Daily Arizona silver belt., 1908-09-11
DAWSON COAL
 WASHING CLAIM
DESCRIPTION OF A PLANT RE- GENTLY INSTALLED BY THE DAWSON FUEL COMPANY AT DAWSON, N. M.
(From Mines and Minerals, TOT Sep.
 tember.)

Co.,, are located about thirty.fv miles
 southwest of Raton, Colfax county, New
 Mexico. The town of Dawson is con.
 nected with the Rock Island road at
 Tucumcari, N. M., 132 miles away. by
 the Dawson railroad, which crosses the
 Atehison, Topeka X Santa Fe railroad
 at French Station, eighteen miles east of Dawson. Three workable seams of
 coal are known to exist in the Dawson coal measures, the one now being work
 ed being nine to eleven feet thick. with
 an average working thickness of eight
 to nine feet. The coal is nearly hori zontal and there are very few broken
 places in 1t. The coal is worked by the ldouble-entry room-and- pillar method.
 The mines are ventilated by Vulcan and
 Cole fans, and locomotives are used
 Tor haulage on tram roads only-all
 haulage underground is electric and all
 power IS generated from waste gases of
 coke ovens at central point Steam
 and electric power are used about the
 plants. A well-equipped hospital has
 been installed in connection with the
 works and the company keeps general oversight upon the morals of the camn
 holding control of the sale of liouors
 while gambling is strictly forbidden.
 In addition to the ordinary tyne of bee
 hive ovens there are number of ovens with fiues to convey the gases
 to suitable boiler houses, so that the gases escaping from the ovens can be utilized for power purposes. One of the
 most recent additions to this modern plant is a very complete coal.washing plant which has recently been put into operation.
 As this plant washes the entire coal supply for 570 coke ovens, and has ca. paeity of 2,40O tons of coal in ten hours. a brief description of its operation will be of interest.
 After primary screening and crush ing, the raw coal is carried by a belt conveyor from the coal tipples to two cylindrical steel bins, forty feet in di. ameter by forty feet high. Each bin has capacity of l,000 tons and the coal IS discharged through eight rocker gate feeders at the bottoms of the bins on to two parallel belt eonveyers which carry it to the erusher building In this building, at the head of the conveyers, are two six by twelve shak ing screens with one and one half inch round perforations. The oversize from each screen is discharged into roll erusher, by which it is reduced to the equivalent of the undersiZe from the screens. The combined product of the screens and crushers then passes over an automatic weighing machine located just outside the crusher building. after which 1t IS carried by belt eonveyer to the third floor of the washerv build ing. Here it is delivered to a distrib. tutor located in a dust-tight room. from which 1t passes through launders to eight Stewart jigs on the second floor.
 These ligs are arranged in batteries of four jigs each, on opposite sides of the room. Each battery consists of two pairs of jigs connected by water. supply tank. These jigs differ in con. struction from the usual Stewart type, inasmuch as both the iigs and supply tanks, instead of being of wood con. struction, are of quarter-nch steel plate with four-inch concrete lining. The hutches of each pair of figs taper to ward the bottom and are connected bv two eight-inch pipes with No. , Luh. | rig elevator which handles the combined refuse from the two compartments.
 The two refuse elevators from each battery discharge into launder leading to a four by eight refuse trommel with 1 fve-sixteenth inch perforations. The oversize from each of these trommels passes directly to circular steel refuse bin located at one end of the building and arranged to discharge directly into electric refuse cars. The screenings i from the refuse trommels. which are to be rewashed, pass through launders to four Luhrig fine coal jigs. one pair of which is located on either side of | the building. These are of the same general construction as, and are placed | in line with, the Stewart jigs. Each pair of these rewashing jigs is provided | with No. , Luhrig elevator which de- | flyers the final refuse into the bin men, | tioned above.
 The combined washed coal from both the Stewart and Luhrig jigs is carried by launders under the operating floor to four four by twelve dewatering trom- mels, two of which are located on either side of the building, directly over the settling tanks. The oversize from these passes through chutes to two sixty-inch located on the first floor, and the undersize is recovered from the settling tanks by two perforated contin- nous bucket elevators. The washed | coal from the disintegrators and set ting tanks is then carried by a belt | conveyer to four circular steel bins, twenty feet in diameter by forty feet high, and is distributed by belt con. veyer operating above the bins. From these bins the coal is taken by electric larries to the coke ovens
 It will be noted from the above de- | scription, that the plant is double in- stallation, each side being complete in