The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-02-10
BANNER MINES ARE AMONG THE IDEALS New Home For Hundreds Of
 Countys ConvictS ST0CKADE ALMOST READY Electrical Equipment and Modern Ma chinery Are Said to Make Mines
 Exceptionally Desirable
 Place to Work.
ST0CKADE ALMOST READY
By CHARLIE FELL.

sent up from Jefferson, Walker, olob, Chiffon, Fayette and Morgan counties will be worked. Modernly equipped in every respect and operated in the greater degree by electrical apparatus, the mines are said to be the most up-to-date in Alabama and among the first in the entire southland.
 The advent of the convict system at Banner mines was but few weeks ago, and accommodations for the prisoners are not the best, in the world just at present. However, a spacious stockade is being constructed to accommodate $50 prisoners, and when it is completed, in four or five weeks, the Pratt Consolidated will be pre- pared to care for the conviets in a more satisfactory manner than probably they have ever been. cared for
 The stockade is being built in as health ful locality as could be found in the vicinity. It stands high and dry on the side of high hill, where there is no possibility of standing water in the pris- on yard. The structure is to be of wood, but is being substantially built in such a manner as to insure it's reason able safety.
 At present there are 105 prisoners at Banner mines. These prisoners are being kept in a temporary stockade near the opening of the mine. The number is gradually increasing, however two pris- oners having been received yesterday aft ernoon. Jefferson county is receiving $10.5O a head for prisoners sent to Banner mines.
 At the Banner mines many objectionable features of the convict system should be eliminated. The so-called green men, those who have never had experience In digging coal will be the greatest bene- ficiaries. The modern machinery em- ployed in the mines reduces the labor of handling the coal in an almost inesti- mable degree. The convicts will be re- quired to dig no coal whatever. inasmuch as all of the coal taken from the Banner mines is machine cut and then blasted down, and free labor is employed to do this work. The work of the convicts will be simply to separate the rock coming out of the middle man. from the coal and then to load it on the cars.
 It will be thus seen that any able bodied man sent to the mines for a crim- inal offense will have to perform only manual labor requiring no skill whatever, and should be able to perform his task if he is a worker. The task" of first class man, that is a thoroughly able bodied man, Is 10 tons a day: second class man, eight tons a day, and a third class man six tons day.
 The advantage of the fine machinery is thus very evident. Besides the great re- duction of the cost of getting out the coal, it is very probable that a more will ing spirit may exist among the miners. Rid of the task of teaching the prisoners to dig coal and being fixed in such a posi- tion as to be able to give them some thing they can all do without necessity of the application of the lash to a great extent, the officials of the Pratt Consoli- dated expect much from the employment of county convicts.
 As stated the equipment of the Banner mines Is the most modern and the finest. The process of mining the coal is very interesting.
 The Banner mine is just about years old, and is now the pet of the higher of ficials of the Pratt Consolidated At pres ent the trackage in the mines is about 15 miles, and the slope and two main en- tries are lighted by electricity. About 300 Zen are employed inside and outside, and the average daily output of the mine is HOO tons
 In the main entries small motor cars are used to draw the coal cars back and forth to and from the rooms in which the miners work. The entries. headings and rooms are all well ventilated and under the direction of Mine Foreman John Cantley the mine Is kept in the best of condition. Even to the very depths of the mine the atmosphere is clear despite the length of the slopes and the remoteness of many of the rooms This has been accomplished by 8 care fully worked out arrangement of the air shafts, the outlets being so arranged that in the two slopes there is a complete cir cult of air. The mine is kept we'll damp .ened by means of hose lines, thus pre- venting the probabi bility of explosions.
 At the coal cutters free labor is em- ployed exclusively. The seam is sawed out under the bottom for a distance of about 10 or 12 feet and is then blasted down. The coal is then shoveled into the cars and drawn to the shaft by the cleo tric motors.
 At the shaft the mine is 40 feet below the surface, and by means of an elevator the coal is jerked the distance of 140 feet to the surface in four seconds. A man cannot go down the elevator without hold ing to the sides.
 At the top of the shaft there is lot of the finest mining machinery yet in vented, made and patented by Erskine Ramsay, one of the larger stockholders III lne cO1npdny. 1ne coal CATS are car ried to the top of the washer by the ele- vators. Immense automatic plungers push the cars off the elevator onto the Jumper, which is also an automatic contrvance. Instead of the old method of having men dump the cars, they are rolled into the Jumper, a cylinder contrivance opens at the top, which, when the cars on 1t, are turned over and the coal is dumped into the crusher, after which it goes into the washer.
 Two men do all of the work on the top of the washer at Banner mines, where eight or 10 are required at other mines.
 The electrical plant is equally as well equipped. Electricity is furnished for lighting purposes in the homes at Banner and the camp is partially lighted by arc lights. A. A. Fuller is in charge of the plant.
 The hoisting engines are run by steam. l.. B. Scott. who drew the first car of coal out of Banner mines, is in charge of these engines.
 The department of safety of the mines is in charge of D. A. Kennebrook, a very much trusted employe of the company. MT. Kennkbrook took charge of affairs at the mine during the recent strike and his manner of handling matters about the mine elicited nothing but the warmest praise from the officials of the company.
 The mine at Banner, taken all in all, is considered one of the best in the south, and that it has been petted by the Pratt Consolidated is an evident fact.