Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-09-09
SOURCE OF OUR COAL
Straight Information From A nigh
4 Authority.
A TRIP INTO THE NINE SHAFT
Some Of tho Dangers that Beset the
Miners Who pis Out tho Fuel
Supply Sufficient for Generations TO

Some OF the Dangers that 6eset the
Miners Who pig Out tho Fuel
Supply Sufficient for Gsnerations to
Come. /.
what will I have to pay fori coal
this winter?"
with dealers urging householders
to buy coal early, and rumors OF soar
ing prices. this question is on millions
of tongues" says a bulletin from the
National Geographic Society,"
4 ..As by-product of this interest it
might be well to ask where do We
get our coal. and how" 4t
The bulletin answers this question
by quoting from a communication by
william Joseph Showalte- as follows
I'VE will first visit the anthracite
fields, that wonderful region in Penn
sylvania. which lies to the north OF
Reading, to the south of Carbonate,
east of the Susquehanna and west of
the Leheigh rivers Scranton and
wilkes Barre are the center of the up
per field, Hazleton Of the middle field.
and Pottsville Of the lower.
Were, all Of the coal beds in this
rema rkable region laid out in a COM
pact body, they would cover a, area
only twenty-five miles square. Yet out
Of such a small area have come billions
of tons of coal and culm. the former
to cheer million f1resides. and the
latter to dot every landscape, and to
serve as monuments to remind us OF
the patient toll of hundreds Of thou
sands Of men through scores Of years.
"a visit to d modern. colliery is an
impressive experience. Depending on
It's size and the labor available, 1t viii
bring from one to two full train-loads
of coal up out Of the bowels tof the
earth every day, put the coal through
the breaker. where the sheep Of fuel
are separated from the goats of slate
and culm, and load 1t into the cars
ready for market.
"The giant fans fly around with a
rim speed of a mile a minute, two OF
them. with a third in reserve for
emergencies. II 1t were not for those
fans the air in the mine would becomo
SO laden with gas and dust that If 1t
did not explode and transform the
whole mine into charnel-house, 1t
would develop choke damp and suf-
focate US. These fans are to the mine
what the Involuntary muscles Of the
chest are to the lungs-they make 1t
breathe. @
sEvery mine has two shafts-tne
hossting shaft and the air shaft. In
order to keep the air in the mine free
enough from gas to permit miners to
work in safety, enormous quantities OF
fresh air must be sent down the one
shaft and CORRESPONDING quantities,
gas laden, drawn out Of the other.
Before going down into. the mine
the superintendent will give as each a
miners lamp-at this particular mine
the lamp Is tiny teapot AFFAIR con-
tanning sperm Oil and with q spout full
of cotton yarn. Also, he will equip us
with electric handlamps, to be used in
any emergency Then he will stick an
extra ball OF yarn in his pocket and we
start for the cage which is the mine
name for an elevator
1--WE step on, he presses a button,
and tho hoisting engineer is notified
that we are ready to go down. Sud-
denly the cage seems to drop; then 1t
seems to stop. and the walls OF the
shaft appear fairly to fly upward past
us. Up. up. up they fly, disclosing this
stratum of rock and then that.
Arriving at the bottom. we soon find
that a coal mine Is planned like a city.
There is one main street. or entry,
and 1t has been laid out with the nicely
of grand boulevard. Parallel with
this are other entries. and across these
entries run other streets, at right
angles, usually, which are called head
ings. Lining all these headings as
houses line the streets are the
chambers, or rooms, in which the
miners work.
In the anthracite region mining is
still done principally by hand. Some
jack hammer drills have been intro
duccd and some elecrtic coal-cutting
machines; but hand methods still pro-
duceG and some electric coal-cutting
jack-hammer drill is an instrument
which bores the blast-holes by power.
With one of these drills n miner is
enabled to bore as many holes in one
hour as he can bore in eighteen with a
hand-drill.
'when we reach the top again, we
note the layout of the breaker plant,
where the coal is cleaned and sorted
into the several commercial sizes.
Going up to the top Of the breaker,
we see the coal as 1t comes from the
mine, with all its slate and culm. me-
chanically dumped 4, a carload at q
time, upon the oscillating bars. which
begin the process Of separating the
coal from the worthless material and
the asserting Of the former into groups
according to size.
There are eight different sizes,
of coal now in general use-broken.
egg, stone and chestnut, which are
the domestic sizes, and pea, buck
wheat. rice, and barley, which are