The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1919-03-27
SCHOOL FOR TRA|N|NG
MINERS IS SUCCESSFUL
DIRECTOR MAKES FIRST RE-
PORT or ACCOMPLISH
MENTS OF SCHOOL.

I Frank III. Skeels, mining engineer
and local director OF the vocational
training school for miners, has for
warded his first formal report cover
ing the work OF the first class organ
lied to Francis A. Thomson, dean Of
the Idaho school of mines at Moscow.
This school for training miners was
made possible through an appropria-
ton from the federal government pro-
viding for vocational training in var
ious industries, and this is the first
attempt to apply the system to min
| ing. 1t is therefore being watched
with unusual interest not alone by
| the mining fraternity, but by men
who have made a special study OF
vocational training in other lines.
The work accomplished by Mr.. Skeels
with the first class, in the face OF
unavoidable difficulties, gives sub
stantial encouragement to the belief
that it will prove successful in min
ing and will eventually be adopted in
other districts. The members of his
class are all ex-soldiers and not one
Of them had ever had experience in
underground work. The record they
have made as disclosed by Mr..
Skeels' report is remarkable and GER
tainly justifies the expectation that
vocational training of miners will
prove a success. The report follows.
Report of Director SkeeIs.
"The fact that l have been unable
to make report Of progress of the
vocational trade school of mining be-
fore this time is due to conditions
which exist in the Occur d'Alene min
/ ing district, with which all are fam
| iliar, and to the fact that at the time
that we had planned on taking our
measurements, the school was tenn
porarily closed owing to unavoidable
conditions existing in the mine in
which we are working. However, on
March Is we took measurements, and
| from them I feel justified in submit
ting the following:
ION February IA we started opera
tons on the east 140O level of the
Morning mine. drifting eastward on
the vein from the face of the old
stope. The men, of course, were in
experienced, for most part, recently
discharged soldiers. We were con-
fronted with the proposition of econ
omizing as far as possible, which was
the chief aim of the instruction, and
at the same time we were required
| by the labor conditions to make suf-
ficient progress to enable the men
taking the course of work to earn
daily wage.
Personal Instruction.
From February IA to the %, in
elusive, drifting operations were car
ried forward regularly. At advantag-
eous times and whenever there was a
few minutes to spare we had talks
and demonstrations upon the con-
struction and operation of the various
types of air drills, care of machinery,
the placing of holes to take advan-
tage of the various rock formations,
different types of drift rounds, ham
ding of explosives, loading of holes,
blasting OF separate holes, and the
many other small problems that daily
confront the miner.
GAS was stated before, the school
n
March s, at which time operations
were resumed. Instead of three men
working one S-hour shift, we had five
men working two S-hour shifts.
"On March Is we took our first
measurements, and from these were
able to draw some conclusions as to
the progress we were making. The
work was sufficient for the men to
receive the regular wage, and the
footage would compare with the best
in the district, and at a minimum of
cost When it Is considered that we
necessarily lost considerable time in
study and demonstration, this appears
even more favorable.
Take Up Other Work.
,''While a thorough knowledge of
drifting is the foundation of knowl-
edge of mining, we feel that this is
not sufficient, and are planning on
taking over some work In stopping,
raising and sinking along the same
lines as the drifting work is now car
ried on.
Eat this time practically all of the |
mines Of the district have suspended
development work and many have
operations entirely. The
school was very fortunate in being