and cooks,
is the coke left as a residue in the making
of illuminating gas. 1t is soft, dull black
and has a pumicelike texture, but the
coke which is made for foundries and
blast furnaces is hard and is of a silvery
gray color, almost metallic in its luster.
This is the Connollsvi.lo coke, produced
in the coke region Of Pennsylvania, made
famous by its bloody labor strikes and ia.
tai conflicts between the Huns" and
militia. Thousands upon thousands of
tons of coal are mined in the Connellsville
country and burned in the thousands of
ovens into coke, and when any labor trou
BILE checks the output of this region
foundrios, machine shops and blast fur
naces all over the country shut down. The
two experimental ovens which were built
in this district 53 years ago have grown
into 90, 600 ovens, and the few bushels Of
coke which the pioneers tried vainly to
sell have expanded to over 5,000,0 600 tons
yearly.
The very nature of the industry connects
the coal mine and the coke oven with the
closest intimacy, The ovens stretch out
from tho Shaft top on either side of the
railroad tracks, built so close together
that the bank looks like a solid wall
pierced with low arched windows set in at
short intervals Over the bank of ovens
runs a marrow gauge track, and steam and
smoke cloud the perspective. The Con
nellsvile coke region is the largest coke
producing district in the world, and their
cokomaking has reached its highest point
toward perfection. The Connellsville
ovens are what are known as the bee
hive" type, varying from 10 = feet to 1917
feet in diameter and from 6 to feet in
height. Each oven produces at charge
from to AZ tons of coke each As hours
which is the length of time required to
produce coke from coal All coal will not
coke, for a noncoSing coal will crumble
with tho heat, whereas a cooking" coal
will hold its SUBSTANCE and become a min
When the coal is brought "a driven OUT.
| top from the bottom Of the 1nire, slai1 81
dumped into a chute which conveys the
coal to the ''larries, - as the small dump
cars which run on the tracks over the
ovens are called Small locomotives draw
the larry wagons to the ovens in the larger
plants, but in others steel cables, horses
or mules are the motive power used to
carry the coal to be coked Time and la
Dor are saved by machinery in the mine,
on the shaft top and around the ovens
The mine cars brought up on the ''cages''
from the bottom of the shaft are pushed
off the cage and an empty car run on au-
tomatically, and other forms of self
dumping cages are used The coal slides
down the chute and over the screens into
the bins from which the larry wagons are
loaded.
When the larries reach the ovens, they
are dumped, and the coal slides down.
When an oven is charged, the coal is lev
eled down, and the door is brickod up,
and all the chinks and openings are closed
with loan, except a space of about two
inches at the top of the door, which ex-
tends across the full width of it, The
heat of the oven--for full charge of coal
is put in as soon as the charge of newly
made coke has been taken out-sets fire to
the coal on top. The draft and course Of
the air are SO regulated that the coal burns
from 'out to in" and the amount of air
necessary to keep up slow, smoldering
combustion is regulated by closing or
opening airways in the door. In 4S hours
the coal is coked, and the door is broken
open, and the glowing coke in the oven
is drenohed with water to cool it, so that
it will not set fire to the cars, for the coke
is loaded directly into the freight cars
standing on the tracks before the bank of
ovens. N
Enormous quantities of water are used
IN cooling coke. AS it requires about 600
gallons of water to cool one charge of
coke, the Connellsville district, when all
OF the ovens aro at work, uses up over
1000, OoO gallons of water a day, enough
to supply town of 90, coo inhabitants.
Sometimes this water has to be pumped
from distance, for the mine water is
strongly impregnated with sulphur and
sulphur is just what the cokemaker does
not want in his product. One large coke
works in this district, in order to be as.
sured of an adequate supply of pure water
pumped it from river l miles from the
ovens, using an 8 inch pipe which had
formerly been used for supplying a town
with natural gas The coal mined in the
Connellsville district is remarkably pure
and is all coked The vein from which it
Is taken is nine feet thick, and the coal is
mined on the room and pillar" system.
The great loss of life caused by miners
using naked lamps, and so igniting the ex-
plosiYe gases which collect in the work |
ings, has led many miners to adopt the
electric incandesoent light for the shaft |
bottom, pumproom and stables and the |
miners are required to carry safety lamps. |
As the light is none too good, many min |
ers take fearful risks by using naked !
lamps. The Connellsyille district has |
been the scene of many accidents and |
great loss of Chicago Record,