Birmingham age-herald., 1895-02-15
HOW COKE IS MADE.
STORY OF THE LEADING INDUSTRY 5aa OF cONNELLSvILLE.

!, the World-Grown From Two to Twenty Thousand Ovens In Fifty Years-Enor-
 nous Amount of Water Necessary.
 Some one has called coke "mineral 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 fayorite fuel with housewives and cooks, is the ooke left as a residue in the making of illuIxinating gas It is soft, dull black and has a pu1nicelko 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 Connellsville coke, produced in tho coke region of Pennsylvania made famous by it's bloody labor strikes and fla tai conflicts between the "Huns'' and militia Thousands upon thousands of tons of coal arc mined in the Connellsville country and burned in the thousands of ovens into coke, and when any labor trou- ble 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 20, 900 ovens, and the few bushels of coke which the pioneers tried vainly to sell have expanded to over 5, ,000 GOO tons yearly.
 The very nature of the industry connects the coal mine and the coke oven with tho closest intimacy. The ovens stretch out from the shaft top on either side of tho railroad tracks, built so close together that the "bank" looks like solid wall, pierced with low arched windows set in at short intervals. Over the bank of ovens runs narrow gauge track, and steam and smoko cloud the perspective. The Con- ., nellsvile coke region is the largest coke producing district in the world, and their cokomaking has reached it's highest point toward perfection. The Connellsville ovens are what arc known as the "bee hive' type varying from 1018 feet to 12X feet in diameter and from 6 to 8 feet in height. Each oven produces at charge from to 4X tons of coke each AS hours, which is the length of time required to produce coke from coal. All coal will not coke, for noncoking coal will crumble with the heat, whereas cooking" coal will hold it's substance and become min eral sponge when the gases are driven out. ,g' When tho coal is brought to the shaft top from tho bottom of the mine, it is dumped into a chute which conveys the coal to the "larries,' as the small dump cars which run on the tracks over the ovens arc called Small locomotives draw tho 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 1a- Dor are saved by machinery in the mine, on the shaft top and around tho ovens. The mine cars brought up on the "cages" from the bottom of the shaft are pushed of 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 bricked up, and all the chinks and openings are closed with loam, 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 tho 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 a slow, smoldering combustion is regulated by closing or opening airways in the door, In 48 hours the coal is ooked, and the door is broken open, and the glowing coke in the oven is drenched 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.
 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 are at work, uses up over 5,000, 900 gallons of water day, enough to supply town of 50,000 inhabitants. Sometimes this water has to be pumped from a distance, for the mine water is strongly impre9nated 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 1t from river II miles from the ovens, using an inch pipe which had formerly been used for supplying 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 plosive gases which collect in the work ings, has led many miners to adopt the electric incandescent 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 CTS take fearful risks by using naked lamps. Tho Connellsville district has been the scene of many accidents and great loss of life.-Chicago Record.
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