The age-herald., 1898-01-23

out in a stream of water near the top of the washer The coal is then ready to go into the ovens that line the valley on either side, some being Bee Hive ovens and some Thomas ovens. The coal as it comes from the mine is made up of about equal parts, lump and slack. All of the | slack Is needed In the manufacture Of coke to feed the four great stacks already de- scribed For this purpose the company keeps in operation about 800 coke ovens. The Convict Camp.
 | The camp shelters at night about 600 | convicts. After supper they are lined up
 in the immense dining room, and counted.
 That count is an important part of the
 daily routine. The exact number that the l books call for must show up, or ese-well, | Capt Sherling, the warden and superintend- 1 ent, is at once on the back of his splen- | did saddle horse, and his men and his dogs | soon ascertain why the count did not hold up to the figures of the books. Few get away from the camp and mines, and still | fewer outwind Capt Sherling.
 | The convicts naturally desire freedom, but few of them will elsewhere find better quarters or better food than is provided | for them at Coalburg. Not single sani- | tary precaution is there neglected. Venti- | lation and drainage are especially looked after by MT Castleman himself, the com
 pany's assistant general manager. If any | one.' says Mr. Castleman, twill tell me
 what more in all reason can do, will do | it." So far as personal cleanliness is con- | cerned improvement is certainly impossi- | ble. Each man as he comes out of the | mine goes at once to the bath room, where 1 he takes shower bath, not of cold water, | but of well-warmed water, and he then l puts on a well-washed suit, and is then l ready for supper If he is aiing, there
 is an ample hospital and good doctor l little higher up the hill The beds. are
 swing beds, and the ventilation in the r)on | is perfect, and so is the degree of comfort, l for they are heated and are witha roomy. | The stories of the Georgia convict camps | cannot be truthfully duplicated at Coal | burg.
 | The company employs in it's coal mines | deal of free labor, there being no convicts l at Cardiff. Brazil, Brookside or B,ossburg. | Perhaps 20 per cent of the coal product | is brought out by convicts. It is school l of miners. many of them becoming very l expert and staying in the company's em- 1 ploy at the end of their term. Some, in- | deed go home, and are soon brought back. | One old fellow, who had charge of and | was very proud of a mule used about the | coke ovens served out his time, and went l home. Pretty soon he, too, brought | back, and he was given his old job again. | At once he looked the mule over. and | found him in a sorry condition. Its a pity he said, "a man cannot go home to
 sec his folks without having his animal
 all banged up and half-starved."
 The Ore Mines
 | are, after all the objective point, and dol | omite and coke are only means to an end,
 namely the smelting of the ore. The com pany has three mines at Irondae, each with daily capacity of about 200 tons. All l three are ventilated naturally These mines are in Red mountain and the ores l taken from them are chiefly of the hard | red variety. But the chief mine at present | worked by the company Is
 The Sloss Mine,
 situated twelve miles south of Birmingham, l an nd nDa mi RnSSpmpr mountain with the Mineral railroad run ming up to the tipple, and through the prop | erty. The daily output of this great mine varies from 1000 to 1200 tons, and 1t is to- | day the largest ore mine in the southern
 states. An endless cable pulls the cars l from the summit of the slope to the tipple, where they are quickly dumped into | Gates breaker that quickly reduces the l rocks, no matter how large or how un- | shapely, to the proper size, and then just as quickly the product slides into steam | cars that are twice day pulled to the | furnaces. At present the shipments ag- | gregate fifty cars day.
 1 In the mine deep down in the bowels Of
 Red mountain weird scenes present them selves. The plunge downward of the ore vein is something to remember lmag- | inc, if you will, boulevard running down l a steep hill, so steep that you can scarcely walk down it without slipping-the angle | of descent is 2S degrees-and you have the central street or slope of the Sloss ore
 mine. At given distances entries or lesser
 streets diverge to the right or left, and | from the "entries' one finds "uplifts'' or
 rooms in which miners shoot down the hard | red rock full of iron. When the rooms
 are worked out the divisions or pillars are robbed" and very little ore is left in that l portion of the mine The slope runs deep | down into the very heart of the mountain | long distance, but steep as the grades all | are the entire mine is dry, the roofs are b
 feet high, and the ventilation and tenn perature are perfect. There are no con- | strained positions in the SloSS ore mine There is elbow room for all. The cars are l either run by gravity or by cable, and | there is steady stream of them in and out l all day along. In all the mining opera | tions in this district, there is not a place
 more interesting than the costly plant and
 busy slope and rooms of the Sloss ore mine 1 at Bessemer. The breaker under the tip
 pie is a marvel of massiveness and simplic- l ity. No rock the regulation size es- 1 capes its crushing powers, and yet 1t only I moves an inch or two, and irregularly at | that.
 | The Brown Ore.
 l Heretofore brown ores have been found | in pockets here and there in a loose form, but the Sloss company will soon develop l a vein of brown ore, in good solid rock,
 near Leeds, seventeen miles from Birming- l ham. Against the face of this rock is | deposit of earth which will be removed by l hydraulic process. These ores at Leeds | contain fully 50 per cent. or metallic iron, l and they besides very low in alum 1 mum. The less aluminium. the less Aux is l required in order to get the sag into the l proper fluid condition. Nor is this all The l ores at Leeds contain 15 per cent. of water. 1 This water goes off in the form of steam | without expense or trouble to anyone; and i its departure leaves the ore in a porous | condition that admits of easy smelling. If | these advantages do not permit the Sloss | furnaces to make iron cheaper than Pitts h.rf hnd yyiIl n n Lake Superior ores, then experts will for once be sadly mistaken. From these ores, too, an excellent quality of basic pig can
 be made, and they may prove to be the best reliance of Birmingham's steel mills. As soon as the Southern railroad builds a spur eight miles long to the new brown ore beds, they will be developed repidly. The Sloss companY has secured ample cap