Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-09-30
Everything Done by Machinery.

From the time the shovel In the open
mines or the car that carries the ore in the
underground workings begins its work ev-
erything is done by machinery, and the
number Of employees necessary IS very
small. The cars which carry the ore to
the elevated docks at Duluth, Superior
City or Two Harbors have hopper bottoms
which open and dunn the load by the
shifting of lever. The ore is dropped into
great triangular pockets in the docks, and
there it lies until a ship comes alongside,
when q steel chute. like an enormous stove
pipe, is lowered into position. the trap is
opened, and the ore slides by gravity out
of the pocket into the hold of the vessel
until 1t is filled. A few days later, at
Cleveland Ashtabula or one of the other
lake ports the ore is hoisted out of the
ship by enormous dippers which carry
five tons at load. invented by Hoover &,
Mason of Chicago and Mr.. George II. HUI
lett of Cleveland Some OF the buckets are
out of the hold of vessel, carry it over the
dock and dump it into the open railway
cars In which 1t is transported TO the fur
naces. Thus the ore is handled only three
times. and everything is done with the
greatest economy. speed and ease. Human
labor enters very little into the calculations.
There are several ways. of mining: In
most Of the mines, and IN all the large
ones the bed Of earth which covers the ore
to a thickness varying from sixty to forty
or fifty feet is first shoveled off, carried
away and dumped beyond the range, usu-
ally in some convenient hollow. The ore
Tins laid bare is gridironed with railway
tracks and steam shovels like those used
on the Chicago drainage canal or on the
panama canal are used to scoop it up and
DUNN II into rows of railway cars, which
are moved along as they are filled. The
scoon sboyels are so big that they can fill
car with few dips. The work is all
done by machinery.
Output of the Mahoning Mine.
This kind of mining, or "ore farming" as
It is humorously called, is illustrated at the
Mahoning mine which is one of the biggest
and most productive, although it was not
onened until 1895. 1t was developed by cap
italists Of Youngstown. Ohio-Andrews &
Hitchcock. the Brown Bonnel Company,
| Wick & Bottsford and others, who got out
| 11S GOO tons the first year. The output for
! 1s.l6 was 167 OOO In 1897 it passed the half
udl'jon mark; in 1900 it went by 100000
! tons; in 1868 million and quarter, and
| in 1906 million and half tons. The
total output TO CATE has peeh dooul lo'V'o,
! 90 tons of ore.
! It is a partnership property. The Cam
| bria Steel Company of Johnstown. Pa,
owns a half interest; the steel trust. 20 per
cant: Andrews & Hitchcock OF Youngs-
! town. IL per cent; Mark A. Hanna 4 Co,
| - per cent. and the Republic Iron and Steel
| Company. per cent me ore is not sold
| II is shipped in this proportion every day
| to the owners Each gets its share of ore
| and the shipments are regulated by the
| raiIxpav company, which keeps the books.
The company owns about thousand acres
| of ore lind. Only sixty acres have been
! opened, but the rest has all been explored.
, Drills have been driven down into it; its
| outlines have been mapped and its thick.
ness is known This thousand acres OF
J soil this ore farm. as they call it, is I'M
deraid With a bed of iron 100 feet deep,
! probably the largest deposit of iron ore
known, and the calculatiops Il It's tonna Sc
al vaiue are staggering.
Bow be Viking Il Done.
\, The Matul.n~ - Il .1onstrous hol,