Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1922-08-28
COAL MINES LAID OUT
JUST As OUR CITIES ARE
k Has Streets and Blocks With
Veins Sixty Feet
Thick.

WAshington, Aug. 2s.-Ths house,
holder II not shoveling coal in these
piping timea Of summer. but because
e the strike and fears his favoritc
winter indoor sport VIII be intsrfered
With whom the snow iies, coal has
bsen uppermoat In his thoughts. none
tho lees. A bulletin from the National
Geographic Society presents a little
known aapsct OF the coal industry TO
otay-on- the surface uses OF this mod
ern necessity--ths working of big
anthracite mine when operating at
full blast Describing visit to n mine
m which there arc eighty-nve miles
Of underground railway, the bulletin
says:
"One thing above ground we will
be even more vitality interested In
whom We 20 below-the ventilatinY
fan. for without 1t We would be In
danger Of being 'gassed' In times OF
peace. The fans In this mine ny
around with a rim speed OF mile a
minute. Every mine has an air shaft.
To keep tho mine free enough from
gas to permit work In safety. enor-
NOUS quantities OF fresh air must be
cent down tho one opening and cor
responding quantities OF gas-lsden
air drawn out the other.
ITO start on our dawnward Journey
We step on the cage or elevator, the
mine superintendent gives signal,
and the floor drops. Down, down.
down we whiz past stratum after
stratum Of rock.
Arriving at tho bottom, We soon
md a coal mine IL planned like n city.
There IN one main street or entry. ana
IL has been laid out with the nicely
OF n grand boulevard. Parallel with
this are other entries, and across
these entries run other streets. at
right angles, usually. which are called
headings. Lining all these headings
"A houses line the streets are the
chambers, or rooms. In which the mih-
srs work.
when We stop at tho bottom we
feel ourselves In n small-sized hurri-
cane. 1t is the air rushing down the
shaft and starting through the mine
ON Its mission OF publication.
I'VE walk and walk until we pegin
70 feel a. though we might be coming
out over in China or France, and then
We come to the rooms or chamoers-
for ALI the coal In the neighborhood ot
the ho,sting shaft has gone up In hea'
ana smoke long before now ana this
mine IL far-fiung.
.'rhcse rooms or chambers miEh'
he monks cefs In some catacomos ioi
tho living. Here the miner pores any
blasts and digs away the coal aho
loads II into the mine cars. III ne mar
q helper he does not need to do 'h'
loading himself. The car holds aoou
g ooo Mounds OF un-of-the-mine coai
and a miner IL supposed TO MI TWO q
them a day.
.xyhcn the car II loaded the m'ne'
nuts his number on 1t ana presenus
with much ado. there comes UP 'n'
heading and into the passa8eway ie.u
,nx 10 the chamber = string OF muie'
walking tandem, or single ME- sh'
sracr,nr an empty car behind. Inc!
pull out the loaded car. set the empty
on. where the miner wants II, ana *
back the way they came, Win the ioa'
OF coal.
"rhere are other strings OF mules
also. They distribute the emptes an'
mobilize the loaded cars from ana
given points. Then the compressed NJ
engine comes along and makes up
train Of loaded cars after dropping on
OF emptie. ready for distribution. IN
coal train. are pulled down 10 tn
hosting shaft, and one by one the car
20 10 the surface, an empty comm
down az a loaded one goes up.
"Haying seen the harvest IN IN
coal field, let us turn to the SEED Inn
Millions OF years ago nature store
away billions OF tons OF coal for VI
And then left US a record OF her PR
cesses written in a language that
ages and tongues can understand.
4. a story so wonderful as almost
defy belief, and yet one so plain I
him who reads 1t as to defy unbelief.
vegetation grew rankly, leaves an
.,.lks eettled into marshes, and weI
carbonized. almost as though IL ma
been for our benefit. Those were happ
days IN the vegetable kingdom. PlaI
lie was quickened rs animal lie
.,,rred by tho ozone Of the sea, Il
,h. air WAS laden with unimaginab
supple. OF carbonic acid gas. whic
wa. inhaled by the Brobdingnagia
jungle.
Indeed. 20 rich was the atmoephel
IN ,ts supply OF this gas that while
made vegetation grow extraordinary
rank II would have suffocated ma
Furthermore. there was warmth q
cseding anything we know In u
tropics to-day. and there was moistu
in abundance-more than the mo
rpendthrift OF plants could wish fo
How amazingly dense was u
vegetation OF the coal-forming e
may be shown by comparison with e
istlnx forests. Should nature. by q
process OF the coal age. transform 4
densest jungle in the world today j
TO q coal seam. II probably would
only q few inches thick; yet there a
coal rsams which are sixty feet thio
though ten feet Is regarded as a
seam. and three feet will produ
more than 5000 tons TO the acre"