Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1902-01-25
NEW MINING

dioLlS Iue rOuCe TOM washington.
NEW MINING METHODS
REVOLUTION WROUGHT IN THE
PAST YEAR IN TILE METHODS
OF MINING Ignite COAL BY
THE WASHBURN MINES.
The new machinery for the more
rapid mining of coal at Wilton is now
Installed, and with the cold wave, the
mining force has been increased and
coal is brought out of the mine and
loaded rapidly than ever before.
The new machinery consists of cleo
trio conveyors, hoists, screens and
leaders, and coal may now be put on
the cars from the mines at the rate
OF over two tons a minute. By work
ing "a hours in a day the mine can
turn out $500 tons of coal, which at
20 tons to the car would make a train
OF 1875 cars Of coal daily.
The mine is entered by means of a
slope or drift, some 400 feet in length,
which taps the vein of coal at a depth
of about sixty-ive feet. The deepest
portion of the vein is selected for the
opening in order that the waiter from
the workings may all drain to the foot
Of the slope and be pumped out. At
the foot Of the incline is a yard where
all tracts from the different workings
converge. The main entries run east
and west for about a quarter of a mile.
Rooms are cut every twenty or
thinty feet These run perpendicular
to the entries. Thus the whole mine
is a system of rooms and galleries
separated from each other by walls Of
coal. These walls will themselves be
removed eventually, thus taking alb
solutely all the coal in the vein. The
cars are dragged by mules to the main
yard where each is weighed and then
dragged up the incline by a hoisting
engine and is automatically tipped in
to a chute which leads into the freight
cars. A new shaft has been sunk and
in the near future the coal will be-
raised by means Of an endless chain
which will carry the coal from a hop
per in the mine to a bin some thirty
feet above the level of the ground
whence it will be shot into the freight
cars on track beneath. &
The actual operation OF mining is
carried on by electricity. A machine
run by electricity revolves a great
horizontal sproeket chain bearing saw
like teeth; this chain is pressed against
the coal and cuts a large slot ten feet
wide by seven feet deep in about fiji
teen minutes. A similar cut is made
down the side. Holes are drilled in
the top with an electric auger. A
blast OF giant powder is inserted and
lgnited by electricity. The result is
that a great chunk Of coal weighing
from three to five tons is blown down.
This the miners break up and load
into cars which the mules haul away.
The entries and rooms are all lighted
by incandescent electric lights.
/. With all these modern improve
ments coal can be mined and nut in
the freight cars for about 40 cents a
ton. 49,
A. the present time ignite is used
almost exclusively in Bismarck and
very largely in Fargo and other Da-
kota towns.
In locomotives it was found that the
Ignite, on account of the rapidity
with which it burned, gave off vast
quantities of sparks. Indeed. the
pieces would di~sintegrate SO rapidly in
the furnace that when an engine with
a heavy load struck a grade the strong
draughf would literally lift the fire off
the CRATES and blow clouds of sparks
OF the smokestack and frequently
set the. prairie grasses or grains on
fire. The Washburn road has exA
perlnenGed with the coal in it's loco
motives for e a year and has finally
succeeded in getting an engine which
is believed will burn the fuel without
the accompanying evils. The Bald
win Locomotive works Of Philadelphia
designed and built this locomotive
which, II it proves successful, will rev
olaltionize the type OF engine nov in
use on the Dakota roads.
IANDOFFTcE pT ITnrc