The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-11-11

Obstacle Was Met with--A Great
Undertaking.
The fire and food situation at the
Ravine shaft at Pittston has again
reached an interesting stage. No more
water is being pumped into the mine,
II being estimated that the flood has
reached the topmost point of the fire.
The water however, was not forced
as high as intended. The brick dams
withstood the pressure all right, but
when the water had reached a point
within thirteen feet of where II had
been intended to force it, the officials
discovered that, owing to a break In
the strata between the veins, the water
was being forced up into the Pittston
vein as rapidly as it was being pump
Cd into the Marcy.
Such a break had been feared by the
officials, and they consider it very for
tunate that it did not manifest itself
| until after the flood had covered the
fire. Now an effort is being made to
reach the back end of the fire, by way
of the old Seneca slope workings, for
the purpose of learning for certain
eXtinguished. The work is found very
| difficult owing to the fact that the
slope is full of deadly damp which it
is found very difficult to disodgo,
INTERESTING FEATURE.
An interesting feature in connection
with the fire which now happily is al
most eXtinguished was the construc-
| tion of immense dams to protect the
| No. S and No. 10 mines of the Penn
| sylvania Coal company, which con-
nected in n number of places with the
| RaVine mine. The ordinary means of
fighting the fire failing, the flooding
of the bottom vein. above which was
the Marcy vein. where the fire oc-
CURED, was tried as a means of put
ting out the flames. 1t was q stupen-
dous task and required two weeks
Of the hardest kind of work, but the
labor was useless, as the water could
not be advanced to higher portions
CT the vein.
As a last resort the officials decided
to build a dam in the Marcy vein
to dam the water and thus back it
up to the fire. As the water reached
the fire it naturally created an i'm.
|
forced through the several openings in
to Nos. s and 10 mines of the Penn
sylVania Coal company The latter
company was then forced TO take i'm
diatc action to keep out the l;as being
forced into their workings.
As the openings We're many AMI
large. there was no way to keen out
the gas but to construct number
L IL.
Two hundred mon We're put to work.
ara after four weeks of earnest toll
the job was completed. 1t VAS lone
under the supervision OF Alexander
Dryden. general superintendent, .idam
Hardness, inside superinte ndeut. and
Alex THOMPSON, inside foreman,
OPENINGS CLOSED.
First the large openings between the
Ravine and No. s We're closed. These
openings We're eight or ten feet wide
and they were closed up with two sets
Of stone walls and then filled in be-
tween with culm. The next work nee
essary for the Pennsylvania Coal COM
pany To do was to seal the opening in
No. to keep the water and gas from
going further. In order to do this a
solid wall of masonry, termed a dam
had to be built in the heading and in
! the airway at both ends of these CLOSED
up ventilation holes, making four dams
in all. In between these dams are thus
sealed up about ten acres of No. s.
| workings.
Each dam is built in the shape of 2
half circle, with the outside curve Of
the circle pointing towards the sealet
up section. This was done to strengthen
the dams, as the more pressure from
the outside of the circle the stronger
the wall becomes. The walls are dove
tailed into the sides, roof and bottom
Of the heading and airways about eigh
teen inches. Each wall is three fee
thick. There are double rows of bricl
on each side Of the wall and the centre
between the brick is filled up Will
cement, which, when hardened, he
comes as solid as a rock through Whicl
nothing can permeate. The bricks uset
are the best of hard fire brick and tn
cement is the celebrated Portland. Tn
dams are about ten feet high, reaching
from the floor Of the heading clear T.
the roof. 1t required l1,O00 brick an
eighteen barrels Of cement to bull
each of the four dams or walls. Thes
are in the Marcy vein
TWO similarly punt wallis elght Zee
, high We're constructed in the Red As
? vein and In No. 10 mine four dam
[ were built, one of which is larger tha
the big dam in No. s.
,, VERY HARD JOB.
The workmen had the hardest kin
/ of a job, as they could only work b
! the rays of safety lamps, which ar
y, very dim, owing to the gas workin
, | through Ravine continually. Thes
) | walls are built to remain forever a
the sections enclosed or sealed up ar
worked out.
, way has been provided, however
TO visit these sealed up sections, if
must be. Large cast iron pipes, larg
enough for n man to crawl through
have been embedded in each wall an
tho ends doubly sealed, The eXpens
. was enormous, amounting to thousand
of dollars.
MAY GO UP PITTSToN AVENUI
I Pai1Nuau CnO1nanu Hae