The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1910-02-09

After destroying about $25,O0O,-
eco worth OF good anthracite coal a
mine fire that started fifty-one years
ago, near the village of Summit Hill
in northeastern Pennsylvania, has
just now been checked. If this
latest attempt to stop it had not been
successful the subterranean fire
would have spread into the Lansford
valley and endangered four hundred
million tons of coal, about $1,000
100000 worth.
1t was on February 10, 1859, two
years before the civil war began, that
the blaze was discovered in some
abandoned workings in the Mann
Hoth Vein, near the east end of the
Summit Hill basin For purposes of
illustration this basin may be COM
pared to the thumb of a mans hand.
The fire started near the end of the
thumb" which is coo feet wide at
its narrowest and 1900 feet wide
at its broadest point, and worked it's
way toward the main part of the
hand If it once got there the
chance of conquering it would be
small.
Half century ago people had not
begun to think much about the pos
sible exhaustion of the anthracite
supply, and the veins were not mined
as thoroughly as now, so that the fire
found quantities of leftover coal to
feed upon. Cave-ins and assures in
the rock everything the Mammoth
Vein at this place let in plentiful
supplies of air, and there was no
chance of stopping the destruction by
cutting off the air supply.
As the years passed and the fire
gained stronger and stronger hold
the necessity for checking it became
every day more apparent. The con-
sumption of anthracite grew by leaps
and bounds, and the fact that there
was limit to the hard coal deposits
came to be appreciated The in
creased cost of mining by deep shafts
made it essential that every ton of
fuel near the surface should be
saved.
Almost from the time It was dis
covered attempts were made to put
out the fire. In the sixties there was
plan TO dig great open cut, with
sloping sides across its path, the the
DRY being that when the fire reached
this break in the coal it could go no
further. The project was found to
be so expensive, however. that it
could not be carried out Many years
later the attempt was made to fill a
broad area with culm, washed down
through holes bored from the sur
face, and thus block the course of
the fire. This, too, proved fail
ure, the fire went straight on past
the barrier.
After much study w A. Lathrop,
president of the Lehigh Coal and
Navigation Company, which owns the
property decided that the only way
to stop the fire, and prevent the de-
structiOn of millions of tons of coal,
was to build a clay barrier across
the basin, extending down to water
level. The barrier would have to be
approximately 900 feet long.
On the north of the basin, where
the coal comes to the surface, an
open cut was dug From there
southwark the vein sloping down.
ward, a series of shafts were sunk,
the last in line to the south being
220 feet deep. Later it was found
that not only would the barrier have
to cover the face of the vein, but
that the space between the first four
shafts would have to be filled in with
clay. This makes the barrier extend
from the bottom Of the vein to the
surface of the ground, for a consid-
cradle part of it's length.
At the southern end it was not
necessary to take out the everything
rock between the shafts, but simply
the coal. This was done by a tun-
mel following the vein and extend
ing 500 feet, on a slope, to water
level Two concrete walls COO feet
high are being built to form the side
of the tunnel. There are windows
at short intervals, so that the wet
clay, besides filing the space inside