The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1916-08-01
By "Hop"

the invention is the taking of COM
paratively small and truly average
| sample of coal from each mine car
mined Cor large proportion of the
| cars mined) for each miner for the en-
tire mine; marking or labelling the
sample when there is occasion to pre-
| serve it to correspond with the car
check number, and screening and sep
arating this comparatively small SAM
| pie and tabulating the resulting per-
| centages of slate slack and lump on
| tally sheet, pretty much as the weight
record of each miners coal is now
| kept. 1t will be evident that by this
| means the time and labor required for
| the picking of the sample from one car
| of coal of one ton, according to the
present practice, will be sufficient to
| pick the samples of 20 cars, based on
| a UNDERGROUND sample or so sam
| Piles for a three-ton car. Screening the
| slack out and only hand picking the
portion which passes over the screen
| will even increase the picker's capacity
beyond these figures The mechanism
| for taking the samples should prefer
ably be placed SO as to take the sam
pie as the car is dumped, and in orr
| der to avoid the possibility of the mine
cars being loaded in a special man.
! ner by placing the slate in a part Of
the car not possible to sample, so as to
affect the grade of the sample, the
sampling mechanism should be adjust.
able so as to easily and readily take
the sample from any part of the car;
that is, at any point transversely of
the stream of coal, and at any time dur
ing the unloading or dumping of the
car.
"By keeping a record of the miners
check numbers on the mine cars which
are discharged into and load the diff
ferent railway cars, the operator can
daf ffa1xr 1Afr
tally sheet showing the record of the
tests of the samples of the coal I'M
loaded from each of the different mine
cars, not only the true average grade
and quality of the run of mine coal
loaded in that particular railway car,
but also determine just what
miners sent out the coal or other pro-
duct loaded on each railway car AMI
make such miners responsible for any
complaints received from customers as
to the quality of product furnished.
THE mechanism designed by Mr..
Ramsay is capable of receiving num-
Der of samples in rapid succession and
delivering them to different chutes
having a portable or stationary screen
thereat so that the delay incident to
the screening operation need not In
terfere with the rapid sampling of tho
coal as dumped from the mine cars
in the usual manner.
with this process was put in operation
at Banner mines in March,. 1914, and
careful tests were made through April
and May. The amount of hand picked
slate for April was only one-half OF
what it was in March, and May was
even lower than April. The force re-
quired to take screen and pick the
samples from the mine cars as dumped.
during these tests was not increased
over that required for the hand picking
of sample mine cars as under the old
practice.
The washer refuse in April was only
60 per cent of what 1t was in March,
and May was 80 per cent lower than
April. In other words, during March,
for a given amount of coal washed,
the refuse from the washer amounted
to 100 tons For the same amount Of
coal washed the refuse III April was
go tons, and, under live conditions, it
was AZ tons in May.
"a proportionate reduction was also
noted in the amount of slate picked
by hand from the picking belts and in
consequence the number of men pick
Ing WAS reduced so per cent"
Too Much Liberty
He-Does your mother object to kiss