The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1914-06-10
Will Take the Place of
Many Men.
AND SAVE FIFTY PER CENT
In Cost of Coal Production
Digs and Loads Coal
At Same Time.
EVIDENTLY GREAT INVENTION

question IN tue uluus VI nuutIOui
coal operators and others interested
in coal mining as day or two since
they watched the operation of the
! first practical coaI-mining machine
"a machine that has stood the test
OF months. being quietly operated
I in one OF the larger mines of the
I Pittsburg district. turning out thous-
ands OF tons of commercial coal d.
rect from the face of the coal seam,
placing the coal in pit cars and keep
ing men OH the jump to get the load
ed cars out of the way when loaded
For years such machine has
been the dream of cosl-mining com
panies. II has been peeded to solve
the increasing problem of coal min
ing-such as mine disasters. in
creasing cost of labor, the growing
expenditures for mine equipment
miners homes at the mines. and
countless other OUTLAWS of which the
average citizen has little realization
The new mining machine is the
development of entirely new prin-
ciples in mechanical mining Ii is
the product of II. A. Kuhn. of Pitts
burg. one of the foremost mining
and mechanical engineers OF the
Pittsburg district. who has spent
more than 10 years in close
application to the task which he
has at last completed. and in the
perfection of which he has expended
a fortune i'm development work. In
the early years of his experiments
he spent his time discovering fun
damentals. He sought a principle
upon which machine would work.
He made this a success. and from it
built an economical, practical. cheap
and "fool-proof' machine that does
all the work of the human miner
only it does this 20 times as fast and
so per cent cheaper.
As the machine stands. il is
structural steel frame, oblong in
form, which rests on a steering truck
which rides on the floor of the mine.
1t carries motors for operating the
cutting tools and the tools them
selves. and ii attacks the coal seams
in any position, moving up and
down. sidewise or in any direction
the coal seam leads 1t also re-
removes the roof slate when neces-
sary. Electricity or compressed air
can be used in operating the motors.
and so little power is required that
the cost for this item alone is less
than one cent per ton of coal mined.
One peculiar feature of the machine
that impressed the spectator is that
it seems to be fully as flexible as the
human coal miner. II is estimated
that the machine will cut the cost
OF coal mining in half
From the time the machine takes !
the coal from the seam, cuts 1t. |
places II on conveyor and loads il |
in pit car no human hand touches !
il. With go ordinary laborers 10 of
the machines will produce 1000 |
tons of coal day. as but two men
are needed to operate a machine.
More than this. the machine cuts |
the coal clearly from the roof to the |
floor of the mine. leaving both as
even as a billiard table, and II takes
out in excess of 80 per cent of the
coal In the ground, while the best
of to-day seldom goes bet
ter than 40 per cent of the coal. the
rest being lost because of the too
great effort to extract il.
Mr.. Kuhn takes exception to the
idea that any miners will be thrown
out of, or rather left without, en-
ployment by the Introduction OF the
lie says that 10000 ad-
ditional miners are required each
year in the United States to keep
pace with the growing demand for
coal. due to the increase in popula-
lion. while 10000 miners, IL is esti-
mated, leave the mines annually for
other occupations, thus making a
demand for about $4,000 new mi
ners each year. II is becoming more
and more difficult each year to OBJ
lain the increased mine labor re-
luired The inventor believes that
ais machine will replace this labor.
'ut only In the way of reducing the
number Of new men called upon to
'nNr the mines each year. pitts
'urg Cor. New York Herald.