The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1895-06-15
A FIvE-MILE TUNNEL.

Passes Under Two Mountains to
Drain Abandoned Coal Mines.
| The hard-coal Jeddo basin is about
| forty miles from Wilkesbarre and near
to the highest point in Pennsylvania.
| The coal of this field, discovered 3otne
ten years ago, Is exceptionally good,
and has commanded the highest
prices. Three shafts were sunk and
prosperous villages grew up around
them; the operators were making
large profits and everything was most
| promising. But in the spring of 1887
headings driven too near the surface
caved in, and the waters of the creek
suddenly flooded the workings, hun
dreds of miners barely escaping with
their lives. For over two years the
district was practically deserted,
ho1stlng engines rusting, and the great
breakers falling to pieces. But the
| large reserves of coal were too valu-
able to be abandoned without an
effort: Pumping out the 5O0,0OO,OOO
| gallons of water and the steady inflow
seemed impractical BILE. So in 1890 the
operators agreed upon plan for
draining the mines by means Of
hve-mile tunnel, an enterprise which
was regarded by some as a probable
loss of 81, 100000, in view of the I'M
certainty as to the ground to be pene-
trated, there being some chance Of en-.
countering quicksand.
The Bulletin Of the American Iron
and Steel association quotes from an
exchange the details of this great
work. The length of the tunnel is
about five and one-eighth miles, pass
ing under two mountains and under
the lowest workings (45O feet deep OF
the mines, and discbarging into Butler
creek. Two shafts were sunk to the
tunnel level, and progress was thus
made in five headings-two each way
from each shaft and one from the
tunnel mouth. Five gangs of men,
fifty in each, were employed. Progress
was slow, owing to hardness of the
rock, necessitating constant blasting.
Powder drills operated by compressed
air we're employed, and altogether
$4,000 pounds of forCite were used in
blasting. The dimensions of the tun-
mel, as originally planned, were 8 by s
nm inconvenient cross section, changed
y
way. Water was encountered in
quantity, and seven pumps were kept
busy clearing the unconnected drifts.
The surveys appear to have been very
accurate. The first connection, be-
tween headings Nos. 3 and 4, was
made in September, 1894, and the
alignment found to be perfect. there
being not more than an inch differ
ence in the floors of the two sections.
Soon afterward the connection be-
tween Nos. 1 and and the outlet was
made. NJ eanwhile as the tunnel was
nearing completion, a bore hole was
put down from the surface, passing
through one of the flooded gangways
and piercing the center of the roof Of
the drainage tunnel. This bore was so
accurate that it came out within g.
inch circle marked in the tunnel roof.
1t was so we'll cased that only about
a gallon day. leaked into the tunnel.
TO withdraw the 6 by 4-inch hickory
plug and the casing was the work Of
but half an hour, and the mines We're
successfully tapped. A gr: tifying fea-
ture of this great undertaking is that
not man was killed, despite the
amount of blasting done, and only
four men injured in any way. The
tunnel is expected to bring prosperity
| back to long desolate region.-Frank
Leslie's Weekly.