Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-09-18
MECHANICAL SHOVEL

For years the spade hand" in the
lead and zinc mining district has been
king. He has dictated to the boss. he
has reyeled in the best of wages AMI
has done just as suited his fancy.
Now there is prospect of his de-
in use ut the mine of lead. zinc and
smelling company ut Prosperity, near
Joplin, Mo-, is the agency that PROM
ises the revolution
About Il year ago Captain Il. Thew
of Lorain, o.. visited the mining dis
| trict and conceived the idea for an I'M
foreground mechanical shovel to replace
| the cumbrous method of handling ore
| dirt il vogue ut Prosperity. He had 10
precedent. and the machine now being
tried out at Prosperity. with apparent
success, is the only one of the kind in
the world. says the Kansas City Star.
and certainly the only mechanical shov-
| eli working underground.
| The shovel is operated by compressed
| air. the inyeAtor realizing that TO at
tempt to burn coal in the mine drifts
i
are provided. each driven by the COLI
Il pressed air conveyed to them through
tubes from above ground. One engine
drives the boom i'll its sweeps from side
TO side and UP and down. one operates
the dipper that picks up the ore dirt,
and the third provides traction poUci.
for the machine to enable moving ii
/ from drift TO drift, as needed, and to
remove it from the danger zone when
blasting is done. This latty feature is
the one that comes nearest being Il fail
ure, the design how used being all but
impracticable in moving the ten ton
machine from place to place. a new
idea is being worked out to overcome
this.
In appearance the shovel is not I'M
like that used above ground, the most
striking difference being the massive
armor of steel surrounding all but the
boom and the dipper. This is used tC
protect the machine from loosened
powders that fall from the. roof of the
drift
, In practice the shovel does the worl
of seven men. In no sense does it re
place-the '.cutterS"-men who breal
the solid face Of the drifts by dyna
mite and pick-but the great work o
moving the shattered dirt, the worl
that has made the spade hand king
is done by the machine. Tits. with tn,
prospect that the innovation will ne
cessitlte the Introduction of mules ant
tram cars, gives the shovel the position
/, of an invader threatening to revolu
tionize the methods of mining through
: out the district.
When the dipper scoops up the bro
: ken dirt cut by the face men" be
: tween GOO and 700 pounds are handle,
at each sweep. Two of the dipper
full make tub of. dirt-as. 1t. is hoiste,
from the mines DIT Prosperity. Tn
machine makes about AGO grabs in
dag of eight hours. or 200 tubs. TIL
! loaded tub is pushed by man powe
along The DRIFT Gu Il small car sittin,
on track. The smallness of the tract
capacity and man capacity is dra W
back
At the shaft the tub is hooked on t
the cable and hoisted out. In order t
remove the dirt as fast as the shovel
able TO handle it probably larger track
and larger trucks, with a wagon hold
ing a ton or more, will be found neces
sary. with a hoisting cage in the shat
instead of the simple wire rope cabl
now used.
1t is this feature that makes the ma
chine a really great menace to the die
tatorship of the spade hand.'' Ever
tnally. If the machine proves entirel
successful. Abe miner sees the instans
ton of mine cages. the substitution q