The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1898-08-19

IN the smart while IL was being sunk Is also
connected up In the pump room aud is held
in reserve.
Above ground she derrick rises to
height of some ifty feet from the surface to
the top of the ventilating shaft, while the
platform to which the cars of coal are
hoisted is fully thirty feet up. At this
platform is the plate on which the cars are
turned, either to run out on one track to the
refuse dump, or to go to the tipple, there to
dump the load of coal down over the steel
screens where the lump coal is separated
from the finer grades and caught in the
patent weighing pan below. By neat de-
vice the scale box and weighing arm is
placed back near the shaft where the man
in charge can see all that goes on. AS soon
as the weighing pan is full it is dumped by
oosening friction clutch. after which
weights Pull the pan back into position
automatically. The derrick, with It's scale
and screens. is built to allow two freight
cars to be iu position below at once, one for
screenings and the other for lump coal, and
is of ample dimensions both of height and
breadth for every need. A work shop,
wash house, oil house and powder maga-
zine with some other outbuildings and
sheds, complete the equipment above
ground.
The shaft has been worked only since
February, and that with a small force of
ten miners and five more men at the top.
Consequently but little more than fair
start has been made, but the work has been
done Systematically, so that 1t is in the best
possible condition for work on more ex-
tended scale. Main entries are excavated
to the east and west of the shaft and cross
entries are we'll advanced on the west
entry. From each of the cross entries seven
or eight rooms are already being worked,
the most distant working being as yet with
in two hundred feet of the shaft. The
plans for ventilation are being carefully de-
veloped to ensure Its perfection as the mine
becomes larger.
The deposit Of coal which this company
controls has been pretty definitely proved to
be In the form of what Is known as pock-
ct rather than belonging to the same stratum
as that underlying large part of this
region. fact which explains the reasona-
beness of the claim made by users that the
coal is of exceptional quality. The seam is
an unusually thick one, moreover, and in
many places Is fully four and half feet
through. At the bottom of the first shaft.
soon to be used for ventilating purposes, II
was four feet and three inches through.
AS no place has been found where the seam
is as thin as three feet. Mr.. Travis feels
satisfied that to estimate the whole bed as
averaging over three feet in thickness is
placing a very low estimate on fhe amount
actually there. But as in estimating the
amount of coal, cubit yard is, for ordinary
purposes, considered ton, this gives Ovel
a ton of coal to every square yard of lane
leased by the company.
IL now any one should be curious t.
know how long the supply can last thu
company, little simple calcula lating will
tell gratifying story. The figures show
about five thousand tons per acre-to be ex
act. supposng the stratum to be three fee
thick, though in reality it Is one half sgair
as thick in places, there would be 4S40 tom
10 the acre-7260 tons If of the thickes
known. AS some over ten per cent is un
available on account of the need Of leavinl
pillars, there must still be oyer 5000 ton
to the acre, which is available. But the
company controls some 800 acres. Th
would make million and a half tons o
available coal. and If the present plant wer,
worked to its utmost capacity, after secur
ing railway outlet, of about five hundred
tons per day the supply would last som,
nine and half years while IL about tw'
hundred and fifty tons per day we're takeI
out-still very large business-the suppl!
must last for nineteen years, and proper
tiOnally for smaller amounts, as for instance
forty seven and one-half years at the rat,
of one hundred tons per day. Such calcu
lations, which can be verified, as Mr.. Travi
had men drilling In different parts of th,
territory secured by him for over iv
months last year, put In the clinching argu
ments which show that MI. Travis mad
sure of his ground before entering upon tn
venture, and that the business Is bound h
be a profitable one which will return
both principal and interest long before tn
supply is exhausted. II, however, OF
further drilling even so large a part as one
third of the territory controlled should prov
to be improbable for working there woul,
still be million tons available and tn
above figures regarding the duration Of th
operations would be reduced but third, o
the supply at one hundred tons per da
would still last thirty-two years.
Mr.. Travis has just organized stoc
company with capital stock of S25, 900 !
shares of S21 each for the operation Of tn
mine, the papers being filed with the secre
: tary of state last week, and while TIL
TIMES has no ak to grind In the matter 1t
, certain that fine trade will be bul
mn there, and congratulates Mr.. Travi