The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-01
SHAFT NEARLY A MILE DEEP.
1t Took Nine Years and $4,000, 900 to
Build 1t.

INC Jay ldSt WCShs 81 HuACtAS Il4ot At was
, not known except to the employees for sew
eral days, the greatest mining shaft in the
entire world went into commission. After
nine years of incessant labor and the ex-
penditure of over two and half millions
Of dollars in cash, the Red Jacket shaft of
the Calumet and Hecla is now an inte-
| grail part of the great copper mine which
pays quarterly dividends of 100000 and is
| steadily producing conglomerate rock car
rying approximately per cent. of native
| copper.
The Red Jacket shaft is vertical, all 9TH
er shafts of the Calumet and Hecla follow
| ing the dip of the lode 371a degrees TO the
west OF northwest. 1t was started in 1899,
Immediately after the last of the three
great fires occurring underground in the
| older workings of the mine, which did
damage of more than a million dollars.
| Work has been continued upon 1t night
and day since that time and the shaft
| stands without an equal in any mining
| field on the globe. 1t is 1890 feet in depth
but $50 feet less than a full statute mile
and compared with it the deep silver mines
of the Comstock lode in Nevada, or the
| III lulliSS Ol AQSlIldl WOIhSu AOl
many centuries past, are but shallow pits.
| 1t contains six compartments, each equal
in size to an ordinary mining shaft, four
| of which are used for hosting rock and
! lowering timber. One shaft is utilized for
] the ladderways and the sixth and last
| compartment carries the wires and pipes
for telephones, light, power, water, and
compressed air.
The underground workings of the shaft
are laid out with mathematical accuracy,
the undertaking course of the copper bear
| ing lode allowing the work TO be planned
| thousands of feet ahead of the mineral
picks. The great pumps which free the
mine of water are operated interchange
| ably with compressed air and electricity.
| The power drills which eat the holes for
the dynamite cartridges are run by COM
pressed air alone, and there are more
| than 900 of these drills, each doing the
work of a dozen men, working both day
and night, in the Calumet and Hecla
nine The use of compressed air is a
great boon to the miners, as the heat
would be unbearable but for its cooling
| effects Air parts with much of its heat
| under compression, and when liberated
| robs surrounding objects of their heat
! With a rock temperature of 81 Clio degrees
Fahrenheit at the 4,9O0-foot level, the cool
ing effect of the air from the drills is
most grateful.
Besides the heat, miners In the deep
shaft have another serious obstacle to
contend with The water teaching through
the copper strata gradually acquires an
acid tone, which is very marked at consid-
cradle depths and miners working three
quarters of a mile or more below the sun
light must protect head and hands from
the water which gives rise to serious
| blisters and eventually to ulcers that eat
to the bone If allowed to come in free con-
| tact with the skin. Bnt for the danger
| ON the water the miners would strip to
The waist at their work, as is done in
msny coal mines.
There is a complete telephone system un-
derground, also fire alarm sytem. Water
pipes run through every drift and cross
| cut with hose at convenient stations.
There are also fire doors by which any por-
ton of the mine may be quickly isolated
| and a fire smothered before it has spread
far. Owing to the treacherous nature OF
the conglomerate rock in which the copper
is found, almost incredible quantities of
heavy timbers are required to shore the
ground safely. In the new openings this
| timber is damp and burns with difficulty,
but as the mine grows deeper and upper
workings are drained dry and the old tim
herring becomes like finder. Eternal vigil
lance is the price of immunity from the
fire in a big mine. The dangers of mine
fire were illustrated only mile from the
Red Jacket shaft, when thirty miners
were suffocated by the gases from fire
more than a quarter of mile below
them.
MANY as are the marvelS of this great
shaft itself, they are duplicated by the
wonders upon the surface. Rising over
the mouth of the shaft is a gigantic steel
structure 100 feet square and 140 feet high.
In this shaft house are the great rock
breakers and grizzlies" Masses of fiinty
rock of. ton or more in size are started
Through the crushers and come out in a
few moments as pebbles and chunks of
size suited to the steam stamps at the
mills. five miles distant. where the daily
nroduct of the mine, some 5000 tons of
conglomerate rock, is crushed TO sand un-
der the titantic blows of more than a
score of steam pumps.
Near the shaft house are the boiler and
engine houses, beautiful buildings Of Sc
lected Lake Superior redstone, a material
go rich and costly that it vies with the
finest granite in price. Within the first
named buildings are ten great boilers,
each of 1000 horse power, while the lofty
engine house within a room more than
100 feet square. houses the finest station
ary engine ever built-a monster of steel
| and polished brass, almost sentient in its
response to the slightest touch of the mas
ter directing it's work, who, at the touch
of a lever and the turn of a wheel ex-
erts it's 5000 horse power as he wills.
Persons who are disagreeably affected by
the speed of an express elevator in a mod
! ern sky-scraper would sing appalled, at the
mere sight of the four cages plying noise
! lessly up and down the mile of shaft. A
| speed of eight or ten miles an hour Is the
limit with the swiftest elevators ii build
ings and proves trying TO the strongest
who ride in them. An average speed of
twenty five miles is used in the opera ton
of the cages at the Red Jacket shaft and
tests have shown a speed exceeding thirty
miles an hour-a vertical speed equallng
that of the average passenger train which
runs upon horizontal plane. This great
sneed Is never used when hosting or low
erlng miners, for which work special sig
nails are always given. Flesh and blood
could scarcely stand the strain of such
rapid descent perpendicularly.