The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-09-02
GREAT COAL NINE FIRE

Extraordinary Effort to Extin-
guish One In Pennsylvania.
SCIENTIFIC METHODS ADOPTED.
A Mixture of Culm and Water to BE
Used For the Quenching OF . Fire
That Has een Burning an Anthra-
cite Coal Mine For the Past Fifty
Years.
A systematic effort to extinguish the
greatest mine fire in the anthracite coal
region was recently commenced by a
coal company which owns the Green
wood mine near Tamaqua, Pa, says
the Wilkesbarre correspondent of the
New York Post. The mine has been
on fire for the past fifty years, and In
all that time has not been worked. 1t
still contains, SO the mining experts
calculate, millions of tons of fine coal,
chiefly in the Mammoth vein, which at
this portion of the region Is from thirty
to sixty feet thick, and it is for this
wealth Of coal that the company has
started a fight which it is estimated
will cost $1,000, 600 and will take two
years to win. Preparations to fight the
fire have been under way for a year,
following a careful survey Of the work
ings, the extent of the fire and the
possibility Of putting it out. All pre-
vious efforts have been confined to a
spasmodic flooding of the burning por-
ton, which has not been effective.
The mining officials have discovered
that the fire is raging in the loose coal
above the water level, that the great
pillars Of the Mammoth vein are still
standing unchanged and that all the
lower veins are intact, the millions of
gallons of water which have from
time to time been poured into the mine
having saved the coal despite the fact
that it had no other effect upon the fire
than combining it to a certain portion
Of the mine.
The fight will be conducted from the
mountain top above the highest levels
Of the workings, and not far from the
spot where it is believed the fire start
ed fifty years ago, when some timbers
We're ignited by a miners lamp or the
ignition of a gas feeder.
A miyt17ro nf o111m ond uofo1. will nc
the fire fighting agent. This not only
smothers the fire wherever it reaches
it, but hardens into a mass almost as
solid as coal, and forms a pillar which
prevents the workings caving. 1t will
have the valuable effect in this case
Of eXtinguishing the fire and filling
up the fire eaten workings so that the
adjoining pillars, which have support
ed these workings, may be removed.
The company will thus gain great
quantities of coal which could not 9TH
erwise be touched.
Four 100 horsepower boilers have
been erected on the banks Of the
Schuylkill river and will operate two
mammoth duplex pumps, which will
pour into the mine 1,72S,000 gallons of
water every day. This water will be
carried 1,6OO feet in ten inch pipes
from the river to the top Of the noun
tain. There It will be turned into big
troughs and mixed with immense
quantities of the culm, which will be
hauled by train from the Hauto culm
banks six miles away. The mixed
culm and water will then be run down
deep shoots into the burning work
ings.
At the same time, at a number Of
points over the fire, bore holes will be
drilled from the surface. These will
not only serve to locate the fire, but
will also draw off the gases formed
by the burning coal, which have been
in such volume that they have held the
water back from the fire.
As one working after another Is
flushed with the culm and the fire ex-
tinguished the long chutes down which
the culm and water are washed will be
moved to another working, and the fire
will in this manner be slowly but sure
~ smothered. At the same time bar
riers will be built in the mine to pre-
vent the fire spreading to untouched
portions. These barriers have been
built from time to time, and many Of
them are still ~serviceable.
When the fire is all out and the mine
again ready to be worked the company
will erect n Of the largest breakers in
the region, and the breaker and mine
will give employment to over a thou
sand men and boys.
Promise of Big Chestnut Crop.
Next fall will see the biggest chest
nut crop vel made" said H. j. Nc
Guffin, who travels over the country in
e~~ok{-r %h4 @hOc%rk 10000 ~ t. -